EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL BERGEN

 When our daughter was younger, she particularly enjoyed a series of audio books based on music, one of which was Peer Gynt. In recent years she has enjoyed learning the piano & some of the pieces she has worked on, have been by the composer Greig.
Therefore, since we are in his birthplace & have been surrounded with music since we got here, it only seemed right that thinking of her & her piano teacher, we head out to his summer home, Troldhaugen to try & learn a bit more about this famous son of Bergen.

 There are times when taking a bus tour is the best option, & this excursion was one of those times. This meant that we had someone point out significant Greig related sites on our 25 minute journey & tell us  a bit about what a naughty boy Edvard Greig was when he was a youngster.  He used to get up to all sorts of tricks in order to miss school!!
  Our guided tour of the house was a little disappointing, but that is because there were just so many of us packed in, that we couldn't really get a good look at anything. (And I am one of those people who like a good look!!!!) And then we were quickly bustled into the next room.  Thankfully being tall meant Jeff could try & snatch shots over the heads of others, but it was annoying.
Nevertheless, the furnishings & art works gave us glimpses into the time & the man.
One wall was dedicated to artists impressions of Edvard. I thought that was a pleasant change from plaster busts & photographs.

There were only three rooms that we were allowed into & this is the lounge.  The house had a comfortably simple feel to it.  The walls were undressed timber planks & Edvard & his wife Niña, had specifically requested that the ceiling height be raised, to improve the acoustics.  Therefore, when all the doors of the downstairs rooms (the ones we were allowed to see) were open, the music apparently sounded  wonderful in each.

 Edvard & Niña were clearly a couple very much in love.  They had both suffered tragedies over the years & Edvard's health was always a concern. He'd had TB when younger & breathing wasn't as straight forward for him as for most people. This is one reason why they only spent summers here, the winters were too cold for him.
Niña sounds like quite a character, she entertained his guests, drank beer with them & smoked cigars!  She also sang & he wrote some of his music for her & understandably, her voice.
They obviously had a lot of very devoted friends, because on the event of the Greigs' 25th wedding anniversary, friends not only bought this Steinway piano for them, but snuck into the house & deposited it in the lounge room before the couple woke up!

 One of the reasons Edvard liked to compose here, was because of the natural environment & the quiet.  However, even in the house there was too much noise, so he had this composing hut built looking out over the lake.

Inside he would focus on writing new pieces of music & would work them out at this piano.  Because of his shorter stature, he kept a book of Beethoven compositions on his chair to give him a bit more height.  This apparently was not meant as an insult, because he loved Beethoven's work, but a practical solution to improve his working environment.

 All around the house is woodland.
He loved being in nature & he also enjoyed the myths & legends about trolls who could easily be imagined as living around his home. That's why the house is named Troldhaugen.

 The path led to a small jetty, their burial site & a view out onto the same lake that he could see from his composers hut.
We could totally understand how inspired he would be to create here.

 The highlight for us was a lunchtime concert of Greig pieces for piano.  This concert hall is built into the hillside alongside Greig's home & is the premier concert hall for chamber music in Norway.  It also looks out onto Greig's composing Hut & the lake beyond. It would be so amazing for any musician to play here.
The pianist was Rune Alver & his fingers just flew over the keys.  The sound was crystal clear & breathtaking & we appreciated the little snippets of insight he gave before each piece. To listen to that music whilst watching the water out the window beyond, was pure bliss.

 Back in Bergen there was a small farmer's market set up under tents, so we checked out their deer burgers (Jeff) & lamb hot dogs (me)! It was a good opportunity to purchase a few things for tonight's dinner as well, & then it was time to go walking again.

 We had no real plans, we just wandered.
At one stage, it was clear that everyone else was heading in a particular direction, so we followed along.  Eventually we discovered that they were amassing to watch soccer on big screens, so we took our leave & ventured further.
Along the way we came across a variety of brass bands, all participating in the festival currently on here in Bergen.  We had thought that there were only National bands , but we were wrong!
Our absolute favourite band was this one from South Africa. WOW! Could they play... and twirl flags... and dance.... and just keep pumping it out without any break between pieces!  No one could have left there without a smile & a bit of jive to their step!

When we had first arrived in Bergen a few days ago, we'd spotted the lake & fountain out the corner of our eyes, as we dragged bags over the cobbled streets, following directions to our accommodation.  At the time, we thought we'd like to come back, so our last stop in Bergen, was the lake... to see the fountain.
There is so much we haven't seen in this vibrant city, and we both feel we would have liked to have stayed longer. However, we have really enjoyed our time here, especially with such glorious weather to get out in & explore.
Tomorrow we head north, but we both feel a soft spot for this beautiful city & are a little bit sad to be leaving.

MORE BEAUTIFUL BERGEN

Apparently, Bergen is the wettest city in Europe.... it even beats Ireland for rainfall, which I personally find very hard to comprehend!  Nevertheless, statistics say that 300 out of the 365 days allotted to us each year, Bergen has rain.
They didn't today!
The weather couldn't have been more perfect for taking the Floibanen funicular up Mt Floyen for the most spectacular view over the city... as well as coffee & a cinnamon bun! We'd had a rough night, with a fire alarm going off in our building at 3am & a rather tardy response from those responsible to sort it out, so we were jaded.  This more than made up for it.

The plan was that we would walk down from the lofty heights, but which direction to go?????

So at each junction we made a decision, never quite sure where we'd end up, but knowing that it was generally down.

Aside from seeing a fantastic looking playground, and a group of children picking berries, we came across some rather interesting characters.
Trolls have not really featured in either of our story-landscape, with the exception of brief appearances in The Hobbit, Harry Potter & of course the cutest role in Disney's 'Frozen'. In the wooded wonderland that we walked through on the way to civilization, we came across a few & they didn't seem so bad.

 This walk gave us an opportunity to see the houses more closely, and aside from enjoying various external colour choices that we wouldn't find at home, we were also drawn to the very glossy roof tiles, especially the black ones.  Having seen the newly tarred Stave Church a few days ago, our first thought was "is it tar?", but of course that would be highly flammable & one would hope with the housing so closely clustered together, that there would be some rules about that. Closer inspection revealed that they were glazed tiles with a very high gloss.

 It was truly magnificent walking down amidst the trees & then houses & then trees with knitting on them next to houses!  Yarn bombing has been here, and clearly for quite a while, as some of the trees were starting to grow through their winter woollies!

Bergen has a lot of museums & art galleries, which means that if it is raining, there is plenty to see.  However, we did not want to be stuck indoors for too long today.  It was way too lovely to be out, so we went to one museum, which focussed on Bergen during the middle ages.  We learnt so much in a small selection of rooms & enjoyed the displays of archaeological finds very much.  For example, back in the day, to be a comb maker was an actual job!! Bergen has had a number of finds with runic inscriptions & ownership marks on them.
At first glance, this looked like a runic inscription, but it is actually an artist's sketch of boats.  It is no wonder that the museum has adopted this as their logo graphic.

Another display introduced us to a charming character....Snorri the Seal! In 1941 a beautiful Children's book hit the shelves here in Norway.  Written by Frithjof Saelen, the adventures of Snorri the Seal as he fought for survival, was an instant hit & almost completely sold out the first print run. However, a month after it was published, the occupying German forces banned it, as they'd become aware of it's political symbolism. The remaining books went from selling for 3.5 Norwegian Kroner at the outset of sales, to 500 Norwegian Kroner on the black market after it was banned!!
Of course we bought a copy..... of a more recent reprint! The illustrations are delightful & we had such a good time looking at displays about Snorri, and other characters that Saelen had created.

 Just around the corner was the oldest existing building in Bergen, St Mary's. It was built in the 1100's, & has endured a few fires, but it has remained in continuous use since the middle ages.

 Sadly we weren't allowed to take photos of the incredible interior.  There are a few remnants of frescoes on the walls. But the real star of the show is the pulpit.  I have never seen so many buxom women & over the top decoration on a podium where a sermon is preached, in my life.  It was gloriously extraordinary! No wonder it is described as an 'enigma' in Norwegian art history!
The alter Reredos screen was also something splendid. Aglow with gold, red & blue, it lit up the rather dull church.
Outside, I was very happy to find some remnants of Romanesque sculptural features.

 All that walking & absorbing of information had made us hungry, so we went to the fish market.  It was very hard to make a decision, so much choice was on offer!  In the end we opted for salmon burgers.
All I can say is......YUMMMMMMMMM!

Throughout the day we have had a consistent background of music.  Namely brass band music.  There is a festival in town & in street squares bands have set up their music stands & been entertaining the masses.  This particular band had a singer with a fabulous voice, and an enthusiastic conductor who was a delight to watch. We stopped for a while, then went on to explore the Bergenhus Castle area. This is a fortified section at the tip of the port. Our visit was short lived as they closed at 4pm.
There was nothing for it... we returned to our apartment, opened a local pear cider & sat out on the deck to enjoy the view. What another amazing day!

BEAUTIFUL BERGEN

 With our train travel from Flam to Bergen taking up the best part of 4 hours, we were keen to get out & get walking upon disembarking.

The first 'unusual' (ie; not-what-one-would-expect-to-see-in-a-train-station) thing to grab my attention, was that there was a wool/knitting shop in the train station! BRILLIANT!  Someone has realised that some of us like to do something over the train travel hours.  I was tempted to go, but knew we needed to get going!!

The next thing that grabbed me, was.... the wonderful man-hole covers!

 Bergen is a vibrant city teeming with people from all over the world. It is designated as a World Heritage City & we were keen to walk the streets & find out why.
It has been named 'city of culture' in the past, & it is clear that the arts are celebrated here.  The composer Edvard Grieg lived here & at the moment they appear to have an extensive concert programme on celebrating his work.
Street art also seems to have a place amidst these old walls.  One of the first pieces we encountered was... precious!

Bergen is an active port & there is as much going on in the water as there is out of it!  Beautiful streamlined yachts were moored to the marina side, which gave us some unexpected window shopping opportunities.  Or... it would have if we were in the market for a yacht!
The fish market is a sprawling area of stalls not far from the water's edge & we were drawn in by the tempting smells of various cooked seafood dishes. We had planned to eat there, but our cash was low, so we needed an ATM first. We finally found a bank at 3.15pm only to find that they shut at 3pm...and their ATM's are inaccessible from then too.(  I will endeavour to refrain from moaning about our local bank's 4pm closure in future!!!)

Most people come to Bergen to see these beautifully coloured old buildings.  They are  known as the Bryggen, which means 'wharf'. Back in the 1300's some gentlemen from the German Hanseatic league set up an import/export business on this site.  They were so successful & powerful that they dominated the market for 400 years.  A massive fire burnt down the original buildings as well as the city in the 1700's, but the buildings were rebuilt on to the original foundations. There are still offices in these buildings that relate to businesses connected with the port, but mostly they are tourism oriented.

We are staying in an apartment here, just as we did in Flam, with the hope that self catering will be gentler on expenses, especially as we know we have a run of Hotel accommodation coming up. We found the local supermarket chain, which, of all things, is named 'kiwi' & the staff wear bright green clothes! Thankful for a much bigger & better range of options, we made some choices, whipped up as healthy & tasty a meal as we could, & sat out on our porch to eat ...with this view.
Bergen is proving to be beautiful already.

FURTHER EXPLORATIONS

Our day began with an insight into life as a troll.
The Laerdal tunnel is 26km long & consequently the longest in Europe. Up above our heads was over a km of rock.  I tried not to think about that too much!  We were off on an adventure with Thomas, our guide for the day & the 30 minutes it took to get through the underworld allowed us time to get to know him & begin asking him questions about life in Norway.  As we were chatting away, we suddenly came upon this blue light. Apparently every 5 km there is an area of blue light to simulate sky, as an aid to keep drivers alert!

 We were off to see our first Stavkyrkje at Borgand & I was very excited!
Once upon a time there were lots of these characteristic buildings around Norway, now only 28 remain & this is allegedly the best preserved... namely because of the 5 yearly maintenance regime. Tar is painted on the exterior, which preserves the wood & keeps the Church waterproof.  The most recent tarring has just been completed & we could certainly smell it.

 The Borgund Stave Church was begun in 1180.  It's door is richly decorated with intertwining creatures & swirls, very similar to Celtic decoration.

 Inside, we were told why it is a Stave church... because it's structure is built around long poles or staves.  This is very similar to Viking longhouses, so it was interesting to see how 'old' building patterns were being utilized in the Christian era.

 It was also interesting to see that even though this was a catholic church, it had some rather pagan references.  There were a few decorations that could have been interpreted as from the Norse mythology & this cat, representing Freya, was one of them. She was carved from wood & was situated just above the pulpit.

 We didn't have as much time there as I would have liked, but to be fair, our time in the Church had been free of too many other people & as we were leaving a bus load of tourists started pouring into the site, so we had timed it very well.
Our next destination was back the way we had come, but this time, instead of the 30minutes spent in tunnel darkness, we were going to take the long way around & experience travel pre-tunnel.  This would mean a 2 hour journey to cover 40km!!
We couldn't complain as the scenery was spectacular! 
One minute we were cruising alongside the fjord.....

 ....and the next minute we were up in the heights of the mountain range, sailing past the remaining snow.

 Thomas had brought a flask of coffee & some Norwegian chocolate to try & we stopped  briefly to enjoy those whilst looking out over spectacular scenery.
Then he took us to the Stegastein Viewpoint, where a purpose built platform extends out over the cliff face to allow visitors an incredible viewing experience.  We were so fortunate to have such a clear day.  It was a little vertigo inducing, but it was worth it!

Zigzagging our way down the mountainside, carefully clinging to edge of the road as camper vans & buses went past, we eventually found ourselves in a rural paradise, where we were about to meet the goats of Undredal.  Well, that's no quite true.

We were hear to taste the famous brown goats cheese of Undredal.  Within moments of our cheese tasting however, we learnt that that statement is not true either!  Brown cheese is actually made from a byproduct of the cheese making process.  It is caramelised whey that is formed into a soft cheese & matured to be recognised as 'brown cheese'.  Regardless....it was very tasty & we really enjoyed the different goats cheeses & goat salami that we tried.

We still had another stave church to see & that was the smallest in Norway. Undredal's Stave church is still in use today.  It has had many adaptions since the 1100's when it was built, but in recent years they have managed to restore the original interior completely with paintings.
Before going inside tough, we took a moment to enjoy the setting.

Inside the painting style reminded us of the old Church of Flam.  It was charming. And had a very beautiful baptismal plate that hooked into the side of a pew.

The paintings on the ceiling were quite hard to identify, but I did like these naive angels!

Returning to our last evening in Flam, our plans had been to rent a kayak & go for a paddle, but they were closing up when we arrived, so I decided to wade in the water instead.  It was very cold & my feet went numb very quickly.  There was only a small area to wade in, as the fjord fell away into very deep water very quickly, which made me suspect that the 'beach ' had been man made.
Once on dry land again, we sat back & watched that days big (ginormous) cruiser make it's way off.
We were so glad that we had spent a few days here & were very happy with what we had chosen to do.  If we had had one more day, we would have liked to have taken the flam railway back up to Myrdal & walk the 20km back down on the old access route. This is an area that if we lived closer than the southern hemisphere, we'd love to visit again.

ENJOYING THE SUN

The fjord was a dazzling deep green this morning and the sky was blue.  We were in for a sunny day & were so pleased that this was our 'no-plans' day!

Seeing two large cruise ships enter the harbour & disgorge millions of people, we decided to avoid the township & head in the opposite direction.  A walk alongside the fjord beckoned us & we didn't need much persuading!



A well maintained path kept us away from vehicular traffic, surrounded by wildflowers & alongside the water.  The local gov't have clearly tried to make this an informative walk too, as plaques every few hundred metres gave an impression of what animals may have roamed in this area in ancient times.

We enjoyed the flowers, but got very excited when we saw wild strawberries growing!  Sadly, they were rather tart, so we didn't pick any more.

Little dwellings were dotted sporadically along the waterline, with general living upstairs & a boathouse below. Quite a few of them look to be holiday accommodation & some clearly had good fishing as wooden ramps led out over the water. On the road side wild roses grew & the fragrance under the warm sun was absolutely wonderful, it stopped us in our tracks & we just breathed it in.

We were heading 4.5 km out of town to the former farm collective of Otternes. Archaeological evidence has shown that there has been a farm site here since 300AD.  The current 27 buildings, however, date back to the 1700's & the last resident left in 1996!
To get a good look at the buildings we had a steep climb first. Groan!

One of the first things we noticed, was the relationship to some of the Viking era buildings that we had seen yesterday.  The structure was similar.

Clearly some buildings had functions other than as dwellings for humans.
These foundations left us wondering just how stable this building was!

Because some of the buildings had shrunk with age, we were able to get a close look at the beams that held up the turf roof.  We had noticed yesterday that there seemed to be something wrapped around the wood & today we could see that it was sections of birch bark curled around some of the beams.  I don't know the purpose, but it looked quite beautiful under the blue sky!!

Aside from getting to see these farm buildings, the other value of climbing up to this site, was to get this most incredible view down the fjord.

We are loving these views & on the way back we had an extra surprise... we spotted a seal in the water!!

Back in Flam we dealt with some necessities...namely laundry, got ourselves some lunch,  went & sat on the grass on the other side of Flam.... not many tourists there either, and just lapped up the perfect combination of warmth from the sun & cool from the mountainous cliffs & close proximity to water.  It was heavenly.

So heavenly that we overindulged & got ourselves some... ahem... rather expensive sorbet.  We didn't realise it was 'rather expensive', until we did the exchange conversion. Sigh.... the Australian dollar doesn't go very far here!

We tried not to let that ruin our treat though!

Refreshed & with laundry dried & sorted, we went on another walk.
This was to the Fretheim Kulturpark.  One of the things we had learnt during our walk to the old Church the other day, is that this township isn't really Flam, but Fretheim.  Inspite of that it still gets called Flam, but throughout the village there are places that refer to it's proper name.
This little park zigzagged up behind the historic hotel, and every so often a sculpture would appear.  It became a bit of a treasure hunt.  I suspect a lot of the sculptures had been the work of an art school nearby.  It certainly made it an interesting walk.

As did the stunning views.
It has been a spectacular day, as well as restful & refreshing. We are so glad we have stayed here for longer than the few hours the passengers on board these big ships get!