Bergen, Norway Show Segment

A look at Bergen from above the city.

Travel --- to the land of the ancient Vikings, where breathtaking scenery lures you to stop and enjoy the magnificent beauty of Scandinavia.

And what better time to visit the land of the midnight sun, than during the Midsummer Eve celebration!

Taking a tour is a lot like getting married. You plan and prepare and you’re still just a little hesitant before boarding the plane to start the journey. For people who haven’t toured with a group or gone abroad, a beginning step which may calm your fears and perhaps start the traveling bug in your own veins is a Scandinavian Tour. And what better time to visit this land of Vikings and Trolls and Music and Culture than during the Midsummer when the sun rarely sets and the land is alive with growth and beauty and people and merriment.

We tagged along with the “Among Friends” group as they traveled through beautiful Northern Europe with Pearls of Scandinavia as their guide.

Departures for Europe through SAS are plentiful. Our group assembled at O’Hare Airport in Chicago for the start of our adventure. Members of the group had a variety of reasons for visiting Scandinavia, but none was more predominant than the return visit of Arnie Shield, who at 80, was going back to Stockholm to visit one more time. Arnie is the ideal member for a tour group. He speaks the languages, knows much about the country and has an enthusiasm for life that never lets a group forget they are there to enjoy the adventure.

After almost 10 hours of plane rides, with a changeover in Copenhagen we landed at the Bergen Airport, 8 kilometers south of the city at Flesland . Here our tour guide, Kjell Johnansson met us with the bus that would be our home on the road for the next fifteen days. Fierce kings of Viking ancestry once ruled from Bergen, at that time Norway’s capital. Today, Bergen holds no less significance as the “Fjord Capital” of Norway, a true gateway to spectacular fjords and spellbinding natural beauty. Bergen is easy to fall in love with, life here is on a human scale, history is alive, culture is vibrant, and the architecture a unique blend of medieval structures, “old world charm” and true, true coziness. The city is ringed by seven mountains, and great vistas and open expanses are indeed close to the narrow passage ways, cobblestone streets and the Hanseactic buildings along the harbor.

Our ride into the city was our first chance to see the similarity of the foliage with the midwest. In the city we were met by a guide who took us on a tour of Bergen with photo opportunities. First stop was along the waterfront.

“Bergen, Norway’s second largest city, lies in the inner reaches of the Byfjord. It is the second largest port in the west coast of Norway, with a considerable merchant fleet and several large shipyards, the administrative center of the Bergen district and the county of Hordaland, the seat of the Lutheran bishop of Bjorgvin and an educational center, with a university and a commercial college. Surrounded by a ring of hills, up to 2110 ft, partly forest-covered, with its houses reaching up the lower slopes, Bergen is one of the most attractive towns in Norway. In spite of its Northern latitude, rather farther north than the southern most tip Greenland, it’s humid and usually mild climate enables all the usual deciduous trees of Europe to flourish and gives it a rich and varied growth of vegetation. It is noted for its high rainfall (over 80 inches annually) the result of its maritime climate and the surrounding hills.

The oldest parts of the town lie in a semicircle round the busy harbor, Vagen, and extend up the slopes of the Floyfjell to the northeast. Like most Scandinavian towns Bergen has suffered repeatedly from devastating fires the most serious being those of 1702 and 1916; in the 1916 fire several hundred houses in the timber-built commercial district to the south of Vågen were destroyed. These frequent destructions have left little of the old Bergen and the pattern of the town center is now set by its wide streets and stone buildings. The Nordnes and Floyfjell districts, however, have preserved something of the atmosphere of the past, with their wooden houses and narrow lanes.”

Our guide reminded us that there was no such thing as Road Rage here, because all the roads are narrow and demanding of the drivers’ skill and patience.

Lilian Leland writing about Bergen in 1890 complained that “Everything is fishy. You eat fish and drink fish and smell fish and breathe fish.” At the south end of the main harbor, Vagen, is the Market Square (Torget) with the quays where the fishermen land their catches in the early morning. The picturesque fish market is a fascinating spectacle. And a hundred years later not much has changed as you wander around Bergen’s fish market at Torget. Vats of ice overspill onto the already slippery square, while at every stall sit huge mounds of prawns and crab claws, buckets of herring and a thousand other varieties of marine life on slabs, in tanks and under the knife. Fruit, vegetables and flowers have a place in today’s market but it’s still the fish that make their mark. It’s a fine place to pick up the fixings for a picnic lunch, with dresses crabs and smoked salmon sandwiched on sale at several stands. And when the stalls close at the end of the day, a feasting spot for the seagulls as they attempt to pick up anything left behind once the square is cleaned and readied for the next day.

Along the east side of the harbor runs Bryggen (formerly Tyskebryggen, the German Bridge). Here once stood the houses of the Bergen merchants, later increasingly replaced by stone built warehouses in a style modeled on that of the Hanseatic period.

Of the old merchant’s houses only the one at the south end of Bryggen, the early 18th century Finnegard, has been preserved in its original condition. Since 1872 it has housed the Hanseatic Museum, which gives an excellent impression of the interior of a Hanseatic merchant’s establishment, with displays of weapons, domestic furnishings and equipment, mostly dating from the last days of the counting house. The ground floor was used for storage of goods; on the first floor were the merchant’s office, dining room and bedroom, and on the second floor were the sleeping quarters of the apprentices and clerks.

The twin towered Romanesque and Gothic St. Mary’s Church (Maria Kirke; 12th and 13th c. pulpit and altar 17th c.) this was the Church of the Hanseatic merchants from 1408 to 1766, and services were still held in German until 1868. In the churchyard are a number of German graves.

To the south of the town are some of the attractions which have contributed to Bergen’s reputation as the cultural capital of Norway. Among them is Troldhaugen, home of Edvard Grieg, which gives some feeling of the life and work of this world famous Norwegian composer. (1843-1907) Greig’s house is only a short journey from the center of Bergen. Built in 1885 this was his home for 22 years. It was here that he composed many of his best known works and where he and his wife Nina are buried. The house is virtually as he left it, a jumble of photos, manuscripts and period furniture. A obligatory conducted tour of the house will allow you to discover that Grieg was only 5 feet tall and bore an uncanny resemblance to Einstein. A smaller cottage by the water is where Grieg composed his music while looking out on the water and the beauty of the land. Grieg brought Norwegian music to international attention with his treatment of folk songs combining the native idiom with the compositional forms of his century. He wrote piano music, chamber music, orchestral works and a piano concerto in A minor. He has composed for the theater, most notably “Peer Gynt” by Henrik Ibsen. This music mirrors the atmosphere of the mountains, the anger of the wedding guests at the abduction of the bride and finally Peer Gynt’s dramatic homecoming and the peace of the life with Solvejg, who has waited for him.

Our accommodations were at the Grand Hotel Terminus, located next to the Train Station and within walking distance of all the major attractions in the center. After enjoying a wonderful dinner, group members gathered in a sitting room with a piano where they were entertained and sang and danced. Notice Arnie dancing with the pretty ladies.

And so after two days to explore and see the many sights and visit the many shops that Bergen has to offer we bid it a fond farewell as we begin the next leg of our journey. When we remember Bergen we will remember; the magnificent of a natural wonderland with mountains, waterfalls and glaciers, the Funicular tramway, the Market Square, the food, the people and the shopping. And the famous quote: “There is no bad weather, only bad clothing!” Next we’re off to shop at the Dale factory outlet, Stalheim, and to take a ride on the Flam railway, and start counting waterfalls and other spectacular sights.

TROLLS: Somehow, you don’t really expect to see those magical trolls. Yet every now and then you might fall under the magical spell of Norwegian legend, hoping against all hope that you might glimpse one. To find a troll you must go looking at midnight. As everyone in Norway knows, trolls emerge only at night and have to rush home to their caves before daylight. If the sun shines on them they turn into stone.

Our cameraman outside of Edvard Grieg' home.