{"id":12144,"date":"2017-08-17T17:11:59","date_gmt":"2017-08-17T21:11:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=12144"},"modified":"2017-11-27T18:51:48","modified_gmt":"2017-11-27T23:51:48","slug":"bergen-norway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=12144","title":{"rendered":"Bergen, Norway"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday – August 17, 2017<\/p>\n

The Captain made an announcement last night as we left Alesund, Norway that we should expect 40 to 50 mph winds in the Norwegian Sea. \u00a0He advised us to stow our gear and secure computers and any other valuables that could slide off counters when the ship heaves due to heavy seas. \u00a0It was a scary announcement since he didn\u2019t say anything about wind speeds a couple of nights ago when it was blowing near 40 mph.<\/p>\n

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Anyway, fortunately for us it was a calm night. \u00a0The winds never reached the Captain\u2019s expected velocity and we cruised south along the coast of Norway peacefully. \u00a0I woke up about 5:30 and looked out to see the sun rise above the rocky shore.<\/p>\n

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Jeff and I had been to Bergen sixteen years ago and really liked it, so we were looking forward to visiting again. \u00a0At that time, we had arrived during a Tall Ships Festival and many tourists were there to see old sailing vessels. \u00a0There had been a party atmosphere in the city and the weather was sunny and warm. \u00a0It rained the next day so we drove out of town to visit Edvard Greig\u2019s house. \u00a0We had a good time.<\/p>\n

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This morning there was a fiery red sunrise, so I prepared for a rainy day. \u00a0When we disembarked, the sun was bright and peeking through clouds. \u00a0We explored Bergen along the U-shaped harbor.<\/p>\n

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Bryggan is the historic part of Bergen. This is where the Hanseatic League met to establish tradesmen’s guilds. \u00a0The buildings have been restored several times over many decades. \u00a0They looked spiffed up since our last visit to Bergen.<\/p>\n

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We walked along the harbor, looked into the shops of the Bryggan and went down one the alleyways between the buildings searching new things we had not seen during our last visit.<\/p>\n

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The famous Fish Market isn\u2019t a place where fishermen bring their latest catch to sell. \u00a0Today it\u2019s for tourists to buy a fish lunch or prepared souvenirs. \u00a0A new tourist information center was built near the market. \u00a0Bergen is the second largest city in Norway after the capital, Oslo. \u00a0Ferries and other ships arrive from all over Europe so tourism is big!<\/p>\n

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We passed the local McDonald\u2019s across the street from the Fish Market. \u00a0It was amusing to see the sign on a historic building which dated from 1771.<\/p>\n

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The buildings behind the main square are very old and remind visitors of the seafaring history of Bergen.<\/p>\n

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One of the attractions in the city is the Funicular which takes visitors up to the top of one of the mountains so we can see Bergen from above.<\/p>\n

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We were lucky to get front row seats in the Funicular car on the way down! \u00a0It was like an amusement park ride and a lot of fun!!<\/p>\n

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As we were walking around Bergen, we heard loud Star Wars music and finally located the source. \u00a0The Bergen Philharmonic was practicing for an evening concert later today. \u00a0We learned that the program also included Harry Potter music from the movies. \u00a0Huge speakers broadcasted the rehearsal so it could be heard all over town.<\/p>\n

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We saw a banner which said the orchestra would be playing selections of Edvard Greig\u2019s music tomorrow night. \u00a0They would be playing \u201cRain or Shine.\u201d \u00a0This is not surprising since Bergen is known as a rainy city. \u00a0So far today we were lucky. \u00a0We explored Bergen some more and had lunch in a bakery called Godt Brod (translation: Good Bread).<\/p>\n

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By the time we returned to the Bryggan, it had started to rain. \u00a0Fortunately, we were prepared with raincoats and umbrellas. \u00a0We walked back to the ship in a downpour – typical Norwegian weather in the summer. \u00a0Norway is a very beautiful country, either in the rain or on a sunny day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday – August 17, 2017 The Captain made an announcement last night as we left Alesund, Norway that we should expect 40 to 50 mph winds in the Norwegian Sea. \u00a0He advised us to stow our gear and secure computers and any other valuables that could slide off counters when the ship heaves due to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cruising","category-norway"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12144"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12326,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12144\/revisions\/12326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}