A Day in Bergen

People who have never been to our town of Aalesund, think Bergen is the most beautiful city in Norway. It’s a very nice city, but nothing is like Aalesund. But the good thing about Bergen is, it’s a LOT bigger than Aalesund (or I guess that could be the BAD thing about Bergen, too.) It’s Norway’s second largest city, after Oslo, with a population exceeding 250,000. (Prior to the early 1800s, it actually was the largest city in Norway.) There are more places to explore, more stores to shop in and more ground to cover. We covered plenty of it today and my feet are now crying for mercy. But we couldn’t have had better weather so the day was as perfect as days get.

The most famous part of Bergen is Bryggen, the buildings along the waterfront seen in this photo. That area of town was built in the 1200s and incredibly, those buildings are still standing (although a little off kilter), but they serve their purpose. German merchants lived in that part of town (away from the locals), for over 400 years. They came mostly to buy and sell the dried cod from Northern Norway, so that area is quite historic and special as it’s now on the list of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sights. In the 1950s the town wanted to tear those buildings down, but the locals protested and formed “The Friends of Bryggen” group and raised the money to put the buildings back into action. They are now just full of tourist shops, but they are still quite charming. We walked around them this morning before anything was open and I took a few photos while Kory checked out their construction. Kaleb could have cared less about any of it.

Bryggen sits next to an old fort built of stone, which we also walked around and took photos of this morning in the fog - which only added to the ambiance. Once the fog cleared up we took a tram up to the top of the nearest mountain and enjoyed the view from on high. They have redone the viewing platform up on top since we were here in the year 2001. It’s quite impressive and I so wish Aalesund would do something like that on top of its little mountain. Nothing like getting the bird’s eye view of things. And while we were up there we decided to go with a little Easter tradition and walk around a bit in the woods. We didn’t wander too far, but enough to see what the forest looks like. The ground has no underbrush, it’s just a carpet of moss – very elegant looking, actually. And signs of spring are popping up all over the place as crocuses and daffodils are now in their prime.

We took the tram back down the mountain and had lunch at the fish market next to the harbor. Kaleb wanted to go the aquarium so we went for a long walk to the end of the peninsula to get there. We took him there when he was two years old, but not surprisingly, he didn’t remember it, so he wanted to go again (he actually DOES remember several things from when he was two, however.) The penguins were pretty cute and the goldfish pond gave Kaleb a thrill as the fish all came and nibbled his finger when he put it in the water. We walked around the park in front of the Aquarium afterwards and discovered a NW Native American Totem pole – a gift to the City of Bergen from their sister city, Seattle. That was a nice surprise.

After we walked back to the heart of town, Kory and Kaleb went swimming in the pool at the hotel while I did a little shopping. I didn’t find anything I was looking for, but it was fun to look anyway. Kaleb needs a new pair of tennis shoes and I’m used to buying them at Wal-Mart for $15, so it’s pretty hard to cough up a hundred dollars for a pair of shoes that will barely last six months. I just can’t bring myself to spend that kind of money on one item like that. Uff da. That’s why I stay out of the stores. Most things that cost $5 back home, will easily cost $20 here. Norwegians drop a hundred dollars on something like Americans drop $20. We “dropped” over $250 today just on the aquarium entrance, the tram to the top of the mountain, lunch and dinner. Vacationing in Norway can never be done on a budget.

We got a call tonight from cousin Turid to say that Tante Kari fell and broke her hip today! Of all the three sisters, she’s the most spry, so it was a bit of a shock to hear that one. She is 80, but you’d never know it. She was checking on the progress of her grandson’s new house, which coincidentally, Kory is helping to build via his job, and she tripped over some construction material. She will be having surgery tonight to put a pin in her hip. That sure put a damper on an otherwise wonderful day.

Easter Vacation Begins!

Norwegians like their traditions. Easter vacation began today, and with it comes much tradition. First off, I think Norway has the longest Easter holiday in the world. All holidays are known as “red days” here in Norway because they are always in red ink on calendars so they get distinguished from all the other ordinary days. So officially, the “red days” for Easter begin next Thursday, when the whole country gets that day off from work, as well as “long Friday.” Saturday isn’t considered a red day here, but Sunday (1st day of Easter) and Monday (2nd day of Easter) sure are. So officially, the whole country has a five day weekend, but unofficially, all schools are off all next week so many people take a few days off from work and they have themselves a ten day vacation by only using three vacation days.

The biggest tradition in Norway for Easter vacation is to head to the hills. The vast majority of Norwegians go to the mountains – either to their own cabin, the cabin of a friend, or they rent one. Mostly people go for a little cross country ski tour as well as a hike, but they all enjoy being up in the mountains during this time of year. And as if a script has been written for everyone to follow, when they go on their hike or little ski trip, they always take two things with them– an orange, and Norway’s version of the Kit-Kat bar (called “Kwik-Lunsj” – pronounced Quick Lunch). It’s too funny as all the stores have them bundled together for a quick purchase, all the advertisements in the paper show people holding their candy bar and orange, and the funniest part is – people really keep with that tradition.

And that’s not the only thing scripted about Easter time. About a hundred years ago Norway received the first printed crime publication, and for many years, Norwegians devoured them, but were embarrassed to admit they liked them so much, so no one talked about it. It became tradition that they would hole away in their mountain cabins on Easter vacation, and read “Who-done-its” in secret. But then about fifty years ago someone thought it was okay to talk about it so they all came out of the closet over this obsession they have with crime novels, and they embraced their mutual love for the thing and have now exploited it beyond reason. Easter time is as tied to crime novels here in Norway as turkey is to Thanksgiving in America. They just go hand-in-hand. All the latest crime books written and/or translated to Norwegian get released right before Easter, so they will surely be a big seller. About fifty years ago the radio would play a bit of a story every day leading up to Easter and all the kids would sit around and try to guess who did it. About thirty years ago the TV stations in Norway started showing crime shows during Easter break and about twenty years ago, even the milk producers got in on the action – they started printing little crime stories on the “extra light” milk cartons! We read one today in class and we can’t find out “who done it” until the Saturday night before Easter. The big dairy producer in Norway has a website now (before people had to call in to find out who was the bad guy), and they let people guess who they think is “it” and then they draw a name from all those that guessed correctly and they win a prize. This whole “solving the crime” thing is a total obsession with children now and Kaleb said they didn’t even deliver extra light milk to school today, because I’m sure they are all out of that milk because everyone’s been buying up the cartons to read this year’s “crime mystery.” It’s all just too funny. I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out why crime is associated with Easter and one theory I have is that Jesus talked to criminals when he was hanging on the cross – or maybe its the anticipation of NOT knowing who did it is tied with the anticipation of waiting for Easter morning, when Jesus rose from the grave. No one I’ve asked has any idea why the two go hand-in-hand, but they do. Strange tradition.

So we too started our Easter break today, but we aren’t as traditional. We went on a road trip. It took exactly eight hours to drive from Aalesund to Bergen. As the crow flies, I’m sure it could be done in an hour, but we had to take four ferries and the roads have LOTS of curves and are so narrow they often have just one lane (and it's the MAIN "highway"), which means backing up to a wide enough spot to let an oncoming vehicle get by. It’s insanely slow to drive on roads around here, but the scenery is so beautiful it’s a good thing we have to go slow so we have time to absorb it all. It’s just overwhelmingly beautiful – and it never ends. It’s not like there are boring spots and we just hit scenic spots here and there – the entire eight hours was breathtaking and beyond description. And we had perfect weather the whole day. God is good! I’m so exhausted and Kory did all the driving. We are now staying in a plush SAS Radisson hotel SUITE in the heart of Bergen, thanks to Turid’s daughter who got us the “friends and family rate” so we are paying about a third the cost of the cheapest room in the hotel – but we have a two bedroom SWEET! Hello Bergen!!