First Day in Bergen

Jeremy and I arrived at the hotel around three this afternoon, and spent the afternoon/evening wandering around the city. Being Sunday, the museums we wanted to visit were closed. The church that the tourist office had told us would be open (as opposed to the other, supposedly closed for renovations) was closed (for renovations...think it might be worthwhile to check the other?). We had a grand time wandering around the old part of the city nonetheless.

I love turrets!

We saw the wharf and the fish market, where we sampled different types of smoked salmon (yum!), reindeer sausages (also yum!) and smoked whale (better left to the natives, according to us both). A fruity lunch of raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries made us feel much more able to face more sightseeing, so we went to Bryggen, a little neighborhood next to the wharf which includes characteristic tenement housing which is being renovated and has been converted to artisans' shops.

The old wharf, still plenty active

The fish market!

Dried fish

We think this is a cleverly disguised fire hydrant.

A little modern art to go with the older buildings

The tiles are glazed clay

Train station

Detail on the train station

Sweet locomotive on the station!

This turned out to be part of Bryggen, the old trading-tenement district

These were wholesale merchants' offices
and housed the merchants
 and all the (single) assistants for trading

They are reconstructing parts; I love how they show the work!

Jeremy and I had a little snort, but did not verify the claim

The cemeteries were quite recent...1800s and later

There's a violin maker here, too!
We wanted to visit, but didn't make it when he was open.

In the evening, we went up the funicular for the view. It was stupendous, although we were a little early, being there at eight...supposedly, dusk is the time to go. We did, however, see a darling goat on a precipice, casually munching some vegetation. We later read that it is a program to help improve the view; in past times, the goats were rampant on the hill, so vegetation didn't get tall enough to block the view. With the decline of local goat herds, the view was obscured. So the darling beasts are not just being picturesque...they're being useful!

The funicular. As usually happens, looks flat.
However, it is extremely steep.

A little model up at the reception house telling us
where the funicular cars are...it moves along with the real ones!

View of the old town from the top of the hill

The goats are used to keep the weeds down.
They wear shock collars which the posters hastened to say
didn't actually hurt the goats...and that the goats learn quickly
how to stay in their territory

View of inland Bergen (we didn't visit this part at all)

The ground was completely soft under the moss; lovely!

Wild blueberries abounded!

This tree kept looking at me!

It wasn't this hazy, but my camera didn't handle the sun's angle well. 

Heading back down!

The middle crab was a lavender color, and the body
was as big as a large man's hand

We decided to hang out at the wharf for sunset. At 10:15, sunset was clearly nowhere close to happening and we were getting chilly, so we decided to go back to the hotel. It is currently 11:15, and it is dusk. We're a little nervous about what it means for our morning daylight hours.

This was at 10:00 p.m. and the sun was still quite high

Wide awake in Norway,

Alexandra