Grieg's Bergen

It could be a seaside town with the sounds of seabirds piercing the airwaves but its Norway’s second city of over 200,000 people.

From fishing village to city

We're staying in a small apartment in Nordnes - the finger-like peninsula on the edge of town - a charming area with lots of steep and narrow cobblestone streets/alleys.

We're half way down this street - no cars

Cobbled street of Nordnes

You can walk the streets of Bergen for days but when you need sustenance a good feed can be bought at the fish market.  This is the cleanest fish market I've seen serving crays, lobster, salmon, king crabs and a variety of caviar and smoked fish.  So far we've only eaten fish in Norway, maybe after 3 weeks we will tire of it. 

Big fish

We are experiencing 20 hours of daylight and it’s a very strange feeling, so the eye masks come in handy.  Obviously the days are longer and we can do more or at least that is how it feels and since we can't figure out how to work our host's TV, we write this blog.  Midnight comes around very quickly when it's still light at 11pm.

Bergen can be bustling when cruise liners dock, disgorging 2000 tourists (yesterday) but today we saw there were none and it was relatively quiet.  Yesterday they descended for a very good reason; to see this quaint town which was once a small fishing village lined with wooden houses.  Very few of the originals remain due to fires over the centuries but they have resurrected a row along the harbour. 

Ships - old & new

While the sun was shining we thought it prudent to take the funicular up to view Bergen from above.  It was a short ride up the steep hill but there were not many tourists at this early hour of the morning, thankfully.

View from lookout - Nordnes in centre

There was an International festival in the town with parades, performers and a gay march (not sure what for) making its way down the mall.  Very colourful and lively.

Despite what Mark and I thought about the cold chill in the air, the locals seem to wear t-shirts and bare legs.  Obviously they have warm blood running through their veins.

You can’t miss the fact that Edvard Grieg is a favourite son of Bergen as there are dozens of statures dotted around the city.  (He is most famous for Peer Gynt).   

Edvard Grieg - looks like Einstein

We caught the tram to what we thought was a nearby stop of Grieg’s museum and summer house, but it turns out we needed to walk another 30 mins.  With sore muscles from previous walking this proved to be slightly more than we had bargained for.  Regardless, we made it and toured the house and museum set by the water. 

Grieg's summer house by the sea

His Steinway

In the grounds

A beautiful spot to compose beautiful music.  We were hoping to hitch a ride back to the tram stop and a couple kindly offered to drop us off.

Rhodies by the road

We’d also bought tickets for an evening performance of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra playing Grieg’s piano concerto No. 1 (in A minor Mark tells me).  It was majorly wonderful.  The performance night was a special night to perform music from Scandinavian composers so we were told by an elegant, Norwegian well-spoken woman.

At concert - 9:00pm and it's quite light

Sculpture of a guitar with a quote from L. Cohen. 
'There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in'

Statuesque MC 
in a magnificent dress

This was the only time we saw his face - dramatic and brilliant pianist

The only down side was, we had to sit through some modern music which sounded like to was written for a horror movie – it hurt the ears.

On leaving the concert hall at 10.30pm, Mark and I burst out laughing because it was daylight outside.

Today is our last full day in Bergen.  We walked around the old Bryggen area with its multicoloured wooden buildings and visited the Rosenkranz castle.

Historic Bryggen

Little Fish

A Norwegian fox for Tam (instead of a jumper)

Rosenkranz tower

Rosenkranz vs Rosenberg

By now the light rain had set in and it was getting cold so sheltering in a museum and a gallery hosting paintings by Munch was the obvious and enjoyable answer.  Kitty and Graeme had much warmer weather this time last year and the locals say this cold weather is unseasonal.  Norwegians blame melting ice caps in Greenland.

The Bryggen Museum had old and new.  Fascinating archeological material and on the modern side, work by a woman who cuts out paper to make works of art in very fine detail - like an original big doiley hung between glass.  Exquisite. 

Tomorrow we pick up a car to drive to see the wonderful fjord’s of Norway, starting with Hardanger fjord so we’re heading to the town of Eidfjord for a few days.  It seems fitting to buy a CD of Grieg’s music to listen en route and view his inspiration.

Over to you TomTom ………….