Stavanger to Bergen, Norway
Breakfast at the hotel at 6:30, along with an enormous
Spanish-speaking tour group. We
extravagantly decided to take a taxi rather than the bus, saving a long walk
and giving us time for breakfast. Breakfast
consisted on something for everyone:
bacon and fried eggs, hardboiled eggs, beets, herring, cereal, bread of
all types, coffee, juice, salads, fruit, yoghurt, potatoes. We both ate as much
as we could muster at that early hour.
Then off to the airport, easy
check-in and security process (although Dick’s beard trimming scissors
drew some attention). You know how you could take someone out with a tiny
trimming scissors. The flight was only
25 minutes, and then we were in Bergen.
This is a medium-sized city on the coast of Norway, but
further North. The airport shuttle was
clearly marked and easy to take. We had
good instructions from our Air B&B host as to which stop to get off at, and
we were able to do this without incident.
Patti was a bit nervous from the walking instructions as to how to get
to the apartment. It seems that many
people got lost trying to find it, but Dick was able to use his good sense of
direction and we walked right up to it.
The hosts weren’t home, but had left directions as to where to find the
key, and it was there. We were able to
drop off our bags at the apartment, thinking e would just strol lfor a bit, but
ended off going off for the entire day.
Bergen is a harbor town, with an amazing old section that
was a center for the Hanseatic League of German merchants for a couple hundred
years. The town itself had been settled
since around the year 1000. These old,
old places are so amazing. Most of the
buildings are only about 300 years old, due to a long serious of fires that
would burn down the whole town.
We did some initial exploring, had a delicious fresh fish
and chips lunch, and then decided to take advantage of the lovely day (it
generally rains in Bergen, with only 60 days a year without rain).
We wanted to go and visit Edvard Grieg’s house (the composer of such pieces as the Pyre Gynt Suite.) We were at first determined to take a tram out in that direction and then walk a half hour each way. We couldn’t get the darned ticket machine to take our American credit card (something that hadn’t happened more than a couple of other times). We finally regrouped and decided to book ourselves on a tour bus that would include the lunch time concert there. This turned out to the a great choice, not only because it was so hot that the extra walk would have been hard, but we got an extra guided tour while at the house, which was excellent.
“Lunch time concert” sounds like someone sitting down and pounding out a little music, but we were treated to an exquisite Norway pianist who delighted us with 7 or 8 of Grieg’s piano pieces, that were delightful and especially moving in an amazing chamber concert hall will excellent acoustics, played on a fine Steinway piano. He was obviously delighted to be playing in the place that Grieg had spent 22 summers living there and composing. The house tour was also very interesting, with lots of little stories about Grieg and his friends. Ad maybe most moving was the Composer Hut, a little small room right on the edge of a lake with a small upright piano. To imagine such song coming through right there was powerful.
We wanted to go and visit Edvard Grieg’s house (the composer of such pieces as the Pyre Gynt Suite.) We were at first determined to take a tram out in that direction and then walk a half hour each way. We couldn’t get the darned ticket machine to take our American credit card (something that hadn’t happened more than a couple of other times). We finally regrouped and decided to book ourselves on a tour bus that would include the lunch time concert there. This turned out to the a great choice, not only because it was so hot that the extra walk would have been hard, but we got an extra guided tour while at the house, which was excellent.
“Lunch time concert” sounds like someone sitting down and pounding out a little music, but we were treated to an exquisite Norway pianist who delighted us with 7 or 8 of Grieg’s piano pieces, that were delightful and especially moving in an amazing chamber concert hall will excellent acoustics, played on a fine Steinway piano. He was obviously delighted to be playing in the place that Grieg had spent 22 summers living there and composing. The house tour was also very interesting, with lots of little stories about Grieg and his friends. Ad maybe most moving was the Composer Hut, a little small room right on the edge of a lake with a small upright piano. To imagine such song coming through right there was powerful.
Our trip back was fun, having the chance to chat with a
young teacher from Washington DC who was on her way to teacher summer school in
Italy. Lots of fun exchange there.
We were hungry again, and were helped to put together a really nice plate of very fresh shrimp and smoked salmon but a young woman from Los Angeles California. We had a quick walk back to our apartment, and then a really nice late afternoon nap. Traveling is such hard work.
After a nice sleep, we took the funicular (train that goes up and down hills) up to the top of the local mountain. There were spent a couple of delightful hours gazing down at the city, talking photos of the troll carvings in the woods, and walking around a sweet little lake. All of the local people we talked with confirmed, the weather is not usually like this, and everyone who could was totally out enjoying the hot, warm and lovely weather. People were sunbathing, swimming, and having picnics in the wooded area. What a peaceful time.
We were hungry again, and were helped to put together a really nice plate of very fresh shrimp and smoked salmon but a young woman from Los Angeles California. We had a quick walk back to our apartment, and then a really nice late afternoon nap. Traveling is such hard work.
After a nice sleep, we took the funicular (train that goes up and down hills) up to the top of the local mountain. There were spent a couple of delightful hours gazing down at the city, talking photos of the troll carvings in the woods, and walking around a sweet little lake. All of the local people we talked with confirmed, the weather is not usually like this, and everyone who could was totally out enjoying the hot, warm and lovely weather. People were sunbathing, swimming, and having picnics in the wooded area. What a peaceful time.
We thought briefly about staying up to watch the sunset, but
that would be another couple of hours, being that it was only slightly after
9pm. That would be past our travel time bedtime. We took the funicular back down and then
strolled to our home away from home. The
apartment is in a perfect location, only minutes from the tour area and harbor,
but in a real neighborhood. We are
thrilled that we made such a good find.
No umbrellas or raincoats needed in Bergen today. Yahoo!
What a great day.
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