I walked all over Bergen. You can. It’s smaller and aside from some hills, quite easy to get around. I had asked at the TI if I could take a public ferry ride through the fjords as I’d done in other places. She said yes but unfortunately didn’t remember the particular one she was talking about does not run Sundays or holidays. I was there two holidays and a Sunday. Yup, not only was it Constitution Day Friday but it was Whit Monday (day after Pentecost — who knew) which is also a holiday. Thus many things were closed when I was there. 

Based on weather forecasts I had planned to do the ferry on Sunday or Monday so yeah I missed a ferry ride.

But I grabbed the Fløibanen funicular to Mount Fløyen. It’s got amazing views. Sadly my fear of heights is perhaps getting worse because it was hard for me to stand at the glassed edge. 

Until I realized it’s actually not a huge drop off so I could take a lot of photos! 

They all said that there’s an “easy” walk on pavement down from the top but if it seems too difficult one can buy a return ticket to go down. It’s quite steep in some areas but not bad and all paved. Better shoes would have been helpful. What they didn’t tell me is that there are a ton of very cool paths all around the mountain top, of varying difficulty, and for which I absolutely could’ve used better shoes. Not that I brought any. 

I did what was marked an easy path to a lake and it was. All paved or tree-barked (?) and people with strollers on it. Near the lake it was even more level though less wide.

But of course I decided to go off path for a change and it was a little trickier. No paths, lots of roots, kinda steep. But short distances. I was searching for trolls (Norway has a thing about trolls — the guide said troll stories were used to scare children so they wouldn’t wander off — like Grimm’s fairy tales — what is it about these Northern Europeans and scaring their children?!). 

Back down I took the route that’s supposed to have the best fjord views and it was stunning. 

When you finally get down towards the town, lots of steep steps and green parks for some reason. And everything was in bloom. It all just seemed so idyllic. (BTW it was about 30-40 min walk down and was steep but of course I saw a ton of people walking and often running up … I am not in that kind of shape!)

Can’t remember if it was that evening but I ventured out one night for craft beers. 

It was early and empty and the bartender was a nice young man originally from South Bend, grew up in Greensboro (NC) but currently a grad student at Univ of Bergen. Which btw, like all the Nordic and Baltic countries is pretty much free. I think he actually moved out there for undergrad. I sat outside and tried to blog no doubt and of course chatted with the bartender. I think he was worried that the second one would put me over the top (they ARE strong). I think I tried to leave a small tip on the credit card but they make it complicated and he waved me off. (This happened more than once. So NOT the American way.)

Good thing I only had to walk home. I wasn’t eating much and the beer hit me but all was good. Norway btw has very strict drink/drive laws and also taxes the hell out of alcohol. Not sure if this is why, but Norway has a long history of alcoholism (and suicide like the other Nordics) and it would seem the government is trying to discourage drinking. And like some US states, you can only buy stronger liquors, wine and beers at state-owned stores. I read that because of the high prices out (even more than the state stores), they “vorspiel” — literally pre-game — so they only pay for one or two drinks out. 

Long thing on alcohol but seriously all the Nordics heavily tax their booze. I wonder how all those kids seemed to be drinking on Constitution Day but maybe they’re older and richer than I thought!? Meantime my hotel was near a very touristy area and whenever I walked out (from 10 am to whenever) there were at least some people having large beers with their meals.

Back to touring … I took an easy tram ride out to see another Stave church, which it turns out, was also moved from its original spot. Also slightly hilly walk to/from the trams but all good. 

I didn’t go inside. I had heard it wasn’t worth the fee?! And I had seen the inside of the other one in Oslo. But it was literally a 15 min ride (then 10 min walk?) to the church. As the TI people said, with the 90 min train tix one could do the whole thing on one ticket. It was set in a forest which was in the middle of a town but green areas were all over all the cities in Norway. 

Not sure what inspired me but I decided to check out the English language Sunday Mass at the Anglican Church which was built around 1200. (I think I wanted to see the inside and it’s not often open.)

I had no idea it was Pentecost but realized it when the minister began his sermon. So I learned something. (Pentecost celebrates when the Holy Spirit visited Jesus’ disciples and infused them with the will to spread the word. No wonder the Catholics don’t make a big deal of it. They aren’t really evangelicals like the Protestants). Being me and given what the Baltic tour guides all said about the wars because Germans were trying to convert them, I could not help thinking — isn’t this why we’ve had so many deaths due to Holy Wars?! Though that’s also just been a handy excuse for conquests and invasions. 

Anyway what I also found interesting was they invited a woman to do a bunch of prayers in Ukrainian. It seemed she participated regularly. Everything makes me tear up these days, as did this service, and I enjoyed it (religious wars aside). I left as they were starting the communion part (or whatever Protestants call the wafer bit). I walked out with another woman who was Norwegian; not sure why she attended the English language service but perhaps she also just dashed in to see the church— but we both liked it. 

Afterwards I was very close to the Bergenhus Fortress. I walked all over including Sverresborg, which is higher up with more good views. 

What cracked me up though was the fact that there’s a rather tacky fair and huge port right behind the fortress. Port makes sense but not sure about the fair?

On my last full Bergen day, since I didn’t do the ferry as it was Whit Monday and am scared of doing the famous Pulpit Rock – Preikestolen (google it. It does look fabulous but I could not even consider it. If you’re into hiking and views it looks spectacular), I just walked around the neighborhoods. So here’s a bunch of random photos.

I also walked a few km outside of downtown — to Sandviken which is closer to the beaches and felt a little bit suburban.

Looking at these I realize I didn’t take photos of the more crowded areas — there are several squares, an open air market I walked through every day, and a historic enclosed fish market. I think I just hate seeing tons of people!?

Net on Bergen, I’m glad I saw it and it’s beautiful but don’t see any reason to go back. I preferred Oslo.

Speaking of, before I leave Norway I realized I left out a few Oslo things. So I’m finishing Norway with those last bits.

At the historic museum in addition to the stave church interiors, they had a whole Viking thing (and a lot of other stuff).

As I wandered through several Viking exhibits I wondered why the placards always say “we think that they did X or Y” and I wondered why the heck don’t they KNOW!? I mean the Chinese and Egyptians and even Greeks and Romans all existed thousands (?) of years before any trace of Vikings. So why do we know so much about the other civilizations and so little about the newer Vikings? And duh. Looking at these stone-carved runes I realized why. No real written records. It’s way too hard to chisel all that data onto a stone!? Though frankly, in my mind, not sure they’re even really a civilization? Perhaps sacrilege — I’m sure Norse historians would disagree.

Finally, views of Oslo — newer apartments in a now pricey ‘hood — I walked along on a beautiful evening and people were just hanging out on piers, boats, and anywhere in the sun. (Young people even swimming!)

The Munch museum had a cool sky bar that I mentioned but forgot to include photos! I should’ve stopped for a drink as it was lovely with fantastic views. But it was kind of early and I had other places to go to so I just took photos.

That’s it for Norway! Of course I have thoughts on the culture and all else but I’ll save it for another day. I still have two weeks to catch up on! And I’ve been back in Chicago several days!!