We get wet in Bergen, Norway (August 27-28)

Overlooking Bergen from Mt. Fløyen

We flew from Stockholm/ Arlanda to Bergen, Norway on August 27. Karen gave a talk at the University of Bergen on August 28 and we left Bergen for Oslo on August 29.

I don’t have a lot to say about our time in Bergen. It is an old city that dates back to around 1000 AD and used to be the capital of Norway. It was established as the trading centre for goods from northern Norway, lots of fish, with the rest of Europe. It is now Norway’s second largest city with a population of around 270,000.

Bergen sits right on a fjord (Byfjorden) of course, and is surrounded by seven peaks. It has a mild climate because of the Gulf Stream current. The seven peaks trap the warmer, moister Gulf Stream air, making Bergen a rainy city. If you visit Bergen bring rain gear, as it rains about 230 days/year.

Enjoying a reindeer hotdog in Bergen (Bryggen in the background)

Bergen is probably best known for Bryggen which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Bryggen (“the wharf/quay”) is a small area of wooden buildings and narrow alleys that were used as warehouses and stores by traders and merchants. They used to be right on the harbour but there is now a road and sidewalk in front of them. It is my understanding that the present Bryggen was purposefully rebuilt in the medieval style following a fire in the early 1700s. Walking through Bryggen definitely feels historic (I was fascinated by it) although I don’t think the traders of the Hanseatic League who controlled the Bryggen area from around 1300-1600 sold Norwegian souvenirs.

Inside the Bergen train terminal

We got into Bergen early in the afternoon. After checking into our hotel (the Grand Terminus right beside the railroad station; very nice with a great breakfast buffet) and a stop at another grocery store, we walked to and rode up the funicular to the top of one of the seven peaks, Mt. Fløyen. From Fløyen we got an excellent view of Bergen and the surrounding landscape while we ate our picnic lunch. We then walked several of the trails around Fløyen before taking the funicular back down into Bergen. We then decided to tour around the Bryggen area but without much enthusiasm as by this time it was pouring.

After drying off we were taken to dinner by Karen’s welcoming host Anders and his wife Anna to a nice restaurant on the other side of the harbour from Bryggen. Being in Norway, we all had fish for dinner (yummy cod), except Marshall who went with a gourmet burger.

On Friday morning, Karen was up early for her walk to the university. She spent the morning touring the facility and meeting with students and faculty. She gave her talk in the early afternoon and came back to the hotel after that. Marshall and I had a bit of a later start to the day and then went to Bergen’s new, but not geothermally heated, pool. It is a beautiful facility. After putting in a few laps we spent the rest of the time fooling around jumping and diving off the many heights of diving boards, trying to touch the bottom of the 5 metre pool, seeing who could swim the farthest underwater, etc. We had the most fun on the waterslide. Although not particularly long, it records your time and peak speed. We each took about 20 turns seeing if we could set new, fastest times. A very good science lesson as there was lots of discussion of ways to go faster including issues of friction, gravity/weight ratios, terminal velocity, aerodynamics, the drag co-efficient of baggy bathing suits, etc. Fortunately for us, school has already started in Norway so we had the waterslide pretty much to ourselves.

One of Bryggen's narrow alleys

After reuniting with Karen we returned to the waterfront for a better tour, including a stop at the Bergen fish market. We saw more of the Bryggen area this time and only got rained on at the end of our walk. For dinner, Marshall and I later went back to the fish market for fish and chips. Karen wasn’t feeling too well, so she took a pass. It was then earlyish to bed so we could all be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for our “Norway in a Nutshell” tour that started on Saturday morning.

TROUBLE WITH BERGEN – Bergen gets a lot of tourists, including ourselves. (According to Wikipedia, in 2011 there were over 260 cruise visits to Bergen with 350,000 visitors.) Of course most of them, again like us, mill around the waterfront, Bryggen, and fish market area of the city. Dodging around all of these people definitely took away from the historic and unique flavour of the city. If you go to Bergen, try and visit the waterfront part of the city, which is very interesting and picturesque, in the evening. As Marshall and I found when we went for our dinner of fish and chips, by this time the cruise ships have reboarded or left, the waterfront is much quieter and easier to experience. Should I ever find myself in Bergen again, I would also give myself the time to walk/hike more of the seven peaks as the scenery of the mountains and fjords is stunning.

What Scott thinks of too many tourists

Stockholm, one more time (August 24 - 26)

Fjäderholmarna Island - looking south away from Stockholm centre

Hei, Hei from Gudvangen, Norway. As I write, it is August 29 and we are sitting in our motel room waiting for some very heavy rain to end so we can go walking along the fjord. We definitely left the sunshine behind us in Sweden.
 
When I last wrote, we were getting ready to leave Umeå and fly down to Arlanda, Sweden (August 24). (Arlanda is where the airport is. It is its own city, but also a distant suburb of Stockholm.) Karen attended a short workshop at our airport motel on the 24-25th at which she also gave an excellent presentation. I know because I sat in on it. Marshall and I just hung around the motel on the 25th, explored a nearby “nature preserve”, and found our way to another grocery store. (Not eating out in restaurants has been a theme for us this trip and helped provide us with some exercise.)
 

Fjäderholmarna Island - Keeping Stockholm safe

Late in the morning on Wednesday, August 26, we took the express train into Stockholm. From Stockholm Central Station we walked along the waterfront to the Nybroviken/ Strandvägen pier. From there we took a half-hour boat ride out to Fjäderholmarna Island. It is a small island located right in the middle of Saltsjön Bay.  Saltsjön leads from the Baltic Sea through the Stockholm Archipelago (around 30,000 islands) to downtown Stockholm. Fjäderholmarna has a short trail, picnic spots, shops, restaurants, a small boat museum, and a few artisans such as a glass-blowers studio. At one point it was settled with a few families and farms, but now it is a place for Stockholmers (Stockholmians?) to go to on an outing. (The 5 p.m. boat that took us back to downtown Stockholm was packed with people coming to the island for dinner.)
 
Fjäderholmarna Island wasn’t anything special but we had a good afternoon there. One nice thing about the trip was it gave us an excellent chance to view Stockholm from the water. I was/am still taken by the “European-ness” of the Stockholm downtown.
 
After Fjäderholmarna, Marshall and I quickly walked to the Stockholm Technology Musuem (Tekniska Museet), which is open until 8 p.m. on Wednesday evenings for a reduced price. Karen wasn’t as interested in the museum, so she enjoyed a more leisurely stroll to the museum taking in some of the beautiful homes and parks along the Djurgårdenbrunnsviken (vik = bay).
 

Stockholm Technology Museum

The main exhibition at the Technology Museum was “Digital Revolution”. Finally, a museum that Marshall was excited to go to. The exhibition detailed the history of computer/digital graphics and animation. This included old and new video games, including Marshall’s favourite “MineCraft”. (To be fair, in the hands of the creative and talented, calling MineCraft a game is like calling Lego a toy.) There were also displays of cutting edge digital/graphic art. I am not a tech person at all (Marshall says, “Really?”) but some of the art was impressive. I was most taken with “The Treachery of Sanctuary”. In the first panel (Life), you stood in front of a screen and the shadow digital image of you was reduced to nothing as a flock of birds was created and flew away from your body. In the second panel (Death), your digital image was pecked away to nothing by a flock of birds. In the final panel (Rebirth), you flapped your arms and they were transformed to wings and you flew away. Very cool.
 
Once the museum closed, we walked back along Djurgårdenbrunnsviken, then through downtown Stockholm to the train station, stopped at McDonald’s for Marshall (there are lots in Stockholm), and caught the train back to Arlanda. Whew, it was a full day, but a nice way to spend our last day in Stockholm. From there it was onto Bergen, Norway.
 
FINAL THOUGHTS ON STOCKHOLM – As Marshall will agree, for him and me, Stockholm was big, busy, crowded, noisy, and kind of dirty. That being said, neither of us are big city people. However, I have to say that I was quite taken with Stockholm and think that as cities go, people should consider it as a destination itself. The waterfront with its old palaces/homes (now hotels), Gamla Stan, museums, shops, and parks, etc., is quite stunning. What I most liked about Stockholm, particularly in the evening when it was a little less hectic, was its vibrancy. People were living in and using the downtown area all the time, i.e., it had grocery stores (kind of like Osborne Village in Winnipeg, only much bigger, and actually right downtown). I found this very different from many North American cities I have spent time in, where the downtown areas seem sterile and can almost be deserted after the work day ends. I know my travels are not that extensive, but that has been my experience.

Another picture I just like from Fjäderholmarna Island