Bergensers, it turns out, live in Europe's rainiest city. If I had thought about it: on the west coast, surrounded by mountains, I might have realized but I wanted to see some other city in Norway besides Oslo and Bergen is the second largest. Bergen is the second largest city in Norway (was the largest until the 1830's) and has a beautiful setting in the fjords. Some small bits of the city are remarkably well preserved, and the central part of the city is cleverly designed and very walkable. Still, it was overwhelmingly a tourist town, which probably should not have surprised me but it did.
Photo List (Total 351 Photos)
Click bolded headers below to view, or click "just the best" for quick tour
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Central Bergen (189 photos) - This is most of the city of Bergen. The gallery starts at our hotel, which faced onto the main historical port of Bergen, the Vågen. It moves up the peninsula between two ports, into a neighbourhood called Nordnes. It doubles back into the centre of the city, including the Lake Lille Lungegårdsvannet, which is where the city's art galleries are situated. The galleries themselves are complicated: the KODE museum has four buildings, of which three were open to the public when I visited, and the Kunsthaus, a separate institution, is physically in the middle of the KODE galleries. I found this confusing at the time, and again when I organized my photos. The gallery continues into the heart of the older city around the Domkirke, and then moves out to the north side of the Vågen, which is the historical part of Bergen called Brygge. Here there are a number of museums, and impractical tiny streets that are more like alleyways.
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Up the Funicular to Mount Fløyen (61 photos) - Bergen has a five-stop funicular, the Fløibanen, that goes up Mount Fløyen, with its spectacular views of the city, and a lot of parkland. I went up the funicular twice, the first time with Jim in a kind of impromptu way when we came across the lower station by accident, and we walked down after spending time with the goats on top. The second time I went up on the promise of nicer weather, and took a more extensive walk in the vast parkland on the top of the mountains. This gallery includes the funicular, the short visit with Jim, the longer walk by myself, and then the walk down the hill with Jim from the first visit.
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Train from Oslo to Bergen (41 photos) - For some reason, I just love taking photos from train windows. For every photo I keep, I delete about a dozen that are blurry, have reflections, or are simply of nothing at all due to the movement of the train, but obviously even those that remain sometimes carry these flaws. But something about the photos feels touching to me, in a strange way. At any rate, this is a lovely train ride, which starts with scenery that is a lot like Eastern Ontario, and then becomes increasingly harsh and winter-like as it goes up through the mountains. I was shocked at where there were houses, up there. Then it becomes more green as we descend the other side of the mountains and down into Bergen. There are two photos from the flights home at the end of the gallery.
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Drive in the Fjords (60 photos) - We rented a car (electric!) and did a meandering drive in the nearby Hardanger fjord, spending the night in a town called Nordheimsund. I honestly found the trip a little underwhelming, it was quite grey out, though no rain, and the towns had a very North American feel to me, not in a good way. I managed to get us locked into a small dirty road, to Jim's consternation, who had to fix my issue, and then we got caught behind someone who drove off the extremely narrow road along the fjord.
