Bergen and the Boats

For some reason, a number of years ago, the phrase, “whatever floats your boat,” entered my vocabulary. And, whenever I use that phrase with Jessica, I suggest that she form a band named Jessica and the Floaty Boats. She, for some reason, finds this much less amusing than I do. Hmmm…

Anyhow…after leaving Aurland, we had a couple of floaty boats to get us down to Stavanger, each one bookending a few days staying in Bergen, which felt like a small town, but is evidently the second largest city in Norway.

Our first floaty boat took us from Aurlangdsvangen to Bergen. The first section, along the Sognefjord, was gorgeous. Jessica and I occasionally braved going out on the front deck of the ferry, but the wind was incredibly powerful and cold (though we had the views to ourselves!). But, mostly, we hung out on the back deck for the views, with occasional moments ducking inside to warm up. Towering cliffs and deep green woods mixed with quaint fjord-side towns and the deep blue sea to make for some stunning views…

When we came to the mouth of the Sognefjord, we expected the ferry to zip out on the open ocean and down towards Bergen through one of the wide channels coming in towards the harbor from farther west. But, no. Instead, the boat proceeded down some incredibly narrow lanes between the coastal islands.

The video below doesn’t really do it justice, but some of these channels seemed pretty treachorous–there are tiny rock islands jutting up everywhere. I mean, I’m sure they know what they’re doing, but it was pretty impressive to see such a large boat moving at such speed through such narrow waters.

In general, the section along the coast was also quite beautiful. There was a super-thick fog that made it a little dark and gloomy, but the rocky landscape dotted at first with isolated homes and then more and more little villages as we approached Bergen was enchanting. Seeing the surrounding areas made Jessica and I really wish we could rent a car (or a boat!) but it was way too expensive to be worth it.

Eventually, as we came into the area around Bergen, the number of bridges, homes, and boats increased greatly. The Bergen harbor was quite charming, with the old Hanseatic section, “Bryggen,” standing out in particular.

We spent the next couple of days wandering Bergen, mostly sticking to the older, quainter downtown areas near the harbor. There’s a reason that it’s on the very popular “Norway in a Nutshell” tourist route (usually Oslo–>Bergen–ferry to Flam–>Flamsbana to Myrdal–>and then back)…it’s pretty cute.

It also has some incredible fish markets, including some of the biggest crabs I’ve ever seen. Kinda terrifyingly large, to be clear.

Jess was a big fan of the fish in Norway. She probably ate enough salmon (mostly in sushi form) to fill a floaty boat.

We took a pretty low key walking tour (as always). One of the more interesting sites pointed out was the sailor’s memorial, which has statues of sailors from several different historical eras (along with images related to the town and changes in religious practices). Interestingly, each side of the memorial depicts sailors of different class statuses, an interesting take for such a monument.

We also walked out to the old fortress area where we saw a WWII-era Nazi bomb shelter as well as some of the medieval buildings, like this one, Håkonshallen, named after one of the many kings named Haakon.

The most interesting (and most touristed) part of town is the old German trading settlement of Bryggen. It’s not really separate from the rest of the city now, but it was once a very distinct area. One of my favorite thing we learned about there was the reason why so many buildings have overhanging upper stories: because they were charged taxes based on the ground floor area only. So, building out over the streets and alleys was a good way to get some more interior space without paying extra. Even though it’s all touristy shops now, it’s still super-cute and fun to wander the little alleys between the buildings.

When it started raining, we ducked into the Bryggens Museum. This museum preserves a giant trove of medieval artifacts uncovered the most recent fire to ravage the Bryggen area, this one in 1955. There’s tons of cool stuff there, well displayed and with some interesting explanations: coins, pottery, games, clothes, furniture, and more. One of my favorite things, though, was a collection of Futhark runes carved into sticks. But, it wasn’t just that they were interesting for their appearance–the runes were translated and some of them were hilarious. The two sections displayed here give you a sense of the range: on top is “magical inscriptions” and on the bottom “messages and bragging.” The top ones are fine, warding against eye disease for instance, but the ones on the bottom are hilarious. They sound like men’s bathroom graffiti: “Sit down and read the runes, stand up and fart.” or “Ingebjorg loved me when I was in Stavanger.” The fact that someone a thousand years ago felt the need to carve that into a stick strikes me as both ridiculous and fantastic in a “the more things change…” kinda way. (Oh, and the upstairs “special exhibit” section was perhaps the most incredibly uninteresting exhibit for Jess and I: it was a very detailed history of the local football [soccer] club.)

Just a few days before we got to Bergen, sadly, there was a major shooting at the Oslo Pride festival. It was nice to see that there were displays of solidarity around, but it was a reminder that even though the mass gun violence in the US is out of control, we’re unfortunately not totally unique. (Still didn’t make me feel any better about coming home…)

Even though we only spent three days in Bergen, we managed to get in a couple of day hikes. Well, actually, our first day hike was meant to be a stroll along the crest of the little mountain closest to the city, Fløyen. We started by taking the funicular up to an absolutely stunning viewpoint over the city and the surrounding islands. From there we wandered…and wandered a little more…and a bit more…and eventually ended up on a ridiculously steep, muddy, rocky, rooty not-really-a-trail that eventually dropped down into Breiviken, a suburb of Bergen. There were some great views and it was fun to clamber around in the woods, but let’s just say we were a little underprepared for what we got into that day.

On the other hand, the next day, when we set out, we were prepared for a long full-day hike. We got it. We took a bus out to the eastern end of Bergen and then took a lift (the Ulriksbanen) up to the top of Ulriken, the tallest of the peaks surrounding Bergen. We had sketched out a route that would take us up and down along the spine of the mountain for a while before we descended to the town of Indre Arne (and then would return by a train that would zip right under the mountain we’d just traversed).

Well, it was a great hike. Gorgeous from start to finish. But this one also really raised the stakes on how difficult Norwegian hiking could be. It was variously lots of steep sharp rocks in some parts, and complete pits of mud in others. And, often, to avoid the mud, the best bet was to hop onto the giant tufts of grass, but they were often supported by dangerously small bits of actual dirt underneath, and hopping from one to another resulted in a (mildly) sprained ankle for me. Ugh. Not what I needed with another week of cabin-to-cabin hiking coming up! (We bought an ankle brace in Stavanger, so I hiked with two knee braces and an ankle brace. Every morning started with me putting on my lower body “armor.” But, I’m getting ahead of myself–we’ll talk about that hike in my next post!) But, still, it was worth it. The views were absolutely stunning. And the hike, especially along the ridgetop, was fantastic. A lot of it was “choose-your-own-adventure” style with giant cairns marking the way and about a dozen semi-trodden paths connecting each one to the next.

Of course, the hike ended with the strangest bit: a gang of aggressive sheep. In general, most of the sheep we encountered in Norway were terrified of us. Occasionally, a momma sheep would stand her ground until her lambs followed her to safety, but this was the only time we encountered a sheep who actually aggressively walked/ran towards us. In fact, it didn’t just come after us, it called over the other sheep in the area until a gang of eight of them was coming after us. We went quite far back up the hill until they lost interest, but it was both ridiculously funny and a little unsettling for a bit there…

The other major activity in Bergen was shopping for out next hiking trip (see forthcoming post). Here you can see Jessica with her favorite-post-hike snack: some sorta off brand cheetos. She was pretty addicted to them and basically had a snack-bag size helping after every major hike. Yeah. That and fresh salmon. She’s an odd duck. But, I think I’ll keep her around. Good for the odd sabbatical every seven or eight years…(and also, I love her a lot, but that’s obvious, right?)

Finally, on my aching ankle and with my cranky knees, we headed off to Stavanger on, well, not a ferry, but a giant ferry/cruise boat. The second of our floaty boats. The band was starting to come together.

This boat not only cruises down the coast of Norway, but then continues to Denmark, so a ton of people were on board, many with cars stowed beneath and with cabins with beds on board. It wasn’t as fancy as a serious cruise ship (people are on for about 20 hours max), but there were still multiple places to eat and drink, a variety of lounges, and so forth. Best of all, there was a mascot, Fjordy! (Jessica did not ask him to join her band.)

We decided to skip the $20 burger and fries and pay just a couple of bucks more the pretty extensive buffet (with a nice view out the back of the boat). Reasonably nice, but also just gives you a sense of how massive this thing was.

There was quite a bit of outdoor space (including a helicopter pad?)…

…and the views, again, were great. Most of the way down we passed one island or coastal community after another, and it was rare to see an unpopulated stretch of rock for too long. It was quite obvious from our two voyages on the water that the further south in Norway, the more populous. (Not shocking, right?)

Anyhow, floaty boats now behind us (or, so we thought), we eventually arrived in Stavanger (the third largest city in Norway), where we crashed pretty early in order to get up in the morning to head out on our last (?!?!) adventure. More on that next time…