Bergen

Bergen is a very attractive town, perhaps because of the culteral interchange brought about through its Hanseatic past. It seemed to us a real gem. It is the second-largest city of Norway, with about 250,000 inhabitants. We spent a day roaming around town, including up the Funicular and walking back down, and then went out to Edvard Grieg's house at Troldhaugen, before taking the ferry to Karmøy.

Click on the small pictures to see larger ones.

	A view up into the streets in the hills.		Isabel and Benjamin enjoying the wolf skins in the market. (Actually, Benjamin wasn't at all sure this was a nice thing, at first.)
	Fruit stall at the market. Many of these are local, such as cherries from Hardanger.		Fish and other seafood. This is the market at Torget, right on the harbor. Whale meat is also sold here...
	What is this stupendously ugly thing? A monkfish, with a little lobster or crayfish for decoration.		A particular decorative and a propos manhole cover.
	Looking over the market stall umbrellas to the town above.		Grandpa Tor and the kids at the Lille Lundgegårdsvann pond.
	Richard and the kids likewise. (I think Chantal and Lorraine were sweater shopping. :-)		Some fine turn-of-the-century brick facades along Bryggen.
	Another view, from the end of the pier towards town.
We rode the Fløibanen or Funicular (cable train) up the hill and were rewarded with this fine view. The car climbs at about a 60 degree angle to ascend the 320m Mount Fløyen.
	After a pleasant walk through the forest paths, we emerged back in the higher parts of town, criss-crossing back and forth across the Funicular track.		A back street in the heights, with older clapboard houses.
	A tiny little facade!		In the evening among the old streets. Remarkably, this was taken handheld in natural light at 10pm! It did get dark soon after, though.
	The kids' room. The hotel really outdid themselves: we got a good-sized suite with a separate childs' room, which was decorated with fantasy hangings, and even came with a picture book or two.		A window at Troldhaugen, Edvard Grieg's home.
	Isabel and Benjamin at Troldhaugen.		Grieg's workroom, in a separate little house by the lake.
	Wild raspberries by the lakeside. The better-developed ones were quite tasty!		Isabel and Benjamin toiling up the hilly path in the rain, holding their blue bells.
	A gable at Troldhaugen. This house was built for Grieg in 1885, and is typical of others built at the time. In style it reminds me very much of American "carpenter gothic", very popular in the US a generation earlier (1840-1870).		Back in Bergen, raining again! (Actually, the rain was almost entirely light sprinkles that passed pretty quickly. But Bergen is known as one of the rainiest towns in the country, with at least 275 days of rain per year.)
	Bryggen across the harbor, with an attractive wooden boat in the foreground.		A last stop at the market, to admire the crab claws.
	The Rosenkrantz tower, built in the 1560s.		In the back of the old Hanseatic warehouses along Bryggen.
One last pan around the harbor.

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