We arrived in Bergen, Norway in the evening of June 13 after a full day of hiking, driving and waterfalls (it took about 7 hours to drive from Pulpit Rock where we had camped the evening before) and drove through the main section of town, getting our first glimpse of the harbour and beautiful buildings of Bergen, though we did get a little lost before arriving to our AirBnb, which was a lovely home outside of the city. After a good night of sleep we wanted to take advantage of the washing machine and get some laundry done, especially since we had hiked and camped (and got soaked) in a lot of our cold-weather gear, so we had a late start to our day.
Bergen is a city with about 420,000 inhabitants, and is the second-largest city in Norway. We had to drive into the city, so I was able to research and find a parking garage in the city center where we could stash the car for the day.
After parking the car, we found ourselves on a pedestrian shopping street, so we strolled along, checking out the shops and stopping in a pastry store, before we came across a church, which we decided to enter and check out. The church, called Nykirken, or New Church because when it was built in 1621 it was the newest church in the city, was clearly in use because inside there were some ladies hard at work, setting up for a service. Norway is an extremely secular country. According to Wikipedia, in a 2005 Gallop poll given to 65 countries, Norway was the least religious country in Western Europe, with only 29% of the population believing in God.
I wasn’t sure if we were supposed to be in the church, but the women working quickly greeted us, engaging us in conversation, and pulling more women over to give us advice and tips about our travels. The New Church, we found out, is used now as the children’s church, to help bring families to know Jesus, and it was very cutely decorated in art made by children. There was an gold angel in front of the pulpit and the women were happy to show us how it gets raised. The woman pictured below lived in America for many years where her husband was a pastor, she was so adorable and so sweet!
One of the things that the woman in the church talked about with us were the costs in Norway- it’s so expensive there! Out of all the places I’ve traveled, this is definitely the most difficult to get by on a small budget. According to numbeo.com the cost of living in Norway is 52.74% higher than in the US. One fact we learned while in Oslo was that cars are taxed 150%! Not easy living in Norway, but the people definitely seem very happy. So the woman wanted to give us some suggestions about where to eat lunch in Bergen, and she mentioned a place to go and that led us to the main square in Bergen, Torgallmenningen.
We never did find the lunch spot that was suggested to us, but we were just completely charmed by Bergen and its colorful buildings.
We walked to the harbour, Vagen, where the open-air fish market, called Torget, was in high-demand. There were stalls upon stalls of people selling their fish, and tables were set up for people to sit and eat, so that is what we decided to do, and it was delicious! Still don’t know what the rings in this pic were, but they were the best part.
After lunch we spent some time just wandering the streets of Bergen. There were so many winding, cobble-stoned streets that kept beckoning us on, further and further; we were completely charmed.
We did come across an alley of stores in these older wooden buildings, one of them selling furs and pelts and all kinds of animal products- not my favorite but very interesting. We spent some time wandering in and out of the shops.
And that is when we came across the most photographed part of Bergen- Bryggen. The UNESCO World Heritage site is the old wharf of Bergen. Many of these buildings, 62 in total, have been here since the 14th century when they were used as part of the trading center of the town, though the earliest parts of the wharf date from 1100. Many fires have destroyed some of the buildings, but they were carefully rebuilt using the same methods and materials as the original buildings.
We walked toward the end of the pier to get to Bergenhus fortress, one of the oldest and best preserved castles in Norway, some of the buildings dating back to 1240.
We didn’t get to explore the fort because there was a festival they were setting up for, so we headed back down the pier to take in more of the sites.
Our next stop was the funicular. We had bought our tickets earlier in the day but the line was so long we decided to come back later in the day when the crowds had died down, which was a great plan because when we came back there was no wait at all. The Fløibanen connects the city center with the mountain of Fløyen. It is a 2,769 feet long ride up, going up 991 feet to the top of the mountain. With over 1 million people riding it a year, it is one of Norway’s most visited sites.
And from the top- wow the views! Breathtaking, and there was a break from the rain- that was a wonderful treat! We bought a round-trip ticket with the funicular, but ended up taking a path down the mountain.
And one our first stops on the walk down were to visit some goats! My absolute favorite animal, so I was in heaven.
The walk down from the hill was fabulous. There were so many people out walking or running, it’s a very active city. And we were able to check out even more of the beautiful windy roads that make up Bergen.
To wrap up our day, we went inside the fish market and went to the other side of the harbour to see Bryggen from further away.
We ended our day with some shopping because we had decided we needed a few more cold-weather clothes (we did not pack correctly at all for this trip), and a stop at a grocery store to load up on more food for the car- we had another full day of driving ahead of us the next day. We went back to our AirBnb and made some pasta with cheese and planned out our next couple of days in Norway. So that was our day in Bergen. A lot of walking around and taking in the sites, but it is a very beautiful city, and a really great day.
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