We waited one more day in Haugesund. This was mainly through necessity (strong northerly winds!) but also enabled a continuation of the sociological study of homelessness in Norway which we had been undertaking, being moored close to the home for the homeless under the bridge! Our last night they proved particularly loud with shouting and arguments reaching something of a fever pitch before calming down a little, so it was actually no hardship to leave at 4am and head north to Bergen. The main reason for such an early departure was to get to Bergen at a reasonable time. The passage is well over 60 miles so we wanted to get going promptly to get there at a reasonable time.
The passage was very pleasant – mostly fairly cloudy, but we did manage to sail some of the way. It tried to rain on and off for much of the day, but that is one of the big advantages of a deck saloon – we can shelter!
We moored in Bergen just after 5pm – third out in a raft against the quay. We could perhaps have gone on a smaller raft, but the boats seemed the right size and a reasonable gap, so we went for it. The boats inside were very friendly and helpful, so it proved to be a good choice.
The next day was spent exploring Bergen. Bergen was the largest city in Norway until around the 1830s when it was overtaken by what was then called Christiania – better currently known as Oslo. From the end of the 13th century it became a bureau city (or trading post) of the Hanseatic League and its exclusive rights to manage trade between northern Norway and the rest of the world continued until 1789. This legacy is evident on the jetty where we are moored – an area known as Bryggen. The buildings here are the old Hanseatic trading centres in an area on the eastern side of the Vågen harbour – an area which is now a UNESCO World Heritage listed site. About a quarter of the houses currently standing were built after 1702, when many older warehouses and administrative buildings burned down – something that has happened regularly over the centuries. The rest of the houses are somewhat younger structures, although there are apparently some stone cellars that date back to the 15th century. In another fire in 1955 other properties were damaged, but this enabled archaeologists to do an extensive examination of the site. As part of this study they discovered 670 medieval runic inscriptions on wood (mostly pine) and bone- something which has been described as the most important runic find in the twentieth century. A lot of the runic markers were the ancient equivalent of someone scrawling – this is mine – and followed the formula Eysteinn á mik (“Eysteinn owns me“). Others have more intriguing message such as Ást min, kyss mik (“my darling, kiss me“) and others have longer messages such as business letters and orders. Most are now in the Bryggens Museum at Bergen.
We started by heading up the Fløibanen funicular railway. This goes up a vertical distance of around 300m over a length of 850m, so is quite steep! The idea to create it was floated in 1895, but it wasn’t eventually finished until 1918. Over the years it has (thankfully!) been continuously upgraded and the latest cars were bought in 2022. They now head up the mountain at around 6-7 metres per second. The constant over the years has been that the cars are painted blue and red; symbolism which was introduced after the war to reinforce a sense of domestic pride. The white station at the bottom finishes the colours of the Norwegian flag. The view from the top is excellent and shows exactly why the town has such an important maritime culture.
The rest of the day was spent wandering around the city – the maritime museum, the gardens, the university, Bryggen and so on. As an added bonus (perhaps because it was midsummer day) there was a classic car show and it was the annual Bergen Pride parade. The sun and unusually warmer weather did also lead to lots of promenading motor boats strutting like motorised peacocks up and down the harbour – Veblen would be proud!
Bergen is also considered the spiritual home of Edvard Grieg; his house in Troldhaugen is now a museum. He served as the musical director of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra from 1880 until 1882 and the concert hall is named Grieghallen in his honour. There is also a music academy and choir named after him. He is credited, through his use of Norwegian folk themes in his music, for bringing Norwegian music to a worldwide audience. It could, however, be said that the Scottish should take a tiny portion of this credit as his family name was originally spelt Greig and was associated with the Clan Gregor and it was his great-grandfather who travelled around and finally settled in Bergen.
