DAY EIGHT

On our eighth day of vacation we saw a couple essential Bergen sites. First up, a boat tour of a fjord. I didn't want to go to Norway without seeing a fjord – so we took a mini trip – a three hour tour to see the fjord that is closest to Bergen.

Here we are heading out of the harbor. There are huge tour boats that stop in Bergen but these big boats service offshore oil rigs.

It was windy!

The fjord was beautiful. The water was glassy and the tour guide pointed out interesting things like a salmon farm that we passed.

Claire and I decided to get out of the chilly wind and Brian bought me a coffee – very comfy.

The boat was able to pull up right next to the edge of the fjord and so if you were out on the bow you would get wet from the waterfall.

Here's the view coming back into Bergen.

After our fjord tour we visited the colorful buildings that line the harbor on one side.

The area is called Bryggen it was begun in 1360 as an important trading post for the German Hanseatic League. Here's a blurb from the internet to explain the area:

"The Hanseatic League was a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe."

"Bryggen, the old wharf of Bergen, is a reminder of the town’s importance as part of the Hanseatic League’s trading empire from the 14th to the mid-16th century. Many fires, the last in 1955, have ravaged the characteristic wooden houses of Bryggen. Its rebuilding has traditionally followed old patterns and methods, thus leaving its main structure preserved, which is a relic of an ancient wooden urban structure once common in Northern Europe. Today, some 62 buildings remain of this former townscape."

Aren't the colors great! Behind that facade along the harbor is a warren of tiny allies. Many of them have shops and there are a few buildings that are preserved as a museum.