Bergen, a harbour city with a long history

After a trip across Hardangervidda and several cosy little towns we arrived in Bergen, Norway's second largest city with a population of around 285,000. Bergen is a real summer city and perhaps best known for its harbour promenade, Bryggen, with the beautiful old wooden houses you see above. The houses are on the UNESCO World Heritage List and date back to the Hanseatic period, although most of the houses are not in their original condition. A fire in the early 18th century destroyed most of the storehouses along Bryggen, and in 1916 it happened again when a major fire destroyed most of the centre of Bergen.

Situated between two fjords, Bergen was ideally placed as a shipping and trading centre during the Hanseatic League, and in the 16th and 17th centuries it was the largest city in the Nordic region. A city with an interesting history.

If you want some newer architecture, you can walk down towards Festplassen and Byparken, which was built in the mid-19th century. The park is adjacent to the National Theatre, where Henrik Ibsen stands as a statue, and to the art museum Permanenten with its beautiful building.

After strolling around the old houses for a while, it was time for dinner and we found the nice Bien Basar down by Bryggen. The restaurant is located in Kjøttbasaren, which was originally built to control the city's market trade but now houses a number of restaurants and cafés. Right next to Kjøttbasaren you'll also find Fløibanen, an old cable car that goes up to a recreational area with walking paths and a restaurant.

Full and satisfied, it was time to continue sightseeing through the city. First up was Gamle Bergen hovedbrannstasjon, which was built around 1880, probably as a way to stop the devastating city fires. The station was in use until 2007 but is now a fire museum. The walk continued towards the old town hall from the 16th century, which housed the council chambers, court and jail. Here it is said that the gaol housed many accused of witchcraft and sorcery, where confessions were forced through torture. Life was then ended at the nearby Rådstuplass.

We had a nice afternoon and evening in Bergen with many interesting (and scary) historical elements. The city is otherwise known to be the rainiest city in Europe with its 200 rainy days a year but just today we were lucky and even had some sunshine in between. September is supposed to be the month with the most frequent rainfall so the tip is not to visit Bergen at that time.

Finally, we would also like to take this opportunity to introduce our new mascot Hugo. We try not to fall for all the tourist traps when we're travelling, but after just a few weeks in a motorhome we realised that you just have to have a mascot. Here in Bergen we found this cute moose that symbolises that we are from Värmland and that is also purple, one of our favourite colours. While we were at it, we bought a couple of camping mugs with our initials on them as well. Cheezy as hell, but that's how it goes sometimes. 🙂