Bergen - Fish Market, Bergenhus and Hanseatic Museum

Friday 9.9.16

The breakfast at this youth hostel is amazing. Unfortunately, it's only available until 9:00 am, but the selection is still great at 8:30 am. 

All organic produce and self-harvested herbs from the youth hostel's garden (you can also pick your own herbs to cook with if you want). 

The bread is homemade and also organic, they have salmon and cold cuts. The only thing missing seems to be jam, or it might be already finished. I enjoy my breakfast leisurely and leave this wonderful youth hostel around 10:30 am.

Today, my journey takes me about 100 km southwest to Bergen. My last stop on this trip - and I don't need a car there. So I first drive to Bergen to my apartment, which I have booked here for the next 2 days, and drop off my luggage.

This house doesn't have a reception, you receive an email with a code for the front door on the day before check-in, and you can leave your luggage under a table in a video-monitored area. I arrive here shortly after 12:00 pm, but my attempt to check in to the room using a terminal doesn't work. So I get back in the car and drive to the airport. The journey takes quite a while, and my navigation system has led me in circles in the city, which has made bus drivers shake their heads because I'm being led to bus lanes and dead ends that turn into pedestrian zones. Swearing loudly, I eventually find my way out of Bergen and return the car fully fueled at around 2:00 pm.

The airport-city bus runs every 10 minutes, the round trip costs around 18 EUR, and so I'm back in Bergen at 2:45 pm and strolling around Bryggen .

Although this is already quite touristy, it's still beautiful. Behind the colorful facades are long wooden walkways, wooden houses where trade was probably conducted in the past. 

I walk to the tourist information on the other side of the harbor. From here, I have a beautiful view of Bryggen and Bergenhus with the Rosenkrantz Tower at the end of the old town. I get a city map and an information booklet and walk through the disappointing fish market, which consists of 3-4 stalls where Spaniards and Eastern Europeans (?) sell fish. 

I find it hard to believe that local restaurant owners actually buy their fish here (as the travel guide claims). There are only groups of tourists who can't do much with the fish in their cruise ships and hotels. I find whale meat interesting, it's very dark. 

I try a small piece, about 1 centimeter in size, which the stall owners occasionally offer. It's not bad, actually. Tastes like dried beef with a fishy flavor. Apart from the fish stalls, which also offer fried fish with fries at exorbitant prices (sometimes even squid, which surely doesn't come from here but is fried...), and are busy, there are also stalls selling jam and moose, reindeer, and whale sausage! 

The jam made from blueberries, etc. is not exactly a bargain either, at around 9 EUR per jar, and therefore more of a tourist souvenir than a genuine market product.

Shortly after 3:00 pm, I pass by my apartment again, check in using a terminal, and a machine prints out a key card for me. I go up to the third floor. The apartment is nice, about 30 square meters in size, with a shower room and a small kitchenette. 

The bed is a fold-out sofa, but it has a wide sleeping area. There is a nearly room-width window facing a side street, it's bright, clean, and looks very new. Later, I will find out that the television is not connected to the satellite system (if you advertise it, it should at least work, and in Norway, all American movies are shown in their original language, so you don't need to know Norwegian to follow the TV program). 

There is also no table. While you have the option to cook or make yourself a sandwich here, you'll have to sit on the edge of the bed to eat. There is also no dish towel. Well, it's quiet here, and I'm really going to enjoy these two days because no one knocks on your door in the morning to clean the room.

This house is only 50m from Bryggen, which is great. I take a nap and then walk towards Rosenkrantz Tower in the twilight of the early evening.

Apparently, today is something like the "Long Night of the Museums" here, and you can visit this defensive tower for free and on your own.

The tower is part of the Bergenhus fortress and dates back to the Middle Ages. It dominated the harbor entrance for many years - actually until today - and was probably meant to remind the German Hanseatic merchants, who didn't always behave elegantly in Bergen, that the power of the Norwegian king also applied here. King Erik Magnusson lived here in 1299. However, the dungeon in the basement was still in use until the 19th century.

The tower played a significant role in the Battle of Vågen, when in 1665, a Dutch merchant fleet sought refuge in the harbor from pursuit by English forces. Shots were fired from the Rosenkrantz Tower and boiling pitch was poured down from the narrow openings in the walls.

During World War II, the Germans occupied Bergen and used Bergenhus as their headquarters in western Norway. A ship loaded with ammunition exploded here during the war years, causing severe damage to the tower and the neighboring King's Hall.

It's drizzling as I leave the tower's many narrow spiral staircases, large halls, and low doorways. I walk along the waterfront and the colorful houses of Bryggen again and realize that the Hanseatic Museum is also open and free to visit this evening. Since I wanted to go there anyway, I do it now, although I'm starting to feel a bit tired.

The museum is highly acclaimed and apparently the only building in Bryggen that still has original interiors and wall paintings from the time of the Hanseatic League. Bergen itself was never a Hanseatic city, but the Hanseatic merchants made themselves at home here and conducted brisk trade in stockfish and grain from Bergen between 1350 and 1750. 

The present museum was built in 1704 as a trading house for German merchants and has been a museum since the late 19th century. You can see two counting houses with the merchants' desks - it's reminiscent of Buddenbrooks. 

Other rooms only have display cases, and on the ground floor, the focus is on the work of the stockfish fishermen. On the first floor, you can see the sleeping places of apprentices, which are built like wall bunks. 

There is a lot to read, but it's also beautifully done. However, I eventually had enough and retreat to my apartment, where I fall into bed at 10:00 pm.