Been to Bergen, and Beyond

Yep, I'm now in Stavanger, after a 4+ hour boat ride from Bergen this morning. And that boat really moves. Stavanger and Bergen are 185 K apart. That's an average of 40 K/h. And we stopped to drop off and pick up passengers at least 5 times. Really moves.

The train ride to Bergen was really nice. Not quite as spectacular as I'd been led to believe, but that's because my seat was on the north side of the train, and the majority of scenic stuff was on the south side. But then, you've all heard the story of the grass being greener..... Anyway, I'll find out. I take it back to Oslo on Saturday. More on that later.

Bergen was pretty nice. Would have been nicer if it had had some abnormal weather. One source says it rains there 275 days a year. The other says the sun shines 60. That leaves 30 at question. I think drizzle will be correct for the missing 30. I can predict the weather accurately. If it's raining, it will stop soon. If it's not raining, it will start soon. Except when you plan on leaving. Then the sun comes out to wish you a fond farewell.

I took several nice tours while in Bergen. One of the Bryggen area, the area the Hanseatic League merchants lived and worked in. All the buildings in this area are replicas (on the outside) of the period when the Hanseatic League dominated trade throughout northern Europe. The tour included 3 separate buildings, a nice museum, a building that was their common room, and another that was their sleeping area. None too attractive to me. Glad I'm in the 21st Century. Our guide did a really good job. The League stayed completely separate from the Norwegian community, which wasn't appreciated too much by the Norwegians, but the League was pretty powerful.

Also visited King Hakon's Hall, really Hakon's castle, and Rosenkrantz' Tower. Hakon's from around 1200 and the tower from around 1500, I think. Both damaged and reconstructed several times. And it's easy to see which parts are original, and which are the newer sections. Interesting to see the differences, both in style and constructions methods. The last time they were destroyed was in 1944 when a freighter (one story says German, another says Dutch) loaded with ammunition blew up in the harbor adjacent to them, and pretty much destroyed them, and a good part of the town. They initially thought it was sabotage, as it happened on Hitler's birthday. but eventually ruled that out.

I think the highlight of the trip to Bergen was the trip up to Mt. Floyen (302 M high) on the Funicular. The clouds below cleared enough to allow a good view of the city and harbor. Really a spectacular view. Second to that, might just be walking around the old section around Bryggen. Wooden buildings, cobbled streets, narrow passages, real old world look and feel.

Bergen so far is the winner for meeting fellow Americans. Met a couple from CO on the way up the Funicular, two young ladies from MN on the way down, a couple from a town about 10 miles from where my Dad was born in MN while I was on Hakon's Hall tour, and then at dinner last night, met a couple from Grass Valley, CA, where my daughter Lynda once lived. And she's right next door in Nevada City now. This guy was a real talker. Says he grew up in Sunnyvale, CA, and that Jobs and Wozniak built the first Apple in his garage. Claims he was bosom buddies with both. One wonders.

Today, as I said, I took the boat to Stavanger. I'll be here until Saturday morning, when I do some step retracing. Boat back to Stavanger, then the train to Oslo. This time I'll have a seat on the south side, so we'll see about that green grass.

Stavanger is the Houston or Dallas of Norway, the oil capital. It's the 4Th biggest city, and that's primarily because of North Sea oil. There is a really good Oil Museum here. They go all the way from describing how oil was created to current day practices for getting it out, and some next generation exploration ideas. I found it very interesting. Of course, most of the examples were of Norwegian/North Sea oil platforms, etc.

That's about it for my recent escapades. Now you can suffer through some of my musings.

I've noticed that a lot of people here in Scandinavia use walking aids of some form or another. Can't believe they are more accident prone, or more susceptible to arthritis, etc. But I can't think of an explanation, either.

On the way here from Bergen, I realized just how many Norwegians live on islands, at least in this part of Norway. And I didn't see many power lines running out from the mainland as we traveled by. There were too many large communities to do without. I just wondered how they get power, water, all those necessities to so many islands. Probably very easily, but not apparent to me.

Looking back over recent days, I've really had an international diet. Pizza, Fajitas, Japanese, Indian and a few McD's since I left Alesund. Did mix that in with some good local fish and shrimp dinners.

I've figured out why everything is so expensive here. It's because they have to pay for all those bridges and tunnels to get to all the islands and through the mountains. I've never seen so many bridges and tunnels in such a small area before.

You've suffered enough. I'll close for now.