Bergen, Norway

[Anything by Edvard Grieg, who was born in Bergen]

This past weekend was a three-day weekend due to the German Reunification Day, so I decided to head out exploring. Over the past

few months, I have read a few books by Jo Nesbo, a Norwegian author. While they are set in Oslo, there is mention of and some scenes in Bergen. So when Lufthansa announced another one of its one million seats for EUR 99 in Europe and included among the options was a direct flight from Frankfurt to Bergen (BGO for those who like to know airport codes), it seemed like fate! Well, except for the fact that the sale only applied to travel in November or something. They wanted quite a bit more for the long weekend that was quickly approaching, so I decided to think about it a bit more.

In the meantime, plans at work changed and I needed to be in Dusseldorf immediately before the planned trip including a dinner late the night before the trip, so I wasn't sure how much time that would allow for getting back to Frankfurt, re-packing, catching the flight to Bergen and then wandering around. Out of curiosity, I checked to see if Lufthansa might also fly directly from Dusseldorf (yes, your guess of DUS as the airport code is correct). No. BUT, if you fly from DUS to BGO via FRA (taking the exact same flights I had priced out earlier), it would be EUR 300 less expensive. Bizarre, no? So I booked the flight.

This did, however, require some careful planning as it related to packing. As you are no doubt aware, when you check a bag, they check the bag through to your final destination (unless you're flying to the US, where you have to do that ridiculous bag reclaim and re-check process). I, of course, had no intention of returning to Dusseldorf, but was planning on blowing off the last leg of the flight and just going home when I was in Frankfurt. Which, of course, would also not please the airline, but you can't really tell them that in advance. For example, an open jaw ticket of, essentially, DUS-BGO-FRA would have cost an arm and a leg as they would generally be priced as separate one-way tickets. So it was imperative that I be able to pack both my work attire and everything I would need for the vacation in a rollaboard to avoid having to check my bag.

As a brief aside, I am generally opposed to checking bags as I don't like having to wait at the baggage carousel, especially if a flight is already delayed, for example, or if I have meetings I need to get to relatively quickly. I have softened on this slightly, though, will living here in Germany and being treated to the pleasant experience of Lufthansa's efficient baggage operations. As the comedienne Pam Ann (HIGHLY recommend checking her out on YouTube) noted (albeit likely with a bit of profanity), "I LOVE Lufthansa. They're so efficient that the bags are on the carousel before the flight has even landed! It's almost true. And, especially when there are connections involved, as on the DUS-FRA-BGO trip and there is a possibility of an apron position and having to schlep your bag on and off a bus and up the stairs to the aircraft, checking bags strikes me as a good thing. (I should also note, the entire time I have been over here, Lufthansa has not failed to have my bags arrive on the same flight as me. As detailed in the Spain blog, though, I cannot say the same of Iberia....)

So I made it without incident to Bergen, where even at the airport freedom was waiting for me (there was a 7-Eleven - you do remember their jingle right?). I decided even before we landed and I was looking out the windows, that I would love Bergen. It was just so beautiful and the fjords so majestic. And I'm pleased to say that my first impression did not change over the course of the trip. I arrived at my hotel, dropped my bags (too early for

rooms to be available) and headed to the Tourist Information center to buy the Bergen

Card that would provide discounted or free admission to many of the museums and other attractions as well as public transportation. I love those cards. The weather forecast had called for rain most of the weekend except for Friday and Saturday morning, so I decided to wander around the city on Friday and then do more of the indoor things on Saturday afternoon and Sunday. I saw the famous fish market,

some parks, some churches, the lake and fountain by the art museum and some random other things before heading back to the hotel to check in.

There was, alas, no Starwood property in the city or even a Hilton or Intercontinental. There were some Radissons, some hotels from the Thon chain (which I'd never heard of) by based on my non-scientific study of the US and German firm's hotel web sites and their descriptions of the hotels, cross-checked with the VisitBergen website, I had chosen the First Hotel Marin (part of the First hotel chain, which I had also not heard of). It was not the most expensive nor certainly the least, offered free WiFi, had a fitness center and was located on the harbor by the fish market.

The location was indeed convenient but the hotel itself left a bit to be desired. Very basic room that, despite the cool weather outside, was wretchedly hot and cooled only by opening the windows which let in a lot of street noise of revelers at night during the weekend. I had paid extra for a harbor view, but that consisted not of a real full-on view, but a glimpse if you craned your neck out the window which otherwise looked directly across the street at another building where I saw on Monday morning a dentist's office with various victims. The floorplan was also very bizarre with few signs directing you to how to get to your particular room number. You might think, for example, if you are on the third floor, you would take the elevator to the third floor and find your room there. Not so much. You have to find the "right" elevator to go to your version of the third floor. Odd. Once in the room, there was a really old and small TV, which was fine as I didn't intend to watch that anyway. No surprise, then, that there was not a dock for an iPod. But the documentation that is usually available to tell you all about the hotel was significantly lacking. For example, where's the alphabetical list of all the features of the hotel, indicating the number to call for room service (which was very limited) or, more importantly, where the fitness center was located. Never found it. And while there was free WiFi, each code lasted only 24 hours, so you had to go get a little sticker each day from the front desk. Overall, it was basic but okay, albeit overpriced.

Saturday morning dawned bright and not quite rainy, so I hustled to the tourist office to buy a ticket for the four-hour boat tour of the fjords, which I had been told by others was not to be missed. "The boat service ends at the end of September." The day before. Doh! On the plus side, though, starting on 1 October, with the Bergen Card tickets were free (versus discounted as during the high tourist season) to the funicular - a kind of train/tram that climbs up the side of the mountain at an angle. So I headed up. Really beautiful views from the top and still a nice, bright day. I ended up sitting on a picnic table in the sun writing in my journal for well over an hour and just watching people go by and enjoying the fantastic view. There were also some trails at the top, so I wandered around on them for a while, including a brief walk around a small lake. It was really quite pretty and some families had packed picnic

lunches and were grilling at the BBQ pits (somehow I'm guessing the Norwegians have a better term for this) while the little kids were wading into the shallow lake and others threw in sticks that dogs raced into the lake to fetch and return. All this with a backdrop of trees turning to brilliant colors. I finally got back on the trail and headed back to the funicular. On the path, I started to hear some yelling or chanting. Confusing. Then saw a bunch of guys in white headed my way. Martial arts practice in the forest? Nope. They were all dark-skinned and seemed to be in something of a happy mood. An older guy at the back told me (in English, thankfully) that they were celebrating thanksgiving. Not sure if it was a cultural or religious tradition but nevertheless an interesting surprise in the middle of the woods.

There is a university in Bergen, which perhaps explains all the young people in the city. On Saturday near the university, there was some sort of outdoor concert series. I'm not sure what it was all about, but I listened to a few songs by a band of three women playing electric guitar and signing and a drummer (also female). The lyrics were in English but they spoke quite animatedly between songs in Norwegian. They weren't always in tune, but I liked the music and if they had been selling CDs, I would have bought one. No information on the bands, so I couldn't even try to see if they had a website. After their set was done, though, there was some kind of headbanger band, so I continued on my way. Sometimes I feel really old....

One of my highlights of the trip was the Bergen Kunstmuseum, an art museum spread across several buildings. I learned a lot about Norwegian artists that I had heard of before but didn't really know their background. I also hadn't been in tune with the different approaches of the Dusseldorf and Dresden approaches (nor had I considered Germany a hotbed of artistic teaching before - I associate it more with the sciences and engineering). For example, JC (Johan Christian) Dahl was from Bergen but ended up spending much of his adult life in Dresden where he taught and was part of the Dresden approach, I suppose. But I was surprised to see a Norwegian artist famous for his renderings of Norwegian landscapes painting scenes of places I had seen in Dresden. The collection also housed a lot of works by Munch and other Norwegians.

My favorite, though, was the special exhibit they had for Nikolai Astrup. I was not familiar with him before this exhibit, but really liked his work, not just the paintings, but also some of the woodblocks he did. A nice feature of the exhibit was that they had a special app for the exhibit that you could download for free. But unfortunately I do not have roaming features for my iPhone, so I thought I was out of luck. No, they had apparently thought of that, too. Free WiFi at the exhibit! The app had a built in code reader that when you scanned in the codes next to the descriptions of the work it would automatically pull up a small picture of the work and provide more information about the work. You could also select the work as a favorite. Only one teeny, tiny problem - the app's descriptions were only in Norwegian, so I wasn't able to get the full benefit of the additional information. But for a good time and to see some nice photos of his work, check out the free app!

Before I went to Bergen, I had downloaded a different app for my iPhone that was written by journalists working for the local newspaper. It didn't have the basic tourist information (e.g. taxis, tipping, banking, hotels), just information on the places that they recommended, which I found very useful. So, for example, the food critic wrote about restaurants, the style editor wrote on shopping, culture editor on museums and concerts, etc. They also had a section on "local legends," "wild walks," "rainy days" and "romance." Really nicely done. So I visited a few places they had recommended. Here are a few of those highlights that I saw:

• Nama Sushi & Noodles - This happened to be directly across from my hotel (you know, next to the dentist's office....) While, like most things in Norway, it was rather expensive, I had the best tuna sashimi that I have ever had (yes, even better than Japan) - fresh Norwegian fish perhaps even from the fish market out front. Yum!


• Nordnes Sjobad - At the side of the sea is a nice pool area. But the cool part is that there is a ladder next to it that leads down into the sea itself and one can swim in a cordoned off area of the sea and even sit/lounge/sunbathe on a little floating deck out there. The app indicates that some locals swim here every day, rain or shine. That's gotta be cold....


• Bryggen - This is a series of old buildings that were directly around my hotel. Very cute and apparently icons of Bergen, as they are even featured on the manhole (personhole?) covers throughout the city.


• Lepramuseet - The leprosy museum. It was strangely fascinating. I had no idea Bergen had served as an international leper capital in the mid-late 1800s. Every time I think of leprosy, I think about the story of Naaman in the Bible (you know, the guy Elisha told to go wash seven times in the dirty River Jordan?) and tend to think of it as something from the distant past, but not so. I did find it odd, though, that this was one of the items listed in the "Romance" section of the app.


• Dromedar Kaffebar - Their chili coffee was recommended and it was delightful. Basically a shot of espresso mixed with steamed milk that was at a frothiness and quantity somewhere between a cappuccino and cafe au lait. I'm not sure how they infuse it with chili, but perhaps it was mixed into the ground espresso beans? Tasty. What was also interesting is that this cafe is located on a pedestrian-only shopping area and hanging on wires strung above the street were hundreds of pink bras. It took me a while to realize there hadn't been a giant party here, but it was related to the Susan Komen Race for the Cure for breast cancer.


• Hjertholm - A traditional Norwegian retailer that sells Scandinavian arts and crafts. Now, that may not sound like something I would be interested in ("crafty" has not generally been associated with me other than in terms of being sneaky like a crafty fox, perhaps), but they had some really interesting glass and ceramic work. And if I didn't have the limitation of my carry-on luggage, I would have bought one of the incredibly thick, soft woolen blankets they had.


• Bybanen - This is the new light rail that Bergen has. The app recommended taking it out to the end of the line to Nesttun where there was a nice shopping street. They neglected to note that the shopping street closed at apparently 16:00 or so, about a half hour before I arrived. Doh!


• One thing that wasn't noted in the app was the number of Mexican restaurants. I spotted at least three and tried one of them. But who knew?!

I decided to take the Flybussen to the airport. It was only NOK 95, whereas I had paid 315 for a taxi to my hotel, and it was only supposed to take about 10 minutes longer than the taxi. AND there was free WiFi! They also had an interesting feature in that certain seats had baby seats built into the back. So you would flip a seat forward, flip down the seat, and then the baby would be facing the mother sitting in the row behind. Pretty cool. So what's not to like about the Flybussen? Well, I only had one other issue - another passenger who apparently had no situational awareness. There is a small luggage rack above the seats (suitcases in the hold in the bottom portion of the bus) where this guy had put a ballistic nylon briefcase of sorts. When we arrived, he yanked this bag out, not realizing I was directly behind him. The bag hit me squarely in the forehead and kept going, creating a sort of rug-burn on my forehead directly between my eyes. He was somewhat apologetic, but after I saw I was bleeding, I thought a bit more concern would have been in order. So for the last week I have had this nice red streak which can't easily be covered by makeup and which people keep staring at. Nice. So that is a little memory of Bergen that has allowed me to keep reliving the weekend.