Bergen to Geiranger

 Whew! What a day. We knew we had a good day of driving ahead of us but a lack of instructions from our lodging caused us to be 2 1/2 hours longer getting here than necessary. But we are all settled in now so back to the beginning of the day.

We stayed at the Magic Hotel in Bergen last night. Our room entrance was on the rooftop and the hotel is in the old downtown.

View from the rooftop

Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway after national capital Oslo. The municipality covers 465 square kilometres (180 sq mi) and is on the peninsula of Bergenshalvøyen. The city centre and northern neighbourhoods are on Byfjorden, 'the city fjord', and the city is surrounded by mountains; Bergen is known as the "city of seven mountains". 

You may or may not recognize this photo as taken in the same place as the background photo on the blog. It has changed somewhat since the background photo was taken. This area is known as Brygge or Bryggen and means "a platform alongside which ships are moored for loading and unloading".

Trading in Bergen may have started as early as the 1020s. According to tradition, the city was founded in 1070 by King Olav Kyrre and was named Bjørgvin, 'the green meadow among the mountains'. It served as Norway's capital in the 13th century, and from the end of the 13th century became a bureau city of the Hanseatic League. Until 1789, Bergen enjoyed exclusive rights to mediate trade between Northern Norway and abroad and it was the largest city in Norway until the 1830s when it was overtaken by the capital, Christiania (now known as Oslo). 

What remains of the quays, Bryggen, is a World Heritage Site. The city was hit by numerous fires over the years. Brygge comprises the old wooden buildings and fire-proof stone cellars in the historic city center of Bergen. The pier consists of approx. 13 acres with 61 listed buildings. The wharf was built around 1070, and from 1360 to 1754 was the seat of the German office in the city.

Love how they have painted the plastic covering this building and the one in the center of the picture above this one to look like the original building. 

The city is an international centre for aquaculture, shipping, the offshore petroleum industry and subsea technology, and a national centre for higher education, media, tourism and finance. Bergen Port is Norway's busiest in terms of both freight and passengers, with over 300 cruise ship calls a year bringing nearly a half a million passengers to Bergen, a number that has doubled in 10 years. Almost half of the passengers are German or British.

Nykirken is a large, white, stone, cruciform parish church of the Church of Norway. It is one of the churches for the Bergen Cathedral parish. 

Håkonshallen is a medieval stone hall in Bergen and is part of Bergenhus fortress. It was first built as a royal residence and festival hall during Håkon Håkonsson's rule of Norway (1217–1263). The first time the hall is known to have been used was during the wedding of Håkon's son Magnus (later known as Magnus Lagabøte ) on 11 September 1261.

The building fell into disrepair during the Middle Ages and from 1683 the building was used as a granary. JC Dahl "rediscovered" the building as a royal hall. In 1841. The explosion at Vågen in 1944 led to extensive damage to Håkonshallen. After new archaeological investigations, it was rebuilt in the years 1955–1961 .

This treat was gluten-free and dairy free so I thought I'd give it a try. It turned out to be a chocolate covered marshmallowy thing that was sickly sweet.

As we leave Bergen on our way to Geiranger, we drive among the fjords and mountains. You know the drill. If you get bored with all the pictures, just scroll. 😀

The sun was really trying to peek out today. This is really the only day we've had rain almost all day. We've been blessed with beautiful days and the clouds always make for nice photos. I couldn't help but think of the song, "I've got sunshine on a cloudy day". Actually the song title is "My Girl" which really shows my age and it was only those words that popped into my head. 

More mirror-like water.

Waterfalls are everywhere.

The clouds are really low and at times, visibility was limited.

We took a 30-minute ferry across the Sognefjord. More about this fjord below.

Notice the rainbow

ferries passing on the fjord

Let's talk about fjords. I know you want to. 😆

Bergen is situated between the longest fjord Sognefjord north of Bergen and the beautiful Hardangerfjord in the south and is therefore called the heart of the fjords.

What is a fjord? A fjord is a long, deep, narrow body of water that reaches far inland. In Norway you can find more than 1,000 fjords around the country.

A fjord was formed when a glacier made a U-shaped valley by segregation through several ice ages. The valley was then filled with water from the sea. The fjords can be long and quite deep and often surrounded by high mountains. The deepest and longest fjord in Norway is the Sognefjord as it drops 1,308 metres below sea level! The Sognefjord is nicknamed the King of the Fjords and is also the longest fjord, measuring an impressive 205 kilometers.

The Sognefjord extends all the way from the Skjolden village in Norway’s Luster municipality to the ocean. The Sognefjord has several smaller fjords branching out from it. The Nærøyfjord is the most famous of these. 

The second longest fjord in Norway is the Hardangerfjord with 179 kilometers. The Hardangerfjord extends all the way from Odda in the mountainous interior of the country to the Atlantic Ocean. The Hardangerfjord is important to the Norwegians as one of the largest glaciers in the country, the Folgefonna glacier, is located along this fjord. The Hardanger region also produces about 40% of all fruits in Norway. Both of the waterfalls we visited yesterday were along the Hardangerfjord and we spent a good part of the day driving alongside it.

You might wonder if fjords are salt water or fresh water.

If the inlet of the fjord is connected to the ocean, the water in the fjord will be saltwater. The biggest fjords are all saltwater. Some inlets however are connected to a freshwater lake. If this is the case the water in the fjord will be freshwater.

Only 39 tunnels today 

Glacier pics

Cod stew with veggies - Kim's lunch

Fish cake made with potato flour - mine

We ate lunch at a fish market in Stryn and it was delicious.

Kim really likes the color of the yellow, red and green houses. We stopped at a lumber store to see if we could find paint chips for the traditional Norway house colors. I did some research on the original colors and it was quite interesting.

Traditional Norwegian house paint is made from non-toxic linoljemaling - paint based upon pigments, linseed oil, water, wheat and rye flour - which has a breathable, weather- and waterproofing function against the harsh climate. The paint comes in a handful of typically Nordic colours. First and foremost, there is the rich and eye cathing red. Red, a pigment by-product of copper mining. As it proved to be very effective for the preservation of wood, it became the traditional color for barns, homes, sheds, outbuildings and outhouses.

The easiest pigments to obtain come from the earth, the deep sienna red (red earth) - as mentioned before - and the somewhat more expensive ochre yellow (yellow earth). Those were the colors mostly used by the farmers. A largely hierarchic color system that can be seen throughout the Northern countries marks the older, farming-related and often cold storage buildings with the earth colors; the lighter varieties are used in wooden or brick buildings and have a higher status. So, the color of one’s house showed one’s social status: as said, the red houses, made with earth-pigments were for the poor people. Ochre and yellow tones, made with copper, was a bit more expensive than the red, and white, made with zinc, was meant for the well-to-do.

We really like the yellow ochre with green and red trim. It was originally made from ochre pigment mixed with Cod liver oil.

Waiting for the second of three ferries today.

Me, doing what I do

notice the bird to the left, right above the mountain

A huge cruise ship docked at Geiranger.

I'll take some pictures of this place we're staying tomorrow. You can see it was dark when we got here. It's called Solhaug Fjordcamping. That name should have been a red flag. I found out yesterday in a message from the owners that we had to rent bed linens and towels and we have to clean before we leave. 

I had no idea getting here would depend on ferries. We were following the GPS, which took us to a tourist ferry that travels the Geirangerfjord. We pulled up to the ferry dock just as the ferry was leaving. It only runs twice a day and that was the last one. I called the lodging contact and she gave us directions to drive about 15 minutes to another ferry, take it for about 15 minutes, then drive to another ferry and take it, then drive the rest of the way here. She said that's the way the locals do it. Well that took a lot longer than it sounds and when we got to the last portion of the drive it was many, many, sharp switchbacks on a dark narrow rainy road down the mountain. I was not a happy "camper" when we got here. I think the owners sensed my distress, as I had to call them numerous times trying to find the ferries and get other information, so when we finally arrived, they had upgraded us from a cabin with a shared bath (another detail I learned yesterday) to an apartment with a living room and private bath. Yay! He said it has a great view. Can't wait to see it.

Once again it is almost midnight so I'm off to bed.

"Today, remember that this moment isn’t intended to be a destination, but it is what God’s using to prepare you for your final destination."

PDT

quite appropriate for today