Bergen Beginning (5/12/25)

Today was really our first outing in Bergen, as yesterday when we got to the hotel we immediately went out to pick up food for supper later, as we had a late afternoon video call with a couple about a month-long housesit in January and February next year. We were selected!

Last night we also researched laundry options for a much-needed cleaning of clothes. Bob went this morning at 6:00 am while I was running and was impressed with the efficiency of the laundromat, with a central credit card payment machine and washers that dispensed their own detergent. While there, he met another traveler from the US (Boston) doing the same thing while he’s here with his wife for her tattoo convention. I guess the two of us women married right and are in debt to our husbands!

But back to Bergen, the first permanent capital of Norway. Bergen lies on Norway’s southwestern coast and is surrounded by mountains and the country’s longest fjord. It has a population of just under 300,000.

One of its top tourist attractions is a funicular railway that goes to the top of Mount Floyen for panoramic views, a restaurant, and hiking trails. There is also a hiking trail up the mountain as well. I wanted to hike up and take the funicular down and talked Bob into it for our first adventure today. Given the crowds that we found at the top and then in line later at the bottom (at least 1 cruise ship was in port), we were glad we chose this option.

Once back at sea level, we headed to an area next to our hotel called the Hanseatic Quarter. This is Bergen’s old town made up of lots of colorful old wooden warehouses. It was populated for a time by German merchants and traders. The very cute, perfectly straight ones pictured below, which can be seen from the harbor, were built in the 1980s to hide a modern hotel building which sits among the older small warehouses, many of which now hold shops.

Next to the old town area is the Bergenhus Fortress, which has been used since medieval times to protect the city. Two buildings from this period still exist within the fortress. However, we did just a quick perusal of the grounds.

Side note on Rosenkrantz, as both of the Thon Hotels that we have stayed at in Oslo and Bergen were the Thon Hotel Rosenkrantz and are (not surprisingly) located on Rosenkrantz street. This is the name of a family of high officials and land owners in both Denmark and Norway, and is of course a character in “Hamlet” as well.

Bob and I then strolled the walk around the harbor including Torget Square with its seafood vendors.

We walked one street up from the water to look for a convenience store for some liquid refreshment, on the way we saw the mirror below outside a retail store.