Sunday, January 23rd, 2022
This morning we were up early to go to a hotel conference room to take our COVID test so that we fulfilled Norway’s entrance requirement. Our tests were negative so we went out exploring more of Bergen and it was another rainy day! The sun rose at 9:14 AM and set at 4:29 PM.
Our first stop on our walk was the Bryggens Museum. The museum displays findings of Bryggen (Bryggen is a series of Hanseatic heritage commercial buildings. Hanseatic League was an organization founded by German merchants to protect their mutual trading interests.) from a 1955 archaeological excavation. The museum has foundations of the oldest buildings in Bergen. The exhibit “Under Ground” uses 1000s of artifacts and modern historical and archaeological items to learn about the medieval people of Bergen and Western Norway. A new exhibit displays a Guddal (a village in Norway) garment that is nearly 1000 years old!
After the museum we walked over to the Rosenkrantz Tower. It is an important renaissance monument in Norway. The tower was the residence of King Eirik Magnusson. He was the last king to hold court in Bergen until he died in 1299. It is located in the Bergenhus Fortress. We walked all around the grounds. We walked by the Haakon’s Hall. It is a medieval stone hall. During medieval times it was the largest building of the royal palace.
After walking around the fort area, we went along the wharf.
For lunch we stopped at Holy Cow. They offer a gluten free Brioche bun for their burgers and that sounded good to try. When you go into any restaurant in Bergen you are asked to put your name and cell number for contact tracing. Masks were also required unless you were actively eating or drinking.
After lunch we went back to the hotel to dry off before venturing out again. This time we went the other direction in Bergen. It was uphill to St. John’s Church. It was of the Gothic style located in the Sydnes area of Bergen. St. John’s is one of the five churches for the Bergen Cathedral Parish. This church was built between 1891 and 1894. It is the largest church in Bergen and seats 1250. We walked around the neighborhood and then over by the National Theater.
It was dark by the time we got to The National Theater. It houses three stages/venues. It was founded to develop Norwegian playwrights. It wasn’t open or we would have checked out the inside. It was a beautiful building and first opened in 1850.
The Bergens Tidende building is on Torgallmenningen square, the main square of Bergen as we are heading back to our hotel. Bergens Tidende is Norway’s fifth-largest newspaper.
Since our luggage had to be set outside our hotel room by 9:00 PM we needed to be back in our room in time because Viking would be transporting it to the ship tomorrow!
