Sunday 7th July 2013 +1hr BST : Heading Home On A Flat Calm North Sea

As Andrew Murray won Wimbledon as I was watching a whale and dolphins in a flat calm North Sea on a hot afternoon with a heavy sea fret and an oily, delicately rippled water surface to the sea and reflecting on yet another enjoyable and fascinating cruise.  The weather had been just wonderful for the last 15 days, my table companions had been great fun and I had enjoyed some great sights and wildlife watching.

The high points:

·      Crossing the tidal race at Bodø in the Zodiac

·      Basking in the Midnight Sun

·      Life’s little coincidences – learning about the renovated makeshift cabin to the James Caird (The boat that Ernest Shackleton sailed from Elephant Island to South Georgia) and seeing the graves of the men from the Durham Light Infantry who fought alongside the Russians to prevent the Germans extending their Eastern Front, in the cemetery at Archangel.

I hope you have enjoyed this Blog.  My next adventure will be at the end of January 2014 when I will be joining Balmoral on the two middle sectors of her Round the World Voyage from Dubai via Sri Lanka, Burma, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and Hawaii to San Diego.

So its “Goodbye” from him (Greig’s mascot troll) and its “Goodbye” from me until the next time!!  

Saturday 6th July 2013 +1hr BST Bergen, Norway: A Fishy Lunch on the Bryggen

You can’t come to Bergen and not have lunch in the famous fish market!  So after a panoramic tour of the city on the return journey from Troll Hill I made my way back into the city centre, a walk of about a mile in brilliant sunshine.

The fish market was bustling with tourists and the stool holders inviting you to sample all kinds of fresh fish including whale – the flesh was almost black but I’m reliably informed that it is very tasty.  I opted for a huge open sandwich of fresh cooked prawns and smoked salmon and a beer – all delicious!

The photo is from a previous visit back in 2010 when I took shelter in one of the fish market tents from heavy rain and ate a similar lunch and watched the local sparrows feasting on the leftovers.  Not quite as romantic as in the Galapagos Islands watching the local finches fly in and out of the open fronted hotel restaurant snatching macadamia nuts from your plate if you were not careful!  Again if you want to read more see my Round South America Blog – look under Mt Profile at the top of the Blog page.

I sauntered back along the Bryggen (Norwegian for the Wharf), which is a series of Hanseatic commercial buildings lining the eastern side of the fjord coming into Bergen and named as World Cultural Heritage sites by UNESCO in 1979.

The Bryggen is the oldest part of the city and as I explained in an earlier posting on Bergen around 1360 a Kontor (Foreign trading post)  of the Hanseatic League was established. As the town developed into an important trading centre, the wharfs were improved and the buildings of Bryggen were gradually taken over by Hanseatic merchants. The main goods traded were fish from northern Norway, and cereal from Europe.

Despite the many fires that Bergen has experienced, around a quarter of the current Bryggen buildings date back some time after 1702. Today, Bryggen houses a plethora of very expensive souvenir gift shops, and restaurants and pubs.

So ended a sunny day in Bergen, my first in three visits!!

Saturday 6th July 2013 +1hr BST Bergen, Norway: Trolls, Pigs & Frogs

Grieg had a number of mascots, perhaps reflecting a superstitious side to his character.  For example he had a small rubber frog that he kept in his pocket and that he rubbed before each performance.  He also had a small porcelain (?) pig and a troll on his bedside table, to which, it is said, he bid goodnight; trolls fascinated Grieg.

I bought a replica of the frog, a fridge magnet depicting the china pig and a troll toy (Said to be a favourite of Grieg) to join Rocky the Rockhopper penguin (See my Round South America Blog if you want to learn more about the adventures of Rocky) and his mate Panda.

Well as you can see I was intrigued by all that I learnt about this romantic composer and captivated by Troldhaugen and its surroundings. It was a wonderfully uplifting and rewarding three hours.

Saturday 6th July 2013 +1hr BST Bergen, Norway: Troldhaugen ­ The House at Troll Hill

Troldhaugen was designed by Grieg's cousin and the name comes from trold meaning troll and haug meaning hill or knoll. The house is set in lush landscape overlooking the waters of the Nordsvannet Lake outside Bergen. Grieg is reputed to have said that children called the nearby small valley (I assume this is the valley in which his hut is located?) "The Valley of Trolls" and thus gave the name for the house. Edvard and Nina Grieg finished building Troldhaugen in 1885 and the couple lived there the last 22 summers of Grieg’s life. Grieg described it as “my best opus so far”.

Troldhaugen is a delightful building and is described as a typical 19th century residence with panoramic tower and a large veranda. Grieg is reputed to have immortalized the name of his home in one of his piano pieces, Wedding Day at Troldhaugen.

The inside of the house is preserved as it was when Edvard and Nina lived their; it is full of their favourite things, pictures, ornaments and photos.  The interior has an unfussy, cosy, very comfortable and distinctive atmosphere and it is easy to see why the Griegs’ felt so at home here despite suffering the very sad loss of their only child Alexandra. The plain wooden walls and floors and the combination of Continental and Norwegian traditional furnishing reflect the Griegs’ personal taste for the simple but functional.  In the villa’s living room stands Grieg’s Steinway grand piano, which he was given as a silver wedding anniversary present in 1892. This piano is still used today for private concerts and other special occasions.

Saturday 6th July 2013 +1hr BST Bergen, Norway: Grieg ­ His Life and Music in a Nutshell

Edvard Grieg was born in Bergen on 15 June 1843. His parents were Alexander Grieg (1806–1875), a merchant and vice consul in Bergen, and Gesine Hagerup (1814–1875), a music teacher. I was interested to learn that the family name was originally spelled Greig, and has Scottish origins. Evidently after the Battle of Culloden (1746), Grieg's great-grandfather travelled widely and settled in Norway about 1770, establishing business interests in Bergen.

Grieg was taught to play the piano by his Mother from the age of 6 and by 15 he was an accomplished pianist and attending the Leipzig Conservatory. 

In the spring of 1860, Grieg survived pleurisy and tuberculosis but for the rest of his life, his health was impaired by a destroyed left lung and a deformity of his thoracic spine. He suffered numerous respiratory infections, and ultimately developed combined lung and heart failure. Despite these health problems he regularly walked with his friend Frants Beyer in the mountains around Bergen.

On 11 June 1867, Grieg married his first cousin, Nina Hagerup and the next year, their only child, Alexandra, was born but she sadly died in 1869 from meningitis.  Coincidently the UK news yesterday reported that a vaccine against Meningitis B has now been successfully tested.  Although it protects individuals the vaccine is not going to be widely available since it is not clear if it will prevent the bacteria from being transmitted from person to person.

Grieg died in the late summer of 1907, aged 64, after a long period of illness. He was cremated, and his ashes were entombed in a mountain crypt near the house. The grave is in a tranquil spot close to the lake edge where the sun sparkled on the water as it gently lapped against the shoreline. It is said that one evening when Grieg and his best friend Frants Beyer were out fishing on the lake and the last rays of the sunset hit a spot of rock he said "There I would like to rest forever”.

After the death of her husband in 1907, Nina Grieg moved to Denmark where she spent the remainder of her life but her ashes were laid to rest inside a mountain tomb next to her husband.