I have been to Bergen on two previous occasions and on both it has rained but today it was brilliant sunshine all the way.
Bergen was once the capital of Norway but today it is known as the Fjord Capital of Norway and a very popular cruise ship destination. We are here with the Voyager of the Seas and a smaller French ship.
Bergen occupies most of the peninsula of Bergenshalvøyen in mid-western Hordaland. The city covers an area of 289 sq. miles and at its centre is surrounded by seven mountains, the most well known of which is Gullfjellet at 3,238ft.
Modern research has discovered that the city of Bergen was originally a trading settlement established around the 1020s or 1030s. Bergen was recognised as the capital of Norway in the early 13th Century but the functions of capital city were lost to Oslo during the reign of King Haakon V (1299–1319). In the middle of the 14th century, North German merchants who had already been present in substantial numbers since the 13th century, founded one of the four kontors (Foreign trading posts) of the Hanseatic League at Bryggen in Bergen. The Hanseatic League was a commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and their market towns dominated trade from the 13th to 17th centuries along the coast of Northern Europe from the Baltic to the North Sea.
The city's history is marked by numerous great fires. The earliest In 1198 and the most recent in 1916, when 300 buildings were destroyed and more recently still in 1955 when parts of Bryggen (See a later posting) burned down.
During World War II, Bergen was occupied on the first day of the German invasion - 9 April 1940. On 20 April 1944, during the German occupation, the Dutch cargo ship Voorbode anchored off the Bergenhus Fortress, loaded with over 120 tons of explosives, blew up, killing at least 150 people and damaging historic buildings (Wikipedia).
Today Bergen is a centre of marine research, and its international airport Flesland is the main heliport for the huge Norwegian North Sea oil and gas industry, from where thousands of offshore workers commute to oil and gas rigs and platforms. It is also a thriving centre for tourism and boasts a large fish market with a modern new hall – a very stylish addition to the waterfront since I last visited.
The first photo is from the summit of the Floyen mountain and the second of a lobster awaiting its fate in the fish market. Both photos were taken on a previous visit in September 2010 - a cruise round Iceland but pre Blog!
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