- WHO would actually torture someone by gifting them with bottle opener made of real reindeer antlers?
- there are MORE buried and excavated VIKING SWORDS in IRELAND than in Norway! Just so u know!
- The explosion of a ship here in the harbour was so great that the anchor was tossed in the air, and landed in valley some way in land where it still rests! This story was told by a local historian who lived nearby as a child and whose mother spent much of the same day excavating glass shreds from his person! This is NOT a tall story, tho there ARE some very TALL Norwegians! Fine figures of men they are too!
- Among the groups of tourists on the harbour this morning, some loud Americans and dear old ladies trying to prop each other up as well as keep their purchases in safe, was an immaculate old man who sat down and left them to it. He then took out an solidly bound A4 size note book, and proceeded to write in glorious cursive, I dont know what!
- The Hanseatic League had several hundred years of trading influence in Bergen, among other ports, and a museum in their name describes it all. There is also a Leprosy Museum, a School museum, a Norwegian Fisheries Museum and a Knitting Industry Museum. You gotta get into something in the Winter months!
- This is not ALL of the Museums!!
- BREAKFAST!!…astonishing, healthy, and…NORWEGIAN!….Fish and salmon,fish paste..? 6 kinds of chunky loaves, fruit, salad, cereals, hot things, cheeses and hams, ten kinds of healthy milk, and all in a huge room warmed by tea light candles everywhere. No wonder IKEA sells them by the million….they are part of hospitality here..even the LIBRARY room was lit with them by mid afternoon…beautiful.
- ART is big here………silver, felt art, painting and ink drawings, glassware, the classic woolen jumpers, hats and scarves…..BEST of all was the market stall selling FUR goods, mink, bear, rabbit etc, and if you were inclined to take one home for your bed or floor, HUGE reindeer pelts…as you do!
- you can also indulge in REINDEER on everything, but I refuse to purchase anything I dont have a connection with!
- What was tempting, given the IRISH/VIKING connection, about which I have read much, were items using the VIKING ALPHABET, called Runes,( tho it has no fortune telling association, as we do with the Rune word.) Thus, where wooden sticks have been excavated with Rune messages on them, they have been turned into tourist items…my favourite is..“My darling, Kiss me! If only Mike would send ME a wooden stick!
- the old wooden houses you see in all the postcards of Bergen, kept burning down because the gates between buildings were locked and no fire engines could get in! Eventually they realised this would help! So did only HAVING FIRES in a kind of GREAT ROOM, instead of trying to heat all the wooden buildings over 4 or 5 centuries, and having a decent conflagration once per century, and starting all over again!
- On top of that, the Great Plague wiped out 60% of the population as well at one stage!
- Tough lot, these Norwegians; they never gave up fighting for justice whereas the Danish did and had a peaceful life!..
- The train going almost vertically up the mountain to the outlook over Bergen, keeps going till dark, ie about 10.30, so up we went. Lovely. As we always take notice of our kiddies, we virtuously decided to walk down a winding and steep slope! Took an hour, with much envy of the young things RUNNING up and down the mountain! Its’ no use, we are pathetically unfit, and unlikely to ever be! Howvwer, one can admire the commitment of these 2013 young persons, whose sleek running attire, obviously is 90% of their success! Having already seem Himself in lycra, I am unlikely to emulate him. Life is cruel!!
franinpalmtree 