Norway: Day 7: More Bergen, then home

I took these pictures this day. Di Yin, for a change, took about the same number of pictures as I. The link goes to the first picture she took this day; the rest of the album is all from this day. If you're in slideshow mode and see pictures from a ferry, you've cycled to the beginning of album (which started two days earlier).

After breakfast, Di Yin and I took the funicular, Fløibanen (Floibanen), to the top of Mount Fløyen (Floyen) and hiked back down. Viewing Bergen from on high again emphasized that it's a pretty city surrounded by many mountains. The top of Mount Floyen is pleasantly forested, with troll statues in glades and also a lake. Due to time, however, we hiked straight down (or at least as straight as we could given the many switchbacks). Near the bottom, we found a patch of small wild raspberries and picked some: super-sweet.

It started to rain as we reached the bottom. We split up and I spent the next hour visiting one church, a museum, then two more churches.

The museum was the Hanseatic Museum. Located in an actual, old Hanseatic house on the waterfront, it shows the life of German traders in Bergen in the middle of the last millennium. The building includes traditional decorations, some original (faded painted patterns on walls, hung paintings), sleeping rooms, and old ledgers. It also displays objects used in preparing fish oil and dried fish, the main products the merchants traded. I learned the German merchants governed themselves and even had their own legal system. I also found out, in the display on old Hanseatic seals, that the seals are so detailed that some people are using the drawings of ships on the seals to learn about old boat design. Despite the length of this paragraph describing the museum, I think I spent only twenty minutes there.

Actually, before I went to the Hanseatic Museum proper, I walked through an outpost of it that served as a common area and dining hall. (Food preparation was prohibited elsewhere due to risk of fire.) The outpost has three common rooms, no signs, and took less than five minutes to see.

I spent the largest part of my day in the Bergen Art Museum. The museum's wide scope ranges from Norwegian art (through various eras), old masters (including many dutch ones), to religious art, photographs, modern mixed media pieces, and contemporary art (by both Norwegian and international artists). It's a surprisingly respectable museum (and big, spread over three buildings) for such a small town. Though not first-class, it nevertheless has no crap. In support of its quality, consider that it has a room of Picassos and Klees (though admittedly not their best work). Also, each exhibit has a detailed handout with lots more information.

The first building I explored, the Lysverket, has a whole wing on J. C. Dahl, who I discovered I kind of like. I learned Dahl exemplifies the Dresden period of Norwegian romantic art, and also like other artists who painted in this style. I also apparently like some painters in the Düsseldorf school, the main school that, when it started, took some of Dresden's fame.

The second building I visited, a mansion-like place complete with furniture, houses the art (and furniture) collected by Rasmus Meyer, a businessman from around 1900. As I explored, I realized that when he collected, he collected, meaning he bought lots from the same artist. Some artists, such as Astrup and Sørensen, I didn't appreciate, but I generally found his tastes agreed well with mine. For instance, he collected Fearnley, Munthe, Erichsen, Gude, Morgenstern, Tidemand, Dahl, and Munch. Indeed, the collection has half-a-dozen rooms of Dahl! (I wonder how many of J. C. Dahl's works aren't in this museum.) It also includes three rooms of Munch, meaning that, though missing some of Munch's famous pieces, this portion of the collection is half the size of the Munch museum.

The third building I stopped by, the Stenersen, holds the contemporary art collection (meh) and a special exhibit on German expressionism (both paintings and drawings) (okay, because I sometimes liked the colors used).

From the museum, I walked quickly to meet Di Yin once again in the fish market for lunch. After lunch, we picked up our luggage and walked to the bus to the airport, arriving one minute before it was to leave. (We did this without knowing the timing--we got lucky.) Once at the airport, we got some tasty gelato (I was looking forward to gelato all day), carried it through security, and enjoyed. On the flight to Copenhagen, Di Yin and I hapened to get seats on the same row with an empty middle seat between us. (Again, this happened by chance--neither of us picked seats. Airplane luck. :> ) As it turned out, the flight was mostly empty, meaning we'd have gotten to sit together even if we weren't assigned to do so.

Our short transfer in Copenhagen was surprisingly easy. We even had time to kill. Then, after a completely-full flight to London and some long tube rides, we arrived at the apartment we were renting in London, thus ending our Norway excursion.