May 24 - Bergen with Lill

Down the hill again for breakfast at Sol Brod … it’s becoming a pleasant routine, even in the rain. We met Lill at 1000, and she took us to several stops outside of Bergen Sentrum.

Our first stop was the King’s hytte which is really a small castle called, Gamlehaugen. This beautiful castle was built sometime during the mid-1800’s by a wealthy businessman. It is situated on the shores of a small lake and is surrounded by manicured lawns and gardens, and forest. The king and queen stay here when they visit Bergen.

From there, we went to see if Edvard had arrived at his summer house, Troldhaugen (the hill of the Trolls). Unfortunately, Mr. Grieg and his wife, Nina, were not in. His staff, however, showed us around the museum, his summer place with the original Steinway built specifically (less 2 keys) for Edvard in Germany, and his little garden hut down by the shore of Lake Noerdas where he did some of his composing. Grieg (1843-1907) is Norway’s most famous composer, and used to spend his summers here (April - September). Edvard and his wife, Nina, are buried in a cliff tomb on the grounds.

Next, we visited the Fantoft Stave Church which was originally built in Fortun in Sogn in 1150, and moved to Fantoft in 1883. It took almost 10 years to reassemble the church because the individual pieces were not labelled when the church was disassembled in Fortun. The original church burned down in June 1992, and was rebuilt using wood from the same forest as used for the original church, and the same construction techniques. It was interesting to hear about the history of the church, and construction techniques used from selecting and preparing the trees to the actual construction mechanics.

We drove up one of the many hills in Bergen, passing many beautiful houses built into the rocky hillsides. Getting up and down some of these roads in winter must somewhat exciting. You don’t want to even think about the possibility of missing a turn.

After a late lunch, we headed back to our apartment, i.e., up the hill with the many stairs and switch-backs. Mari picked us up in her Toyota Yaris in the evening and drove us to Lill and Kjell’s for a delicious dinner of traditionally cooked reindeer. It was a perfect end to an interesting and full day.