This morning we docked in Bergen & disembarked onto buses to do a tour of the city. This, like several Scandinavian cities, was originally full of buildings built with timber. Consequently, there were often fires which destroyed large areas of the city & so over the centuries new buildings of different style appeared. Most of these old cities have an section of well maintained old buildings & this was what we saw today. Unfortunately, along the harbour in Bergen some of these old timber buildings which are UNESCO Heritage listed are sinking & leaning as the ground underneath them subsides. However, it was very interesting doing a walk along lanes & alley ways & we eventually had lunch at a little cafe in the old town.
Part of our tour was a visit to the home of the Norwegian composer, Edvard Grieg. There was also a small museum & auditorium where we were entertained for 30 minutes by an amazing pianist playing 6 Grieg pieces. We could have stayed & listened to her playing for a lot longer.
In our free time in the afternoon, we caught a funicular railway up a mountain above the city & were rewarded with glorious views over Bergen & out into the fjord.
The only drawback to the day was weather just like Melbourne - wind/sunshine/clouds/rain/fine - but it seemed to be fine mostly when we needed to be outside & so we stayed fairly dry.
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