It was just about 5 years ago that I visited Norway on a trip with Brekke Tours, and about 25 years before that I came to Norway with my husband Carl. So this trip with GoAhead Tours is my third visit to this beautiful country, and certainly, my third trip to Bergen.

We started the day with a walking tour of the Bryggen historic area with its colorful wooden buildings. At that hour the area was nearly deserted and we practically had the run of the place ourselves. I mention this because when we returned to this area in the afternoon, it was filled wall-to-wall with people from two visiting cruise ships.

We next walked next to St. Mary’s Church which, according to our local guide, is the oldest church building in Bergen. This was the church I had played for a service five years ago on three days’ notice, but I still remember the organ and the people I met with fondness. If you’d like to read my post with details about the organ and service, it’s “Sunday morning in Bergen.”

We then walked around the harbor area where we saw some interesting street murals and graffiti. I especially liked the depiction of Vladimir Putin under a dove of peace (LOL)!

The next visit was to the Fantoft Stave Church, which is a replica of a more ancient structure from 1170. Here is a description of the incident which I found on the internet:

The Fantoft Stave Church became the front page article in the newspapers in early June 1992 when the church was set on fire and burned to the ground. The only thing left were the remains of the framework. Varg Vikernes was charged with arson, but there was not enough evidence to convict him.

The decision to rebuild the church was made immediately. But the reconstruction became a great challenge for those responsible as it was several hundred years since the last stave church was built in Norway, so the existing knowledge about this type of structure was modest. There was also very little that could be used from the old church so most of the building parts had to be made on site according to surveys and existing drawings.

By the way the term “stave” refers to the type of architecture. Our guide said it was more like a jigsaw puzzle.

After the stave church visit we were pretty much on our own and went back to the harbor area to eat lunch. By this time the place was jammed packed with cruise ship visitors and it was getting very very warm and crowded. We went back to the hotel to rest and at the end of the afternoon, took the tram to the bottom of another hill to visit Bergen’s other viewpoint, Ulriken, accessible by cable car. That necessitated a very steep, 10-minute walk up to the station, and I regretted having forgotten my water.

Honestly, the view against the afternoon sun wasn’t as good as the view from the funicular the day before, and all we could think about was cooling off. So instead of eating dinner, we came back to the hotel and ate Ben ‘N Jerry’s cookies and cream ice cream with fresh local raspberries!