Day 7 – Bergen: The City Between the Seven Mountains

The city of Bergen was founded in 1070 AD by Olav Kyrre, king of Norway. It is surrounded by mountains and is called ‘The city between the seven mountains’. It was once the capital of Norway and from 1370 to 1754, German merchants controlled Bergen’s trade as part of the Hanseatic League.

Our rental apartments are in this building; the boys are on the ground floor and Bev and I are on first floor while the owners live on the top floor. I reserved a BMW wagon through Hertz but they did not have any available so I had to settle for this. I know, its a ‘first world problem’.

We had seen a travel video about this restaurant called Bare Vestland that does a four course tasting lunch of locally sourced dishes.

The freshly baked bread was amazing and only enhanced by the butter with bacon and mushroom – served on a stone.

Seared cod with vegetables. The fish no doubt brought in from boats in the harbor just steps away from the restaurant.

Across from the restaurant, we toured the open-air markets with the freshest catch of the day. For over 500 years Bergen has produced salt cod (klippfisk) as seen hanging here.

The surrounding farms produce a variety of berries that are offered in the market.

The first German merchants built stores along the wharf called The Bryggen in the 1300’s but most of these building standing were re-built after a massive fire in 1702. The narrow alleys are lined with small shops and restaurants. No, my camera is not that shaky, the buildings actually do lean quite noticeably!