Bergen, Day 2

Today was long. I think I'm mostly over the jet-lag, but my feet are still tired and tensions are high between various family members.

We started today with a breakfast of fresh bread and strawberries (so juicy!) before walking to the Bryggens Museum (which is a collection of archaeological artifacts from 12th-14th century Bergen). Bryggen was the harbor/trade center of Bergen, where most of the trade business (so, imports and exports) of occurred. The tour we went on provided an overview of the museum, a guided walk through Old Bryggen and the assembly rooms used by the tradesmen, and finally a tour of the Hanseatic Museum (which showed a replica of the old trade tenements of Bryggen). It was amazing to learn how muh the people of Northern Germany influencedd Norway.... Apparently German was the dominant language in Bergen for almost 400 years! I had no idea that Bergen was such a prominent medieval trading center.

My take on the iconic picture of Bryggen

After lunch, we walked to the tourist information center, where I did a little shopping and the rest of the family browsed through the travel pamphlets. Once we finished up there, we took a walk up to where Yvonne (our landlady) had told mom and me we'd find a shopping district. Mom and I looked at pretty dresses, exclaimed our ridiculous prices (this country is crazy expensive!), and went from shop to shop while dad and Peter trailed behind and acted bored. We ended up walking to the other side of town before realizing that it was dinner time, we were kind of lost (though that was a problem easily solved) and we needed to get back to our apartment. We picked up supper along the way - a lefse- pancake type thing and a reindeer-salami sandwich for me!

One of the parks we stumbled upon during our walk

Mom & Dad in front of a fountain, down the street from last night's restaurant!

Today's unexpected moments of triumph: having an Italian woman stop me on the street and ask me for directions (flattering but I couldn't really help her) and seeing a blue Prius. That pretty much made my day.

The infamous blue Prius.