Bergen

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Beautiful Bergen

Bergen is Norway's second-largest city, with a population of around 290,000. Located on the country's southwestern coast, it is famously known as "the city between the seven mountains," as the urban core is surrounded by peaks including Fløyen and Ulriken. It is one of Europe's rainiest cities, yearly receiving approximately 2,250 mm of rain spread over 230–240 rainy days per year, making rain practically guaranteed. Bring your umbrellas and waterproof outers if you plan to visit. Bergen was founded around 1070, the city served as Norway's capital in the 13th century and remains a major hub for shipping, aquaculture, and tourism.

Oslo to Bergen on the Night Train

We opted for an overnight ride with a dedicated cabin for this trip. To get your keycard, you have to look for the VY employee standing somewhere outside the train by a small table. They check your ticket, and hand you a physical keycard for your cabin. The F4 train to Bergen departed at 23:01 (11:01 PM) from track 3, and kept a comfortable pace throughout the night. The cabin was small, but tidy and clean. It had a water faucet, and the toilets were not far away in the corridor. The cabin came with two small welcome chocolates and bottled water. The temperature was a bit on the warmer side, and the air conditioning wasn't much help. As with most things pushing air around in Norway, it is designed to heat things up, not cool them down. I fell asleep on top of the duvet, and crept under it around 2 AM when it was cooler. I woke up probably a dozen times, but slept well when I did sleep. The beds are comfortable. Nothing beats the calming effect of a gently rocking train.

Bergen railway station luggage storage

We arrived in Bergen around 6:30 and spent the first hour finding breakfast and drinking 7-Eleven-style coffee in Byparken (the City Park), whose centerpiece is the small lake called "Lille Lungegårdsvannet", near the central railway station. We had the fog-enshrouded city practically to ourselves for hours before larger groups of tourists flooded the streets and sidewalks. There is a simple, clean, and logical luggage storage facility in the railway station, with four sizes of storage boxes one can rent: small, medium, large, and extra long for skis and such. There is also a toilet there (cost 10 NOK) that wasn't very clean (gentlemen's). The price of storage was fair, but overly complicated to understand. We ended up paying 200 NOK for our 4-ish hour stay.

Fløyen lookout and The Fløybane

From the center of Bergen runs a steep climbing tram on a pulley system, with a passenger cart at each end. When one is down, the other is up. They run up and down all day long, bringing scenic view lovers up to a vantage point called Fløyen. From Fløyen, you can see most of Bergen's city center. There are numerous activities to do on Fløyen — from trekking for hours, shopping, and visiting a children's troll forest with a playground, to relaxing in the cafeteria or in the sun.

Bergen brygge and Seafront

Bergen Brygge and Seafront: A Historical Glimpse

The row of colorful wooden buildings lining Bergen's old wharf, known as Bryggen, has stood watch over the harbor since the Middle Ages. From the 14th century onward, this seafront became one of the most important trading posts of the Hanseatic League, the powerful German merchant confederation that dominated commerce across Northern Europe. Dried cod from the Lofoten Islands passed through these narrow gabled warehouses by the ton, exchanged for grain, cloth, and goods from the continent. The German merchants who lived and worked here formed a closed community, bound by strict rules — unmarried men living in cold quarters, forbidden even to light fires in the wooden buildings for fear of the flames that nonetheless swept through Bryggen repeatedly over the centuries. After each great fire, most devastatingly in 1702, the wharf was rebuilt on the same medieval foundations, following the same property lines and passageways that had existed for hundreds of years. The Hanseatic era faded in the 18th century, and Norwegian merchants took over the wharf, but the character of the place endured. Today, the leaning, weathered facades of Bryggen — now a UNESCO World Heritage Site — still trace the outline of the medieval harbor, where fish, timber, and fortunes once changed hands, and where the smell of tar and salt water carries an echo of seven centuries of trade.

Bergen Docks, a misty early morning in july

Traditional seafood market at the docks

The docks are famous for the fish markets, and for the relatively well preserved wooden buildings that has been there for hundreds of years. We arrived in heavy morning fog, that enshrouded everything in a mystic haze. Luckily, I had been there before and knew where to go to see the older sections of the Docks, You can literally walk for an hour in and out of the docks area without seeing the same buildings twice.

Bergen seafront. A 10+ km long walk

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