Bergen, Norway: Bryggen Wharf, Mountain Cable Cars, and the Gateway to the Fjords

Bryggen, the row of painted wooden warehouses on the eastern wharf, was built by the Hanseatic League as a trading post from the fourteenth century onward and was the commercial center of Bergen when it was the most important city in Norway. The current buildings date mostly from after the 1702 fire (the previous ones burned in 1413, 1476, 1527, and 1702) and have been continuously inhabited and used since their construction — making this not a preserved ruin but a living quarter that still has residents and businesses. The alley passages behind the main facades lead to workshops, galleries, and the Bryggen Museum, which displays the archaeological finds from the medieval layers beneath the current buildings.

The Fløibanen funicular runs from the city center to the summit of Mount Fløyen (320 meters) in eight minutes. At the top, a network of marked hiking trails leads across the plateau; the viewpoint immediately above the upper station looks down over the harbor, the Bryggen roofline, the Byfjorden, and the outer islands beyond. The trail to Mount Ulriken (643 meters, the highest of the seven mountains) takes about two hours one-way; the Ulriken cable car, on the other side of the city, provides a quicker way up and a loop route is possible by combining both. Bergen's weather reputation is deserved (the city averages 232 rainy days per year), but the viewpoints above the cloud cover, when the cloud cover exists, are among the better compensations for being rained on.

The Bergen Fish Market (Fisketorget) on the harbor front has been operating in some form since the 1200s and currently runs as an open-air fish market by day and a restaurant cluster by evening. The morning session has fresh catches laid out on ice: whole salmon, halibut, monkfish, king crab claws, and Norwegian shrimp that can be eaten on the spot with bread and butter at the market tables. The prices are higher than at the fishmongers inside the covered market building fifty meters away, but the setting and immediacy are part of the experience.

A day trip to Sognefjord from Bergen can cover the Norway in a Nutshell route — train to Myrdal, the Flåmsbana railway down to Flåm, boat along the Nærøyfjord branch (UNESCO-listed, one of the narrowest fjord arms in the country), and bus back — in eight to nine hours. This is a genuine circuit through the most dramatic fjord scenery accessible by public transport in Norway, and the combination of rail and boat navigation through the valley walls is something that photographs do not adequately capture. Tickets should be booked in advance during the tourist season.

Bergen's Mathallen on Nikolaikirkeallmenningen and the Bondelagsutsalget (farmers' market cooperative outlet) on the Bryggen side sell the west Norwegian food products most worth taking home: dried and smoked salmon, pinnekjøtt (dry-salted lamb ribs, rehydrated and steamed — a Christmas dish sold year-round here), smalahove (smoked sheep's head, an acquired taste), and the small boiled shrimp that are the defining Bergen street food.