If you have had a look around my pages, you must have noticed that I take quite a number of photographs of various ships and boats. Most of the seaborne traffic in and out of Bergen passes beneath us, so I have collected quite a few of them. Here are two ships, "Msc Lirica" & "JeweI of the Seas" leaving tonight. They are not the smallest ones I have seen.
As some of you may have heard, Norway has become a major producer of oil and gas from the continental shelf. Looking at this picture one would think that they have started drilling in the fjords too. But in this case it is only a platform in for maintenance at Hanøytangen on the island of Askøy outside Bergen.
Maybe it is just as well.
The Wharf in Bergen - In Norwegian "Bryggen i Bergen" - is the center of the old part of the city. The city itself was founded in 1070 by king Olav Kyrre ("The peaceful"), and they probably started building in this area at about the same time. The Hanseatic league had an office here from 1350 to 1754 and played a very dominating role in the shaping of the city's history.
The buildings are all made of wood. Bergen has suffered many large fires which have destroyed large parts of the both Bryggen and the town as such, but this area has always been recreated with same type of constructions and the same type of materials and after the same plan. The eleven buildings in the middle of the picture above were rebuilt after a fire in 1702 and is the front of 58 buildings. They are now on UNESCO's World Heritage List. The six buildings on the left were rebuilt after a fire in 1955. The larger buildings in stone are from the beginning of the 20th century and are in the Jugend style.
At the exstreme left you get a glimpse of the twin-towered "Mariakirken" ("Church of St. Mary"). It is Bergen's oldest remaining church and was probably built between 1130 and 1170. This also makes it the oldest remaining building in Bergen.
At the extreme right, a bit up in the side of the hill, you get a glimpse of "Skansen Brannstasjon" (The Fire station at Skansen")
Askvik kapell (Askvik "chapel") is a small chapel with its own cemetery. It is placed on the outskirts of the
I hope they will succeed since a large part of my family has been buried here.
Today we have a piece of local history.
In front: The old steamer "D/S Oster", restored and famous in local song and writing. Here it is seen crossing "Osterfjorden" as it did every day for decades.
At the back : "Saltverket"(The Saltworks) - an unsuccessful attempt to extract salt from the sea. It was built right after World War I, but the founders could not make a profit out of it, so it was closed down before it was properly started. Since then, it has been used for all kinds of small industry.
We have a white lilac which has never amounted to much (proably due to our lack of knowledge on how to do proper gardening). However, this year it is full of white blossoms. And we had almost cut it down this spring...
Blue and yellow are usually considered to be the colours of Sweden, our neighbours. But why should they have such a beautiful colour combination all to themselves? I have these in my garden. In Norwegian they are called "Gyvel". According to my dictionary that should mean "Broom" in English, but that is all I know about the subject.
But I like the colours.
Norway has many glaciers. Folgefonna is one of the largest and it can be seen as the last, white range in the picture above. It is about 80 kilometers from Bergen, but can easily be seen from many areas since its highest point i 1660 meters above sea level.
BTW, this picture was taken about half an hour after the one shown below. No more fog.
In these parts we are not far from the North sea. This can lead to fog rolling in from the ocean on fine summer nights. But it can also make for spectacular views in the morning when the fog is lifting. The mountain which can be seen over the fog here is called Lyderhorn and can be seen in the background on several other pictures on this Blog. From its top you can also get a very special view of Bergen and its surroundings.
The summer has returned to us, and our 20 years old mauve rhododendron has finally burst into bloom. Rhododendrons is by far my favourite plant, and we have several (see for instance here). I do not know its name (maybe somebody does??) - I only know that it is not a proper summer untill it is in full bloom
It blooms now.
I have previously written about the 17th of May - the most important date in the Norwegian calendar. Today is the 7th of June - maybe the second most important date. In fact, at least four important Norwegian historical events fell on the 7th of June (in 1895, 1905, 1940 and 1945). Here I'll only mention 1905.
In 1905, Norway had a so-called personal union with Sweden through their common king, Oscar II. Although Norway had a very independent status within the union, there had been a long-standing dispute about separate consular representation and other issues. Matters came to a head on this date, when the Norwegian Prime Minister Christian Michelsen ( I will not mention his home town, but you may be able to guess it) more or less performed a (peacful) coup d'etat and disposed of the union in a speach in Stortinget (our Parliamant). Also known as "The revolution of the dependent clause".
Of course everything did not go quite smoothly thereafter, but eventually it all settled down quietly and Norway got a new king, Haakon VII, formerly prince Carl of Denmark. An important role in all of this was played by King Edward VII of Britain, who was prince Carl's father-in-law.
By the way, the statue on top of this post shows Christian Michelsen. The base is 17,93 m high and it was raised in his home town in 1938. It was made by the famous Norwegian sculptor, Gustav Vigeland.
This time Bergen has been visited by the the Royal Navy, in this case nr. P282, better known as the "HMS Severn". According to the Royal Navy's home page: She is the second of three River Class Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) to come into service, and along with sister ships, HM Ships Tyne and Mersey makes up the majority of the Fishery Protection Squadron of the Royal Navy.
In this case she is neither on a river nor on an ocean, but in a fjord.
There are several attractions shown in this picture: There is the largest Norwegian sailing ship "Statsraad Lehmkuhl" and there is the Norwegian frigate "KNM Trondheim" (soon to be replaced by a new class of frigates) and both in front of the old medieval fortress called Bergenhus. This in its turn contains the Rosenkrantz Tower and Haakonshallen - both famous in Norwegian history.
Yesterday I showed you a white rhododendron that we have and also said that the azaleas belongs to the same family as the rhododendrons. Today's picture shows a red azalea that we also have, though I am sorry to say that I do not know its proper name. Maybe someone can tell me? I think it is beautiful anyhow.
According to Wikipedia,
Rhododendron (from the Greek: rhodos, "rose"; dendron, "tree") is a genus of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae. It is a large genus with over 600 species. They may be either evergreen or deciduous, and most have showy flower displays. It includes the plants known to gardeners as azalea.Most species prefer acidic soil conditions without drought and not too much sun, so it is no wonder that they are found in great abundance in Western Norway. Bergen is famous for its large variety of big and well-kept rhododendrons. However, the one on the picture is one of my own.
Yesterday another large newcomer visited Bergen - the cruise ship "Costa Magica" (102.600 BWT built in 2005) . This is one of the 248 visits made by such ships to Bergen this year.
I am not much of a church visitor - rather to the contrary. But we all have to admit that many of them represent interesting motives for photographers. The one shown here is the local church (Foldnes kirke in Norwegian), a typical modern, Norwegian church. A church built more to be used for many purposes than to be impressive architecture. But, seen like this, yesterday evening in the evening sun, it still makes for an interesting view.
