Musical Norway

Haakon's Hall

I started the day by walking the Bergen Fortress. The tower was under reconstruction and there were workman about preparing for some event. Later that day we heard the music of ‘Pomp and Circumstance". The highlight of the walk was the 13^th century Haakon's Hall.

Troldhaugen

Our bus drove past some of the artistic sights: the theater, the concert hall and statues of artists before heading into the hills to Troldhaugen, the home of Edward Grieg. This was primarily his summer home, he only spent one winter here. On the water, was his composing room and on the cliff below the house was his and his wife's grave. We were treated to a brief concert of Grieg's work by the pianist of the Bergen symphony. He played both familiar works like March of the Trolls and a Mother's grief and selections from his other works. Next week marks Greg’s 175^th birthday and Norway will be broadcasting 30 hours of his music including from his piano at the house.

Then we headed back into town to have lunch in one of the Hanseatic assembly rooms. Here we were treated to folk music played on a Hardanger fiddle, a Norwegian instrument with 9 strings, played two at a time providing a unique sound, a normal fiddle, and a Longelite from Medieval times.

We boarded our Hurtigruten ship, the Midnatsul, in time for dinner and sailed off about 8 PM. We were impressed with the ship, built in 2003, it has typical cabins, and lots of areas to view the scenery. The line started in 1893 providing a connection for the villages and towns along the coast. Today they have 11 ships, and tourism has supplanted cargo as their major source of revenue.

Leaving Bergen