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Bergen is the second largest city in Norway, the waterfront area is charming and very picturesque. In the 13th century, Bergen was the capital of Norway. For five hundred years Bergen played a major role in governing the area. In April 1944 a German ammunition ship exploded in the harbor with 120 tons of explosives and most the harbor was totally destroyed or was damaged. No one knows for sure if it was sabotage or not. So most of what you see was rebuilt in the 1950s.

Bergen gets an average of 80 inches of rain a year and about 60 days of sunshine. I think most that 80 inches fell in the last two days. It has not stopped raining since I have been here and the temperature has not gotten above 58 deg-F. Even with the awful weather, I did manage to go to the KODE art museum, take a tour of Rosenkrantz Tower and the Bergen’s Fortress. The KODE Art Museum contains a large collection of modern art and impressionist art work. The kind of art where roles of yarn are attached to a wall and old movies are showing at various angles on the wall. Most of the museum was not to my taste expect they did have a large exhibit of Edvard Munch which I enjoyed very much. Rosenkrantz tower was the seat of power in the region for 600 years and the tour was great.

I will be traveling home tomorrow. I cannot believe my tour of Scandinavia is coming to an end soon. One humorous side note, the Rick Steves Scandinavia tour checked into the hotel last night and I had a short conversation with some of the tour members. They all seemed to be having a good time. For one couple, it was their 15th tour with Rick Steves Tour Groups. I will be posting a lessons learned when I get home and will summarize all my tips for travel.