Bryggen is the site of the old medieval quarter. The long timber buildings are home to museums, restaurants and shops, but the alleys that run along the their less restored sides reveal the old Hanseatic trading houses.
These are the front of the houses in the alleyways above. The Hanseatic League was a commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in northwestern and central Europe. They grew from a few north German towns in the late 1100s and only diminished in importance and influence after 1450. The trading post in Bergen became one of the significant enclaves, mainly based on the fishing industry, especially cod.
The same houses seen from across the harbour.
I had taken photos on our first visit but the sight of the reflections in the shimmering water is too much of a temptation to take more photographs of these wonderful wooden houses. They are more than 300 years old.
It was explained on our walking tour that originally, the whole waterfront had been full of these wooden houses but there was a call for them to be pulled down and more modern buildings of concrete to replace them. These are the replacements. Conservation societies and many of the public protested and many of the old wooden houses were purchased and restored, in order to save them being pulled down.
An emblem of the cod trade, this wooden sculpture of a cod in the little square behind the Hanseatic houses.
Some dried fish at the fish market.
Bergen too has its beautiful and artistic manhole covers like some other cities. They are almost works of art themselves and very attractive.
Bergen Central Railway Station.
An attractive building.
An unusual clothes shop which had various costumes of different regions of Norway for sale.
Good to see you got a lot out of the walking tour
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