We pay a short visit to Bergen and have a re-acquaintance with a dear friend from Tanzania. We also briefly discuss the price of Norwegian life.
City visit to Bergen
We have found a spot on the south bank of the Puddefjorden, a parking space that we found through Park4Night.
We can stay here for 2 nights, quiet and close to the city. Out of curiosity, we are going to take a look at the Kulturkafeen Lyst&Fryd.
The fireplace is lit for us and we drink a nice wine and beer from the tap. Later we also enjoy the traditional Plukkfisk. A kind of stew of pulled cod with potatoes and cream and butter with (for Gert Jan) fried bacon on top, very tasty. We were actually attracted by the Kulturkafeen (culture café), but the current owner can’t tell us anything about that…
We have another drink by the fireplace and return to our Milady later in the evening, warmed up.
The next morning we walk into town, over the high bridge over the Puddefjorden.
The city welcomes us with reasonably dry weather, a single drizzle passes over. Bergen has the name that it always rains there, so we are lucky.
On the basis of the Izi.Travel walk, Bergen in Edvard Griegs Footsteps, we walk through the city. We cannot find the house where he was born, but we can find the church where he was baptized.
The Bue Corps museum, not open at this time of year, is a striking old building in the otherwise fairly modern city center.
We can imagine the young Edvard Grieg wandering around the fishing harbor and the old town of Bryggen.
A passerby tells us that this building, which now houses the McDonalds, is the oldest in Bergen.
We wander further through the city and arrive at the brand new concert hall that Edvard Grieg overlooks in the rain.
A Tanzanian friend
Earlier we met Philippo through our daughter Suzanne. This afternoon we have an appointment with him and we have a nice chat about family, Tanzania and what drives us when traveling and discovering new countries. It turns out we have a lot in common.
In the evening Philippo comes to visit us in our house on wheels. It was very nice to have met each other again.
Edvard Griegs house in Troldhaugen
I wrote a blog with YouTube video about our visit to the Edvard Grieg museum in Troldhaugen. Here are some more atmospheric images.
The price of Norwegian life
Norway is expensive to travel, we hear many people say.
That’s right, if you live like in the Netherlands, a drink in a cafe, every now and then out for dinner, shopping at the AH, camping at a campsite.
We try to do that differently, so that we can still manage with our budget, of a maximum of €100 per day for two. And we succeed, we do the shopping, fill up the car with diesel, we spend the night at a campsite once a week and we go out for dinner once in a while. We can even pay for the additional warm clothing that we have purchased from this budget.
We do our shopping at the local supermarket, usually at the Kiwi or the Rema 1000. There we look for the less expensive seasonal vegetables, the other vegetables are very expensive. (calculate roughly 10 Norwegian kroner = 1€ (1$)).
The diesel is about 20-30% more expensive than in the Netherlands. So we try to cut back on the number of kilometers we drive per day.
We search through Park4Night or Campercontact for places where we can camp in the wild. We don’t have to shower every day, we can wash at our sink. Once a week we go to a campsite to shower, do the laundry and write our blogs.
And, we really go out for dinner, we have a glass of wine or a beer in a cafe and we especially enjoy our free life.