July 31,
Thursday
We awoke
comfortably in a family home and after coffee and conversation sat down to
another wonderful breakfast spread.
However, this time, we were pleased to partake of Haakon’s own recipe of
pickled herring in a sauce of carrots, onions, raisins, and a host of other
accomplements. Spread over bread and
cheese, it was delectable.
We left
midmorning and Haakon drove us down to the local Stave Church. Once located in Sogn, it was burned down on
6/6/06 at 6 a.m. by Satanists. Several
Stave churches were burned in the 2000-2007 years by such groups. The church was acquired by a Bergen
billionaire and moved to Bergen, refitted and rebuilt. It now sits in a Bergen park and serves as a
tourist destination and wedding chapel and continues to be funded by that local
family.
In the
afternoon we traveled to the Edward Grieg site and attended a solo concert by
Tor Espen Aspass, a noted Norwegian pianist, and a recent soloist at Carnegie
Hall. His one hour concert, set in a
beautiful hall overlooking the lake where Greig composed much of his work, was
a stunning setting and classical musical experience.
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| Grieg home. |
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| Concert venue at Grieg home. |
It began
raining in the afternoon (Bergen averages 87 inches of rainfall a year, almost
3 times the rainfall of Seattle) but we braved the weather to walk the Old Hill
(Gamlegaugen) Castle, the former home of the first Prime Minister, 1905, who is
buried on the site. Now the castle is
the official home of the King and Queen as the visit Bergen.
 |
| Gamlegaugen |
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| A rain break at the castle. King Haakon and his subjects. |
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| Haakon's namesake. |
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| Burial place of Norway's first prime minister, 1905. |
We then
retired to Laegdene home. A dinner followed
of salmon and Austrian wine. More
stories and many more laughs.
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