Håkonshall and the Fortress - a Medieval Treasure

The promise of winter is in the air somedays but mostly it just rains. This is the view as we cross the street to begin our morning walk. That is Ulriken mountain, one of several that surround the city.

 Last Tuesday we took Bybanen (The city train) to the city center.

It was a beautiful fall day - warm in the sunshine but cool in the shade. A perfect day for just a windbreaker and your sunglasses.

We walked around the wharf area to the point that most ships pass on their way into Bergen. This is a fortress from the 1200's.

As you enter you pass Rosenkrantz Tower - built  by Magnus Lagabøte the son of Håkon Håkonsen. The tower wasn't open so we waited for the hall to open at noon.

The father and son ruled as a team. The son from his tower and the father from his hall.



This is Håkonshall, built around 1247- 1260. It is the largest secular medieval building still standing in Norway. It has been re-built a few times - most recently in 1944 when a Dutch ship, carrying gunpowser under the Nazi flag, mysteriously blew up with a terrific explosion.

The wooden lean-to on the front covers the staircases that allow you easy access to all three floors.

The building is all local stone and has the cool gothic downspouts and windows that look like arrowloops.

The complex has ruins of other buildings used for stores and residences through the centuries.

No bar-b-que zone!

The window and door casements are carved soapstone.



The outer walls are thick.

This is the great hall - impressive heh? You can rent the place for occassions. How about a destination wedding in Bergen. The wedding party could all wear rubber boots!

This is the Royal High Table.



 We liked the cool little passageways that lead from floor to floor.

and the windows

and that wooden ceiling / roof support.



The old main entrance and the big new staircases that lead from floor to floor.

So, how on earth, you are wondering, do they hold up that heavy plank floor in the Great Hall? These columns made of all of these stones stacked and mortered together support the floor. By the way, after the wedding just come downstairs for the meal - plenty of seating.

More thick walls on the lower floors. This window looks out on the harbor.

Getting to bedrock for your foundation in Bergen is no problem. The problem is getting the bedrock out of the way.

We had a delightful time in the fortress before making our way back by Bryggen. You can see that tourist season is over.

Here is the problem with cobblestone streets - maintenance and re-laying all the cobbles.

City Park looked lovely and was filled with people taking in the fall sunshine.

A word - no matter how important or distinguished you were/are - a seagull on your head makes you look pretty silly.

Wait, who is this on the town square with their sidewalk chalk? The LDS Elders and Sisters of Bergen are drawing a huge "plan of salvation" chart complete with Norwegian and English labels.

Our good young Elder Spenser is a fine artist and the others are good at filling in the arrows.

Before the chalk is all on the pavement they have a crowd of people with questions about the chart. We talked with them and hung around before going back to Rådal and our evening duties.



Church and Community

 We flew to Trondheim for Zone conference with the North Zone. Some of the far northern cities - above the Arctic Circle are open again so all of the Elders and Sisters from as far North as Alta and as far south as Ålesund were there. The Springers on the left and The Steeds on the right are the YSA center directors. Our mission President Armand Johansen and his wife Julie are in the middle.

 Back in Bergen.

This is our church building. It was opened in 1966 when I was a greenie. It is in great shape. The one room addition was just a little over a year ago...

The Center for Young Adults was added on along with a small family history center and a district presidents office.

 

 Inside the center at Family Home Evening last Monday

Last week we also were guests at Tricia's home in Laksevåg. The apartments are small but each one is stacked up on a steep hillside and has a little deck with a fantastic view of the old town and harbor.

This is Tricia's view just out the back door.

We don't have that kind of view but we love our our leilighet. It is the one with the yellow table cloth in the window. We are located next to a great walking path, which was just extended to make the walk to Lagunen shopping center very conveinient plus we are now also connected to another major bike and walking path.

We can see "our" little waterfall from the dining area. Tuesday we rushed home from district meeting and dinner for the event of the week, which took place just beyond the creek. Our neighbor, Freddy, invited us to the grand opening. A few brave souls gathered in what turned out to be scattered hail and rain at about 45 degrees to officially open the path.

The guy with the brown bag is from Rana Avis the local paper.

We all huddled in our raingear to watch and listen.

Kids from the Barna Hage (daycare) sang to us about the animals in the woods.

They each had their animal face paint on.

This lady was the driving force behind the trail. She raised 350,000 kroner in grants and donations plus donated labor to fix what had been a scar on the hillside leftover from development in the area. She told us the whole story back to the late '90's.

The French Horn trio came from the Grieg Institute in Bergen and was remarkable as they played in the wind and hail. Their lips had to be near freezing!

Finally the moment we had all been waiting for. The fifth and final speaker had one of the kids cut the ribbon and we all hot footed it back to our apartments to warm up.

We have a new trail and we got to know some of our neighbors a little better.

The Stave Church on a Sunny Day

We don't have many days without some rain, so when we get a day with full sunshine it is a time for celebration. Everybody goes walking and the parks fill to overflowing. We visited a Stav Kirke that is located a few kilometers away.

It is just up here at the top of these switchbacks.

Stave Churches were built to mimic Medieval architecture but they were built with wood not stone. They were built in the 1100's and 1200's mostly. This is just after the Viking period so there are remnants of the pre-Christian period of Norway. You will find Mary sharing space with dragons in and on these churches.

 This church was built in 1150 in Fortun in Sogn county (just north of here). It was moved to this location in 1883 but burned in 1992. So, this one is an exact replica of the original.

Stav is the word for post and refers to the post and beam construction of the churches. Vertical planks fill in the many wall frames of these buildings. There is a large Stav Kirke that is still in use and is all original up in Sogn. After winter we'd like to go up and look at it.

Reminds me of the viking ships in design.

 Yes, it is all posts and beams here.

Of course the church was closed to visitors even though it was Saturday. Much of the tourist stuff shuts down in mid September and doesn't open again until May or June. So, we just got to look at the outside.

Another Norwegian traditional building technique is the "living roof"which is a good insulator and isn't supposed to leak. These are the toilets for the church site - cute huh?

Like everything else that you might expect to be free - these cost 10 kroner ($1.72 in this week's exchange rate) That is the same price as a shopping cart at the grocery store - not kidding. The handbaskets are free but the carts cost kr.10. If you are wondering; the church tour cost is kr80 per person. (just under $14)

Early Fall Report

 We started Autumn with a birthday celebration. Shanna turned #& years young on the Autumnal Equinox. The young adult group gave her a little party. Pilar, from Peru, is giving the gifts.

There was also time for a hot game of Jenga.

This place is a mass of islands. One of the suburb-islands of Bergen is Sotra. We have visited a couple of families out there. It is a wonderful rural island made up of dozens of little communities. Each one seems to have its own docking area. The new Norway features a population of about 4 million of which over 25% own a pleasure boat of some kind. There are boats everywhere.



Little rustic boat houses dot the shoreline.

The roads are narrow, sometimes steep, and always take you right down to the sea.



I have never before seen a road sign like this. It must mean: "Keep you eye on the road buster or you'll be in the drink!" - good advice.



 On to technology - We have two drying racks to go with out little washing machine. Two full loads will fill up this rack. Drying time is very fast because of the amazing spin cycle. It sounds like a 747 is starting up when the spin cycle begins. We wash several times each week to keep up with the laundry.

However, we wash drying towels from the church kitchen about three times a week.

 We didn't figure out what this thing was so our neighbor had to tell us when I asked him where the garbage dumpster was. This is where deposit wet trash (no in-sink garbage grinders here) and small paper, plastic and aluminum - all neatly tied in their trash bags. Our front door key opens this gizmo up. Look at the right corner of the picture. The little green topped thingy is the rest of the system.

Once a week the trash bag sucker comes and vacuums all of the bags from our building out of the pipe and into the back of his garbage truck. Flat cardboad and other larger flattened paper, newspaper and big pieces of plastic go in the dumpsters that are locked in the garage. Plastic containers have a deposit charge of 45 cents American. You redeem them at the grocery store. Bottles, little plastic containers and cans must be dropped off at little roadside stations all over town.

I know that may be too much information just to show two pictures but you've gotta love the trash sucker!