Bergen and a visit to Trollhaugen – home of the composer Edvard Grieg.

I was very lucky with the weather in Norway. Call me prophetic but I happened to choose the one week in October when temperatures remained in the high teens (in Centigrade or low 60’s in Fahrenheit) and rather than a Blizzard, we had sunshine for the most part, apart from when we went to Flam (previous photos) where it rained all day.

Bergen is known for being the second largest city in Norway after its capital Oslo. It also has milder winter temperatures but rains for 270 days a year! We were lucky because, although it rained in the morning, we had a lovely sunny afternoon.

This part of Bergen is known as Bryggen and is the oldest part of the harbour. The wooden buildings here were rebuilt after the war but recreate the original harbour that dates back to medieval times. The City was one of the key outposts of the Hanseatic League, a trading union similar to the Single Market or the European Union, which operated in Northern Europe in the middle ages.

This is Haakon’s Hall, named after the Norwegian King Haakon. This is a post-war reconstruction of what the original building would have looked like.

This is a statue of the Composer, Edvard Grieg. On the left is the new concert hall which gives small concerts and piano recitals of Grieg’s music. His music from the Peer Gynt suite is particularly famous, including Morning, The Hall of the Mountain King and Anitra’s dance, to name but a few.

This wooden house is called Trollhaugen, (Home of the Trolls) and was named by Grieg’s wife Nina. The house was built in 1885/6 and they lived here only in the summer months. It was built in a very traditional style and had no electricity or running water (despite being available at the time) because Edvard Grieg was ultra conservative. 

This is a photograph of the Composer (on the right) entertaining with friends. His wife is in the centre of the picture. Nina was a soprano and most of Edvard’s music for the voice was written for her. They had lots of friends, including the composers Lizst and also Tchaikovsky.

Edvard Grieg demanded absolute silence when he was composing and he found his house was too noisy so he built himself a wooden cabin on the edge of the lake in which he did most of his work.

This stone in the cliff marks the grave of Edvard Grieg who lived from 1843 to 1907. His wife, Nina is also buried here. She lived from 1845 to 1935. The grave is pointing eastwards over the lake because Grieg wanted them to always face the rising sun.

This is a photo taken through the window into Grieg’s private hut where he wrote his music.

 

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the photographs of my truly magical journey to Norway. I loved the country and the scenery and am now saving up so I can visit Oslo in a few years time.

🙂

 

https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/10/18/prophetic/

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/10/18/rdp-thursday-blizzard/