Sea waves to sound waves....

Day 28: Wednesday, 27th May, 2026.

Bergen.

A rare dry day.... with some sunshine to boot!

...So a spot more sightseeing was in order...first stop - Bergenhus Fortress, down at the harbour.

The Fortress itself contains buildings that date back to the early 1240's, and also has more modern buildings erected during World War II. Of the Medieval buildings only two remain - Haakon's Hall (built during King Haakon Hakonsson's reign 1217-1263) which in it's day, was the largest building of the Royal Palace of Bergen...

...and a Medieval tower, that was incorporated into a larger structure in the 1500's - "Rosenkrantz Tower"...

...which provided some pretty nice views..

...as well as a replica gravestone of Sir Eric Rosenkrantz which was eerily reminiscent of a loved one back home...Robin-nopanz...

...and then another few mouldings aptly depicted my North Sea crossing face...

Then a donder back through Bryggen...for a spot of retail therapy...

...and our first Bergen al fresco lunch...

...but not before the Captain had paid his respects to 'Shetland Larsen' - the legendary Captain of the "Shetland Bus" - a clandestine operation during WW2 that used small fishing vessels to secretly transport resistance fighters, agents and supplies across the North Sea to Nazi-occupied Norway. He was able to successfully complete 52 secret round-trip crossings, and became the most decorated World War 2 Allied Naval Officer.

...and then we realized that the Bergen International Festival had just started, so we bought tickets for the Bergen Philharmonic opening night...

...and went back to the boat via Nygardsparken, a lovely park, reminiscent of Princes' Street Gardens in Edinburgh...

...and had a few hours to catch up on blogs and passage plans and a dinner aboard, before joining the festival crowd, and attending the philharmonic performance of some Wagner, and Oliver Messaien's "Turangalila Symphony" - conducted by the Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen.

The Wagner was beautiful , but to our untrained ears the 80 minute, 10 movement "Tarangalila Symphony" which was described as 'shifts between intense, brutal depictions of death/pain and rapturous, ecstatic expressions of love' sounded pretty discordant and dissonant, with only a few melodious forays to cling on to. It did end in a pretty lovely long harmonious chord but lets just say neither of us will be downloading it on Spotify!

Glad we had gone, and feeling a little more cultured, we accepted our philistine musicality, and made our way back to the boat...

... to enjoy the last rays of the very long evening light....