Bergen

Why go

Bryggen — the Hanseatic wharf of wooden warehouses, leaning and UNESCO-listed. Seven mountains around a fjord head — funicular up one, cable car up another. The fjord railway — Flåm and the Bergen line, among the great train journeys. Rain as identity — around 240 wet days a year, and the city is entirely unbothered.

The character

Bergen was Norway's capital until 1299 and the Hanseatic League's northernmost office, where German merchants ran the stockfish trade — dried cod from Lofoten, shipped south in enormous quantities, and the reason for the wooden wharf at Bryggen. The Germans lived under their own law in a compound of warehouses and hostels, forbidden to marry locally, for four hundred years. Bryggen burned repeatedly and was rebuilt each time on the same plots and in the same form, which is why the medieval layout survives in eighteenth-century timber.

The rain is the other constant. Bergen sits in a bowl of seven mountains at the head of a fjord, which traps Atlantic weather: around 240 days of precipitation a year and over two metres of it. Locals sell umbrellas as souvenirs, the tourist office issues an honest forecast, and nobody cancels anything. The city is Norway's second largest, with a serious music tradition — Grieg lived here, and the Bergen International Festival is the country's oldest — and it is the natural start for the fjords.

Places of character

Bryggen — the wharf's alleys between leaning warehouses; the Hanseatic Museum explains the trade. Fløibanen funicular — eight minutes to 320 metres, with the city, the fjord and the islands below. Fish market — the outdoor one for the theatre, the indoor hall for actually eating. Troldhaugen — Grieg's house and composing hut on a lake, with lunchtime concerts in summer. Ulriken cable car — the highest of the seven mountains, with a ridge walk back down to Fløyen. Flåm railway — one of the steepest standard-gauge lines in the world, from the Bergen line down to the fjord.

The way to do it

Accept the rain and buy the right coat. Do Fløyen on the first clear hour, because clear hours are not guaranteed. Take the Norway in a Nutshell route to Flåm — train, boat, bus — as a full day. And eat fish in the indoor market rather than the outdoor stalls.

One perfect day

Fløibanen at eight if the sky is clear, and the ridge walk toward Ulriken with the fjord below and the islands out to the Atlantic. Down by cable car. Coffee, then Bryggen's alleys and the Hanseatic Museum for the stockfish trade that built it. Fish soup in the market hall. Afternoon at Troldhaugen for a lunchtime Grieg concert in the hut where he wrote. Back for the harbour in the late light. Dinner of Norwegian seafood, and a walk along Bryggen with the wooden façades lit and the rain, probably, starting again.

Grand hotels

Hotel Norge by Scandic — the city's grand hotel since 1885, on Ole Bulls plass. Opus XVI — a Grieg family bank building in the old town, small and personal.

When to go

Best expression: May to September, when the fjords and the mountains are open and the light is long. Consider: late May for the Bergen International Festival. Avoid if possible: nothing on rain grounds — it rains all year and you will simply get wet.

The frame

Ideal stay 3 nights · Minimum 2 nights · Best arrival the Bergen railway from Oslo, seven hours across the mountains · Airport BGO, 18 km · Walkability excellent, steep at the edges · Best without a car yes