In Bergen, Karen, Clara, and Erik visited the 12th Century Mariakirken ("St. Mary's church"), the oldest surviving church in Bergen. Later we found out that in the 12th Century there had been 17 churches serving a population of, oh, it must have been about 12,000. Naturally they would all have been Catholic at that point.

Later we went to the Bryggens Museum, run by the University of Bergen. "Bryggen" means "dock" or "wharf," and is the word still used to refer to the very center of Bergen. The museum concentrates on Bergen from the 12th century through to about the 17th century and includes many original items from the time, including medieval ice skates, dice, purses, shoes, and cloth. Of particular interest were dozens of small strips of wood bearing inscriptions in Old Norwegian and medieval Latin. These were all inscribed in runes rather than the Latin alphabet; the Latin inscriptions were generally short prayers, but the Norwegian ones were much more interesting: "Gerda says you should come home" and "Come kiss me, my darling." An exhibit through September showed much about the medieval "urban code" of Bergen, including archaeological evidence of roads and buildings being modified to bring them "up to code."

We stopped by the retail store associated with the Sami's (Lap's) first Silversmiths: "Juhl's Silver Gallery." The shop is interesting and filled with delightful jewelry and other hand-crafted items. Most captivating, though, were the pictures on the walls of -- and the shopkeeper's descriptions of -- the enclave in the far northern town of Kautokeino where the jewelry is made. A few good pictures are displayed at this site, if you're interested. It is worth letting the pictures download completely. Another picture is available here. We stayed here entirely too long, captivated by photos of Sami in otherwise traditional garb almost completely covered with silver jewelry -- which is now practically traditional itself.

For lunch, Karen shopped at the fish market (smoked herring and a roll with lox) and Erik shopped at the fruit market (cherries and grapes). We got some bread at a bakery, and proceeded to feast on a bench right next to the water. Delicious!

Truly, very little of our vacation was spent shopping, but we spent some time at two other shops in Bergen worthy of mention. One was a vendor with a cart right in the center of things by the fish market. Susan Fosse Knitwear (yes, it's a temporary cart that gets taken down each evening, but they have a web site) had some of the very nicest sweaters, hats, and mittens that we saw in Norway. You can order from their web site, but it's considerably less expensive to buy directly at their cart.

Another highlight was Husfliden, a store filled with wonderful sweaters, linens, and traditional regional dress bunad. This is where many Norwegians buy this clothing (typically as Confirmation gifts), when they don't make them themselves.

A museum to which we had very much wanted to go was on its last day of winter hours, so we were not able to see it when we'd expected to: the Hanseatic Museum of Bergen. Their web site appears to be non-functional, so here are some relevant links via Google.

Finally, we took the Oslo train directly back "home." It rained most of the way, and we were again thankful that the weather was so cooperative.

On June 1st, we visited the Gustav Vigeland sculpture park and received Nobel prizes....