Bergen, Norway, Day 3

Bergen, Norway, Day 3

So, Day 3 I set out to see the city's museums. There are many here and I love history so I will start there. The first museum was an actual house where the fishermen and boss lived.

Bergen was a fishing village for many years and they traded in many areas of their world.

Here is a picture of the working men sleeping quarters. The workers did not associate with the bosses on a social level. They were separated.
 

The bosses were not always Norwegian. Sometimes they were German. I overheard a tour guide saying that the "book" that registers the amount of fish that comes in and the sales, stays with the house even if the previous boss was German and went back to Germany. This museum was very interesting!
 



The second museum I went to told the history of how the town of Bergen got started. It was a very small village and grew and grew. They constructed homes over the fiord - so, on water. Then a lot of them burned down.

 



Bergen was a major port in its day and traded with many places around the world. There were pottery shards from Greece, jewelry and other artifacts from Egypt, items from Turkey, China and other places around the world.

Very interesting!

 

Now, the last topic of interest that I will share from this 2nd museum is runes. They were written in Old Norwegian and for religious purposes, in Latin but again, in runes. I thought runes were only used like to toss 2 or 3 dice and see what fortune the runes are giving you. That sort of thing. But runes were the way that they communicated back then. And, we still cannot totally understand runes.

Sorry! Don't know how to rotate the picture but these are actual rune writings! I think it is pretty fascinating!