Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
across narrow alleys. The last Hanseatic merchant moved out centuries ago,
but this is still a place of (touristy) commerce. You'll find artists' galler-
ies, massage parlors, T-shirt boutiques, leather workshops, atmospheric but
overpriced restaurants, fishing tackle shops, and sweaters, sweaters, sweat-
ers...plus trolls.
The area is flanked by two worthwhile museums within a five-minute walk
of each other (the Bryggens Museum and Hanseatic Museum). Right in the
middle of Bryggen is the tiny, often-closed
Theta Museum
, giving a glimpse
into the WWII resistance movement.
Up Bellgården (at the far-right end as you face wooden Bryggen—it's the
lane under the golden deer head) is the little
“visitors center,”
which is more
ofagiftshopindisguise.Hereyou'llfindavideoandafewphotosillustrating
how they are trying to rebuild the tenement houses using the original methods
and materials (good 80-kr Bryggen guidebook, daily June-Aug 9:00-17:00,
May and Sept 10:00-16:00, closed Oct-April).
The visitors center faces a wooden tenement that is currently undergoing
restoration. If this preservation work is still going on during your visit, it's a
fascinating chance to see modern people wrestling with old technology in the
name of history.
Just past the visitors center, you'll pop out into a small square with a wish-
ing well and a giant, grotesque wooden sculpture of a
dried cod
—the unlikely
resource that put this town on the map. As you may have noticed, around Ber-
gen, cod is as revered as, well, God.
• When you're done exploring the bowels of Bryggen, head back out to the
main road and continue strolling with the harbor on your right.
Half of Bryggen (the brick-and-stone stretch between the old wooden
facades and the head of the bay) was torn down around 1900. Today these
stately buildings—far less atmospheric than Bryggen's original wooden
core—are filled with tacky trinket shops and touristy splurge restaurants.
Head to the lone wooden red house at the end of the row, which today
housesthe
HanseaticMuseum.
Themanwhoownedthisbuildingrecognized
the value of the city's heritage and kept his house as it was. Considered a nut-
case back then, today he's celebrated as a visionary, as his decision has left
