Down on the waterfront in Bergen, there’s an area of wooden buildings called Bryggen. It’s where the Hanseatic League of German merchants lived and worked when they first arrived in Bergen in the 1300s. It has been destroyed and rebuilt several times, but keeps its historic nature with authentic building materials and architecture:
The buildings are set out in long connected lines with narrow alleyways between them:
The main trade item in the early days of Bryggen was stockfish, which were not this big in real life:
Some of the buildings have been removed to allow for space for tourists to move around within the area:
Round the corner is a museum within a Hanseatic asseembly house, where the merchants would gather for meals. It has lots of decorative carved wood:
And also a lot of cabbages:
Some of the cabbages are more important than other cabbages:
Today, the remaining buildings contain a range of different shops, including a Tea Dragon!
Moose!
We had lunch in another Hanseatic assembly house, which was very atmospheric and served reindeer on toast:
We went on two tours round Bryggen because it was so interesting:
Highly recommended as a place to visit!