Bergen Maritime Museum



We knew today was going to be a rainy day, so we decided to go to the Bergen Maritime Museum to learn more about Greg's Viking ancestors as well as the role
of ship building in Bergen. 



Greg admiring a beautiful sailboat in the Bergen Harbor.


The Maritime Museum was about a two mile hike to the University area. Along the way, we passed some beautiful gardens. 





The museum was really nice - it started with a history of the earliest boats built by the Vikings. This is a model of Oseberg Ship that was found in a burial mound on a farm in Norway. It was excavated in 1904 and built sometime around 815-820 AD.

We saw a really interesting movie about the Viking Burial tradition for very important people - the king or warrior was laid on the Viking Ship. The horses and animals belonging to the king or warrior were sacrificed and also put on the deck of the ship along with the shields from all the warriors that traveled on the ship. Then the entire ship was burned. After the burning, the bone fragments of the king or warrior were buried under the charcoal remains of the ship and then a burial mound was constructed over the entire area. 





There was so much to read and learn about ship building, navigation, and the transition to steam-powered boats.



Between 1840 - 1930, more than 700,000 people emigrated from Norway to the US. This constituted the 2nd highest rate of emigration after Ireland. It all started with the boat called Restavation (see model
above) which left Norway with 53 emigrants in 1825. Particularly with all the discussion about immigrants today, it is interesting to look back at other periods of time when large numbers of people came to the United States. 







After all that learning, we stopped at a shop famous for it's hot chocolate. We then spent the rest of the day walking and exploring. Our last stop was at a restaurant built in 1889 where we had some delicious traditional Norwegian soup. 





Tomorrow morning we leave very early to catch the ferry to Balestrand where we will then drive to Tjugum, Norway. 

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