Bratland Camping, Bergen - 9 July 2018

Geoff 

We didn't have too much planned for today. We intended to check out the drive to Bergen airport for tomorrow but, on the way, decided to visit Troldhaugen, the home of composer, Edvard Grieg. In fact, we spent about four hours there. 

We watched a film that was mainly lovely scenery with Grieg background music. Then we went to see his large wooden hut looking out across the water. A beautiful setting. We sat around for a while before attending a lunchtime concert by a notable local pianist, Einar Steen-Nøkleberg. They put on concerts like this every day. It was in a small hall built into the rocky hillside with superb acoustics. 

We deliberately sat right at the back so as to make a dash for the museum cafeteria. In fact, we were virtually the only ones there for much of the time although others were seated outside. The food, quite a limited range, was nicely done. We had smoked trout and salad wraps, amazingly good cinnamon buns (the best yet) and coffee. 

We followed lunch with a tour of Grieg's house, virtually untouched since his death in 1907, the tomb holding his and his wife's ashes and the museum display. 

A trip the few miles out to the airport and then back to the site for a leisurely rest of day. 

Amanda
It really felt like holiday to wake up knowing that we would be back in the same place tonight, for the first time in four weeks! It has been a lovely day, so much so that halfway through we decided to declare it Geoff's honorary birthday, since I won't be here for his real one on Friday. There were several food-related treats, very enjoyable, if not very good for the waistline. 

First thing, Geoff arrived back at the camper bearing freshly baked baguettes for breakfast, still warm, bought from the little on site shop. What a treat. Last night, in going through the Bergen booklet, I had come across details of the Edvard Grieg Museum at Troldhaugen which looked well worth a visit. Then we discovered that it is less than 20 minutes drive away, on our side of the city, so an obvious choice for today, which started out overcast.

What a great way to while away a few hours, especially when the weather brightened up. It is a really lovely place, with a modern exhibition building also housing a shop and cafe, and an extraordinary 200 seat concert hall built into the hillside in 2007, the centenary of his death. It is said to have the best acoustics in Norway. There is also Grieg's lovely house, with the downstairs rooms as they were in 1907, the hut near the lake where he did his composing, and his burial site. The whole site is elegant and beautifully kept without being sanitised, and feels tranquil despite the coachloads of visitors, who fortunately all seem to be on very tight schedules, so came and went while we took our time. The thirty minute lunchtime piano recital by Einar Steen-Nokleberg, with a view of the composer's hut through the picture window behind the grand piano, was very special.

We followed it with a delicious lunch in the almost empty cafe - smoked trout and egg salad wrap and a Grieg-bun, a sort of cross between a cinnamon bun and a Danish pastry, fresh from the oven, washed down with excellent coffee. We then managed to view the house in between coach parties, having it and a guide, to ourselves, and to go down the winding path through the woods to the lakeside burial site in the rock, with few other people around. 

Altogether a really memorable experience. And then, after a slight detour to check out the route to the airport for tomorrow, back to the campsite for a cup of tea, and a relaxed evening. The camping food supper was never going to live up to the rest of the day, but never mind!