In recent years I have occasionally used this column to describe some of my favorite cities, including Amsterdam and Middelburg in the Netherlands,  Gothenburg, Sweden, Salzburg, Austria, Sarajevo, Bosnia/Herzegovina, and my home base, Northampton, Massachusetts. This time I write about Bergen, Norway, a place that has the distinctive label, "GATEWAY TO THE FJORDS."

"Gateway to the Fjords." Those four words are expressed everywhere in Bergen.  The first time one sees them is when deplaning at the Bergen airport. It is a most apt salutation, for this old coastal seaport is the point of departure for all sorts of trips for locals and tourists who want to get to the outlying islands, cruise some of the deepest and longest fjords in the world, or to ride the mail boat that takes passengers and goods along the lengthy west coast of the country. (For those on board one of the vessels for more than a day, small cabins may be reserved.) Larger ships of many cruise lines stop there, too, some heading on all the way to the arctic land called Spitsbergen.

But truth to speak, sometimes the emphasis on where one can get to from Bergen detracts from the appeal of the fascinating city itself.  It is one of only nine European towns honored to be listed as a "Capital of Culture." The title is well deserved.

Bergen, which now has a permanent population of a quarter of a million people, was established as a village in 1070, in Viking times.  Significant archaeological evidence of that period is handsomely displayed in the Bryygens Museum, located in the very area where it all began. There visitors will find sledges, parts of boats, weapons, eating utensils and other stone, wooden and metal artifacts, many with runic inscriptions. Behind the museum is the medieval church, Mariakirken. Nearby is the rock-solid Bergenhus Festning, a fortress overlooking the approach to the city. It has several fully restored stone buildings, including the handsome Håkonshallen. Constructed in the middle of the 13th century, the hall was the seat of the medieval kingdom. 

Next to it is the Rosenkrantztårnet, an imposing tower, built mainly for defensive purposes 200 years later. Also the fortress grounds there is also a still-extant cement bunker, an ugly reminder of the German occupation of Norway from 1941-1945.

A block away are the buildings most often seen in pictures of Bergen, the more recent – relatively speaking -- wooden structures of the Hanseatic era, built in the days where Bergen was a most important commercial center and one of the a number of trading cities joined together in the Hanseatic League. (The League, established in 1241 was an alliance in Northern Europe.  At its Zenith it reached from London to Novgorod in Russia.  It lasted for several hundred years. Other cities in the league included Bremen, Cologne, Danzig, Halle, Hamburg, Hannover, Lübeck, Rostock and several ports along the North Sea and on both sides of the Baltic Sea.)

Over the centuries (most recently in the 1950s) fire destroyed many of the Bryygen’s iconic and colorful buildings. Luckily, some did survive and are still in use, and most are even now engaged in trade, but not of the sort that made them famous. The principal goods these days are souvenirs: heavy Norwegian sweaters and caps, Norwegian flags and pins, tee-shirts, plastic Viking helmets, models of wart-nosed trolls and lots of smaller Made-in-China, ersatz reminders of Norway for tourists to take home. Once again business is booming in the Bryggen. (N.B. Not far from that tourist area is a government-run store that offers more authentic clothing and handicraft from Bergen and other regions of the country.)
                           
There is also a fascinating Hanseatic museum along the Bryygen strip as well as several nice restaurants and pubs  with in- and out-door service. In good weather many people sit outside, drink beer and watch the passing scene. When large sailboats and the occasional tall ships enter the harbor it is possible to get some sense of what Bergen's quayside was like in its earlier heyday.

The Bryygen is on one side of a U-shaped inner harbor, which opens to the west, and an archipelago of rocky, sparsely treed islands on which many Norwegians have built summer homes and where some live year-round. Where there are no bridges, crossers depend on small ferries and private vessels.

At the bottom of the "U" a walker in the city comes to the famed fish market. Those who operate the stands often offer samples of their specialties such as smoked fish and different kinds of caviar to those who come to see as well as shop.
 
Behind the market all sorts of boats come and go, including several that offer short tours of the immediate waters from early May into the autumn.

Beyond the market and the wharfs is a commercial center with a huge plaza, the “Torget i Bergen.” It is the largest of several pedestrian zones in the city and one with an interesting plinth surrounded by sculptured representations of local inhabitants from Viking times to the modern era.  To the west is a street known as Klostergaten that slopes upward to an area with an old cloister and many well-preserved homes from the Hanseatic period. Unlike the buildings of the Bryggen, these are still used as originally intended; they are almost all residences. At the very end of the street – and the peninsula, jutting out into open water, is the Bergens Akvariet (aquarium).

First time visitors might like to see those sights,  Another interesting area is at the southern end of the Torget, marked by long stairs that lead to a haut bourgeois area of stately homes surrounding Johannes Kirken, an imposing Lutheran church.  Behind it are most of the old and new buildings of the University of Bergen, including its modern library and handsome state-of-the-art student center, its windows reflecting the elegance of the area’ 18th and 19th century houses.

In the same vicinity there is also the Natural History Museum and a large park that extends along the brow of the hill then down toward the city.  At the bottom and to the left is the Grieg Concert House.

Continuing to walk toward the center, you would pass by a large man-made pond in the center of a smaller, more urban park.  Going further and turning right, is Marken, a street and district of many shops all inside old wooden houses, each a remnant of another early neighborhood.  At the end of the Marken is the railroad station. Across from it is a huge bus station offering easy transportation to all parts of the city and its suburbs.
 
Above it all is the nearest mountain. People who live on its steep slopes have spectacular views and easy access to their homes via the Fløibanen, a funicular on rails that one enters through a small, whitewashed building near the Bryggen.  It climbs almost vertically up the slope.

The tram is also a favorite of tourists for it ends at an upper station where there is a huge overlook from which it is possible to get a bird's eye view of the city. There is also a restaurant (open from May-October), a souvenir shop (open all year round!), and a recreation area.  The summit house grounds also serve as the trailhead for those who wish to hike well-marked paths through the woods, some heading higher into the mountains, others winding back down to town, a walk that takes about an hour.

Over the past 40 years I have visited Bergen on a number of occasions, sometimes to use the city’s port as an point of departure for trips farther afield. But mostly I have gone there to lecture at the university and meet with old friends and their students and some of my own. There my colleagues and I often compared the character of America’s heterogeneous American population with their quite homogeneous one.  On a recent trip we discussed the fact that in recent years, Norway also has become a “plural society. Reliable statistics say that at present at least 25 per cent of the residents of the capital city, Oslo, are foreign born, and that one in 10 of those who live in Bergen are as well.

As recently as two decades ago, diversity in Norway meant distinctions in the valleys and villages people came from and whether one should speak old nynorsk (old Norwegian) instead of the more "Danish" version. Even today, Norwegians take considerable pride in their very local traditions, though they celebrate them together. This is best exemplified on May 17th, Independence Day, when young and old dress in their very distinctive regional costumes and jewelry while proudly fly their national flag.

Discussing these traditions and in light of the changes just mentioned, I was not surprised to hear some Norwegians, especially older ones, grumbling about the influx of those who have “invaded” their turf -- meaning migrants not tourists (though not a few grumble about them, too!).  Such views frequently were offset by younger people who commented on the long-term benefits in the arrival of those of immigrants and refugees, and also more immediate advantages, not least those that are clearly gastronomic. Today, in close proximity to the main tourist attractions and fine restaurants featuring traditional Scandinavian fare, there are at least a dozen non-Norsk "ethnic" cafes -- Indian, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Italian, "Middle Eastern," Vietnamese, Mexican, even Cajun.

Outside of the town there are also many things to do and see. For those on a short visit, nothing is better than the cleverly designed "Norway in a Nutshell,” a one day excursion that combines travel by train, bus, and boat into the mountains to Myrdal and then down through some of the smaller fjords, giving tourists a true sampler of this spectacular country.

The trip can be done several ways: a Bergen-Bergen loop or as part of a Bergen-Oslo or Oslo-Bergen day-trip (which takes passengers even higher into the mountains where there is often snow late in May.) I have taken these trips several times and never tire of them, nor, as a travel journalist, do I tire of hearing the voices of fellow passengers oo-ing and ah-ing as they snap countless photos of the waterways, woods, and treeless snowfields.

Bergen is reachable by air or sea and a seven-hour exciting train ride from the capital city of Oslo. Bergen and its surrounds is particularly appealing. I would list it as a priority stopover on any Scandinavian adventure.