NORWAY

Lovely Country

       At the Hanseatic Museum we picked up a guided tour in English. Our timing was perfect! The museum is situated in one of the old trade houses at Bergen. The museum has old interiors from the 18th and 19th centuries.  In 1360 German merchants set up import/export offices in Bergen and dominated the trade for 400 years.

       The Hanseatic merchants traded mainly stock fish from Northern Norway and grain from Baltic countries. Only German merchants were allowed to live at Bergen during the period of the Hanseatic Office.  Hanseatics were unmarried and had to live in celibacy as long as they lived in the area. The tenements in the Bergen area each consisted of several smaller trade houses, each run by a merchant with a journeyman and apprentices. Neither light nor heating was allowed in the tenements because of the danger for fire. Behind each tenement there was an assembly hall, called schotstue, belonging to all the merchants of one or more tenements. The assembly halls could be heated, and in connection with these halls there were also a kitchen as well as storage room for food.

       A fire in 1702 reduced the city to ashes, but it was quickly rebuilt on the foundations that had been in place since the 11^th century. The museum is one of the best preserved buildings in the city and is furnished in the style of the 1700s.

      Hanseatic apprentices were teenage boys. They slept two to a bunk, head to toe, in narrow single beds in enclosed cabinets. They actually were locked in at night so there was no monkey business.  Punishment was severe for infractions of the rules. No smoking was allowed because of the real danger of fire.

     The League was created to protect economic interests and diplomatic privileges in cities and countries along the trade routes the merchants visited. The Hanseatic cities had their own legal system and furnished their own armies for mutual protection and aid. Despite this, the organization was not a city-state, nor can it be called a confederation of city-states; only a very small number of the cities within the league enjoyed autonomy.

     It was an interesting visit on a drizzly day and enlightened me to a society I had no idea ever existed.

           

    If you ask people what they associate with Norwegian history and culture, their answers will vary. Some will say the Vikings sailed to foreign parts to pillage and wage war, although the Vikings were in fact also merchants who founded kingdoms on foreign soil and brought back new impulses to Scandinavia. Others will point to internationally famous authors, composers, actors and painters. Others may mention attractions like Vigeland's sculpture park, Holmenkollen and the stave churches or the expeditions of Thor Heyerdahl, Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen. Maybe someone will mention smoked salmon, lutefish, reindeer meat, shrimps or cloudberries.  

    One thing is certain, Norway is more than untouched nature. The country, rich in history, is poor in large historic monuments. Nature has formed the Norwegian character and given it a kind of durability that has formed the Norwegian national identity. Thanks to the country's rich natural resources, Norway has long been an industrial nation. There is special pride in being one of the first countries to eradicate illiteracy!          

   My take away of  Norway include  its many smokers, restaurants not service oriented, AMs are misty but clear by mid morning, expensive, many fountains in parks, few hi-rise buildings, chestnut trees,  narrow streets, public restrooms frequent, clean and free, and courteous drivers   giving pedestrians a break!

    And the scenery is spectacular!