River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1894-08-30
LETTER FROM NORWAY.
From a private letter written by our
tourist townsman Soren j. Rasmussen
we make the following excerpt:

tourist townsman Soren j. Rasmussen
we make the following excerpt:
BERGEN, NORWAY, Aug. s, 1894.
"As you are probably somewhat in
terested as to how / enjoyed my trip,
etc, brief account may possibly be
in order. The trip to New York was
uninteresting and decidedly tedious,
although l enjoyed it well enough, and
l was quite pleased to get change of
air by boarding the S. S. Lucania of
the Cunard Line. She left her dock
at 2 p. NJ. Saturday, July %, with
about 400 passengers bound for vari-
Gus parts of Europe. The trip across
the big pond was delightful, indeed,
as the weather was fine and the COM
pany very agreeable. Nationalities
too numerous to mention were repre-
sented and at the concert given by the
passengers Monday evening, one had
to be quite linguist to understand
the sentiment of the various songs
rendered in English, German, Nor
wegian, Swedish, French, Hungarian,
Russian, Ceylonese, Syrian and Japan
csc. 1t was thoroughly enjoyable,
although the artists from Ceylon and
Japan would not be appreciated in the
Methodist Male Quartette. Taken
altogether the trip was com plete
picnic and nobody had time to think
about offering sacrifices to the gods Of
the sea, although was told confiden-
italy by few that they had suffered
from Liver complaint" just a trifie
Six days after leaving New York we
landed in Liverpool, and after the
more or less scrutinous examination
ofluggage by the custom house officers
we proceeded by rail to Hull. left
Hull Saturday evening at O'Clock
| and arrived at my destination, Bergen,
Monday afternoon. AS to the trip
across the North Sea l shall remain
silent. Well, between you and me, it |
wasn't quite as enjoyable as the At |
lantic; everybody seemed to have that |
tired feeling"
My reception at home was very COM |
ical; nobody seemed to desire to recog-
nize me. had to reason quite a little |
with my father before he would extend |
'the right hand of fellowship" He |
thought at first that / was merely |
joking, as he had no idea that would /
come this year, and / infer that / !
must have changed somewhat during
the last seven years.
Time is flying rapidly visiting my |
old friends and looking over the old
town, which has improved most won
derfully during the last few years.
The city was founded about 1906 A. ID.
and has very interesting history. A
good many battles have been fought
here in earlier years. In the I4th
century Bergen had become an i'm
portant center of the Hanseatic ira
ders and was the distributing point for
the whole country. A quaint old town
it is, although elegant modern build
ings are going up every year. The
hotels are excellent and everything is
done to cater to the tourist traffic
which has become very extensive. In
some parts of town English is the pre-
vailing language, signs everywhere i'm
English, the stores full of prospective
buyers, nearly all English. Some of
them carry enough stuff home to open
curiosity store and the local mer-
chants wear broad smile. The traffic
must be quite lively, as / notice in to-
days paper that the various steamers
coming direct from England landed
no less than 1915 tourists during last
week, and the rush has been even
greater during the earlier part of
summer.
The country certainly has a good
many attractions to offer to the tour
list, the very climate is an attraction
Especially beautiful are the long days
of the summer months, when at Ber-
gen the sun sets at 10 and rises soon
after midnight. The mild and
transparent air of the light evenings
in the country is something exquisite
-"eXquisite as the flavor of a rare
wine to a dainty palate" as fellow
traveller expressed it, Go northward
as far as Faleide 1870 n. latitude) and
at the midnight hour you can read
THE RIVER FALLS JOURNAL with
out light. Because the air of the
west coast is saturated with the damp
ness of the ocean, sunset offers pic
lures of such beautiful tints as are
never witnessed in more southern
ATTITUDES, and the farther north you
go the more intense are these effects
of the refraction of light.
Mere mental recreation would prob
ably not be sufficient. You may have
rowing, sailing, long rides on horse
back or in carryall, in living nature,
through whispering woods, along riv-
ers now limpid and gently murmur-
ing, now whirling and seething and
laundering; or you may climb the
mountains, rest for dinner on snow
field dozen miles from any human
dwelling, from which you can behold
vast valleys, ridges, glaciers and shin
ing fjords dotted with islets.
Students of history may take a spe-
cial interest in the land of the Vikings,
the birthplace of those sturdy warriors
who founded Kingdoms in Scotland,
Ireland, France and Italy,. and even ,
discovered distant America.
A peculiar feature OF Bergen is the
fish market, and it is really worth
going miles to see. On Wednesdays
and Saturdays everybody is supposed
to have fish for dinner, and the good
people of the city spend an hour or
more looking over the different speci-
mems of the finny tribe and make their
bids when they find something which
strikes their fancy. The fisherman
will ask 50 ore for a certain lot. I'm !,
give you 40 ore," says the merchant
prince or the washe rwoman, whoever 1
happens to be the prospective buyer.
'sWill you take 40 ore?" mo" "Well,
I'll give you 45." After great deal of !
haggling and exchange of pleasantries
of various sorts, they will probably $