River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1908-02-06

The western coast of Norway, as
viewed from steamers approaching
the city of Bergen for a days
journey, looks as though the Great
or had become weary of trying to
bring order out of such wild chaos
and confusion and had left the
mighty rocks as they were in the
beginning, thrown up in huge phan-
tastic forms against a background
of towering mountains; and it is
almost with feeling of relief one
leaves the seeming tumu1t to enter
into the beautiful bay called Vaagen,
on which the quaint, picturesque
old city of Bergen is situated.
The harbor is very deep and COM
modious and the city encircles it like
horseshoe. The city is we'll pro-
tected and we pass several forts on
entering the harbor, but the guns
along the coast are so concealed
that one can get no definite idea of
the extent of the fortifc atoms.
Seven mountains surround the
city and when one is told that all
the beautiful trees covering them
have been planted, it seems scarcely
conceivable. About 20 years ago a
society was formed for the purpose
of clothing the mountains" as
they quantity express it, and now
the mountains within sight of Ber-
gen are beautiful with foliage. The
SUBMITS of these mountains are
very often surrounded with mists,
which hang over them like a gauze
veil, hiding them from view, but
only TO appear more imposing when
the sun once more dispels the mists
and they are again outlined wildly
against the sky. Up one of these
mountains called Floien is built a
driveway as smooth as pavement,
winding back and forth from base
to summit. When the top is reach
ed we find a small inn where one
may have refreshments, but the real
feast is out under the arching
heavens where such a view meets
the eye that had l the eloquence Of
Demosthenes could not do it JUS
tice. At the west is the bay and the
great rugged islands and beyond
the endless ocean, then at the south
and east rise tier after tier of brown
and green mountains streaked &C.
casionally with thr cad of silver,
in reality mountain streams which
in places are raging torrents.
Beautiful valleys lie between, where
are miniature farms and such quaint,
homelike looking farm buildings.
To the southeast we catch a
glimpse Of lake near which was
the home of the late eminent compos-
er and musician, Edward Grieg, and
at our feet the city of Bergen nestles
up against the mountains like a toy
city with such coy looking buildings,
all with red tiled roofs, snuggled as
though trying to keep as dry as
possible-for it rains eternally in
Bergen, in fact it has the greatest
annual rainfall of any city in Europe,
averaging some eighty inches.
People do not stay indoors on ac-
count of the rain for the sunshine
goes and comes as it does on our
April days-the rain never drenches
one, but man on the streets of
Bergen without an umbrella is said
to brighten the horses. Bergen
does not appear like city of $4,000
people but gives one more the i'm
preston of a great overgrown
village.
As we descend the mountain,
looking down over the city, we
notice the streets are uneven and
very narrow, scarcely wide enough
for teams to pass, all paved with
cobble stones, the passing hoofs
and wheels making it very noisy.
At our right is pointed out Haakon' S
Hall, the cornerstone laid by King
Haakon Haakonsen and probably
finished in 1861 when King Magnus
Lagabeter's wedding was celebrated
there. Five years afterwards the
hall was partly destroyed by fire,
but was repaired, and Erik Magnu-
son used it for his coronation festi-
val and several times during his
reign. The last time we find the
hall mentioned during the middle
ages is at the homage of the people
to King Haakon the 5th. The fine
entrance portal dating from the 18th
century shows US that the hall at
that time was used according to it's
original purpose as an assembly