Bergen Aquarium and Cathedral

On this Norway trip, I’ve done two activities that my most-loyal reader enjoys, taking short boat trips (Oslo Fjord, Lysefjord, and more to come) and riding a funicular (up and down Mount Fløyen). I decided to make it a trifecta of activities she enjoys by visiting an aquarium today, the Bergen Aquarium, to be specific.

(For the record, I’m not doing it solely to make said reader envious of me. Honest.)

I then walked over to take a look at the Bergen Cathedral.

Hmm. I just noticed the title I put on this entry. Just to be clear, it’s not a combined aquarium and cathedral, which would be exceptionally weird and quirkily wonderful.

No, I visited two separate sights, the Bergen Aquarium and the Bergen Cathedral, with an almost half-hour walk between the two. But I wanted to shorten the headline.

Getting to the Bergen Aquarium

Before I set out this morning, I asked Google Maps to tell me how to get to the Bergen Aquarium from my hotel. Before it gave me the route, it told me walking would take 20 minutes.

This shocked me. Before checking, I knew generally where it was and I was convinced that it would take me, at the absolute very least, 30 minutes to walk there and probably significantly more.

My hotel is by the harbour, at the seaward end of the Bryggen district on the southeast side of the harbour. The Bergen Aquarium is by the sea and a bit inland from the harbour. I figured I’d have to walk down my side of the harbour and then back up the other side. It’s a fairly long harbour.

Then I tapped on the button to ask for directions. Google Maps had me walk a couple of blocks seaward on my side of the harbour and then go across the water to the other side of the harbour before walking the rest of the way to the Bergen Aquarium.

I felt strongly that swimming across the harbour would be unpleasant and injurious to my health. But I clicked the button for detailed route instructions.

A ferry. There’s a ferry that crosses the harbour! It’s known as the crossing route of Beffen.

It’s a short ride, just a few minutes on a small, picturesque, no-nonsense, old ferry. It’s charming. I was charmed, I tell ya. I’m fairly certain the above-cited reader would have relished the ride.

The ferry takes only passengers, no vehicles. Well-padded, vinyl-upholstered benches line the two sides. I’m guessing eight people could sit on each side if they didn’t mind getting intimate. I don’t know if they allow people to stand. But that wasn’t an issue on my harbour crossing. Apart from the captain of the ferry, who operates it from inside the passenger area, there were only four other people on board the ferry with me.

What a pleasant way to shorten my walk.

At the Bergen Aquarium

Truth be told, I’ve been to larger, more interesting aquariums than the Bergen Aquarium. Then again, I can remember not too long ago visiting a stand-alone aquarium that was much smaller and less interesting in Dubrovnik, Croatia. And I went to one that was part of what is billed as a zoo and aquarium in Canberra, Australia. The aquarium portion of that was also, to say the least, underwhelming. But at least there, there was a good zoo to make the visit worthwhile.

In that context, the Bergen Aquarium is a middling affair. It’s worth going to if appreciate aquariums and you’re spending a few days in Bergen, as I am. But if you are only spending a day or two here, I’d skip it.

Then again, the aquarium’s website says the Bergen Aquarium is, “Norway’s largest aquarium and one of Bergen’s biggest tourist attractions for both young and old.” So, I guess if you’re touring Norway and you’re determined to visit an aquarium there, Bergen is the place to go.

Exhibits at the Bergen Aquarium

The Bergen Aquarium has three outdoor animal areas. One has a rock island surrounded by water. A bunch of gentoo penguins live there. When they aren’t living in captivity in a zoo or aquarium, gentoo penguins range from Antarctica to the Falkland Islands and the southeast coast of Chile. The penguins at the Bergen Aquarium spent their time in their compound standing around, waddling a bit, and being incredibly cute.

Another of the outdoor areas is comprised of a couple of pools, a platform, and some seating on steps facing the pool and platform. California sea lions live there. I arrived when a show was going on. Trainers put the sea lions through their paces, pirouetting on the platform, waving a flipper, lying down, and doing some leaps out of the water in the pool, among other behaviours. The trainers rewarded the sea lions with small fish for each trick they performed.

I don’t know how I feel about that exploitation. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I enjoy eating fish, and I have sushi from time to time, but I wouldn’t do the stunts, non-strenuous though they may be, for just a lousy, unadorned fish. Bring me a tasty cup of clam chowder to start. Prepare and cook the fish perfectly. Throw in a dinner roll, some side vegetables, and a nice glass of wine. And then maybe we can talk about me performing some simple stunts.

(For the benefit of those few people who got the reference above, no, I won’t perform stunts when we go to Legal Sea Foods.)

The third outdoor compound at the Bergen Aquarium contained a European otter. The sign said “European otters,” plural, but I saw only one. He or she spent most of his or her time trying to hide.

Inside the aquarium building, there are a few dozen tanks of various sizes, most smallish. The majority of the tanks hold fish of various kinds, but there are also some snakes, lizards, and crocodiles.

“Shark” Tunnel (or not) at the Bergen Aquarium

The largest of the tanks (still not particularly large as large aquarium tanks go) has a glass tunnel running through it so you can see fish swimming over your head as well as to the side. The sign at the Bergen Aquarium just pointed to the “tunnel.” I didn’t notice any other qualifiers. But one of my guidebooks said it was a tropical shark tunnel. I’ve been to other aquariums and have seen sharks in their shark tunnel. But I didn’t see anything that looked like sharks in Bergen’s tank. I can think of three possible reasons for me not seeing sharks:

1. They were fairly stationary, off to one side, so I didn’t notice them.
2. I am the world’s most unobservant person. (Is there a prize that goes with being the most?)
3. The guidebook was wrong.
4. The shark or sharks cleverly disguised themselves as cute tropical fish to escape the bad image that sharks often suffer.

Royal Dottyback

Three fish in other tanks particularly attracted my attention. One was the royal dottyback. I saw only one of them in the tank. The front half of its body was a bright purple (the nearby sign showed a picture of a royal dottyback with a bright pink front, but it was purple in the aquarium, dammit). The back half was a bright yellow. The dividing line between the two colours was quite sharp. It shared the tank with a few other tropical fish that were also quite attractive, but the royal dottyback was the most striking.

It’s visually a quite stunning little fish, and …

The text on the wall beside the tank containing the royal dottyback says that the species can change gender from female to male as needed. I wonder what trans-phobic, you are the gender you’re assigned at birth, far-right dogmatists would have to say about that.

Piranhas

Another tank that interested me contained only piranhas. The information panel there said that piranhas don’t kill their prey. They eat it live and can polish off a bull in minutes. Two points about that: One, I do eat sushi sometimes, but I draw the line at red-meat tartare. Cook the meat, guys. It kills the nasty stuff.

And, two, devour a bull in minutes? Slow down, fellas. Make your meal an event that you enjoy while pleasantly conversing with friends or, if alone, maybe reading a book. You’ll get more pleasure out of your dining experience that way.

The Bleke

The third fish that I spent some time with was The Bleke. (The sign uses a capitalized “B” and always puts “the” before it. When I did a dictionary search on “Bleke” without the “the,” it came up blank. But searching the online dictionary that comes with my Mac for “the Bleke” pulled some information from an external website (freysta.com) saying that the Bleke is a unique Ice Age salmon.

That website doesn’t capitalize “The Bleke” in the body of the text, which I think is correct because you don’t capitalize species names, but the Aquarium did. So that’s what I’m going to go with.

The Bleke in the tank just kind of sat there in a school of them, almost stationary, not far from the bottom of the tank. (I’m guessing “The Bleke” can be both singular and plural like “fish” or “salmon.” The linked website never put an “s” at the end, but, then again, it referred only to the species, not to the fish as individuals.) Whatever. There were several of them in the tank.)

They weren’t dead. They weren’t lying on the bottom and their fins moved a bit, I think to keep them stationary in the slight artificial current that was pumped through the tank. Occasionally, one would take a short, leisurely swim. But, for the most part, most of them just sat there.

The sign beside the tank said The Bleke had been quite numerous in the 1960s, but shortly thereafter the population suffered a severe decline. Maybe that’s it. Maybe “Bleke” is a typo and they meant “bleak,” as in the future of their population. I tell ya, if they’re going to travel in schools, they should take advantage of it and learn to spell correctly rather than wasting their time sitting there.

According to the sign, “The cause of this decline was the combined effects of acidification and water-level regulation that affected the habitat.” But it goes on to say that, in the past 50 years, the population has been growing back because the human causes of acidification and habitat harm are being ameliorated, and the Bleke are being restocked via fish hatchery operations.

So, fellas, cheer up. There’s no reason to be so bleak. You’re making a comeback to your former glory.

The Jellyfish Aquarium Benchmark

I love looking at jellyfish. Don’t ask me why. I just do. They look like some of the most improbable, but most exquisite of creatures. I tend to judge aquariums most by their jellyfish collection. If they don’t have one then the aquarium likely won’t get high marks from me.

The Bergen Aquarium has a meagre jellyfish display. There’s just one not particularly large tank with a single species of jellyfish. (I don’t recall seeing any aquarium keep different species in the same tank. Maybe the different species aren’t compatible. I don’t know. Or maybe I’ve just forgotten instances where they were mixed.) And there were only a few specimens of that one species in the tank.

Bergen Cathedral

The walk from the Bergen Aquarium to the Bergen Cathedral required about a half-hour. The route took me close to the side of the harbour across from the side my hotel is on. I’d seen it previously, but among the joys of that side of the harbour is that it allows you to take in the full sweep of the Bryggen side of the harbour and back to the residences climbing up the base of the mountain behind the city. I don’t remember posting a picture of it before, so I put one here. What a knockout of a city it is.

The Bergen Cathedral, also known as St. Olav’s Church, is small and stark. The walls are mostly stone but with some stuccoing. There are a few attractive stained-glass windows behind and to the side of the altar.

There is only a single aisle in the cathedral and it’s well off-centre. The width of the pews is about the same on either side of the aisle, but to the right of the pews (right facing the altar), there’s a large, pewless space. Most of it was empty when I was there. But there were a few round tables and chairs set up toward the back. I don’t recall ever seeing that design in a cathedral.

The pulpit of the Bergen Cathedral is made of dark wood carved with simple, but elegant decorations.

At the back of the cathedral is a balcony with the cathedral’s large, attractive, wood-framed, organ. When I was there, someone was riffing some song snippets on it.

Wow. This is a long post for a not-overly-busy morning. Time to wrap it up.