P is for PhotoWalk in Bergen in ABC Wednesday

What is a PhotoWalk you may ask? Is is just what it says - a walk where you take pictures. In this case, a camera dealer in Bergen arranged such a walk a Saturday at the end of April. They even included a small competition (theme: "Fragments of Bergen"), so Saturday afternoon about 100 enthusiast and I enjoyed the weather and snapped away as if we had never seen our home town before. And that is of course the way to do it.

Some hours and a few hundred pictures later, I found that in addition to having played tourist at home ,I had also found myself a perfect P for this week's ABC Wednesday-entry: PhotoWalk. Below are some samples

All of us started of course to look for "THE UNUSUAL OBJECT". Here is mine: Balloons with Gaelic inscriptions are not everyday objects in Bergen.

The next task was of course to try out unusual angles - the usual way of doing it wouldn't do among so many exalted enthusiasts. So corners and walls became very popular subjects among the photographers.

OK - let us get a bit more serious: Many of the houses in the central part of Bergen are made of wood. In addition the streets are narrow. This has lead to many large fires in the past.

A typical narrow street, called a "smug" or "smau".

If you visit Bergen on a week-end in spring there is one phenomenon that will not escape your notice: "Buekorpsene". These are traditional brigades of children and youngsters, loosely based on citizen brigades from the 19th century. This particular one is called "Skansen Bataljon"

The white building in the background was once a fire station.

One reason why you will notice them is that they use drums...

The photographers of course fell for the small boys in uniform.

One cannot have a PhotoWalk in Bergen withot at least one glimpse of our old harbour, "Vågen". It used to be filled by all kinds of ship, but nowadays the pleasure crafts dominate the inner part - in the week-ends at least. In the background is of course "Statsraad Lehmkuhl", Norway's largest sailing vessel and the pride of the city.

The central part of the city of Bergen is not large and the effects of the heavy traffic has been huge. Therefore, restrictions are being placed on traffic in general and many streets and squares have been closed to traffic and upgraded and redecorated.

And what of the contest? After much deliberation I selected the one below...

And did I win? I haven't heard anything, so I suppose not. But I got a lot of pictures for my hard drives and I hope that you have enjoyed seeing this small selection.


Today's post is an entry in the fourth round of ABC Wednesday, the meme initiated by Denise Nesbitt.

For more, you can log on via a Mr Linky enabled site