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Bergen's Bryggen (wharf)
Bryggen, in Bergen, Norway, is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site. Look closely and you’ll see that each building is tipping in a slightly different way. Some of the buildings in this area are hundreds of years old. Most have burned down once or more over the years and then been rebuilt in basically the original style. Today’s photo shows just three of the buildings, but there are actually more than a dozen lined up in a row like this.
Nærøyfjord
I hope I can get back to Norway some day.
Amsterdam Cycle Chic
Vondelpark in Amsterdam is a great place to ride a bike (or people watch if you don’t have a bike). These ladies rented bikes to enjoy the park.
Danish concert goers at Roskilde 2011
For the fourth year in a row I entered the annual Travel Essentials Photo Contest. In 2008 I came in 18th place, 2009 was 7th place, and 2010 landed me in the money with 3rd place. I didn’t place as high this year, but, for the first time, both of my entries made the cut.
For the 2011 winning photos click here.
Mikael Åkerfeldt at the Getaway Rock Festival
Opeth’s new album comes out in a few days. You can listen to it on NPR already here. I have listened to it twice and don’t really have much desire to listen to it again. Not that it’s “bad.” There just isn’t anything about Heritage to get me excited or want to listen to it on a regular basis. If I had to compare it to something I’d have to say Deep Purple. I like Deep Purple, owning several of their CDs in fact, but like Opeth’s “Heritage” my Deep Purple CDs sit and rarely get heard.
Now if you are into classic progressive rock, or Damnation (although this doesn’t sound too much like Damnation other than the clean vocals) is your favorite Opeth CD, then you will probably love Heritage. For me, I like variety, tempo changes, and at least occasional heavy elements. I’ll have to stick with Opeth’s older works for the time being. What will Opeth’s next offering be like? Will they return to form? Only time will tell.
Fantoft Stave Church - Bergen, Norway
Ever since playing the computer game, Age of Mythology, I’ve been a bit fascinated with Stave churches (stavkirke). The first time we went to Norway, in 2008, we didn’t have time to visit one. When I read that there was one in Denmark, near Aarhus, I was excited to visit, but I was a bit of a disappointment as it wasn’t anything like the Norwegian variety.
So as soon as I got to Bergen I jumped on the light rail and headed to the Fantoft Stave Church. The original stave church from 1150 didn’t look much like this (at least not in the 19th Century after hundreds of years of changes). The church was moved to Bergen in 1883 and reverted to this older style. However, in 1992 the idiot arsonist and murderer Varg Vikernes burned the church. The one I photographed above at dusk is a 1997 reconstruction.