Bench of the Week (13)

Today I'm back again in the middle of the City of Bergen, at Shetlands-Larsens Brygge. This was formerly known as Torgutstikkeren and is at the end of the old harbour in Bergen, Vågen. There are several of these red (I think granite) benches here. A recommended place to start sightseeing and you can do a lot just sitting on this bench. In fact, you can start with the background, Bryggen (The Warf). Bryggen is the remains of what was once "an office" of "The Hansa", the German Union of Cities that ruled much of the trade in Northern Europe for more than 400 years. It is on UNESCO's World Heritage List.

If we look further north we can (once again) see the sail ship "Statsraad Lehmkuhl" moored at her usual quay. To the right of her is Rosenkrantztårnet (The Rosenkrantz Tower) which dates back to about 1270 and is part of the Fortress of Bergenhus.

If we turn further towards the west, we can see why this wharf is named after Shetlands-Larsen. The statue depicts Leif Larsen (1906 -1990) at the wheel of a fishing boat entering Norwegian waters during WW2. A short excerpt from Wikipedia:

He dramatically escaped Norway in February 1941 in the fishing boat MOTIG 1, a voyage he recounted in an autobiographic book. He then joined the Norwegian Naval Independent Unit, an unwieldy cover title far better known as the Shetland Bus. The unit for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and, despite its name, was initially independent of the regular Royal Norwegian Navy. He trained with the Linge Company, and was elected the first skipper operating the Shetland route.

All together he made 52 trips, many of them in small fishing boats. The best known trip was an attempt to sink the Nazi battleship "Tirpitz" by using mini-submarines.

He was Norway's most famous and most highly regarded war hero.

With eleven distinctions he became the most highly decorated naval officer of the Second World War — no other man, British or foreign, received the same British military honours. In addition to the unique array of British decorations, he was awarded Norway's highest decoration for military gallantry, the Krigskorset med Sverd or War Cross with sword. He was awarded this decoration twice, in 1942 and 1943: the War Cross with two swords.

In addition, I have read somewhere that the only reason why he did not receive The Victoria Cross was that he was not a British Citizen.

This became a post about more than benches. If you feel a bit dry in the throat after all this, just turn around and you will find ample opportunity to quench that thirst.

My own interest in benches stems from the site published by PERBS and Kerri and the site published by Malyss. Also, others have shown an interest in the subject, so I have started to take photos of benches when I "stumble" across one. I have not made this into a meme, but if anyone else would like to join me in publishing benches on Fridays, they are of course welcome to do so. Give me a hint and I'll come visiting.

We are now approaching what might be called summer, and the accompanying Summer Holidays. Like most other people I'll be a bit here, there and everywhere, and the blogging will therefore be a bit more erratic than usual. However, I'll try to post my Benches on Fridays and something else from time to time too. So just drop by if you have the time.

HAVE A NICE SUMMER!!