Excursions

The Heathland Cente at Lygra and Hillesvåg wool spinning milll

The excursion will take you on a boat voyage through the coastal archipelago (see map) to the Heathland Centre at Lygra. This site has received both UNESCO Prize for safeguarding and management of cultural landscapes, and EU/Europa Nostra Prize for cultural heritage. This institution acts as the national information centre for the European coastal heathlands along the Atlantic coastline.

At Lygra, there will be a 2 km easy walk to explore the open heath landscape, which is managed authentically with grazing, heath burning and with restored traditional buildings. There will also be information about the fjord that surrounds Lygra with its unique marine fauna.

In the Information building there will be served lunch and talks about coastal cultural landscapes and the proposed Nordhordland Biosphere Reserve, the first one within Norway.

The excursion continues by bus to the Hillesvåg ullvarefabrikk, a family owned wool spinning mill from 1898 and a newly certified Economuseum. It is situated on the north side of the Oster fjord, about 35 km north of Bergen. The wool spinning mill is one of eight Economuseums in Norway today. Both customers and visitors are welcome to visit the wool spinning mill to see artisans at work, and to see the hard work that lies behind the finished product.

You can watch the interesting film about the wool spinning mill here.

The Economuseums and “Man and the Biosphere Programme” will be one of the topics at the UNESCO conference. Monday the 24^th of March you can follow the presentations “Ecomuseum: a university thesis gives birth to an international cultural and economic innovation” by Michel Gervais, President of the Society of Economusée Network. This will be followed by “Intro to MAB – Man and the Biosphere” by Meriem Bouamrane, Programme Specialist, UNESCO.

Urban excursion

Topic 1: The culture of food – between the past and the future.

Bergen is applying to be an UNESCO City of gastronomy, based on the cities long traditions with food.

Norwegian seafood centre

Short presentation of the whys and hows and what one hopes from the project - by Tanja Hoel project manager at the Norwegian seafood centre. You will also be given a seafood demonstration and a presentation of the application to be  an UNESCO City of gastronomy.

Lunch at Tracteuren

You will be given a presentation about the Tracteuren’s new status as the first stockfish restaurant in Bergen. You can read about Tracteuren and their stockfish traditions here.

Topic 2: The Bryggen World Heritage site and other historical buildings – New challenges from the environment.

You will meet with the team that does the work on a day to day basis at Bryggen, and from the City museum of Bergen.