Molde, Norway

At each port destination locals welcomed us in traditional
costumes and sometimes a band played. The Norwegian
costumes are very beautiful and are for sale at stores in the
larger cities (very expensive). 

Our next destination was Molde, larger than the last two ports we visited with a population of 27,000. It's major industry in the past was textiles and garments. We decided to hike up to the Varden viewpoint in the morning and then visit the Romsdal Museum. This major folk museum opened in 1928 with a collection of buildings representing typical homes and outbuildings of Norwegians through the centuries and of different economic states. They are continuing to collect additional dwellings and the modern addition has a collection of prints, photos and texts, as well as a cafe. Like Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts, the staff dress in costume and demonstrate and explain the way folks lived in the appropriate time periods. There was a demonstration of folk dances by local children as well.

Norwegian shops don't open until late by our standards but on
Sunday morning, everything was closed and no one was on
the street. Many people live right downtown - this resident
has a great sense of humor!

It was a pretty downtown and the site of the
annual Molde Jazz Festival, one of the
largest and oldest in Europe.

Molde is nicknamed the City of Roses - and there were
certainly beautiful examples all around.

We passed this lovely "Victorian" looking church on the
trail up the hill.

One of our first views along the trail up to the Varden lookout. Lots of lupine!

Another view further up. At about this point I decided to take it slower and joined a fellow cruiser who felt the same. Scott,
Walt, Honoree and her husband bounded ahead and reached the top. My fellow traveler and I "smelled the roses" and didn't.

It was a lovely sunny day and quite warm.

This charming young man was one of the local guides
at the Romsdal Museum.

The houses varied enormously by time period and economic
status. 

This was a simple version of the home on the left but still
reasonable comfortable with windows. We saw one home
that was still used until the last century that only had a
hole in the roof (with a cover) to let out the smoke in an
open firepit. 

Here an example of the "garden roof" on an older building
but they are often on modern buildings as well.

This church housed a wonderful collection of religious
folk art. The docent gave us an interesting lecture.

This hands on demonstration showed the process of making
flat bread - much like matzoh! We got to sample it with
hand churned butter - Yum.

The "village" surrounded several scenic ponds.

We enjoyed the fun folk dancing show afterwards.

Scott, Honoree and Walt made it to the Varden outlooks and the views were spectacular.

On to Geiranger, Norway

The weather was cold and misty as our ship cruised down the
Geirangerfjorden. 

Our next stop was Geiranger, the 3rd biggest cruise ship port in Norway, with a population of 250 people. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the scenery is spectacular. We got up early to water the ship travel down the Storfjorden Fjord to the Geirangerfjorden Fjord which branches off it. It was cold, windy and damp.
Happily the weather improved during the day and by noon, we had mostly sunny skies and the temperature climbed to 70 degrees (in the sun).  In the morning we climbed through the town and up the hill to the Geiranger Church on the road and then came down the elaborate set of staircases beside the raging waterfall.
In the afternoon we signed on to a local tour bus that visited three famous vista sights (much cheaper than the "official" tours).

You can see Scott's hair blowing sideways.
We were up on the top deck of the ship,
14th floor, at the bow taking photos.

Honoree had to stand on one of the crates to take photos.

Waterfalls fell down the cliffs on all sides.

The famous 7 Sisters Waterfall, unfortunately only 4 of them
were visible at this time of year.

Across the way was "The Suitor" Waterfall, shorter but very
powerful.

The town of Geiranger. Another cruise ship had preceeded us and took the single dock. So we had our first departure on
the Konigsdam's tenders.

 Geiranger is under constant threat from the Akemeset Mountain across from it. A landslide could trigger a tsunami that would destroy the town. Several other villages in Norway have had this very thing happen, with huge loss of life. A 2016 Norwegian movie called The Wave imagines this event - good reviews on Rotten Tomatoes!

Zig zag roads were necessary up the steep slopes.

Scott boards our tender.

We loved this bright yellow tractor.

Many of the homes had "lawns" or gardens on their roofs.
In the foreground is one of them - with a couple of bushes.

Looking down from the road at the fields and on the right, a campground along the water. 

Looking back at the two ships: our's is on the left.

The Geiranger Church was charming and hosting a wedding
that day.

It was a beautiful sunny day but still quite cool as you can
see by my fleece jacket.

We walked uphill along the raging stream.

And then downhill on a set of elaborate staircases.

This placid stream was a big contrast.

That's the camping ground on the flat land at the bottom - hopefully the warning system installed to give the residents time
to make it to higher ground if that tsunami strikes - works well!

Cantilevered decks gave everyone great views. There is one
at the bottom and one higher up.

In the afternoon we took a local touring bus that brought us to 3 famous view points. This was the first, basically further up
the hill we had climbed that morning.

The second one gave us some beautiful views up the fjord - here back to The Sisters.

And back towards Geiranger.

Further up the mountain we could see signs for the
many hiking trails.

There were good maps and info available in several languages
including English. Everyone in Norway speaks mostly good
English.

Trolls are ubiquitous, in Norwegian folk tales and in
every town (set up for photos). Here's Honoree. 

Flåm, Norway

You can see the rainbow showing faintly against the hillside.
This was taken from our veranda.

Flåm was our next destination. It is at the inner end of the Aurlandsfjorden and at the mouth of the Flåm River. It's 350 residents welcome 450,00 visitors a year on around 160 Cruise Ships. In the morning we hiked up to a beautiful waterfall and view. Then in the afternoon, we, like most people, rode the 20 kilometre Flåm Line up to Myrdal. It is one of the steepest railway tracks in the world at 1 in  18 (not counting rack railways). On the way it stops at the enormous powerful Rjoandelfossen waterfall where a mischievous female ghost in red sings her siren song.

Waterfalls tumbled down in every direction

I loved the idea of Reindeer Meatballs but we
had just eaten a huge breakfast on board.

In the morning we hiked the road over to a trail leading up
(steeply) to this waterfall, seen in the distance.

Walt & Honoree celebrating the end of our hike.

Smaller streams cascaded down along the
trail

Here's the view of the valley looking down to the town and the cruise ship.

This photo was taken through the window as we started on
our railroad journey up to Myrdal. Although the line was
approved in 1915, it didn't open until 1940. It's now pretty
exclusively a tourist attraction.  

We finally got a window open and were able to photograph
the train itself.

The snow fields were disappearing at this time of year. It is
open all year long and goes through 20 tunnels, protecting
it from the snow.

This shot shows the road along the left edge of the river -
one hairpin turn after another. 

The waterfall was so powerful at this point that the air was
filled with mist and it was quite cool from the altitude. 

But the resident "ghost" appeared and disappeared in the
ruins along the waterfall, singing her siren song.

Scott got the best photos - difficult due to the heavy mist.

On the way down we saw the scenery in the other direction - all beautiful.

It's just one waterfall after another.

Back to our cruise ship at the end of a lovely day. Here you
can get an idea how big it is. It dwarfs the town.

Generally our ship docked early in the morning and then
departed between 5 and 6 PM. 

We generally enjoyed the scenery departing our day's
stop at our table in the dining room - right by the
window. We ate most evenings at our assigned table
in the main dining room - the early service starting at
5:30 pm. The alternative was 8 pm - too late for us.