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Sorry about the delay. There is a reason, but we’ll get to that in due course. Our transit from Geiranger Fjord to Moldefjord was “interesting”! Force 9 or 10 winds in the North Atlantic had stirred up a bit of a swell in the open ocean. Forewarned is forearmed. Glenda stoked up on a couple of cocktails before dinner and several bottles of sparkling rosé with our evening meal and swallowed three different seasickness tablets. (following Dr Martin’s recommendation!) Before hitting the hay we went to the theatre to listen to Jakub Trasak the Czech violinist playing a wide range of really lively and loud music.
Part way through the performance Glenda stopped applauding. Turns out she was asleep sitting upright with music playing at about 180 dB – verging on the pain level! Brilliant.
The next morning at breakfast everyone was discussing the rocking and rolling and the crashing and bashing during the night. Glenda didn’t believe them! The day was a wet one. Our tour took us for a drive on the Atlantic Ocean Road – an eight and a half km road which connects Averøy with the mainland via a series of small islands and islets spanned by a total of eight bridges including one which loops 23 m into the air.
At Eldhusøya, by the loopy bridge, the rain stopped, we got off the coach and walked around the small islet on a suspended walkway “floating” above the terrain.
We got back on our bus and the rain started again. Magic timing!
On 23 March 2019, a ship called the Viking Sky …
suffered a total engine failure off this part of the coast, Hustadvika. This is known as one of the most dangerous stretches of sea along the Norwegian coast. The Viking Sky got to within 100 m of going aground before one of the four engines was restarted!
I only mention this, because this was the only other cruise ship we have ever sailed on (during March 2018 in the Caribbean)! So here we were on cruise two inspecting the scene of the near disastrous end of our previous ship! Spooky!
We drove to the fishing village of Bud, where the rain conveniently stopped again in time for a walkabout.
Due to a good natural harbour and rich fisheries, Bud grew to become the largest village between the towns of Trondheim and Bergen during the Middle Ages.
We were scheduled to make a final photo stop on the top of Mount Varden for a spectacular view over the city and the 222 peaks on the other side of the Romsdalsfjord. We were sitting in the front seats and as we approached Molde we overheard the guide and driver discussing this stop. Driver: “It’s miles up the hill and they won’t see anything from the top!” Guide: “But I’m supposed to stick to the itinerary.” Driver: “OK, but you could ask your customers!” Guide: “Hold a vote, you mean?” Driver: “Good idea – save me having to drive this blessed bus miles up and down the mountain!”
Four seconds later, the guide had her unanimous decision – back to the ship for a cup of tea (or an early cocktail!).
We were met with the news that the storms offshore had got worse. The captain having seen my picture of the Viking Sky, decided to cancel tomorrow. Well, the force 10 to 11 winds were expected to stir up a few mega-ripples. So, instead of visiting Nordfjordeid we had an extra night in Molde. And an extra day.
We quickly added our names for a tour of town. First stop (in the rain) was at an open air museum.
The sort of thing in which Skandinavian countries seem to specialise – and do really well. They send teams out across the land and aquire old houses and move them lock, stock and barrel (normally without the residents) to a park-like area. Collectively, they take on the appearance of a real village.
After a visit to the attached indoor museum, we headed for the hills – more specifically Mount Varden for another try!
Well, we could see the city below and some of the islands in the fjord. But of the 222 mountain peaks allegedly visible from here, 222 were missing from view. On the way home we stopped at the cathedral …
(which was shut because the vicar hadn’t got the email about us staying a second day) and then we walked back to the ship admiring the roses for which the town is famous.
A quick excursion into the local shopping centre brought us to a shop selling the national costumes. But it looked like you needed a mortgage to buy them…
The captain announced that, as it was still a little choppy outside he would navigate down the coast staying inside the barrier islands as much as possible. And we were off before dark to Flam at high speed passing close to Álesund, where we had been four days earlier …
But that’s another story!