Åndalsnes area, Rauma Ullvarefabrikk, Trollstigen, Trollveggen

These 3 places were seen in one day; a gorgeous sunny, and warm day.
I had been really anxious to visit the factory where the lovely
Rauma wool comes from. It is a family run business and thankfully
their son will take over and it will stay so. We had the FULL guided tour.

Factory backyard

Raw wool to finished sweaters, blankets, and yarn. The day after
Christmas last year they had a terrible flood with muddy water
about 2 feet up in the factory.
Quite a lot of yarn was lost then,but it is running full force and clean
as a whistle now. I couldn't believe with all this loose wool there was not even
any lint about.

view of mountains and lupine from inside

Bale of raw wool

wool carder

Spinning

Bobbins of one ply yarn ready to be plied

Plies made into yarn

white wool yarn ready to dye

Purple when it comes out this time

Red yarn skeined and ready to make into balls

One of the owners with my puppet

 I had a really nice visit with her in Norwegian.
 I can't believe she actually understood me. She served us coffee and rolls.

Her husband gave us the tour

He is holding the Marius genser, their famous copyrighted pullover.

The work force is smaller now with many machines but done to great quality.

Another color of the "Marius" being linked together

Glimakra looms in various stages of weaving

finished part of above weaving

Glimakra looms sold here too.

Rauma storefront

All colors of Rauma yarn

One of their finished sweaters

On the way to Trollstigen (The Trolls Ladder)

Narrow small roads but in excellent shape

A very old Troll

Starting the climb up

Clear blue water at the top, just melted ice!

View down from top of mountain

View upward from same place

People hop over the rail and make "troll" cairns

Back down

The first sod roof I saw, a beautiful one too

Base jumping off Trollveggen, very illegal!

 From Trollstigen we drove to Trollveggen. 
 It is strictly forbidden to jump off as many have died here.

Most people never get to see the top, usually it lives in a cloud

Trollveggen, just after the sun went behind it, but it did not set!

 Trollveggen (the Troll wall) is the highest vertical rock face in Europe at 1700m.
 It is in the Romsdalen valley near Åndalsnes.
We packed in a lot for one day!!! Fantastic countryside.

Last Day on MS Richard With: Trondheim to Åndalsnes

Stiftsgården the Kings Residence in Trondheim

We woke up on our last ship day to rain and dark skies. The ship docked 

in Trondheim and we actually had several hours to run around. That we 

did; we went 3.5 miles by my friends pedometer. It was very early and all 

the shops were closed but we mostly had the streets to ourselves. I apologize 

for the gloomy pictures. The weather, as always, was what it was!

Front Entrance

Upper building with Kings Shield

Modern Police Offices

Early morning shops

Very old Frue Kirke

Another great Children's shop

At the central square of Trondheim

Trondheim Postoffice

My little mascot Kirju, who lives in my knitting bag, in the beautiful ship lounge

More knitting as we watch the countryside go by

This is my mitten started on the ship

 The gold was my first ball of Finullgarn actually purchased in Norway

at a husfliden. I have used this yarn for years and it is my very favorite.

The pattern will be ready when I knit the 2nd mitten!

Last views from Hurtigruten MS Richard With from top deck

This trip on the Richard With was unbelievably magic.

Really smooth sailing, fantastic food, most beautiful views on earth.

modern bathrooms with actual heated floors!! Comfortable cabin.

Cuddly bunks.  I guess I liked it! I would go again in a minute!!!!

Transfer from ship to bus at Kristiansund

It is not far from Kristiansund to Åndalsnes but if you look at the map 

you will see it is over fjords and waterways. We went on the Atlantic

Highway, which is a modern marvel. Google it for videos. My pictures 

from the bus were awful. We then went over bridges, through a tunnel

and crossed the last bit on a ferry.

Ferry to Åndselsnes

 And low and behold, the sun came out!!!

Kirju sees Norway! Gorgeous!

View from our room in the Grand Hotel Bellevue Åndalsnes

From our other window

By the way, we are further south and there was still no "night"!!! We woke
to the full view of the gorgeous mountains. Of course we could have shut the drapes
but we loved the view so much we didn't.

I like this poster, it really shows the mountains and fjords in the Åndalsnes area.

 So next day off to Trollstigen, Trollveggen and the Rauma ullvarefabrikk.
 Remember the mountains off to the upper right in the back.