June 17 - In the Hall of the Mountain Troll

The Åndalsnes. It reminds me of Seward. It's a little smaller - 3,000 residents, which, coincidentally, is the number of passengers on our ship. The mountains and water look like Seward. The weather is like Seward - cool, gray and prone to spritzing.  However, Seward has more activity and more tourism infrastructure.  Åndalsnes has practically none.

We took a tender into town and walked around a bit. The central business district is just a few blocks wide and a couple of blocks deep. Within that small area we saw three or four shops selling outdoor clothing, skis, and so on. Two coffee shops. One or two dress shops, a Scandinavian housewares shop, a grocery store, and two or three souvenir stores. People from the ship were wandering around, trying to find interesting landmarks or more stores, but there really wasn't anything. You could walk up a hill, crossing over a stream, and you would find some houses, two gas stations, an Italian restaurant and a hotel. None of this instilled in us the urge to take a photo. 

We went to a coffee shop/bakery called A&T Bakeri for coffee and a pastry. The shop did not have a long menu, and the menu was not really Norwegian, but they did have some gorgeous loaves of bread for sale. We ended up going back to the ship for a few hours until our afternoon tour.

Our tour had two parts. First we rode for about an hour on the Raumabanen railway, ending up in Bjorli. This railway trip was even better than yesterdays trip.

Shortly after leaving Åndalsnes the train followed the Rauma River between towering peaks.

On one side was the Romsdalshorn, a 5,000-foot peak. 

But the star attraction was on our right - the Trollvegen (the Troll Wall). The Troll Wall is Europe's highest perpendicualr mountain wall, including a sheer precipice of 3200 feet.  This sight is so stunning it is hard to describe or depict with photos. It makes you feel like a small insignificant person who has just stepped inot the hall of a mountain giant. There are local legends that say the mountains are actually trolls who were turned to stone when caught by the light of the sun. 

Trolltindene is a series of peaks over 5,000 feet high. Included are the Bishop, the King, and the Queen.

As the train began to climb we crossed a series of bridges and passed by one waterfall after another. When we reached the 4,000-foot-long Stavem Vendetunnel, the train completed a 180 degree turn inside the tunnel and emerged travelling in the opposite direction about 60 feet over the place  where it had entered the mountain. The purpose of this was to make it possible for the train to climb and descend  through the Romsdal Valley, despite the huge difference in altitude. I'm not sure I understand it, but I think it works like a switchback.

We crossed the Kylling Bridge, spanning a dramatic gorge. It was built solely from natural stone blocks between 1913 and 1923.

Fiinally we arrived at Bjorli, a low-key ski resort. At this point the train stopped and we got off.

Moments later six buses arrived. The people on the buses got onto the train and we got on the buses. We drove back on a road that mostly paralleled the railroad.

This allowed us to see some of the beautiful bridges the train had crossed over and to make photo-stops at Slettfossen Waterfall and at the Troll Wall.

The Troll Wall again

The sign next to me lists the names of people who have been killed base-jumping at the Troll Wall. It is now illegal.

Our guide, Kari, narrated the bus portion of the tour and pointed out some things we would have missed.

This was an excellent tour. I had to say that. The trolls would get me if I said anything bad about their gorgeous mountains.

Our day ended with some onboard entertainment - The Wacky World of Taffy Spencer. Although oriented toward the British passengers, Taffy, a Welsh comedian and illusionist was better than we expected. Occasionally he even translated some of the jokes into American