It is about 40 NM. to sail into Romsdahl fjord via Isfjord. The ship docked at Tinderkaia and from there everything is close by for the tourist. To the lower left you can see the red (course) line out of Alesund. So the ports are not that far apart, there are just these high mountains in the way.

The ship is working its way slowly southbound again and today we are in Andalsness, As we are now used to, it rained again on arrival, and it did not change very much during the day. Rain off and on. Luckily there was no wind so it was chilly but not as cold as it could have been.  The ships dock is located where the old ferry dock used to be and the new ferry dock still is close by. Because of the old ferry connection, the train station is right across from the dock. With the train you are connected to the national rail network of Norway and travelling to Olso from here takes about 6 hrs. including one transfer. First with the regional Rauma Line, which we will partially travel this afternoon with the ships tour, then change at the end of that line (Dombas station) and then it is one other train ride to Oslo with several stops including Lillehammer, well known from the Winter Olympics fame of some years ago. A beautiful ride through the Norwegian landscape and often more reliable than the flights from the little local airport.

Andalsness. Overpowering the dock side is the Norwegian mountaineering centre with a sort of rock wall inside. To the left is the “Gondola Hus”  from where the Romsdal cable car leaves.  Just visible behind it  is the “Golden Train”, called so because the carriages are looking -gold-shiny on the outside. This is the tour train up the mountain. The Red roofed building is the regular Bus and Train station. The small town itself is further to the right.

The ship suffered from that rain and cloud as a new entertainer act was supposed to join today. A tribute act to “Blondi”, but her plane got delayed from England and once on Norwegian soil, the connecting flight to Andalsness was cancelled. So no “Blondi” show  this cruise but another “Westend” act, The Knights of Music” made it to the ship and we will find out in the coming two sea days what they will have to offer.

From the Gondola Hus a cable car (approx. 20+ people in each cabin) goes up to the top of Romdalseggen. From here you can have breath taking views of the area. Today it was mainly looking at Norwegian clouds more than anything else.

 

 

The rain did not stop our Guests, grown up with and trained in the English weather, and thus feeling right at home. As it was Sunday, the town was closed except for the Train & Bus station (with souvenir shop) and one (large) stand alone souvenir shop at the edge of the main street.  Thus most guests were on one tour or the other; up to the top of the mountain with the Gondola, or with the Golden train up the mountain, or with the bus for a 3 hours journey to the troll road (with a lot of 180o twists and turns) and the Troll-Wall, which is the highest cliff -mountain-face in Europe. Because it was Sunday, the Customs Officer who was supposed to come to the ship in the afternoon, to refund VAT charges (The UK is out of the EU) did not come and thus guests who had bought things and had VAT receipts did not get their money back.

A corner of the Medina restaurant with Moroccan tiles and tapestry on the wall.

We decided to mentally prepare ourselves for our afternoon invasion into Norway by catching up on emails with the on board wifi connection. We had bought a one device for the 12 days. you can still use it for another device, you just log on and it throws the last user off. It is very fast, unless a 1000 go on line at the same time, which happens occasionally around 1700 hrs. This time we took advantage of the “fast serving” of the dining room service by going to the open seating in the Medina Restaurant for a quick lunch. As expected it was very quick and thus we could easily make our excursion with the train on time.

The Golden Train at the Bjorli train station. This train station is 575 meters above sea level so the locomotive has quite a pull to get it all up the mountain.  The Diesel locomotive also changes position here. There are toilets (with long lines as nobody wanted to go on the train, being afraid of missing a highlight like a troll running by) but no Station Buffet,  just a pop up. – see below.

The ship had blocked 2 carriages with the other 2 also being also full but with independent travellers. Although the train carriages are new, their outside tries to make it look like a throw back to the days of Pullman carriages but the inside has a regular train layout. So if you are sitting forward facing up the mountain, then you are back facing when going down the mountain.  The only thing that changes location is the diesel train which at the end of our scenic trip “up” moved around to pull us “down” again. This happens at a train station called Bjorli, which is where the tour turns around The regular train service stops here (there are a lot of small (ski) resorts around here) and then continues to the end of the line.

The diesel locomotive changing location at Bjorli. While all railroads in Norway have been electrified, the Rauma line has not although there is more than enough electric power available in the area. The tour guide was a little vague about the why but I think that at certain locations it is just too difficult to get the supporting pylons in place. There is also a regular train travelling on these tracks, connecting Andalsness with the rest of Norway, and is also a Diesel train.

When boarding you receive a “Golden Ticket” in exchange for you tour voucher and then it is a scramble to find a seat as only 2 people can sit at the window. Through out the trip, there is a running commentary but as the narrator is sitting somewhere away from the passengers, he has never been able to update his story with questions asked by the passengers. He narrates all the main stuff, but you cannot ask a detailed question about something he does not explain. See the end of this blog.

Our “Golden Ticket”. I just felt like Charlie and the Chocolate factory when I got mine. But it is a nice souvenir.. The tour which lasts 3 hours, cost about £100,– a person. You can try and book your own, cheaper (about £65,–) but today the train was fully booked. So you would have had to do it way in advance.

The first part of the  journey up the mountain goes  by the Trollstigen, the steepest  cliff – mountain- face in Europe and the train comes quite close it, making it not so easy to take a photo. Plus today there were a lot of interfering Norwegian Clouds around and that made it even more challenging.

I lifted this photo from the Golden train website (thank you) www.thegoldentrain.com, to show what the journey is all about. This is still in the lower part of the valley, where the incline is still quite small. But it shows the Trollstigen cliff wall.

The below photo was my feeble attempt, hampered by the height of the mountain cliff is it is anywhere between 1000 to 1700 meters, so hard to get done from a train. Also the Norwegian rain clouds were not helping. The tunnel at the foot of the wall is for the regular road which also runs through the valley of the river. Apart from Norwegian cars it was mainly Dutch cars coming by,

This is this cliff wall “Trollvegfen”(it runs for quite a distance, see the photo above).

The train follows first the valley of the Rauma River and works its way up the mountain which means it crosses the river bed and then goes through a tunnel, making an 180o loop to keep the elevation of the track reasonable while going 570 meters uphill.

The valley is quite wide and thus full of small farms busy with harvesting during the short Norwegian Summer. This is a shot taken about halfway up the mountain. We saw cows and sheep but to our amazement no ducks in the clear water ponds on the sides of the river. Maybe the water is too cold for any food to grow in.

The biggest danger of living in the valley is the constant threat of avalanches. The mountains are constantly moving and thus eventually rocks come loose.  Last year they had a big one, with a large rock slide of 1.2 km.. from the top of the mountain all the way down the valley reaching river level. It made the train journeys inoperable for a quite awhile.  A house near the train line was spared as the avalanche stayed about 10 feet clear of it. Some people are lucky,

Avalanche path, left over from last year. The horizontal line in the landscape is the Rauma train line and the vertical slit under it, is a newly installed drain works to deal with the water that now comes down the newly created bare rock face path..

We made it without any mishap to the top of the mountain ridge at the station of Bjorli where we had 20 minutes to stretch our legs, visit the toilets and inspect the small museum attached to the station. This museum describes the 1940 derring- do of the Norwegian Army when they managed to get 50 tons of gold just in time out of the Norwegian Central bank in Oslo. It was taken by truck and this train to Andalsness and from there by ship to Gr. Britain; and from there to the USA. By the time they had loaded the last gold on the trucks, the German Army was marching into Oslo, hurrying to the Central Bank.

A re-creation of the way the soldiers guarded the gold while waiting for the train. Simply by sleeping on top of it. Must have been an interesting experience of sleeping in a bedroom worth billions.

My interest went more to the “station buffet” set up outside the train. All the train stations along the route are unmanned (Bookings go by an app on the phone) and thus there is no exsurberant waiting room with refreshment in Biedermeyer style or Jugendstill from the days that the stations were built.  So the train people had a “pop-up” buffet set up. And they sold a lot of coffee (40 NOK a cup)  for those who felt the need to drink coffee on top of the mountain.

The world famous Bjorli train station “pop up buffet” buffet. And being served by somebody in a train uniform.

In the mean time the diesel locomotive went to the other side, now becoming the head of the train, to pull us down the mountain again. So after getting the last guest out of the toilet, we left after 20 minutes. As we now knew what to expect it was a lot easier to be ready for taking a good photo and the Train driver also slowed down twice to make it even easier. (Slowing down while going down hill, is a lot easier than doing it going up hill).

Withso much rain and snow around, there are waterfalls everywhere, including this spectacular one cascading more than 1000 meter down hill.

So we made it back by 15.45 hrs. and were advised to visit the local souvenir shop where you could buy train souvenirs (baseball cap, handbag, and some other trinkets) and who does not listen to the Tour guide ?  The rest of the shop sold exactly the same stuff as the other souvenir shops we visited along the way. Troll, Troll, Troll. The only one I had not seen yet was a fridge magnet with a troll on a motor bike.

The cast show in the smaller venue of “Carmen’s which brings it closer to a cabaret performance.

Back on board it was time to upload yesterdays blog and to get ready  for cocktails. The Headliners were performing again in Carmen’s, and here they have drink service, so we could combine cocktails with some more culture. Tonight’s show was “Top of the Billboards”. Which turned out to be a musical journey of some of the highest scoring songs in the hit-parades. Again a great show. We have not finished the cruise yet, but if this high level quality of performance continues, then this will be the first time that we have not seen a Cast show, in a series of shows, that did not have a dip. Compliments.

Cocktail pianist Paul Cassidy, performing in Charlie’s. The doors into the cocktail venue “Andersons” are wide open, so the music also reaches in there. Same goes for the venue’s around the Atrium.

We had our second dinner in “The Beach House” but as we had to move it from last night, as it conflicted with the Captain’s “Repeater Party”, we had the same menu again. It changes here on a 3 day cycle, so we lucked out. But there was enough variation to still have a very good meal.  I also have to correct myself about my comment, why were we not offered, coffee or tea last time; it says on the menu “please ask for our coffee’s and tea’s”. Why you have to ask, I do not know but it is not volunteered. On the way down I finally managed to get a picture of our so far elusive cocktail pianist.

When arriving back in the cabin, I saw us passing Alesund pilot station again. Andelness has (or had) its own pilot station, so what was the ms Aurora doing here? Pilot or another Medivac? I do not know. Maybe we will get an announcement tomorrow navigational update. During the Captain’s repeater party, I asked one of the nurses about the patient that was disembarked in Alesund some days ago, and he reported that the person was doing fine. .

Tomorrow we have a sea day. Weather should be a lot better than today, maybe even with some sun and as we will have following winds i might be even warm enough to sit outside. As soon as the ship is clear of Alesund it will be  a straight line down from Norway, until about coming abeam of the town of HULL in England and then veer slightly towards the British Coast to follow the shipping lanes to Dover Channel.

I am posting below photo as nobody could tell me what this is for, a door in the bottom of the mountain. I saw at least 3 of them during the train ride. It does not look like that it has anything to do with Electricity generation and our Tour guide did not mention it. So my guess is a: storing equipment for keeping the roads open in the winter or b: military depots as with the terrain it is not easy to get military equipment from A to B.  Anybody any ideas ??

A mysterious door in the bottom of the hill. What secrets could it hide ?