Malcom and Percy came to Norway, more precisely my home in
Vestnes, in February.
This was the coldest February in more than sixty years here on the North-West Coast of Norway.
Unfortunately both me and my husband had a heavy work load when the boys arrived, so the first week of their visit they stayed at home, and didn't get to see so much of the winter wonderland.
They inspected my great-grand mother's spinning wheel, and relaxed for a few days.
Vestnes is situated between the towns
Ålesund,
Åndalsnes and
Molde. The "village" is rather rural, but the main industy here is ship yards.
After a few days at home here,
we took a trip to Ålesund.
The town is one of the most visited towns in Norway, and it is famous for it's architecture in Jugend, or Art Noveau, style . Almost the entire town was destroyed in a fire in January 1904, and the town was rebuilt in this style.
Malcom outside the Jugend centre.
Ålesund is situated on a few small islands on the North-West Coast of Norway, and the main source of income has through history been the sea and fishing. The men went to - the "South-West"sea very young, and the women stayed at home, and did the processing of the fish. This lady is sorting the herring before salting it.
I'm not sure what she makes of Malcom.
Ålesund is also known for producing baccalao, or dried cod. Here is Malcom with an example of the "species". The boy's hat - "the South-West" - is practically part of the "national costume" of this region. (The national costume of course being water proofs).
A few days later we went to Kristiansund. On our way there we had to go by Molde.
Molde is known for it panorama view towards the pinnacles of Romsdal, which is an Eldorado for mountainers, climbers, base jumpers and paragliders.
On the picture above you can see Malcom and my children, Ida and Ola, coming in to Molde by the ferry from Vestnes. In the background you can see the hotel Seilet (the Sail) and the football arena.
Molde is also known as "The Town of the Roses" in Norway, and on the town square you can see "The Rose girl". In the summer her tray is filled with roses. Malcom wanted to see what "life as a dance on roses" would feel like.
In July Molde hosts the Annual International Jazzfestival. This Jazz musician stays in town all year though.
As we were in Molde we took the opportunity to visit the LYS, Aandahl. The ladies there didn't want their picture taken, but they were very charmed by Malcom. And so was Mousie, the store's own knitted pet.
From Molde it is an hour's drive to Kristiansund.
As Ålesund, Kristiansund is situated on three
small islands, and the town has the oldest
continuously going means of transport in the world, Sundbåten. This is a small passengerboat
shutteling between the islands.
This was one of the coldest days in Kristiansund
this winter, and we weren't able to stay outdoors
for more than a few minutes at the time.
Kristiansund too is know for producing klippfisk, or baccalao.
Here are Malcom and my daughter with one of the ladies who worked at the "fish rock-face". Turning the fish over, to make sure it dried properly, they also had to stack the fish every evening and when it started to rain, and spread it out on the rock-face again the next morning.
In order to get warm again we went to a small fish restaurant and had a wonderful meal of
different baccalao courses.
Back home in Vestnes we spent a few day with winter activities. Malcom went ice skating with my children, and he also took part as my son, Ola, and my father in law were preparing for next winter, working on the fire wood supply.
We had a good time having both Malcom and Percy here, and would have loved to show them even more of the local sights. But unfortunately we weren't able to travel more at this time.
Now Malcom is on his way to Australia, and I think, a completely different climate!
Malcom and Percy came to Norway, more precisely my home in Vestnes, in February.
