July 22 - Molde, Norway

I've been meaning to add photos of our wonderful waiters at dinner and sometimes at breakfast also in Compass Rose.

I Putu always has a joke and loves to tease us

Rowena is the sweetest thing

 Our tour today took us to a lookout point.  The views were OK, mostly blocked by trees and the morning light was not really condusive to photos.

This building with the sod roof actually had a small tree growing out of it.

This was used as a lookout towards the ocean.  If someone unknown was approaching, the lookout would light a fire inside and the smoke would alert the townspeople below.

Next was a living museum of old homes from 300-400 years ago that were moved here for a look at life in the country.

The sea is a huge part of life on the Norwegian coast of course.  You can even see it in the sort of female sea creatures up there with Jesus and the other saints.

The farmers lived in the upstairs; you can see the staircase through the door on the left.  The animals were kept downstairs.  They took them up the large stone steps and through the double doors that are closed.  Must have helped with warming the house, but the smell must have been something else.

Looks like a good strong wind would push this off the foundations.

The adult bed was tiny, as you can see it compared to the baby's cradle in front.

This must have been a wealthy person's home, judging by the nice furnishings.

Another small bed in the wealthy home along with the bedside commode.  A British woman said they call the chamber pot "gozundas" in the UK because it "goes unda" the bed at night.

A nice heater for the wealthy home.

These delightful young girls demonstrated a few of the traditional Norwegian dances.

On the way back to the ship, we passed some very pretty homes.  They were generally larger here than we've seen in most of the other towns we've visited.

We walked around the main street which was right off the pier for a bit.  There were very nice clothes shops and restaurants.  But again, it was rather warm (85 degrees) and the restaurants weren't air-conditioned, so we didn't stop.

We walked through an indoor mall (again, not air-conditioned) and were surprised to see a small auto dealer there. 

Molde is known as the Rose City and we could see why.  Beautiful roses and flowers were all over the place.  They must be hearty to survive the winters.

This is the Rose Keeper outside of City Hall.

Back to the ship for a quiet afternoon (and maybe a wee little nap).  We had no hot water this morning, and still had none by around 3 pm.  I called Reception and they were very apologetic.  He said they'd been told that it had been taken care of.  A plumber was at our door within minutes and fiddled around for a bit and then went out for some more investigating.  He returned and was still fiddling when we left for Trivia (11/15 so no points), but all was well when we returned so we had lovely hot showers before dinner.  Funny the things you take for granted.

And my sun hat went missing sometime yesterday, but lo and behold, they had it at Reception this afternoon.  No idea where I left it, but I was just glad to have it back.  All I could find to replace it were ball caps, and I look ridiculous in ball caps.