As we had such a long day yesterday a well-deserved lie-in and a leisurely breakfast were taken today. As we have used up most of our food, the plan is to eat out today - extravagant as that may be. We have another Bergen Card, but this time only for 24h and we want to use it for travelling to the airport tomorrow, so timing today's travel was crucial. You have to write the date and time on it to activate it, although we have only had it inspected the once, on our way into Bergen from the airport. However, not wanting to be caught out travelling on the tram before the allotted time, which typically might have happened if we had not filled it in, we decided to have a stroll into town today. It even allowed us enough time to call in at the KODE museum shop for some souvenir purchases before continuing our journey. Earlier in the week a scarf with a print of a painting by Nicolai Astrup on had been fancied, and the intention was to possibly purchase it later in the week. We made the mistake of not asking the price the first time, it turned out to be 1200 Krone, which is nearly £110. Even I am not that much of a spendthrift so the scarf stayed in the museum!
Our day now carried on by bus, to The Norwegian Knitwear Museum.
Sounds exciting doesn't it?
Eric thinks these buses are very comfortable.
In fact it involves two buses, the first of which runs every ten minutes, but we find we have forty minutes to wait for the next as we had just missed one. Never mind, this gives us the opportunity to visit the supermarket, buy some lunch and sit on a concrete slab to eat it - believe it or not this was the better option than eating it in the bus station, which was not very salubrious. Fully fuelled up we jump on the next bus. The ride is very pleasant, with some good views, although it looks like it is not a well used line. Make a note to check the return bus times before we go into the museum!
View from the bus.
Salhus Kai where the museum is situated is a very pretty little village, so worth the waiting around.
The Knitwear Museum is not very far. It was founded in 1859 and the original building was wooden but was replaced with this one when they expanded.
We are the only people there, but are still given the full guided tour. First there is a film about the history of the factory, and then a tour of the actual factory itself.
A carding machine. The wool was very soft. There are two different grade of rollers, the later ones being finer. The wool would be fed into the machine, travel through the rollers and then transported as a sheet to the next set of rollers.
Following this the wool was separated into loose threads.
Eric takes a closer look - it's a good job they're not switched on or he may have had a nasty accident.
Next came the machines that made the thread stronger and finer, winding it onto bobbins.
From the bobbins it was wound onto cones,
or sometimes into skeins for selling to home knitters. Much of the equipment was imported, but this one was made in Norway.
Originally the knitting machine were worked by hand.
Eric has a go with a hand-powered sock making machine.
This is another hand-powered machine. The worker using this would have to have kept turning the handle for about thirteen hours a day!
Surprisingly (to us anyway), all the fore-runners for the knitted garments came off the machines as a tube.
They were then cut and sewn together.
The factory originally made the finest wool underwear, garments were such high quality that they would last a long time. They no longer make these here but we were able to feel a sample. They were very soft and warm. They sold under the brand name of Krone Maco and were much desired in places such as Japan and the US.
Surprisingly all the machines are kept in working order and we had demonstrations of them running. They even still make a number of items for their souvenir shop.
Similar to (but nowhere on the same scale) as Port Sunlight in Liverpool the factory was the life of the community, with the owner providing housing, medical care, pensions, schooling, various activity clubs such as music and gymnastics, and a church.
This is the first house that was built for the workers. Just behind it is the schoolhouse.
As by this time we had missed the one bus we decided to have a cup of tea in the cafe. It had a very good outlook over the harbour. Unfortunately, the tea was on the lines of Canadian tea, i.e. not made with boiling water. Luckily it was Earl Grey and was quite refreshing when luke warm. The very helpful young ladies in the cafe did offer us some newly boiled water but we needed to catch the next bus or we were worried we might not get back to Bergen, and we were twenty miles outside it - so a long way to walk!
The bus stop is on the quay, and we notice that we are close to the bridge we had seen from the boat on our first fjord cruise. Even from this angle, it still looks like they suddenly remembered they needed to let the boats pass through.
A direct connection at Asane terminal allows us to be back in Bergen and out again on the tram to Hop. Making the most of our Bergen Card benefits we are on our way to Troldhaugen to find the summer home of Edvard Grieg. Unlike the last museum, which was free, in this one we will only have a 50% discount. There is a twenty minute walk from the tram stop to the museum and it just starts picking with rain as we arrive.
The museum has an exhibition housed in a very modern building and some outbuildings with grass roofs.
The composer's house itself is very small, but also has a very cosy and comfortable feel to it, with lovely views from the house and garden. It is situated on a peninsula by a lake.
The house is wooden planked, both outside and in and the garden full of tulip beds.
Inside the house there were also several wood-burning stoves - but not as we know it. Have a geek at these.
The Steinway piano was a silver wedding present. Lots of the wooden furniture also had lovely carvings on them, and there was a solid silver tiered 'Lazy Susan' with gold lined bowls - this was in a thief proof cabinet for obvious reasons. It was so unusual that in admiring it and talking to the guide about it, we forgot to take a photo.
Eric admiring the garden and views.
Back on the tram for dinner . Our last day in Norway is coming to a close.
To finish:
Some trivia relating to the number of electric cars we have seen since being here:
There were electric cars everywhere and I discover that 40% of new car registrations last year were all electric. It helps that the government provides free charging at public points and all manner of other incentives. At one point we saw 5 Nissan Leafs (or should that be Leaves) at a single roundabout. Most manufacturers were represented with Tesla being in great abundance and a model by Kia that look like a set of Duplo blocks on wheels called a Soul. I think I recall seeing them in the UK, but not as an electric car.
Now we have to pack for the return home.
One last sunset from the apartment.
