NTW Pre-Tour 2012 - Trondheim to Ålesund

Every year the Norwegian Tourism Board (Innovation Norway) holds the Norwegian Travel Workshop (NTW) for companies in the tourism industry, that is for Norwegian suppliers and national as well as international clients. Before and after this kind of tourism fair, Innovation Norway organises various trips throughout Norway in order for the workshop participants to get to know the tourism product Norway.
In this context I unsuccessfully tried twice to visit the North Cape [click here for the story] and also went on a ski trip through Fjord Norway last year [click here for the post]. This year I had chosen to participate in a NTW pre-tour that would bring me to Trondheim and the top of Fjord Norway, places which (except for Ålesund) I haven't been to before. So I was really looking forward to that trip on which I was going with my colleague Michelle from Haman Scandinavia.

One of the tour participants has created a video on youtube which you are more than welcome to have a look at. For the link to the video click here.

Below the programme with pictures :-)
By the way: you can click on the pictures to enlarge them!

 

Thusrday, 19th of April:

12:55 - Departure by SAS flight SK344 from Oslo Airport Gardermoen.

13:50 - Arrival at Trondheim Airport Værnes. Pick up at the airport and transfer by bus to town.

14:45 - Arrival and check-in at Rica Hotel Bakklandet, where I got a nice room.

15:15 - Bus from Rica Hotel Bakklandet to Radisson Blu Hotel Royal Garden for lunch and hotel visit.

16:30 - Bus from Radisson Blu Hotel Royal Garden to Comfort Hotel Trondheim for another hotel inspection.

16:45 - Sightseeing tour of Trondheim by bus.

17:00 - As part of the sightseeing tour we visited the Ringve Museum, Norway's national museum for music and musical instruments with collections from all over the world.

17:45 - Also included in the sightseeing tour was a stop at Rockheim, Norway's national museum of pop and rock, a very fascinating and very hands-on museum. I could have spent hours in there!!! Definitely recommended to everyone!

(one of the original drawings used in the music video of AHA's "Take on me" song) 

19:00 - We are back at the hotel and had some time on our own. Michelle and I used that time to quickly get changed and already walk over to the place where we would later on meet the others for dinner. That way we could take some nice pictures in the sunset of the colourful surroundings of our hotel. The historical, coloured, wooden buildings as well as our hotel all flank the river banks of the local river Nidelva.

 

 

 

20:00 - The big red building is Havfruen Restaurant, where we joined the others for a delicious dinner.

22:30 - Back at Rica Hotel Bakklandet for the overnight.


Friday, 20th of April:

07:30 - Breakfast at the hotel.

08:30 - Check out from the hotel and departure by bus for a morning sightseeing tour of Trondheim.
Trondheim is Norway's third largest city, located in the middle of the country's length, that is on a map where it becomes "more narrow/thinner". The city was founded by Viking King Olav Tryggvason in 997 BC and occupies a special place in Norwegian culture and history. Trondheim was Norway’s first capital until 1217 and continues to be the coronation city where Norway's kings and queens from Harald Hårfagre (10th century BC) to today's King Harald V (since 1991) have been crowned and blessed.

Stiftsgården, the Royal Residence in Trondheim, located right in the city centre.

 

The most famous sight in Trondheim is surely the Romanesque and Gothic Nidaros Cathedral which is built over the grave of St. Olav, Norway's patron saint.

  

10:00 - Departure by bus from Trondheim southwestwards to the area of Orkanger.

11:00 -  Arrival at Bårdshaug Herregård. Inspection of the mansion and the hotel, followed by lunch.

  

12:20 - Departure from Orkdal in direction Surnadal.

13:45 - Visit with coffee and tea at Vårsøg Hotell.

14:30 - Departure from the hotel further westwards.

15:30 - Arrival in Halsa to take the car ferry for 20 minutes over to Kanestraum.

15:40 - Arrival in Kanestraum and drive further on in the direction of Kristiansund.

16:45 - Arrival in Kristiansund.

 

16:50 - Hotel inspection at Thon Hotel Kristiansund.

17:15 - Hotel inspection of Rica Hotel Kristiansund.

17:30 - Hotel inspection of Quality Hotel Kristiansund.

17:45 - Drive up to an old watchtower and lookout point from 1892, offering a great view over the town and the surroundings.

 

18:15 - Departure from Kristiansund towards the Atlantic Ocean Road and the islands of Averøy.

 

19:15 - We left the bus behind at the parking. Two little boats brought us with our luggage over to the Håholmen Havstuer, laying on one of the islands of Averøy. Håholmen is a fishing community in the Hustadvika Bay worthy of preservation. It has served as a meeting place, harbour and workplace for fishermen, sailors and travellers for hundreds of years. Today, Håholmen is a very beautiful and picturesque place to stay overnight, offering a range of activities such as seal safaris, kayaking and fishing tours.

19:30 - Arrival at Håholmen. We checked in at our cabins/rooms and had some free time before dinner. Enough time to take pictures of this wonderful place!

(my room)

 

 

20:15 - Time for a delicious dinner, in a charming place and accompanied by a wonderful sunset.

 

 

 

22:30 - Tired from the impressions of the day, the good food and all the wine, we ended the day at a quite reasonable time.


Saturday, 21st of April:

08:00 - Breakfast.

09:00 - Presentation of Håholmen and its history and visit of the little exhibition with artifacts from and a video about the "famous" Saga Siglar sailing boat. It's a replica of an old Viking ship used by the Norwegian adventurer Ragnar Thorseth for a circumnavigation of the globe between 1983 and 1986.

10:00 - Time for activities offered by Håholmen Havstuer: some went on a fishing tour, a few people gave it a try to the SUP (=stand up paddleboard). Me and seven others we decided on a kayaking tour.

 

12:00 - End of the activities and getting changed.

12:30 - Lunch at Håholmen restaurant.

13:30 - Departure. The two boats brought us back again to parking place where we had left the bus.

13:45 - Back on the bus we continued along on the Atlanterhavsveien, the famous Atlantic Ocean Road. The 8,3km long section of the country road 64 is preserved as national heritage and is classified as National Tourist Route. The British newspaper The Guardian voted it "the world's best car journey". The road winds its way across the exposed archipelago of rocky islands and skerries right at the ocean's edge.

 

14:45 - Visit of Bud. In the 16th and 17th century Bud was the biggest trading post between Bergen and Trondheim. Today it's still an active fishing village with some good fish restaurants. We stopped here at Bryggjen for some coffee and cake.

16:30 - Departure from Bud.

17:30 - Arrival at Molde. Molde is famous for its beautiful surroundings and fantastic views (with good weather, though!). It is called the "town of Roses", because of its lovely rose gardens. Every summer the town hosts the Molde Jazz Festival, where world famous performers always attract big crowds.

17:45 - Check in at Rica Hotel Seilet and visit of the hotel.

 

View from the hotel's roof top terrace.

After the hotel inspection we had some free time. Since outside it was raining quite a bit, I made use of the bathtub I had in my room. I usually never find the time on those tours to take a bath, but this time I had the time and it was very nice and relaxing.

19:15 - We met at the reception to walk over to Quality Hotel Alexandra where we were welcomed with an aperitif and a presentation of Destination Molde & Romsdal. A visit of also this hotel followed.

20:00 - Dinner at the hotel Alexandra.

22:00 - Most of the people of the group left right after dinner to go back to our hotel to sleep. However, about 10 of us stayed to attend a concert hold at the hotel's disco/bar.

The music they played actually invited to dance. But since it was more music for "standard dance", that is with a partner (like some foxtrot, disco fox or similar), some of the men actually asked for a dance :-) Well, the audience was rather "older", but they were at least the ones that still know how to dance in pairs, especially the Russians in our group that stayed as well after dinner. And well, I really do like those dances :-)

00:00 - Time to go "home", that is back to our hotel and sleep. Well, that's what we thought and the intention with which we left the bar at Quality Hotel Alexandra. However, on the way back to the hotel, we passed a place where a salsa party was going on. Right during this evening I had been talking to a Dutch girl of our group, Karin, and I had figured out that she likes to dance salsa - like me! So when passing that salsa place, we were just looking at each other and rushed in, dragging with us the other 3 guys and that girl that were still with us.

So Karin and I were still dancing some salsa and bachata that night.

Molde Fjordstuer Hotel

02:00 - Finally in bed!

Sunday, 22nd of April:

07:45 - After a long night a quite early time to get up and have breakfast at the hotel.

08:45 - Morning sightseeing tour of Molde - including a visit to the Romsdal opan air museum and of the Varden viewpoint (407 m.a.s.l.) to see the Molde Panorama with its 222 partly snow-clad peaks.

11:00 - Departure from Molde.

11:15 - Car ferry between Molde and Vestnes, a 35-minutes crossing.

13:00 - Arrival in Ålesund, the Art Nouveau town. Ålesund and the Sunnmøre region are known for its natural and cultural attractions. Ålesund's architecture is famous and also known under the name Jugendstil. The myriads of turrets, spires and beautiful ornamentation give the town its distinctive character.

13:15 - Arrival at viewpoint Mount Aksla.

 

14:00 - Lunch at Aksla Fjellstua.

 13:45 - Descent by food down the path from Askla into the city centre of Ålesund.

14:15 - Visit of the Atlanterhavsparken, the Atlantic Ocean Sea Park, a tourist attraction mainly for kids.

 

 

 

 

 

14:45 - City sightseeing tour of Ålesund, including a visit of the Jugendstilseneret, the Art Nouveau Museum.

 

 

 

15:45 - Hotel inspection tour:

at Hotel Brosundet

(my colleague Michelle)

at Clarion Collection Hotel Bryggen

and at Quality Hotel Waterfront.

16:30 - Quick check in at our overnight place: Rica Hotel Parken.

17:00 - Meeting with 62°Nord, provider of activities in the area of Ålesund, for a fantastic and absolute fun RIB boat trip out to the bird island Runde.

Runde Island is famous for its enormous amount of birds. It is said that there are about 500.000 to 700.000 seabirds inhabiting the island, most of them are to be found in the cliffs. The birdlife counts among others some 200.000 Atlantic puffins, 100.000 black-legged seagulls, 3.000 common shags, 100 skuas and even some 50 eagles. Tried to catch some of them on my pictures, but they are all very small.

This trip was SO MUCH FUN!!! Another guy, Paul, and me, we had been sitting on the two front seats. The tour guide already announced that it was going to become probably "a bit" bumpy for us. Well, "a bit" was little understatement! We had been rushing with nearly 100km/h over the open ocean where the wind took care of creating some waves. Due to the speed especially the front part of the boat lifted off. The more the front went out of the water the deeper and harder we bounced back onto the ocean surface after a wave. Paul and I had such a great time in the front there, though it was very tough work to keep on standing with bent knees to absorb all the shocks of the impact back on the water surface.

We had been so exhausted afterwards! It was actually quite a long tour that lasted nearly two hours. The next day Paul and I had to laugh so much as we had such incredibly stiff muscles, because during this sports tour muscles were used we apparently don't use that often. Never imagined a RIB boat tour could be physically so strenuous!

19:30 - Back at the hotel.

19:45 - Meeting at the reception for the well deserved dinner at the Polarbjørn restaurant of the hotel.

 

Not only was the food delicious again, but once more we could experience a beautiful sunset from the restaurant window.

 

23:00 - Everyone left to go to bed as we all had early flights back to Oslo the next day.


Monday, 23rd of April:

06:15 - Early breakfast.

07:00 - Departure by bus to Ålesund Airport Vigra, a 15 mintes drive away from the city.

09:00 - SAS flight SK1315 back to Oslo.

10:30 - Back in the office - from the aiport straight to work :-(

I had a marvellous trip with so so many different, but very good impressions! It was great to see that part of Norway as I got to see many of the products/services we have included in our tours.