THE CAVES!
Today was a back-to-back excursion day with less than an hour between adventures. But C-L-E-A-R-L-Y the highlight of the day was when we visited the Bergtatt Marble Caves. The photos we'd seen in researching indicated this would an amazing visit and it did not disappoint. We drove about 45 minutes outside of Molde, including a long tunnel THROUGH a mountain before arriving at the caves. The bus drove RIGHT INTO the caves and for about a quarter of a mile before we disembarked. There we donned helmets and life jackets before we entered the boats. The water was crystal clear and very "spiritual" music I guess would be the way to describe the background music as we gently floated through the tunnels. The photos don't do the trip justice and I suspect the highlight video won't be much better, but trust me it was a sensational morning.
They told us at the caves that our photos wouldn't turn out great and they recommended downloading from their website, so here are a few of the professionally taken pics of the cave experience.....
The video I shot came out much better than the photos I shot.....just under three minutes, it's a pretty good representation of what we experienced.....
After floating deep inside the mountain and back we had a presentation. The company/family that owns and operates this mining operation originally did so to produce marble for building. But as the demand declined they built a big business on get this, making PAPER from marble! Yes! The paper stock of most magazines that have glossy pages, that comes from marble.....who knew! But with the advent of the Internet and Smart Phones the demand for paper has fallen off so now the company is building a growing business for housing data storage - because marble is insulated and won't ever shut down! WOW. After leaving the caves we drove along the Atlantic Road which was lined with beautiful Norwegian vistas and we had a photo op stop.
We returned to the ship a little over four hours after we'd left. Just a "WOW" morning. We had about 35 minutes to grab a slice of pizza and a cookie before heading out on our second tour, an "included" tour of the city from which the highlight was a H-I-G-H overlook of the city and surrounding fjords. Someone, because people do this, has counted the mountain peaks visible from here and it's 222....both our guides stated this figure. We didn't count to see if they were right! Another great day of panoramic adventures!
These lights are made COMPLETELY out of marble!
After floating deep inside the mountain and back we had a presentation. The company/family that owns and operates this mining operation originally did so to produce marble for building. But as the demand declined they built a big business on get this, making PAPER from marble! Yes! The paper stock of most magazines that have glossy pages, that comes from marble.....who knew! But with the advent of the Internet and Smart Phones the demand for paper has fallen off so now the company is building a growing business for housing data storage - because marble is insulated and won't ever shut down! WOW. After leaving the caves we drove along the Atlantic Road which was lined with beautiful Norwegian vistas and we had a photo op stop.
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