Atlantic Road and Marble Mine

An interesting excursion off the boat. We disembarked at Kristiansund, travelled along the Atlantic Hwy to a marble mine near Molde. This was so much better than expected, helped by the fact that we finally had some sunny weather.

The Atlantic Hwy is an engineering masterpiece designed to combat the strong winds. It is only 8-9km long but is a very popular tourist attraction, mainly because of the scenery. It was used as a filming location in the James Bond movie, No Time To Die. We arrived just as the sun was setting so it looked really nice.

The marble mine was interesting. We boarded rafts and floated through underground caverns with mood lighting and Enya style music. We tried the purest water that has seeped through the rock and ended our tour with bowls of hot meat and veggie soup. It is a family run business - only about 5 or 6 workers who blast, dig, and crush the marble rock. I couldn't work out why the marble was crushed but it is actually used to make paper - the high quality glossy stuff - who knew? Some larger pieces are used for statues, furniture and other things you usually associate with marble. I guess the tour is designed to supplement their income. As the demand for paper is decreasing, they are looking to use the mines as data storage centre for the servers because it is cool and there is an abundance of water.

We have not really seen spectacular displays of the northern lights as it has always been too cloudy. Generally, the photos you see are not what can be seen with the naked eye - appears more like a wispy, whitish cloud - but the camera lens picks up more colours.Read more