Join Sydney Roseweck & Birger Berge to knit under the bright summer sky in Norway! Our visit here will be during the longest summer days, with just an hour or two between dawn and dusk. This tour is situated on the Western side of Norway, with stays in some of its most scenic regions:

• 4 nights in Bergen's historic city center

• 2 night of luxury in Flåm with a relaxing sauna day on the fjords

• 2 nights in the rural fjordlands at a 19th century villa

• 2 nights on the island of Østeroy exploring wool & Viking traditions

Bergen

Bergen is the lovely little city that will bookend our journey in Norway. From our home base in Bergen's historic harbor, we will get our bearings on a walking tour with a local guide. There will be time to explore the picturesque side streets and boutique shops, and to pick up some local yarn of course! We will head up the funicular to Mount Fløyen for a chance to knit and look out on the beautiful views of the city.

Flåm

Train travel in Norway provides spectacular scenery, and allows us to connect with the famous historic Flåm railway that will lead us down from the mountains and into our next destination. In Flåm, we will relax at our luxurious hotel with views out across the fjord, enjoying a never ending Norwegian buffet chock full with local ingredients. A full day of relaxation awaits with scheduled times in a sauna floating on the fjord, walks to the local yarn shop Huldra, or a tranquil day of knitting by the water.

Viking & Wool Traditions

Later, we're off to visit our favorite Norwegian shepherdess Helene and her flock of heritage Norse sheep at Gripen Gard Farm for a natural-dyeing experience! From here we will head onward to the island of Osterøy, the largest inland island in Norway. In addition to a tour of the amazing textile collection at the Osterøy Museum, we will be taught how to weave the fabric for the Varafell - a shaggy wool cape they like to call "Viking Life Insurance!" The trip would not be complete without a jaunt to the local open air museum called Viking Village where we'll complete our immersion in Viking culture, from sitting down to a traditional viking lunch to learning how to nålbind, one of the early ancestors of knitting!

We conclude our adventures with a visit to the most beautiful and whimsical yarn shop we’ve ever visited, Hillesvag Wool Mill. This wool mill is so quintessentially Norwegian that their website is wool.norway (in Norwegian, of course) on which they refer to their wool and yarn shop as candy-like.  Are these our people or what?! 

This trip is brimming with culture, workshops, great food, and wool. Join us for the Norwegian experience of a lifetime!

This trip needs at least 12 participants in order to proceed (i.e. the trip is "guaranteed"). We strongly advise you to wait to purchase your flights until the trip is guaranteed by us to go forward. Unless otherwise stated, our regular Terms and Conditions apply to this trip and for any cancellations.

Please Note

Rowan Tree Travel reserves the right to alter any part of this itinerary in order to address weather conditions, unforeseen circumstances or to improve the participant experience.

While our Tour Activity Level describes what to expect on a tour, our Mobility Comfort Level is personal to each traveler.

We would describe this trip as a Woolly Wander with a mobility comfort level of 2️⃣+. You should have the ability to manage your luggage between accommodations and on 2 trains by yourself, and get in and out of a RIB boat. There will be a walking tour of approximately 2 miles in Bergen. There will be a limited amount of ground floor rooms and lifts will not be available at some accommodations.

Rowan Tree Travel highly recommends purchasing travel insurance. You may purchase through our preferred partner Arch RoamRight here or through your own provider.  

*Arch RoamRight is an affiliate of RTTF and we will receive a small commission for policies bought through the provided link.

In order to gather easily for the tour, we provide an arrival and departure "window" at a major transportation hub - typically an international airport at your destination country. Flights scheduled outside the provided windows may result in additional transportation costs and/or missed tour activities. For this reason, we greatly appreciate your cooperation in booking travel that accommodates our specifications. 

This tour will start and end in Bergen, Norway. Flight details will be provided upon registration and confirmed once the tour has been declared a go.

Please do not purchase airfare until the tour is guaranteed by RTTF to go forward.

BERGEN

Welcome to Norway! Bergen is a beautiful city with a quaint historic harbor at its heart. Your guides will greet you at our home for the weekend, the Villa Terminus situated in the heart of Bergen. We will have a relaxed afternoon to explore Bergen, a welcome dinner at one of the local charming restaurants and then off to bed for warm and woolly dreams!  

From our home base, we will be joined by a local guide and fellow knitter to get our bearings with a walking tour of Bergen, full to the brim with the city's history. There will be time to explore on your own before we pass out kits for our knit-along project and have some time to do what we all do best: sit & knit!

FLÅM

Relaxing in the Fjords
On Thursday we head north - by simply crossing the street and boarding the train! Train travel in Norway provides spectacular scenery, so sit back and relax as we make our way to the countryside. Our modern train will connect us with the Flåm Railway, a historic scenic railway line that leads down from the mountains and brings us to our next destination, the spa town of Flåm. There we will relax at our hotel with views out over the fjord, and enjoy the glorious summer days. A full day of relaxation awaits with scheduled times in a sauna floating on the fjord, optional walks to the local yarn shop, kayak rentals, local artisan shops, and plenty of time to work on our knitting!

OSTERØY

Let's step back in time... 
Today we become immersed in viking culture at the open air museum Viking Valley. The museum is full of traditional structures, re-enactors wearing period clothing and working with viking-era tools. We will enjoy a cozy lunch here prepared by vikings using some of the original ingredients from times gone by, as well as a private demonstration of viking-era crafts! After you have physically pulled your fiber ambassador out from Viking Village (this was very difficult last year!) we will all board our bus and head onward to the island of Osterøy. 

The following day will be the first of our half-day workshops. In addition to a tour of the Osterøy Museum's amazing textile collection, they will teach us how to weave the fabric for the Varafell - a shaggy wool cape they like to call "Viking Life Insurance!" We'll stop by the Norlender Factory on our way back, which has been making Norwegian sweaters and knitwear for many decades, before at last return to our beautiful hotel.  

SKJERJEHAMN

To the farm out of a folk tale...
It is time to bid farewell to the island of Osterøy and to visit Helene with her flock of heritage Norse sheep at Gripen Gard Farm! With the backdrop of her gorgeous farm, we will be introduced to natural dyeing techniques and given a home-cooked lunch. It is safe to say that you all will be taken with Helene's charm, along with that of her sweet flock! We will continue through the fjordlands north of Bergen for a couple of nights on the small island of Skjerjehamn.

Perched at the edge of Sognefjord, the largest fjord in Norway, we will reach  our quaint and picturesque hotel. Originally a villa house built in the mid-19th century, this house-hotel retains its historic character and offers 360° views of the tranquil fjords and nature that surround it. We will have a pleasant day off the bus to relax and learn Norwegian colorwork in a workshop with Birger Berge, author of Nordic Knits. The only interruptions will be a fjord boat ride and breaks for excellent food and conversation! 

BERGEN

One last hoorah in Bergen! 
It’s back to Bergen to soak in the last two days of our visit to Norway! We'll board the ferry from our hotel dock that takes us straight to Bergen's city center. Once back in Bergen, we'll drop off our luggage at our hotel in the Finnegaarden Trading House at Bryggen. Our hotel is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that sits on the edge of the historic wharf! From here, we'll take our final trip outside of the city to pay a visit to the wondrous Hillesåg Wool Mill. This wool mill and yarn shop will have you feeling like a child in a candy store. With hundreds of colors on display and multiple bases of Norwegian yarn to choose from, you will easily be able to fill any gaps in your yarn wishlist while we're here! There will be time in the later afternoon back in Bergen to visit any last sites you wish to see. A farewell dinner at one of the cozy restaurants nearby will bring our woolly wander to a close.

FAREWELL

Sadly it is time to bid a fond farewell to new friends and to our beloved Norway. Our consolation will be the newly acquired stash we're all bringing home with us! 

Sydney is a voracious knitter, designer, and knitwear historian. She has been knitting and studying fashion history for over fifteen years and recently turned her passions into a career at Squid's School of Vintage Knitting, an online school devoted to the education and love of historical knitwear. Her work in the knitting world is also supplemented by her academic background in film history, and she tries to combine the two as often as possible. In collaboration with Rowan Tree Travel, Sydney works to develop tours that have a historical or vintage bent, often with elaborately themed and niche activities! With over ten years of working in the fiber industry, Sydney continues to love meeting other knitters and sharing fiber experiences with them more than anything else. You can find her at patreon.com/squidschool or over on Instagram as @squidneyknits. 

Birger Berge is an avid knitter with great passion for knitting traditions, traditional techniques and anything fiber related. Birger gained traction in the knitting community from 2016 and forward though his Instagram account. Since then, Birger has published two books of his own and participated with patterns in several other book projects along with other designers. Birger is known for adapting traditional styles to modern knitwear and always looks to history for inspiration. As an educated historian, Birger is keenly aware of how important knitting has been for not only keeping warm, but also for a sense of identity and pride.