Ready for an adventure?  Come join Sydney Crabaugh and local designer Birger Berge for a 10 night, 11 day romp to Bergen Strikkefestival & Beyond!  This fun filled frolic is sure to be filled with laughter, learning, and some serious knit & relaxation time.

* 4 nights in Bergen with a full day at the Bergen Knitting Festival

* 2 nights in Flåm with a full knit, relax & sauna day

* 4 nights exploring wool & viking traditions in the rural fjordlands 

* Workshop and time spent with author & designer Birger Birge

Bergen

Bergen is a lovely little city with a very quaint historic harbor at its heart. From our base in the heart of Bergen, we will get our bearings with a walking tour as well as by visiting the local yarn festival, Bergen Strikkefestival! We will head up the funicular to Mount Fløyen for beautiful views over the city and the fjords beyond, and soak up the great vibe that Bergen has to offer.

Flåm

Train travel in Norway provides spectacular scenery, and also allows us to connect with a scenic railway that leads down from the mountains to our next destination - the spa town of Flåm. There we will relax at our hotel with views out across the fjord, enjoying a tasting menu paired with their own beer.  A full day of relaxation awaits with scheduled times in a sauna floating on the fjord, optional walks and kayak rentals, and space reserved for a Viking happy hour at the pub! 

Wool Traditions

A trip to the local open air museum called Viking Village where you'll be immersed in viking culture, covering everything from food to crafts! You will get a preview of some of the techniques we will be encountering in the days ahead…  After our step back in time we will head onward to the island of Osterøy. At the Osterøy Museum, in addition to a tour of their 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!  

There will of course be a visit to our favorite Norwegian shepherdess Helene and her flock of heritage Norse sheep at Gripen Gard Farm for a natural-dyeing experience. We’ll conclude our adventure 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?! 

Expected Price Range: This trip is expected be in the $5800 to $7000 range depending on accommodation level.

This trip needs at least 14 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 (click here to see our Terms and Conditions).

Tour Activity Level 

We would describe this trip as a Woolly Wander.

Mobility Comfort Level = Mobility Level 2+

Ability to manage your luggage on 2 trains by yourself and get in and out of an RIB boat, walking tour of 2-3 miles.

Review our Tour Activity and Mobility Comfort Levels here.

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

Arranging Your Flights 

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 missed tour activities. For this reason, we greatly appreciate your cooperation in booking travel that accommodates our specifications. 

Please Note the Following 

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.

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, Villa Terminus, which is an exclusive-use villa perfectly situated in a cozy corner of Bergen just off the train line! 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, which includes visits to the local yarn shops of course! After we've soaked up all of the city's splendor, it is time to dive headfirst  into Norway's yarn culture at Bergen Strikkefestival! We will have all of Saturday to enjoy Bergen's annual knitting festival, situated in the historic knitting mill Salhus Tricotagefabrik. There are yarn makers and dyers from all over Norway, as well as a knitting lounge and lectures. Who knows, maybe you'll find some gorgeous Norwegian yarn to cast on for our train journey tomorrow?

FLÅM
Relaxing in the Fjords
On Sunday 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 a Viking-style tasting menu paired with their own beer.  A full day of relaxation awaits with scheduled times in a sauna floating on the fjord, optional walks and kayak rentals, local artisan shops, and plenty of time to work on our knitting!

VIKING TIME

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

Ready to spend time with some wool? 
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  ourquaint 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 day 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. One 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 now runs 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.