We cruised to Alesund and took a nice long walk there and then on to Molde for a short stop.
The Alesund stop proved to be serendipitous. A few days earlier, our tour guide for the Italy trip that will follow this trip wrote to give us info about the trip and was planning to call us on a day that was inconvenient during our current tour. Plus, he was anticipating calling us at home, so the phone number and his timing were not going to work. We let him know we were on this trip in Norway and sent our Norwegian phone number, and surprise, surprise, he wrote that he lives in Norway and Italy during the summer and was currently in Alesund and would we be visiting. The Alesund stop was one of our longer ones, so we made arrangements to meet, which got a little shuffled when our official tour started 30 minutes earlier than planned.
The ship made several short stops in the morning, arriving in Alesund at noon.
We had lunch at 11:30, and set out on our walk around the downtown at 12:30pm. Like many old Norwegian towns, Alesund burned down and was rebuilt several times, the last time in the early 1900s, using the Art Nouveau style. Fires happened primarily in the winter: most of the homes were wood, and the heat from the continuous fires for warmth either overheated the home or the chimney and with the typical winds, one fire quickly became many. Wood was more plentiful than brick, but Alesund decided to rebuild with some sort of masonry, and that apparently stopped the fires.
From there, we walked to a park and a hike up 418 steps led to a viewpoint for the entire area. It was raining a bit, but most of us continued up the steps where we were to meet Davide at 2pm, after he finished his morning tour. Because of our earlier start, we made it to the top before 1:30, took bunches of photos as we tried to stay out of the wind that swirled around the locked building at the top. The rest of the group headed back to the warmth of the ship and when we texted Davide with how to identify us, he called to say he had just finished and we should head back down and meet him on the steps. From there, we talked and he led us back to our ship. Not only does he split time in Norway and Italy, he is also a tennis journalist who travels the world and was just in San Francisco in March!
Back on the ship, we headed into the sea to continue north, and the sea swells bothered me, so I decided to sleep though them. Jim, the intrepid one, decided to go to a lecture on Norse facts. Warning: the following is not politically correct. He came back to say that Norwegians are typically not that obvious about their emotions -- one slide with a very neutral look was used to show a happy, sad, and irate Norwegian. The smiling photo showed a Norwegian who had been drinking. And Norwegians are not really social. If a Norwegian gets on a bus where all the window seats are taken, he will get off because there is no place to sit by himself. End of objectionable material.
When we sailed behind an island, the sea flattened out in time for dinner and a very short stop in Molde, where Veera had hoped to show us a historic building. Unfortunately, our usual docking spot was already taken, so we ended up a mile away in an industrial area and no time to walk much of anywhere. We left the ship to stand in the wind and rain to learn about Molde, much of which neither of us remember. It is a city of 26,000, and was a trading post.
We went back inside for dinner, but when it was time for me to start the blog, we were back on the high seas and the idea of working on the computer seemed counterproductive from a personal comfort standpoint, so I am writing this a day late and before we hit the sea again.
The Alesund stop proved to be serendipitous. A few days earlier, our tour guide for the Italy trip that will follow this trip wrote to give us info about the trip and was planning to call us on a day that was inconvenient during our current tour. Plus, he was anticipating calling us at home, so the phone number and his timing were not going to work. We let him know we were on this trip in Norway and sent our Norwegian phone number, and surprise, surprise, he wrote that he lives in Norway and Italy during the summer and was currently in Alesund and would we be visiting. The Alesund stop was one of our longer ones, so we made arrangements to meet, which got a little shuffled when our official tour started 30 minutes earlier than planned.
The ship made several short stops in the morning, arriving in Alesund at noon.
We had lunch at 11:30, and set out on our walk around the downtown at 12:30pm. Like many old Norwegian towns, Alesund burned down and was rebuilt several times, the last time in the early 1900s, using the Art Nouveau style. Fires happened primarily in the winter: most of the homes were wood, and the heat from the continuous fires for warmth either overheated the home or the chimney and with the typical winds, one fire quickly became many. Wood was more plentiful than brick, but Alesund decided to rebuild with some sort of masonry, and that apparently stopped the fires.
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| Small playground next to the dock |
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| The style of all these oldtown buildings is Art Nouveau |
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| This little train apparently goes to the top of the viewpoint because we saw one there too. |
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| Veera explains the extra lights on the car. Not only does it have fog lights in the bumper, but extra headlights for all the long dark winter nights when you don't want to hit an animal. |
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| I am smiling because I am going back down, not struggling to get to the top. |
When we sailed behind an island, the sea flattened out in time for dinner and a very short stop in Molde, where Veera had hoped to show us a historic building. Unfortunately, our usual docking spot was already taken, so we ended up a mile away in an industrial area and no time to walk much of anywhere. We left the ship to stand in the wind and rain to learn about Molde, much of which neither of us remember. It is a city of 26,000, and was a trading post.
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| Our ship |
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| Car ferry exit --each end of the ship flips up to allow cars to load and unload. The danger is not properly closing the flipped up parts. Aparently, another ship like this sunk when the flipped part was not well sealed. |
We went back inside for dinner, but when it was time for me to start the blog, we were back on the high seas and the idea of working on the computer seemed counterproductive from a personal comfort standpoint, so I am writing this a day late and before we hit the sea again.
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