First time in my life I’ve set foot in Norway, in the quaint little fishing town of Ålesund.
I’m writing this in the Commodore Club, a sophisticated bar at the top front of the ship (no nautical terms from me I’m afraid). Amazing view.
The captain has just announced that we’re all aboard so should be heading off soon. We’ve had a lovely day here. Simon had booked a two hour walking tour at 10 am, so we left the ship in plenty of time. It turns out our tour guide was actually from Germany, so no opportunity to practice my Norwegian unfortunately. He was very good at his job and extremely well informed though.
(We’re underway, making our way out to sea through a whole lot of picturesque islands. Because Norway has made huge amounts of money off oil and gas, they have more infrastructure than you can shake a stick at. Each tiny island has either a tunnel or a bridge connecting it to the rest. They are even building a tunnel for boats so they can avoid the dangerous open sea when transporting fish south.
how do I put a close bracket after a photo?)
Ålesund was an unremarkable fishing town until most of it burnt down in 1904. It received huge amounts of money as donations, including from Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, so was able to rebuild in only around three years. The new buildings were deliberately made of stone as protection from fires, and were in Art Nouveau style because that was what was being built at the time. The style was a reaction to the recent industrial age, with an emphasis on natural beauty: big curved windows, and plants and animals as decorative motifs. They aren’t as gorgeous as other examples around Europe, because of the time pressure, but it’s unusual to see so many in such a small area.
The captain has told us that Ålesund is in the Guinness book of world records for building the biggest bonfire ever, at 47 metres in 2007. Clearly fire no longer scares them.
After the tour, Simon was pooped so went back to the ship. I wanted to try one of the local delicacies, brown cheese. This is actually caramelised goat milk whey, which is much more delicious than it sounds, reminiscent of salted caramel. Having it on a pancake is traditional.
The town has a lot of these troll models around.
Trolls were the traditional way to explain the geological formations of the country thanks to pareidolia, the human tendency to see faces in everything.
I then tried on one of the traditional fishermen’s jerseys, but luckily it didn’t suit me, because I have enough jerseys and it was very expensive. My last activity was to walk up the 418 steps to the local viewpoint.
We have another sea day tomorrow, traveling up the west of the country to Tromsø, our northernmost destination.