{"id":12233,"date":"2025-09-29T17:00:33","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T17:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/?p=12233"},"modified":"2025-09-29T17:00:33","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T17:00:33","slug":"monday-29-september-alesund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/29\/monday-29-september-alesund\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday 29 September \u00c5lesund"},"content":{"rendered":"

First time in my life I\u2019ve set foot in Norway, in the quaint little fishing town of \u00c5lesund.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m writing this in the Commodore Club, a sophisticated bar at the top front of the ship (no nautical terms from me I\u2019m afraid). Amazing view.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The captain has just announced that we\u2019re all aboard so should be heading off soon. We\u2019ve 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.
\n(We\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n

\"\"how do I put a close bracket after a photo?)<\/p>\n

\u00c5lesund 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\u2019t as gorgeous as other examples around Europe, because of the time pressure, but it\u2019s unusual to see so many in such a small area.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Arguably the narrowest building in Norway, next to an Art Nouveau building.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The captain has told us that \u00c5lesund 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.
\nAfter 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.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The town has a lot of these troll models around.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nTrolls were the traditional way to explain the geological formations of the country thanks to pareidolia, the human tendency to see faces in everything.<\/p>\n

I then tried on one of the traditional fishermen\u2019s jerseys, but luckily it didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"
View back across town, including our ship<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We have another sea day tomorrow, traveling up the west of the country to Troms\u00f8, our northernmost destination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First time in my life I\u2019ve set foot in Norway, in the quaint little fishing town of \u00c5lesund.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8Ukf-3bj","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12569,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/28\/tuesday-27-january-go-west-young-man\/","url_meta":{"origin":12233,"position":0},"title":"Tuesday 27 January Go West young man","author":"Interloper11","date":"January 28, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"A good night\u2019s sleep for both of us, in spite of each having to share a bed with an alleged snorer. \u00a0The soft foam earplugs loaned to me the night before stayed in their packet. 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