Ålesund, Norway

Day 4  Ålesund  Thursday, Sept 14, 2017

Our bus excursion took us up to this city overlook on Aksla Mtn, with ocean on all sides. Ålesund is located on one of many small islands in this fjord, located about midway up the Norwegian coast. By the way, the Norwegian letter Å is called a volle, and is considered a different letter than A. Still, the tour guide called it an "A", but she was from New York!

Our first stop from the bus tour was at Sunnmøre Museum, which is an interesting open-air folk museum with 55 old and distinct houses. The homes were brought here from around the coastal area, and we got to see how people lived in earlier times. Notice the sod roofs and the stone foundations, which they all had.

I liked this picture of Janet, with our umbrella in the rain. The stone foundation of that house is substantial.

Our tour guide explained how a family lived. The males dominated and the women did all the work. (Janet and I felt that our guide, through the entire tour, had an irritating habit of repeating, many times, everything she said. If she hadn't kept saying everything four times, she could have told us more stuff!)

This room was interesting for its decoration, child's bed, and the family name and date (1861) written on that blue wall strip.

Even in their harsh environment, they had the energy and creativity to carve attractive beds and write something in gold script. I don't know what it says, but the date is 1874.

The door sills weren't very tall, were they?

There also was an indoor museum, where we learned about the Vikings and more recent Norwegian history. I don't remember who this fellow was, but we liked the intricate furniture designs and paintings. Here is an up-close of that chair:

Pretty amazing artwork.

The Viking Age was from 800 to 1150. It ended because Christianity gained a foothold and the kings expanded their control. The Vikings were "heathens, fearless, war-like, and pirates." One story we learned was interesting due to its connection to William the Conqueror, whom we heard all about later in London. In 890, a Norwegian Viking named Rollo invaded Normandy and became its first Duke. One of his descendants was William, who invaded England in 1066 and became its ruler. The current Queen Elizabeth traces her ancestry back to William. (I found it interesting that Rollo is buried in the Rouen Cathedral in Rouen, France.)

Before getting back on the bus, I wandered a few meters and found this picturesque scene. I like the reflections in the pond.

Our next tour stop was at the Aksla Mtn overlook, where I took the first picture in this posting. But as we neared the top, the guide told us about the German bunkers still at the top of the hill, overlooking the harbor (Germany occupied Norway during the war). Janet, one other fellow, and I were the only ones who chose to hike back a short distance to see them.

Here was an entrance, and I went in but there wasn't much to see. The area where their guns would have been placed was not accessible. They never had to use the guns since no allied invasion was ever attempted there.

Another picture of Ålesund, whose downtown is actually a small island. You can see the attractive inner harbor that runs through the center of town (only small boats could depart out the left side of the harbor. Farther back is the other waterway that makes the downtown an island). Residents inhabited several of the surrounding islands, which are connected by tunnels.  

The remainder of the bus tour involved driving around to see some of the downtown and harbor. What we learned was how famous Ålesund is for its art nouveau architecture. The entire town had to be rebuilt following a 1904 fire that destroyed everything (buildings had been made of wood). 10,000 people became homeless, yet only one died (the tour guide said it was her own fault for running back into her burning house to get something). The architectural style at the time of the town's rebuilding was art nouveau, and this photo is just one example of the style that characterizes this town's appearance.

We loved the attractive inner harbor. When the bus dropped us off at the ship, we strolled a couple hundred meters back to this spot.

This is the fisher boy statue, holding his rope. A few meters away was...

...a statue of a woman, representing who did all the work once the fish came in. She's sorting the herring and throwing them in her can for cooking.

I love this picture of beautiful Janet, the town's flower pots, and in the background the two statues shown above.

My final Ålesund picture is this classic sailboat in the inner harbor. Love the reflections...

We departed at 7 pm for a long, southwest Norwegian-Sea crossing to the Shetland Islands. It was another night of rocking and rolling, and watching the waves splash up over our porthole. I don't recall now, but I'm sure we loved our dinners, the stage show, and listening to Randon or the other group we liked, the Awesome Twosome (from India).