Alesund, Norway

July 31, 2023

This morning we had our first glimpse of Norway. Part of the appeal of these ports, and why we chose this cruise, was just being able to see the beautiful landscape from the water. Here are a few photos of our sail in:

Can you see the waterfalls in this next one?

Just for scope...this looks like a little toy boat in the water, but is in fact a full size boat!

Alesund is a seaport made up of several islands and is sometimes referred to as "Venice of the North" (along with many other places we've visited... everyone really wants to be like Venice!)

Alesund (pronounced Oh - le - sun-d) was our first stop in Norway. We knew we wanted to go up to Aksla (the viewpoint) and then walk around the town. You could walk up the 418 stairs (pictured below!)... which I did not want to do...

...or take the little tourist train. We opted for this. It was easy to buy tickets at the port and we didn't have to wait too long to get on the train.

When you take the train they drive you through the town, tell you some interesting facts (which I have, of course, promptly forgotten!) and take you up to the main attraction which is the view from Aksla.

You can really see how big the cruise ships are from this vantage point.

They give you about 15 minutes at the top to take some photos and then continue the very informative drive around the town.

All the buildings are quite beautiful. The town was built in the Jugendstil (art nouveau) style with the help of Kaiser Wilhelm from Germany after a fire destroyed most of the wooden buildings in the town in 1904. This fire was apparently started by a cow kicking over a torch and spread so quickly they were unable to contain it before it destroyed most of the town.

You can see some of the beautiful and colourful buildings in this photo:

At this point in the day, we were intrigued by this sign and a long line up of people each time we went past...

We didn't feel we could pass up the opportunity to have "probably" the best fish & chips in the world! I have to say they were pretty good... definitely right up there with my favourites, although I don't know if I can conclusively state they are the best in the world. 😉

We spent the rest of our time in Alesund just walking around the town and enjoying the pretty views of the water and the buildings. Here are more pictures than you probably want to see! 😀

We found the cemetery! One of our favourite types of places to visit. (Side note: No relatives found here.)

Did I mention that trolls are a thing in Norway? Trolls are believed to be mythical creatures that lived in the caves and mountains of Norway. Because of this you will often find troll statues and multitudes of troll souvenirs as you travel through Norway. Here was our first troll sighting in Norway!

And this is how you enjoy a sailaway from Alesund, Norway!