Alesund, Norway

Tusen Takk ~ Norwegian for Thank You

August 7, 2019 ~ Alesund

This morning in Alesund marks the furthest north we’ll be traveling this trip. We’re slightly more northerly than Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park, making this our highest latitude ever. During the summer, Alesund has over 19 hours of daylight. 

By winter, well, you do the math, but it’s pretty dark most of the time.

The earliest mention of the area is in connection with Rollo the Walker—a Viking so formidable it was said they could find no horse large enough for him to ride. This fellow eventually went on to pillage his way into becoming the Duke of Normandy. He was the ancestor of William the Bastard, also known as William the Conqueror.

The picture at the right gives you an idea of how dicey the weather was. Sometimes, the clouds would part and set the water in the fjord sparkling. At other times, the white puffs would settle on the shoulders of the peaks like a wet stole. Fortunately, we dodged most of the raindrops. We managed to stop during respites. It seemed like each time we reboarded the coach, the heavens would open and drench everything. 

Norway is a very wet country.

Wood is the Norwegians’ most favored building material. As a result, many towns have suffered cataclysmic fires. In 1904, most of Alesund was burned to the ground and 10,000 were left homeless. In just 4 years, the lost buildings were replaced with classically beautiful Art Nouveau buildings, leaving Alesund one of the most modern little towns in Europe for its time.

We drove through many kilometers of tunnels today!

But today we weren’t on the trail of history. We were after a Norwegian mystery—the legend of trolls!

Our excursion was an all day affair, so we rose early to grab a quick breakfast and then make our way to the coach for our trip to the Land of the Trolls!

Bales of hay are wrapped in plastic to protect them from the frequent rains.

I always like to get out of cities and into the countryside to see how people live. Norway is still very rural, except that it has roughly the same percentage of arable land as Yemen. Farmland accounts for only 2%, dense evergreen forest for 40%, and the rest of the country is roughly vertical rock. But that doesn’t stop the farmers from trying. We passed countless neat white farmsteads with red barns. (The red barns are another throwback to the Viking era when the animal sheds were painted with the blood of slaughtered beasts. Modern farmers use red paint, thank goodness!)

Trolls are said to be small, painfully ugly creatures who act maliciously toward humans who are cruel to them. They may have two or more heads and the females have tails!  

Surprisingly, we didn’t spot any trolls, but we saw many dramatic rock formations, breathtaking waterfalls, and a steep switchback road with 12 hairpin turns. All take their place names from trolls. Unfortunately, without being able to upload pictures (Cunard’s wifi continues to rival my old AOL dial-up for reliability and speed) I can’t really share the amazing sights we saw until we get home. But I will say that each mountain peak seemed to have another higher one poking its head through the clouds behind it, each valley opening into yet more grandeur. It’s the sort of country you never seem to come to the end of.

We lunched at a buffet which featured salmon, chicken wings, steamed vegetables & potatoes, and an unusual concoction of seafood, peas & carrots, and slices of boiled egg suspended in clear gelatin. It was quite good actually. I may see if I can find a recipe for something similar when I get home.

I would hate to hazard a guess at how many miles we rode today, but it was a lot. Our excursion was the last one back and the QM2 crew pulled the gangplank in after us.

More soon…

The unique color of the water comes from glacial run-off. 

Crossing the most narrow bridge in Norway!

Usually, Cunard schedules formal nights on sea days, but because we have so many ports of call this week, we have the Black & White Ball on a port day.

My mom loaned me the fabulous "statement necklace" I'm wearing.