Port Day in Alesund, Norway

The third stop on our sailing was the furthest north---all the way up at 62 degrees North in Alesund.
Alesund is a small city of about 50 thousand known for its not so typical Norwegian  Art Nouveau architecture  (due to the town being almost entirely destroyed by fire in 1904 and then rebuilt in the style of the times, with help from German Kaiser Wilhelm who enjoyed vacationing there).  On our prior cruise to Norway we felt it was a nice little port, but paled in comparison to the other stops in the country.

We wanted to do something more interesting than just walk around town again.  Upon researching a bit I found that a mid May cruise was too early in the season for many of the main attractions (driving the Path of the Trolls road or visiting the Wildlife Sea Safari) with most things not being available or cleared of snow until around Mid June.  One in our party has a particular love of lighthouses, so I googled, found the locations of a couple of them and so began the planning for what turned out to be a lovely day in port.

We started off doing something which we have never, in all of our many past port days done: renting a car.   There is a Budget car rental counter about a 5-10 minute walk from the dock and the prices are surprisingly good.  So we reserved a car with the intent of circling around some of the small nearby islands to see lighthouses and other random views and just enjoy the scenery and small towns.  Picking up the rental car was simple and quick, and there is a gas station right next door which made refilling at the end of the day and returning it just as easy.

We drove off following signs to the airport (on one of the islands) as we made our way out of town and within just a few minutes we found ourselves going down into a very steep and very long tunnel with rough hewn rock walls which felt very much like it had been carved by those mythical Norwegian Trolls.

Out of the tunnel and in daylight again we were greeted with a sunny day and lovely views:

Our destination (still one island away): the Alnes Lighthouse

One steep and high bridge (to let bots through) and a short jaunt across another small island later, we parked at the surf beach (I read there is a very good point break here much of the year)

 and headed over to the delightful little lighthouse for a visit:

a view from the top

a view from the top.  You can see a tour bus pulling in.  We managed to be up top between tour buses which made it very nice.

The keeper's house is right next to the base and the three sisters there run a wonderful little coffee shop with good prices and excellent homemade goodies.  They are also super friendly.  We lingered for quite a while.

After about an hour enjoying the view and the coffee shop (and browsing through the small souvenir shop of all locally made items) we headed back out to look for some other lighthouses (smaller ones with no tour bus visits, not open to the public, and without cafes, but pretty to look at anyway).  The route took us all over the four islands in a nice loop which allowed us to see lots of pretty scenery:

We stopped at what guide books say is the only marble church in Norway.  Just a little white church in a lovely location:

And paused for a bit at a small white sand beach.  I figured this was as far north as I'd ever had the chance to put my toes in the ocean, so I braved the truly COLD water and darted in  for a minute:

As we looped back around and then over to the largest of the islands (the one with Alesund's airport) we happened to take a wrong turn and pass this great football pitch.  Plenty of balls were just out lying on it and we didn't think anyone would mind if we fooled around a bit so long as we were careful not to hurt anything--how often is it that we get to play football in Norway after all? 

And there was one last lighthouse to see.  We passed this  cute little house with the bird houses on the wall as we walked out to the lighthouse:

I just loved the juxtaposition of the old farm machinery, the field, the ocean and the snow capped peaks above--so I got David to pull over while I snapped a photo

Hanging out on the rocks and looking at the lighthouse

There was one last church to check out as we headed back towards Alesund:

All in all we had the car for about 5 or 6 hours and really enjoyed a relaxing, calm day exploring some beautiful countryside.

--Hadley

Port Day in Bergen, Norway

Our second port was in in Bergen, Norway--the storybook city that I fell in love with on our first visi.  Having fully explored the historic wharf on our last trip, and docking in a slightly different part of town with the Serenade (a bigger ship than what we had previously sailed in Norway) we decided to start the day by walking to the light rail station and heading out to Fantoft to see the Stave Church.  Here are some photos of the city as we walked to the station:

I had read that we should get off in Fantoft as the walk from the other direction was quite steep.  As we headed uphill, we thought I must have gotten it wrong, but when we went down the other way afterwards, we realized we had indeed climbed the gentler slope.  The stave church is tucked away up in the forest and no matter which way you approach from, there are uphill paths through lovely trees:

The church itself was originally built in about 1150 and moved to its current location in 1883.  It was destroyed by arson in 1992 and the rebuilt version seen here was finished in 1997:

At the time we were there, the church was not open for inside visits.  I am not sure if it is sometimes or not.

After exploring at the church, we headed back into the main part of town and down towards the historic (and oh so very picturesque) wharf.  

Our final stop as we headed back towards the ship was the fish market:

I wish I had put something in for perspective--these guys were HUGE

I am still enchanted by Bergen and hope to make it back there many times in the future.

--Hadley