Day 10 Ålesund, Norway

Today we arrive in Ålesund, Norway. It's a beautiful day. Sunny all day, temperature reached 61F. The daylight hours begin at ~3:45am. Sunset is at 11:34pm. We are enjoying these long days. Our stateroom has thick blackout drapes so no problems having a dark room to sleep in.
It is a leisurely morning, our NCL excursion doesn't begin until afternoon. We are feeling the muscle fatigue from our hiking the previous day in Geiranger.
The letter Å = aa in Norwegian and is pronounced "oo" like in "loose". So "Oo-le-soond". Some words I'm finding easy to interpret because they are similar to English like Skole is School. At least I'm doing better with Norwegian than I did with Dutch in Amsterdam.
After breakfast we walk to the Town Center. It's Saturday and there's hardly any people around. We find our way to the Ålesund Kirke (church). Churches are predominantly Lutheran in Norway, we are told. There is a cemetery behind the church. I liked the tombstones with the candles. We climb an overlook and see the harbor from the other side of town. This is a quaint, pretty town.
The afternoon excursion takes us to other highlights of this town. The Sunnmøre Open-Air museum is a good stop. We walk the grounds and see old homes with thatch roofs, schools, out buildings, etc. We learn there was a color coding system for how they painted their houses long ago. Red was for barns and outbuildings, Yellow for schools and businesses and White for wealthier people's homes. Some painted most buildings red to avoid taxation. Now, they prefer bright colors to cheer up long winters. There are ancient boats and a couple of Viking ships in this museum. I am including a video of the Viking ship seen at this museum. Chilling to think of being in the open sea with only an inch or two of plank between you and the water. The North Sea does not tend to placid, either.
Next our guide takes us to Mt Aksla. It is an observation point of the town and harbor. There is still a WWII bunker up there that the Nazis built.
We see the church again with the group then we are driven across a bridge to Hesse Island. More scenic views of Ålesund.
We needed this easy day to rest and recover. The ship leaves port at ~4:30 pm. We will be at sea all day tomorrow. Tonight we find ship's entertainment, the Mike Sterling Show, in the Prima Theater (main theater) then hang out at the Penrose Atrium and Bar where there are more entertainers playing our genre of music. The Penrose has become a favorite haunt of ours.Leia mais