Alesund (gps says Denmark..it's NORWAY!)

We arrived early this am in the beautiful city of Alesund which has quite a history. Rollo was born in the 9th century, according to local legend, near Alesund and went south as a Viking warrior to found what is now known as Normandy. One of his descendants was William the Conqueror. Thus, he was a distant ancestor of the UK royal family.

Alesund was a sleepy port until the 19th century when the fishing industry created great wealth, but a fire in 1904 destroyed the entire town of wood structures. With the help of Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm, the city was rebuilt, but this time in brick and stone and all in the current Art Nouveau style, so it is now an architectural treasure trove. We were fortunate to take a walking tour of these amazing buildings and soak up the beautiful scenery highlighted by the open ocean, snow clad mountains, and fjords dotted with islands.

The city has a moving monument to the Norwegian resistance fighter, Knut Haukelid, who masterminded the efforts to blow up the "heavy water" plant Nazis were using to develop nuclear weapons. The Heroes of Telemark is a 1965 film starring Kirk Douglas which depicts this saga.

Back on the ship and it is now raining/snowing and the captain just announced that we would have heavy seas for the next 2 hours. Guess we'd better crawl into bed until it's over!

With cloudy skies, Northern lights look doubtful tonight, but who knows what the next few days will reveal?

Hope everyone has a great weekend!Read more