We visited Ålesund aka Alesund briefly in 2015 as we cruised the Norwegian coast (surprisingly I can’t find any blog posts for that trip). On that trip we passed through on the Hurigruten MMS Vesterålen cruise cruising from Bergen to Kirkenes. This time we are going to spend 7 nights here exploring the area. The fun and interesting bits started almost from the outset.
Alesund can be best described as a collection of islands and, perhaps, a part of the mainland. Mountains, many still topped with snow, are not that far away. I suspect, from just looking at the town nearby, that the land quickly rises from sea level. There certainly are some notable hills nearby. This should hardly be a surprise in a land known for its numerous fjords. We landed on the island called Vigra. To get to our hotel it was a simple matter of boarding the Fb65 bus and riding it to near the Alesund city center. The ride takes about 30 minutes and you travel through two long tunnels, one easily requiring 4 minutes to traverse. It was a short walk from where we were dropped off to the Hotel Brosundet. Once we settled ourselves into our rooms we took a bit of time to explore the immediate surrounds. Perhaps we should have tackled the suggested city walk by Inntravel but we were not that ambitious. Parts of the town, especially by the waterfront, seemed to be bustling with activity. Other parts seemed rather dead, but we only walked a couple miles so obviously we only saw a tiny bit. It was a lovely afternoon under clear mild skies. There was a brisk wind but with the sun beating down upon us the upper 50s temperature was quite comfortable. It’s a startling change in weather conditions from what we were feeling in Oslo. Much of that is because the climate here is strongly influenced by the Atlantic Ocean. Oslo’s climate is considered continental and so is warmer in the summer and cooler in the winter than here (and I think Oslo was in the grip of a heat wave). If the weather holds we should be quite content.
Our walk took us past countless boats including a couple rather large yachts. I can be impressed and perhaps a bit appalled by vessels like these. I am pretty sure they were private craft. Not even small commercial cruise ships. I expect we will see more of the city some other time. After all, we have to find several restaurants for dinners.
Dinner would prove to be a minor adventure. We had decided to try Ammo. The pizzas caught our eye. Perhaps they are not traditional Norwegian fare but it is what we wanted. When we arrived we found that the power was out. Power was out in many parts of town. We settled in to wait for power to return. In short order power did return and we were able to eat. We were a bit surprised that the place was pretty empty as we had been lead to believe when we got a reservation by the skin of our teeth.Maybe people cancelled when they noticed the power outage. Dinner should have been great but something in my smoked ham, tomato sauce, cheese, fresh oregano pizza did not agree with me. I suppose I will never know what and fortunately the problem did not last long but it was disturbing nonetheless.
Our first few hours in Alesund have shown us that the town appears to be lively. I suspect if I wanted to find some local live music I probably could. I am pretty sure I heard a marching band from my hotel window just before we left for dinner. If we don’t run into any serious trouble getting to and from our walks and manage our time well I think we will have a good experience.
Photos
Hotel Brosindet does have a side facing the water. Our rooms don’t have water views. Here is a glimpse of nearby water.
—June 16, 2023 at 4:21 PM.
We took a short walk through a small part of Ålesund (pronounced a bit like Olesund with a short “O”). We found ourselves on a dock with a couple big yachts looking northwesterly out across the Atlantic Ocean towards several islands. It doesn’t show well but a lone cloud is shrouding one island in haze.
--June 16, 2023 at 5:02 PM.
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