Return to Ålesund (part I)

This is the main north-south highway in western Norway - Route 39. Some parts of it are more narrow than this. The road department, Statens Veivessen, doesn't bother painting the yellow lines on the really narrow parts. Our drive to Ålesund (OH - luh - soond) took about 9 hours but we really enjoyed the beauty of the steep walled valleys and fjords.

The mountains, especially the Romsdal Alps, together with the blues of lake and fjord and the greens of fields and forests made the long day behind the wheel seem shorter.

Our day was made longer than planned by way of four ferries, three of which we "just missed." We had to wait for each missed ferry a half an hour or so. The day was  clear, blue, and warm as it gets in Norway so we soaked up a little vitamin D sunshine and stretched our legs on deck.

This is where my college geology class should have gone to study the effects of glaciers.

We got to town in time to fix the Elders a nice dinner. One of the reasons we took the trip was to check on the missionaries, their apartment, and the teaching center that they maintain. It was deep clean inspection time for them. By the way, they must be the two best housekeepers in the mission. Everything was spotless!  After dinner we went visiting with the Elders and later we took a walk. First stop was where I used to live; just 44 short years ago. The white house just to the right of the State Church used to be bright pink when I lived there. It was my home for about five months and I loved it.

Much about the look of Ålesund has not changed but the city has been transformed by tourism. It used to be just a fishing and business center near some magnificent fjords. Now it is a stopover for gigantic cruise ships from all over the world. Two boats mostly filled with Italians were in town while we were there. There were also British, German, French and even an occasional American wandering around. In 1968 we were visited by one cruise ship that entire summer.

 The old warehouses along side the inner harbor have almost all been converted to fancy hotels as have many of the other buildings in the old city. The grocery stores, bakeries, and other businesses are now mostly restaurants and shops catering to touists.



All Ålesund burned in a terrible fire that broke out on a windy night in 1904. 10,000 people were left homeless in the January cold.  The city was rebuilt with much international help. Many of the buildings have 1905 or 1906 dates on them. A great deal of help was sent from Kaiser Wilhelm II - the German leader. The Art Nouveau style is done in stone and morter buildings as natural fire proofing.



The old town is built at the foot of a little mountain. A walkway leads from the city park to the top of Aksla mountain. Hearty souls take the several hundred uneven steps almost straight up for a fantastic view. There is also a road to the top from the other side of town.

...367, 368, 369...

The view of my old street is even better from up on top.

Everything looks so orderly and Germanic. However, I only see one yard in the whole place. Your front door opens right onto the sidewalk.

The old city is made up of three islands with the small inner harbor between two of them. The round mountain just left of center on the back most island is called Sukkertoppen (Sugartop) and in the winter it often looks like it is sprinkled with sugar.

On warm sunny summer day Ålesund has got to be the prettiest little city in Norway.

Looking back toward the Fjord country----that will be the subject of part II.

The view out into the North Atlantic Ocean. We used to visit people out on those outer islands.

The abandoned German-built bunkers and gun placements are still a part of the coastal scenery from the five year occupation during WW II. Readers of this blog who were missionaries or former residents in Norway probably crawled around and through these kinds of tunnels, lookout posts and buildings back in the day. I did. So, Shanna and I went into this bunker up on Aksla.

The steel doors and mounting brackets are still in place.

Like the lookouts of old you can spy incoming air and ship traffic.

 

More steps into the past.

Free enterprise at work - Tourists take the little choo - choo up from the middle of town to get a view of the city.

Rollon was also known as Rolf before he moved from Ålesund and settled on what would later be called the Normandy Penninsula. This statue, a gift from France, celebrates the Normans' roots.

We enjoyed our time touring around but on Friday we had to be back in Bergen. We found a faster route home with two fewer ferries and more magnificent glaciated valleys like this one. Next time we will share a couple of must see Norwegian vistas.

Midsummer's Night

 This photo was taken at sunset on December 21, 2011 at about 2:30 pm.

This photo was taken at sunset on June 21, 2012 at about 11:00 pm.

We decided to celebrate the summer solstice by going up on the mountain and watching the sunset. The trouble was we ended up not being able to actually see the sun set. It finally went down at 11:12, but it was behind the mountain. It appears to travel both down and sideways along the horizon in the summer making it seem to go around you. By the way, sunrise on the 21st was at 4:10 am.

The 21st began as another beautiful day. We decided to take a hike that we read about on an island in the northern part of our county. We had very sketchy directions that we attempted to follow. Much of the island roads were one lane and meandered through the countryside among the old farms.

We love the old out-buildings. These islanders do too. They keep the buildings in good condition or use parts of them in making new storage sheds or barns.

We enjoyed the wildflowers and farms but we couldn't find the trailhead.

Everywhere in Norway this old method of drying the hay has been replaced with a new way that uses big round white plastic bags. Somehow it just loses the romance of the thatched rows drying in the sun.

Nothing like fresh mown hay drying on the racks. I'll have to admit that this process is a little more labor intensive than putting the stuff in a big bag and stacking it in the field.

This is where we simply ran out of road at the entry to someone's barnyard - nice turn-around point.

We came upon a couple of yacht harbors filled with beautiful pleasure boats including some fantastic sailboats. It bears repeating that about 25% of Norwegians own a boat.

 

This old time boat storage was our lunch stop. No fancy yachts here but plenty of little fishing boats.

We never found the trialhead but we had to return home for Kerry's weekly home teaching with Brother Bakke - his 89 year old companion. Bakke drives and Steed holds on. We visited a couple of people and returned home in plenty of time to get to downtown for the sunset.

This week is the continuation of the summer-long music festival. The bands spill out onto the streets as do the dining tables on non-rainy nights. This was a country-western band who serenaded clothing shoppers as well as diners.

We still have about an hour to go at this point but the sunset was wonderful in gold, orange, and pink.

The streets remain crowded late, as most of the restaurants and all of the bars are open until 3:00 am. We are tagging along with this group at about midnight.

Even after the sun goes down the sky maintains some light for quite a while. By the way, we did get our hike in as we walked down from Fløyen to the central parking garage - about an hour's trek. If this is to be the only midsummer's night we get in Norway we couldn't have wished for anything better.

Transition to Summertime

Hurra for deg! We celebrate birthdays at Family Home Evening. This always includes the singing of the Norwegian birthday song. The song includes shouts, hopping, marching, dancing, bowing and so forth. As we approach summer, many of our students will leave us to go back home for the summer. Other YSA will take off for extended vacations either to mountain or seaside cabins or out of the country. We are entering the last week or so of final exams.

This institute dinner was held before the last official class of the year. We had 22 for dinner by the time everyone got there. The next day, to celebrate the continuing good weather, Shanna and I took a drive to the county just north of Hordeland County where we live. We went to "Sogn og Fjordane." Translated it means Sogn (sone) and the fjords. The biggest of all the Norwegian fjords is Sognefjord with all its arms. This whole county is laced with fjords.

We drove NE out of Bergen toward the ski resort town of Voss. This is the lower end of the lake that dominates the Voss landscape. From Voss we turned north on E 16, the main highway to Oslo. The road follows steep-sided valleys that are repleat with waterfalls such as this beauty.

As you wind down the Nærøy valley the road takes you to Gudvangen, a ferry stop at the end of Nærøyfjord. As you look up from the ferry docks you see still more waterfalls. OK, I promise, no more waterfalls but you have to admit....

Looking up river where the fjord and river meet.

Now down the Nærøyfjord that leads back to the massive Sognefjord. 

Bus tours drop their passengers here for a spectacular two hour cruise to Flåm. You can also catch a car ferry to a couple of destinations on Sognefjord.

If you want something a little quicker and more exciting take the Fjord Safari on one of its routes.

One of the stops for this power boat is the little town of Undredal where you can sample the local goatcheese and apple cider. The town has a Stave church from the 1100's. We took the tunnel (11 km long) through the mountain and the 6 km narrow road to Undredal.



Undredal sits on the Aurlandsfjord, which leads to what was our final stop of the day just around the point or through the mountain tunnel.

Do you suppose that some old Norwegian farmer, way back when, said to his wife, "Hey hon, let's build a little place where we can farm and maybe milk a dairy herd. I know of a ridiculously steep hillside in the middle of nowhere. Whaddaya think?

Here is the goat herd just outside of Undredal. The goats are all up by the milking barn.

Last stop of the tour is Flåm, which is the northern terminus of the Flåm railway. This is a transportation hub and tourist town. There is plenty of camping-- both  RV and little cabins-- plus hotels. The railway comes straight out of that mountain. The terrain is so steep that the tunnel builders dug a tunnel with switchbacks inside the mountain. The line is only 20 km long but over 6km is in the tunnels. Norwegians are by necessity, amazing engineers.



The train arrived while we were checking out the town. There is a good little museum about the rail line with an emphasis on building and maintaining the line. All the electricity to run the train is provided by one waterfall that was harnessed for its hydroelectric capacity.



Bad idea for track maintenance.

Better idea for track maintenance.



 

I like looking inside the old train engines.

The cab looks kind of cramped to me.



The Flåm railway is part of the famous and very popular "Norway in a Nutshell" tours. By high summer the trains will be jam-packed with tourists from all over the world. Today the crowds were heavily Italian and German with an Englishman here and there.

Once you leave the train you can take the "fast ferry" or any of the other craft to continue on your way.

Cruise ships also make it up these fjords. These folks will no doubt take a round-trip tour with train, bus and ferry back to their ship. We had a great day, and got some good ideas and information for a future trip we need to take even further north.