Day 5 - Ålesund Norway

We docked in Ålesund late last night. After breakfast we headed out to tour the city via tour bus. The only group available was the early tour which started at 8:30, and of course it was still dark at that time. The tour was to run about 90 minutes, so we would get back to the ship when the sun was just rising. It was raining and there was some wind, but the tour was actually quite enjoyable as we got to see the town lit with the seasonal lights and by 9:00 am it was dusky and easy to see the historic sites. Getting pictures with my SLR was hard, so I used the trusty iPhone.

Mountains between the Fjords

The city's art nouveau architecture appeared after a fire destroyed much of the city in 1904. Over 850 houses burned down. Near the place where the fire stopped spreading was a house that was untouched. It is the white house at the top of the hill in the picture below (with the white flagpole on the left of the house). More than 50 architects and builders designed the new city, which spreads across several islands, in the art nouveau style that still graces Ålesund today.

The municipality of Ålesund occupies seven of the large outer islands in the county of Møre og Romsdal: Hessa, Aspøya, Nørvøya, Oksenøya, Ellingsøya, Humla, and Tørla. The town centre is located on the islands Aspøya and Nørvøya, while Hessa and Oksenøya contain residential areas. There are also many other smaller surrounding islands.

The second largest island, Ellingsøya, used to be accessible only by boat or by road via Skodje Municipality, but the undersea Ellingsøy Tunnel was built in 1987 to make traveling between the island and the town center more convenient. The tunnel is 3,481 meters (11,421 ft) long and was upgraded in 2009. Our tour guide lives in Ellingsøya and she mentioned that her daily commute from her home to her place of work was reduced to 5 minutes from the one hour prior to the tunnel opening.

Our next stop is Tromsø, but another north sea storm may impact our plans.