Most of the buildings in Alesund were built after the big fire of 1905. Kaiser Wilhelm, the last kaiser of Germany, loved Norway and spent a lot of money here to restore the town.

We left Alesund at 11, which allowed time for a walk to the harbour. 

This place is very pretty. 

Jan said that in the middle of winter, Alesund only gets 4 hours of daylight a day.

I went shopping at 9am, but very quickly discovered that most shops didn’t open until 10. Back to the hotel to pack, then at the stroke of 10 I was hitting the shops. I came home with a hat and a polar bear magnet.

This mug made me laugh.

So did this one. Excellent marketing strategy.

A last look at this pretty town.


The weather has suddenly turned sunny. This morning, I chose to sit in the front left seat, which in this new bus is actually a horrible place for taking photos, but is a great place for seeing the vista. The photos that follow are the best I could do…

We drove through a little village that is famous for growing the best strawberries in Norway, if not the world. 

Every midsummer, Scandinavia and the Baltics celebrate by eating strawberries with whipped cream. Jan also mentioned something about dancing around trees and having a jolly old time. 

Suddenly, there was snow beside the road!

Then, more and more.

This started to remind me of when Megan and I went to Alaska last year. Brilliant sunny days in their summer, (to be fair, it’s the beginning of autumn here), and yet there’s snow.

We stopped for lunch, but the café wasn’t open, to the disgust of the rest of the bus. I, on the other hand, was prepared, with my lunch made from the breakfast buffet. The others had to wait 2 more hours for lunch at 3 pm. Jan warned us at the start of the trip to always have some snacks with us. A few people listened. I bet a lot more will, after today!

Snow and water.

It really shouldn’t be this cold when the sun shines. My hands were icy.

The Troll Road was built in the 1930’s. Jan said, “It’s quite lucky for this road to be open. I have been a guide on this trip 6 times and this is the first time I’ll see it. It was closed all last summer. They have rocks and boulders which fall on it.”

I’m not sure how much the bus driver enjoyed driving along the Troll Road. I know Jan hated it. He’s not good with heights, though even he agreed that it was very beautiful.

This is where we stopped to take a group photo, with Troy setting up a timer. We were standing in front of a big troll statue. I haven’t bothered to show you trolls because they do absolutely nothing for me. I don’t get the attraction some people have for them.
These mountains are so tall. When I was standing, looking up at the top, my head was tilted right back, almost as far as it could go. Photos simply cannot do it justice.

Then it was down to Lillehammer, the Olympic Village, where we’ll stay the night. Tomorrow, after a look around the town, we’re off to Oslo again.
Our time in this beautiful country is rapidly coming to an end.
The day after tomorrow, we’re off to Sweden…

Dad joke of the day: