Saturday was spent wandering all around Alesund. First stop was the Alesund Church. The person at the tourist info office said it would be open, but as is typical with our church experiences on this trip, it was closed. On to the Art Noveau Museum, which housed interesting exhibits on the various styles of architecture, the fire of 1904 and rebuilding of the city, and the impact of Japanese influence. In the corridor to the June Art Museum, Loan, Ryan, and I stopped in the kids’ activity center to make some of our own art. I know art is subjective, but the items in this museum were not what I would call art. The thing closest to art was a sculpture that looked like a bunch of breasts stuck together.

Alesund, built in the Art Nouveau style

Another closed church

We were all getting a little museumed out, but headed to the Aalesund (alternative spelling of Alesund) Museum anyway. The museum was 3 levels that took us through the history of the city. The most interesting parts were about WW2 (still not sure if the Enigma machine on exhibit was a real one) and the Uerad life boat that crossed the Atlantic in 5 months in 1904. There was a replica of the life boat that we could climb into. Tight quarters for a rocky trip on the Atlantic! Dramamine would have been a necessity on that trip.
     

The rest of the afternoon was spent climbing 418 steps up to Fjellstua for nice views of the city, followed by an evening kayak trip around the harbor. Dinner was late, like most of our dinners in Norway, since 10pm feels like about 6pm. Loan and I shared a few dishes, including whale and reindeer. Not bad, but neither make my favorites list.
     

Views from the top.
    

Interesting and slightly freaky carvings on the way down

Wondering if the REAL Amazing Race passed through here. I don’t watch the show, so I guess I’ll never know.
     

Cars we did not expect to find in Norway.
     

Kayaking around the bay before dinner.

Dinner in Alesund

After a string of early mornings, we were finally able to sleep in! We woke up to beautiful sunny weather and ate breakfast out on the hotel deck. The rest of the day was spent driving along winding roads with switchbacks and hairpin turns up to Alesund, with stops at the glacier museum, a few lakes, another fjord cruise, a walk out to a beautiful viewpoint, and lots of waterfalls. Throughout the driving so far, we have seen most ‘normal’ cars (ie. what you’d find in the U.S., including trucks and SUVs), not the typical small European cars.

Breakfast spread of local ingredients

View from the deck

Enjoying breakfast!
     

Little house with a garden and chickens next to the hotel

Woolly mammoths outside of the Glacier museum

View out the front of the glacier museum

Lake Hornindalsvatnet, the deepest lake in Norway and 13th deepest in the world.

Seven Sisters Waterfall

Adam and Ryan at a waterfall on the side of the road. Pretty rainbow

Other nice views.
          

I love these structures with greenery on top!
     

Moon’s out!

Another early morning . . . We woke up at 5am and left the hostel at 6 to drive up to Jostedal for a glacier hike. I previously mentioned that Norway was known for their tunnels, and we had driven through an 8km long tunnel. I quickly learned that was nothing! We drove through a 24.5km tunnel and multiple tunnels that had roundabouts inside of them!

Crossing a bridge into a tunnel

Roundabout inside the tunnel

The glacier hike took us on Nigardsbreen, one of the Jostedalbreen glacier tongues.  “Breen” is glacier in Norwegian.  Jostedal Glacier is the largest glacier in continental Europe.  The glacier hike was really cool! We were equipped with crampons and ice picks and fitted with harnesses. A large group was then hooked together with rope, so if one person went down, the rest followed. Ha ha, just kidding.

All ready to hike, with picks and crampons

Due to low water levels in the lake at the bottom of the glacier, we first had a one hour hike out to the glacier. Three hours were then spent on the glacier, followed by another one hour hike back. Unlike New Zealand, where the entrance to glaciers were roped off, people in Norway can just walk right up and onto the glacier.

Long hike out to the glacier

Loan is almost there

The hike was really cool (literally and figuratively). Walking over the deep crevices was the best part. The crampons dig really well into the ice. When we stopped for a break, I walked up a slope that was probably about a 60 degree angle. There was one person in our group who was very tentative crossing all the crevices, so it was very slow going at times. On the way back down, we picked up a person from another group who was also having some problems, which made it even slower going. We wouldn’t have minded so much, except it had been 4 hours without a bathroom at that point.

Be careful!

Hiking on the glacier . . .

Some very large crevasses . . .

View looking out from on the glacier

At the bottom of the glacier, there was an individual who had broken his ankle during the hike. Because it wasn’t a life threatening situation, I feel that it’s ok to say how fascinating it was watching the medivac helicopter come in, lower down a paramedic in a basket, fly back up, and then return again to pick the paramedic and patient.

Between the glacier hike and hotel, we stopped at Jostedal Kyrkje, where Oscar’s grandfather Lars Haugen is buried. According to Oscar, Lars used to carry mail across the Jostedalbreen glacier.

This is already getting to be a long post, but I can’t end it without writing about the great hotel we stayed at that night, the Fjaerland Fjordstove Hotel. This hotel was a small family owned establishment, almost more like a bed and breakfast, situated right on the fjord. The rooms were quaint, clean, and comfortable. There was a large sitting area on the first floor, with windows out to the fjord, filled with antiquey books, photo albums, and games, in all different languages. From the sitting area, there was a door out to a wrap-around deck looking out on the fjord. Also on the first floor was a beautiful dining room, where we enjoyed a delicious 3-course dinner made with local ingredients. The menu included Juniper smoked trout with beets and horseradish cream sauce, lamb with cauliflower and pumpkin purée with mint yogurt and salad with grapes, and meringue with lemon curd fresh cream and berries for dessert. We ate it all before we remembered to take pictures.  What a beautiful place to relax after some hard glacier hiking!

FJaerland Hotel

Local beer at dinner