Alesund - slow it down a notch

We arrived in Alesund by bus on a Sunday afternoon and almost everything was closed. When we checked-in we were told that Monday is a national holiday and that everything would be closed. It is the Norwegian version of Labor Day. Unlike our holiday, where the big box stores and the groceries stay open, here everything is closed on this holiday, and everyone gets to enjoy the day off. Most people celebrate with family and there was no public celebration. It was a pleasant surprise for us.

A local ski area from the bus on our way into town.

Having the empty street to ourselves was a moment of Kris Kristofferson’s sleepy Sunday sidewalk. And speaking of musicians who were the philosophers of my generation, we were saddened to hear of Gordon Lightfoot’s passing. May he rest in peace.

Yesterday, Susanne and I were talking. I told her I was having trouble coming up with a story to write about Alesund. Fortunately, Susanne sees beauty in things I miss. She does an excellent job of staying in the moment and taking it all in.

Susanne pointed out the art nouveau architecture and cobblestone streets that dominate the city. Not many cities can claim such a consistency of architecture. It was the result of a fire in 1904. Purportedly, the fire, similar to Chicago’s great fire, was caused when a cow knocked over a lantern. The town’s buildings were made of wood and the fire, fed by gale force winds burned until 850 buildings and homes had burned to the ground.  Miraculously only one person died. The rebuilding prohibited wood buildings in the city and a number of architects were hired from all over the world to design art nouveau styled buildings to rebuild the city. Most of the current buildings were built between 1905 and 1908, the uniformity, and the art nouveau style make for a beautiful city that is so enjoyable to walk.

The old lighthouse has been turned into the honeymoon suite by one of the local hotels.

Notice the cobblestone streets.

Susanne also pointed out the Aksla viewpoint high on a hill. It is a beautiful place for a view of all the islands of Alesund, and the Atlantic Ocean. It is only 418 steps to the top. A celebrated park that contains bunkers from WWII as well as a statue of Rollo.

Rollo was a great Viking from Alesund, who, by treaty with the King of France, established a settlement in what is now Normandy. His descendants then went on to conquer my ancestral homeland of England. Do you remember 1066 and William the Conqueror? Just maybe, there’s a little of Rollo’s blood running through my veins.  

The town is built on seven islands that are either connected by bridges and/or tunnels or by ferry. Some are mostly commercial while others are residential. One of those tunnels is over 12,000 feet long and buried to a depth of 170 meters. For those of us from the high desert, a town built around water is exceptionally beautiful. There is a peacefulness walking a bridge over or alongside the quays. Boats are everywhere coming and going all the time. Work boats, fishing boats, party boats and ferries.

Historically it was a fishing town for the spawning of Atlantic Cod. Unlike the air-drying process of the Lofoten Islands, the drying here is done with salt. I remember back many years ago traveling on one of the islands of the Caribbean, discovering that there was a salt bed where salt was gathered and shipped back to the continent. It was just a flat area that would flood from the sea and then dry for a few days. The salt crystals were there for the taking. I remember thinking, “why would they need all that salt.” Now, I know.

Alesund is also the jumping off point for heading into the majesty of the fjords. More about that later, but that location means that it is also a city for tourism. There’s a cruise ship in town almost every day and the days we were there were no exception. On our way out of town, there were two cruise ships there. Each had capacity for 6,600 passengers.

The Norwegians we met are just friendly folks. They tried to help us learn to pronounce words. We struggled because the language has new letters in it beyond our alphabet that are all new sounds. Again, Susanne did better with it than I did. Her history with Hungarian language is more suited to hearing and saying the sounds than mine. Me, with my ‘lazy Texas tongue’ that has too much draw to roll an R.

What I was missing when I first started gathering notes about Alesund, was that I was looking for a big splash, the one neat thing. What was the story that Alesund was telling me? Something different. While I was doing that, Susanne was soaking in the solitude and peacefulness that comes from timeless simplicity. After a reset, I began to see and feel the beauty. The word for Alesund is solitude.