Trekkin

Day 17 – 26 July 2023 – Copenhagen, Denmark

As we docked in Copenhagen a very large cruise ship docked in front of us, then not long after another large cruise ship docked behind us.  Today is changeover day with thousands of passengers leaving the ships & thousands more joining the ships, it is busy. Our bus departs at 10am for the drive through the Copenhagen suburbs & out into the countryside to the former Danish capital of Roskilde. More green pastures, fields of wheat & scattered farm buildings. The Danish road network is very good & we are driving on a dual carriageway with a 110 km/hr speed limit & before long we are on the waterfront at Roskilde at a little before 11 am.

The word Viking means pirate. The Viking ship museum is first on our agenda, these ships were recovered from the floor of the fjord of Roskilde in 1962, apparently deliberately sunk to block a main shipping channel. There are six ships on display, all built around 1040 A.D. in various parts of Norway, Denmark & also Dublin in Ireland. The Vikings had established a settlement in Ireland at Dublin around 800 A.D.

The Viking ships are an assortment of different sizes & shapes, some short fishing boats, others larger cargo boats, a mid-size & a very large warship, capable of carrying 65-70 warriors. The keel of the large warship is made from an oak tree felled in May-June 1042 near Dublin, Ireland. They have been reconstructed with what timbers have been found & recovered, over a steel frame to support the weight. The displays are well labelled with even the year the various timbers were felled & where from, amazing technology. Additional displays provide information on the extensive trading routes the Vikings used & the extent of the Viking influence on the world, extremely interesting.

Each of the recovered ships has also been re-constructed at full scale using traditional techniques with the large warship being sailed from Roskilde to Dublin & back to prove how seaworthy these boats were. Outside is a marina full of re-constructed wooden Viking ships plus various other small traditionally built wooden boats. There is a live display with men using traditional techniques to split logs & shape timber to provide the components for the boats using traditional tools. I could easily have spent a full day here.

Our next stop is the nearby Roskilde Cathedral, on the UNESCO Heritage List, a massive brick structure built around 1200 A.D. The Kings & Queens of Denmark are all buried here along with various notables plus the rich & famous. The church is littered with coffins, sarcophagus & marble tombstones carved with motifs & words depicting who is underneath. A lot of the tombstones are very worn from countless years of footsteps on them. This is a very large & an impressive church inside, the vaulted ceilings are very high. We are taken on a tour of some of the various crypts with Danish royalty on display, some of the sarcophagus have striking carvings, others are simple. The last crypt we visited is the new one for the current Queen of Denmark, Margaret II. She will be interred here when she dies, she is currently 83 years old & in good health.  A model of her sarcophagus is on display next to her real sarcophagus that is covered by cladding until ready for use.

The drive back to Copenhagen is pleasant, the bus is very comfortable & we enjoy the countryside farms once again. As we are having dinner the Carnival cruise ship in front of us departs, then our ship, then the cruise ship behind us. All very civilised.  We watch the Swedish coastline nearby as we sail back out to sea through the narrow straights of the Baltic Sea. Another great day.

Day 16 – 25 July 2023 – Skagen, Denmark

The skill of the Captain & crew is again on show as they squeeze into the very tight port at Skagen on the tip of Denmark where the Baltic Sea meets the North Sea.  The sand spit at Grenen is constantly growing & moving, over the centuries it has been the site of many shipwrecks. Skagen is a busy port & there are 20 cargo ships of varying sizes at anchor off the port, with various other ships in port, some being repaired on slipways. There is a large amount of fuel storage at this port as well.

We drive through old Skagen & the town has a lot of old fishing cottages, plus a little out of town the summer Palace of a former King of Denmark. Skagen is built on sand & shifting sand dunes have buried many houses over the years, as well as a church, all you can see of it is the church tower.

Our destination today is nearly an hour away, a pleasant drive through the Danish countryside with green pastures, wheat fields & farm buildings. Voergaard Manor House is an amazingly large brick two story building surrounded by a large moat. It was built in 1510 & lived in by a succession of wealthy owners, the stories told to us by our guide was very interesting. The last Voergaard owner was a wealthy Danish business man, Ejnar Oberbech-Clausen who inherited by marriage some French wineries & on his return to Denmark brought back an unbelievable amount of mainly French treasures & filled the house with amazingly beautiful historic artefacts & furniture, including personal effects from Marie Antoinette & Napoleon Bonaparte. There is a collection of brandy glasses & carafes labelled with Bonaparte’s emblem plus a collection of China plates with gold bees & Bonaparte’s emblem.  Some of the paintings are valued at over 100 million Danish Kroner & are originals by artists such as Goya. We are guided through room after room furnished beautifully with amazing furniture, Murano glass light chandeliers, artwork & personal effects. The experience is truly extraordinary, we are so blessed to be able to enjoy this amazing collection.

The bus ride back to Skagen was just as pleasurable & all too soon we were back on the ship. The wind had really got up & was blowing over 40 knots this afternoon so we decided not to go out for another walk, we watched a movie instead. The ship had a tugboat tied to the bow to assist with getting out of port in this very strong wind & again the boat handling skills displayed by the captain & crew were

 amazingly good. The sunset was beautiful, we are back to sunsets again. Another great day.

Day 15 – 24 July 2023 – at sea – Stavanger to Skagen, Denmark

A later start this morning & another fine breakfast before listening to Clare, the Cruise & Travel Director, have a personal chat about herself & what sort of work she does. She was born with a rare genetic skin condition were a protein in her skin is missing & she got bad & painful blisters on her feet, hands & face. Despite this she learned to dance, even though it was very painful & won a scholarship to a dance, singing & acting school at the age of eleven. At fifteen she won her first contract to sing & dance in a show in the West End of London & also later on Broadway in New York. Clare ended up with a contract singing & dancing on Holland America Cruise ships for five years before applying for the role of Cruise & Travel Director.  She had tears in her eyes a number of times, it was a very emotional roller-coaster for her as she had come from a simple background, her father is a painter & mother worked at a school. She still suffers from painful feet, but seems to be a very determined & successful young woman.

Afterwards we went to the front of ship Worldstage & Clare presented on the workings of the city that is the “Nieuw Statendaam”, with 2,400 passengers & 966 crew. The presentation consisted of videos, slides & talks with some of the senior ship crew, including the Captain. The ship uses its motors only to generate power, everything else on the ship is electric, even the propellers are powered by big electric motors. The drinking water is all processed seawater with minerals added & the sewerage system is just as elaborate, with vacuum toilets to reduce water consumption. There is around 25,000 toilet flushes per day on the ship & using this system they save on around 150,000 litres of water per day. There is a large bakery on board that produces all of the ship’s breads, buns & rolls plus all of the amazing pastries each day. A huge laundry on board washes all of the sheets, towels, table clothes & serviettes, plus the crew & passenger clothes. They even have tailors to make the crews uniforms. Plus lot more amazing happen on board so that passengers

Time for lunch & we try a ship pizza for the first time, not that good. So we head to the Lido dining area & have a good lunch. We watch a movie in the afternoon. We take some photos of some ship art &  try out our creativity with the camera. Dinner we sit & eat with Petra & Pascal, two Belgium women we have met & befriended on the trip. We chat for ages & before we know it is time to head back to the World Stage & watch Cantare again, four males singing love songs this time. They are very good singers & they also have good choreography, it was a pleasant way to finish another good day.

Day 14 – 23 July 2023 – Stavanger

The sea is flat, very calm & nearly windless as we pass some of the small settled islands as we sail into the entrance to the port of Stavanger. There are boats & small ships tied up along the many jetties lining the shore with multi story buildings coming into view. There is a large ship being worked on & many smaller work boats around it. Stavanger is an oil industry support port & the ship seems to be heading into a position that is impossible to turn, there are two small rocky islands & the Captain spins the ship on its axis between these rocky islands with the stern & bow of the ship seemingly not having enough room to avoid hitting them. Then the ship is reversed into what seems a tight space along a vacant pier, it is amazing seamanship watching the ship being manoeuvred so delicately.

We are one of the first tours off the ship & board an electric bus, it is very new & so quite & smooth to travel on. Our first stop is the University of Stavanger Museum of Archeology & they have a special display at the moment on Viking jewellery. There are some amazingly intricate silver & gold jewellery as well as ornamental gilded bronze items. Some of the earliest silver coins date from 800 to 950 A.D. & come from Arabia, Germany, England & Ireland, with three of the coins minted by a Viking King Sitric Silkbeard in Dublin. There are examples of everyday items such as swords, bowls & drinking vessels, including glassware from Rome, with Greek inscriptions from around 300 A.D. The trade & transport links in these times must have been simply amazing. There are also examples of items dating the Iron Age plus some large stones with Runes carved into them. A skeleton called the Viste Boy dates from the Stone Age & is over 8,200 years old. We could have spent a full day in the museum, it is so interesting.

Our next stop is the Swords in the Stone monument, three giant swords mounted into rocks on the shores of Stavanger. These swords commemorate when 29 small kingdoms of Norway were united under one king, Viking King Harald the fairhair in 872 A.D. The legends are that the fighting was fierce & the fjord waters were red with blood. It must have been a good life for a king as one inscription found for the King of fair Fernmag stated that he was entitled to “six polished horns for ale, six shields, six curved swords, six fair women & six sets of chess”.  The swords stand more than 10 metres tall & are quickly surrounded as two busloads from the ship empty out & scatter around the ship & advantageous photo points. We saw one man slip off rocks into the water & drop his phone on the way down, fortunately he did not appear to be injured.

An Iron Age farm is next & here a number of long buildings have been archeologically excavated & the buildings rebuilt on the same foundations. Viking burials were found in the ruins of the buildings & also Bronze Age burial mounds were found on the farm. These longhouses have been furnished for the period & they have done an amazing job, with stone walls & multi-layer bark roof capped with soil & grass.  There are textile looms, grinding stones & farming tools exhibited inside.  There are still burial mound on the site that have not yet been excavated.

The Norwegian Petroleum Museum is an amazing large building that houses the history of petroleum exploration & development since petroleum deposits were found in the Norwegian Sea in the 1960s.  There is a collection of old worn-out drill heads of all shapes & sizes, all very expensive as they were diamond tipped for cutting through layers of rock. The museum has intricate scale models of the various drilling platforms developed over the years plus a full size drilling work head where the long drill bits were continually added as the hole got deeper. A very dangerous job. This museum was a lot more interesting than I had anticipated & our guide had worked in the Norwegian oil industry since the beginning, she was very knowledgeable.

Our walk through old Stavanger was another highlight of our tour. The old narrow cobblestone streets & lanes are surrounded by a mish-mash of old white wooden buildings that have been restored & they are of all shapes & sizes, all squeezed closely together. Apparently these were the homes of merchants, tradesmen & sailors in the old days, built from the 1820s to 1870s, had become very rundown & were an eyesore under consideration for mass demolition. It is great that they have been preserved & restored. The ship is only across the road from when we end our walk so we board the ship for a late lunch. After lunch we walk back through the old Stavanger town then down to the new dock area with the old Cathedral overlooking it. We walk along the lake & admire the white swans, look at all the statues & the Polish tall ship tied up at the dock opposite our cruise ship. The tall ship was here for a tall ships race. There are lots of local walking around & enjoying the warm summer day. We get back on board for dinner around 6pm then watch the ship as it departs port at 11pm. The small rocky islands pass very close by & I marvel again at the skill of the Captain & crew. We walked 7.6kms today. Another great day.

Day 12 – 21 July 2023 – at sea – Honningsvag to Skjolden

Another late start, we didn’t get to breakfast until around 8am then spent a bit of time looking at the oil platforms as we sailed past them. The wind & sea had calmed down a lot & it was very smooth sailing as we sat on the Observation Deck chatting with fellow passengers, they all have interesting stories. Tereza’s fractured wrist is always a good conversation starter. In no time at all it was lunchtime, this is a lazy life for us, we are not used to sitting around. After dinner it was another movie & as we have passed back below the Arctic Circle now, no chance of a Midnight Sun. In fact it was an early dark (about 11pm) because it was very overcast. Another great day.

Day 11 – 20 July 2023 – Honningsvag at sea

Last night we stayed up again watching a movie so that we could perhaps see the Midnight Sun, as we are above the Arctic Circle in winter. At midnight we could see the shine of the sun through clouds. At 12.30 am we could see more sunshine reflecting on clouds & at 1 am there was the sun in all its glory – an astonishing sight for us, we had never seen the Midnight Sun previously. We finished the movie & a late night to sleep.

So it was a late morning, the cleaners woke us knocking on our door.  They are used to us getting up early & putting out on the door handle “tidy up please” they must have thought that we forgot. Off to a late breakfast, a bit of time on the Observation Deck watching the world go by then a lazy late lunch. We watched a long movie in the afternoon then a nap before dinner. After another delicious meal (the food is very good on this ship) we watched another movie before bed. Tonight it was too cloudy, no midnight sun.

Day 10 – 19 July 2023 – Honningsvag

We wake to low cloud & mountains we can see through the mist. It is disappointing to see the fog, unless the weather changes we won’t see a thing when we go out on our excursion. We have to check the clock as there is no other clue as to whether it is night or day – the sun does not set. It is 5am so we go back to bed. We are having breakfast as the ship cruises into the port of Honnisvag, there are lots of fishing boats in port, large & small.  We watch the ship dock & tie up as we finish breakfast & decide to go for a walk around Honnisvag, even though it is misty rain, cold & windy.

The Captain greets us at the end of the gangplank as we disembark in the rain & tells us this is Nordskapp weather. The ship is docked very close to the town & we wander around the docks first, looking at all the fishing boats. As we turn to go back the Hurtigruten ship “Polarlys” enters port with three loud blasts of its horn. The main street of Honnisvag is short with an array of shops that sell all the basics of life, plus the odd tourist souvenir shop & café. All of the buildings in Honnisvag are painted in different colours & the town looks good with the array of colours. Above the town a mountain looms over & there are lines of avalanche fences to help prevent the snow from slipping in winter.

After lunch on the ship we put on more warm clothing & head off to our tour bus waiting on the pier to take us to Nordskapp (North Cape), the furthermost northern point of Norway. It takes around half an hour from Honnisvag to get out there through a treeless rocky landscape with lots of little lakes & small streams. It must be so bleak in winter. The carpark is packed with around 50 or more motorhomes plus cars & lots of motorbikes. The large visitor centre is packed with people so we walk through & out to the edge of the very high cliff. Thankfully the clouds have lifted & we have good views along the coast in both directions, we even see some blue sky. There is a large globe mounted on a plinth with crowds of tourists getting photos with it. We keep walking & then explore the museum in the Visitor Centre, it is small & interesting.

The Visitor Centre has four levels & we keep walking down the levels & find a tunnel that takes us down further. This tunnel has some interesting history displayed on the walls plus a small chapel that is very cleverly made as well as a small museum that features the King of Siam (Thailand) when he visited Nordkapp in 1907. We keep walking down the tunnel & we enter a large theatre with a light & sound show with some seating. A small door in the corner leads out to a very large viewing platform that was a former gun emplacement during the 2^nd World War. It is a very long way down, the clifftop it is 307 metres above sea level.

Outside again we explore some more of the clifftop on the other side, we are blessed with the weather as the tour groups in the morning had fog & could not see anything. It is very cold with the wind.  Before the road was built in 1956 tourists arrived by ship in Hornvika then had to hike up the track to the top & then walk another 3 kilometres up to the Nordkapp. We had two hours to explore but the time went quickly before it was back on the bus to the ship then back on board in time for dinner.  There are another two smaller cruise ships that arrived in port while we were away, that explains the constant stream of tourists we saw as we were departing the Nordkapp Visitor Centre.

As we ate dinner the ship departed the dock & sailed north so we enjoyed the views of the coast & then enjoyed the view of Nordkapp as the Captain sailed the ship close to land. The Captain explained that the true furthest north point is the end of the next headland along, it is another 40 metres north than Nordkapp. This headland is very low & uninspiring, nothing like the towering awe inspiring cliffs of Nordkapp. We sit & chat with two ladies from Belgium whilst enjoying the views, they were on the tour to Nordkapp in the morning & could see nothing with the low cloud. It was cold & windy 7C but felt like minus 7.  We walked 8 km today. Another great day.

Day 9 – 18 July 2023 – At sea – Trondheim to Honningsvag

This morning we crossed the Arctic Circle, 66 degrees 33 minutes North. The sun will not set for the next few days whilst we are north of the Arctic Circle. Outside the sun is shining through the clouds & it is a pleasant temperature. It is a sea day today. It is cold & windy 7C but feels like minus 7. A lazy start this morning, we are not at breakfast until 8am & there must be a lot of people sleeping in, it is fairly quite at the food counters. The view from our table next to the window is fabulous with some distant islands poking sharply out of the sea, the sun shining through holes in the clouds onto the water, the view is very beautiful. We are continually pleased by the variety & quality of the food available for all our meals, plus the friendliness and helpfulness of the waiters. Cruise ship life is a very pleasant experience. We spend the day chatting & eating plus a couple of movies while waiting for the midnight sun. No luck, it is cloudy. An interesting experience having 24 hours of daylight.

Day 8 – 17 July 2023 – Trondheim

Another early wake up, the sun rises just after 3 am & we are in the Trondheim Fjord already, the 3^rd longest fjord in Norway. More beautiful scenery as we cruise along the fjord, the mountains are not as high as we pass small village after small village & scattered farms clinging to the edge of the fjord. As we finish breakfast the city of Trondheim comes into view & the captain & crew do another great job of docking this big ship onto a tiny wharf. We watch as boats pick up the mooring lines & ferry the lines to the mooring bollards.  There is a small boat port next to the wharf & on the shore a very modern large swimming complex with multiple pools. Most of the buildings we see near the port look new & have a stylish design. Our ship tour is in the afternoon so we decide to take a walk around town.

As we exit the pier a young woman in traditional Norwegian dress is handing out walking maps of the town & giving some walking suggestions. We decide to do the shorter highlighted walk & set off past the small boat port & over the railway footbridge, all very new & modern with a glassed elevator that doubles as a clock tower. There are many beautiful old stone buildings & as we walk through town we note that most of the shops are closed & there are hardly any locals walking around with very few cars on the streets, very unusual. Some of the streets are closed to cars, pedestrians only, with one garnished with lots of colourful umbrellas & another with garlands of colourful flowers. The shops are in a mixture of old & new buildings that are very colourful. We can work out from the Norwegian writing what most of the shops are, some of the shops are labelled using English.

We see some new battery electric trams on the streets, they look very smart, they are quite & a great modern idea. The Canberra Government should have purchased something like this for Canberra instead of spending billions of dollars laying tram tracks & overhead power wires. The electric buses have overhead charging stations so that they get recharged while waiting to start the next scheduled route, very clever. On the main square is a large wooden building which is the summer palace of the royal family of Norway. A statue on a spire in the square is of King Olav II, the person that established Trondheim as the capital of Norway in around 1050 A.D. There are lots of beautiful old buildings surrounding the square. Along the road we see a large church framed by trees & we walk to it next to have a look. The church is Nidaros Cathedral, building started in 1070 over the tomb of King Olav II & was completed around 1300. Over the years since it has been restored a number of times (it burnt down 5 times) and looks magnificent. It is such a large stone building & the design of the front façade is amazing with rows of statues of lots of saints. Apparently it is the resting place of eight of Norway’s kings. The richly decorated King’s Portal on the side of the church was built around 1230 A.D. & has just finished being restored, it looks magnificent as well.

Next to the cathedral is the old stone Bishop’s Palace, now repurposed as museums & galleries with an event due to start at 11 am, just as we are leaving. Across from the cathedral is Thomas Angells house, a very large old building dating from 1770, with a large courtyard inside, he must have been very wealthy. As we turn to cross the river over the old town bridge, formerly a lift bridge to let the boats under, we spot the row of very old colourful restored shipping warehouses lining the river, a really beautiful picture. We walk back to the ship past all of these old warehouses then over an old boat slipway area that is now cafes & restaurants. Our legs are getting tired & we are getting weary, the ship is still far away. We walked 10.2 kms.  Tereza’s knees ached but she reckons the walk was worth it, next time she will take some pain killers.  I had lunch while Tereza chose to rest on the bed, then we are off on a guided tour, less strenuous.

Thankfully the bus is on the pier & we enjoy the seats on the bus ride as we are driven back into town with our guide telling us about lots of interesting history of Trondheim. The old historic tram is next & we travel on the old tram out of the main part of the city & up the hill in Schongsdal overlooking the island the old part of Trondheim is built upon. Back on the bus & more interesting stories & history, with the bus driver taking us through a tunnel that has a large roundabout underground, the first time we have ever experienced something like this. As we head back to the ship it starts to rain & we only get a little bit wet as we wait in line to board again. We were the last ones back on the ship before the crew pulled the gangway in & the ship started to ready for departure.

The small island off the port was originally a place of executions for King Olav II with the heads of his enemies placed on spikes to warn others of their likely fate. After the Viking age it became a Benedictine Monastery, a prison, a fortress & now a tourist island with café & restaurant plus a swimming beach. We hurried to dinner to watch from our table while the ship depart Trondheim with the fjord widening as we get closer to the Norwegian Sea. It was a lovely mild day but once again we were too warmly dress. Another great, though tiring, day.

Day 7 – 16 July 2023 – Alesund

Another early start with more amazing fjord scenery, this time having breakfast as we sail into the port of Alesund, the 3^rd largest city in Norway & the site of a large Viking settlement. The ship docks at 8.30 am & we enjoy the views from the ship. We are the first tour off the ship this morning & head onto bus number one for our journey. We follow the shores of the Storfjod with beautiful scenes of the mountains, waterfalls & the fjord. Alesund is spread out along the fjord with lots of small factories & businesses following the road. We pass the old octagonal church of Stordal built in 1789 & through a few small villages that are renowned for growing sweet strawberries. The strawberry fields have lots of workers in them picking the strawberries. 

Our first stop is at a lookout overlooking the Geirangerfjord, stunning views. Across the water is a small farm with buildings in a clearing 200 metres up a steep tree covered cliff. Apparently this farm was abandoned 30 years ago & the driver told us that everyone & everything they had was carried by hand up the steep cliff. We can’t imagine how hard that must have been. At the lookout is a Kokarsteinen, a stone shelter that was used by travellers between the towns of Dykorn & Vaksvik when the road was a mere track & most people walked.

As we continue on the scenery continues to amaze us & we stop next near Alstad where the Valldola River passes through a narrow gorge. The falls roar as the mass of water drops down & under the beautiful old stone Gudbrandsjuvet bridge. The viewing platforms & elevated pathways are relatively new & look great as they wind through the trees & over the narrow gorge. Back at the bus our driver greets us with a couple of punnets of strawberries, they are large & some of the sweetest strawberries we have tasted. From where the bus is parked we see the towering Trollkyrkja mountain ranges, the land of the legendary trolls.

We drive through more stunning scenery where the roads get narrower & the mountains higher, with lots of patches of snow on the sheltered parts of the mountains. Our guide Michael & driver Palmar explain that this winter had some of the most snow on record with this road covered by between 8 & 15 metres of snow only a bit over 6 weeks ago, amazing. We stop at a viewing place with new shop, café & toilets just above a pathway & viewing platform, with a small river running beside it. Our guide told us that the glass at the front of the café was destroyed by an avalanche of snow this last winter & it is still being repaired. Tereza met a new friend here, a small troll at the front of the shop. The complex has been really well designed & built, with the complex blending into the landscape when viewed from the other side. The toilets even have views of the mountains with large picture windows overlooking the river.

The views from the pathway & viewing platforms is absolutely stunning, it takes your breath away. There are two waterfalls overlooking a very narrow, very steep road with eleven hairpin bends leading down to the Isterdalen valley below. We see some parts of the old road originally built by Viking King Olav in 1028, amazing.  The Troll mountains tower above us.  Our bus driver takes us down the hairpin bends safely, going very close to cliff walls & road edges & very close to the oncoming traffic. There is some traffic control officers stopping traffic so that the buses can get around the sharper hairpin bends.

Trollstigen is our stop for lunch at the grass roof covered café with a family of trolls taking up residence outside & on the roof. The Troll mountains loom even larger around & above us. We have a delicious buffet lunch of 3 styles of salmon, all delicious, with salads, cheeses & salami, plus fromage for dessert, yum.

There is more beautiful scenery as we descend further down the Isterdalen valley before stopping at Trollveggen, where the temperature is 24 degrees, amazingly warm. Our guide tells us that this warm temperature is very unusual, along with the clear skies without any low cloud, we are very blessed with the kind weather. The Trollveggen is a sheer mountain cliff that is amazingly high, it is difficult to take in the scale & sheer size of the mountain range.  Tereza makes another troll friend, this one a little larger.

Our trip back to Alesund is full of more amazingly beautiful scenery & our driver takes us through new Alesund , showing us the shopping malls with underground shops & parking for 6,000 cars even extending under the road – amazing there is no parking lot above ground, very clever & neat. There are lots of new buildings around with schools & universities amongst the many new builds. Real estate is very expensive in Alesund with a new house costing around $4 million US dollars. Some areas are more expensive than others.

 This was an 8 hour excursion, it was worth every moment. We are the last tour bus back & we are among the last few passengers to board the ship, the gangplank is pulled in & the door shut as we wait for the lift. After calling into our stateroom to drop off our jackets we head up for dinner & enjoy another great meal as the ship departs Alesund & heads out to sea. Another really great day.