We had another early start. This was our last port day. Nordfjordeid was the port that I thought would have the most potential, but Alesund was the port I was looking forward to the most. We were able to get off the ship at 07:00, but all aboard was already at 13:30. We got up at 06:30, got ready and headed downstairs. We were some of the first people off the ship. We had company that day. Rotterdam, which is also a Pinnacle Class ship, was in port with us. Now we have sailed on two of them and seen all three. We stopped for the final port photo and then we headed out. It was a glorious day with bright blue skies and sunshine.
We had a ticket for the hop on hop off bus. The first order of business was to get some information about how this worked. There was a City Sightseeing kiosk just outside the port gates. We approached this and were told that the first bus was due to leave at 09:00. This gave us some time to explore town.
Right opposite the port was the town hall of Alesund. This is a concrete and glass monstrosity and does not fit in with the rest of the town at all. This building has always been controversial with the local population for a number of reasons. Part of it is because it really is ugly. The building has several times received an award as the ugliest building in Alesund. That is not the only problem though. Where the town hall is today used to be a hill that was an important greenspace. It was also the site of a large seagull colony. When it became known that the hill and the seagull colony were due to be removed, this caused lengthy protests, but ultimately the project went ahead.
The rest of the town is very pretty though. Most of the buildings in the centre of Alesund are built in the Art Nouveau style. In 1904, most buildings in Alesund were destroyed in a massive fire. Only one house survived. The town was then rebuilt in 1907 in the Art Nouveau style. I have always liked Art Deco and Art Nouveau. Having a whole town in this style was a real treat. We wandered the streets and enjoyed our surroundings.
We figured we should get some breakfast before we started our hop on hop off tour. We found an independent coffee shop that was already open. We had the most amazing cinnamon rolls with a custard topping. We had a flat white with this, which was very nice as well. I feel a repeat visit is needed when we come back in 2028. Alesund is the only port that we are repeating on our next Norwegian fjords cruise.
Once we had finished our breakfast, we headed back towards the waterfront. Rather than going via the most direct route back to the port, we took a detour along the waterfront. This was very pretty and I ended up getting some stunning photos. When we got back to the port, we found a huge line for the hop on hop off bus. We did not get on the first bus, but the second bus was not far behind, and we had no issue getting seats on this.
This was a bit more of a typical hop on hop off tour in that most of it was within the city itself. We did go up mountain close to an observation point overlooking the city and also the island where the Atlantic Sea-Park is located. The tour was interesting and I learned a lot of interesting facts. I made a mental note of some points of interest that I would love to have look at when we come to Alesund next time when we have a longer port day. For the time being, we just continued the loop until we got back to the port.
When we got back to the ship, we dropped our stuff off in the cabin. Then we got some coffee from the pizza place. We had a latte each. Once we had our coffee, we headed out on the small outside deck near the Panorama Bar. I took some photos. Once the buffet opened, we headed for lunch. Graham had some nachos and I had a made to order stir fry with pork and vegetables with some rice. Then we headed downstairs for trivia. They were setting up for some private event in Billboard Onboard. We were sent to B.B. King’s Blues Club. We found some seats by a window. I headed to the Grand Dutch Cafe to get some more coffee. I got an Americano with almond milk for Graham and a caramel latte for myself.
The lunchtime trivia that day was world history trivia. We scored 16 out of 17 and the winning score 16. There were three teams with the same score. Unfortunately, we got the tie breaker wrong, but this was the closest we came to winning all cruise. We decided to stay put after the trivia. There was more scenic cruising, but we had a good view and the chairs were comfortable. We enjoyed the view. At 15:00, the Vivace String Ensemble played a set. We finally got around to listen to a full set. The whole set was by the same composer and all one theme. This was not the kind of music what I would normally gravitate towards, but I was still able to appreciate the talent.
Once the set was finished, we headed over to Billboard online for team trivia. We scored 10 out of 21 and the winning score was 19. There was a distinct absence of bar servers that day and the bar itself was very busy. We decided to head up to the Panaroma Bar for a couple of drinks. Graham had a couple of Bahama Mamas. I had been eyeing a cocktail on the dining room menu all cruise which was called Dutch 75. This consisted of De Lijn Gin, lemon juice, simple syrup, and sparkling wine. I asked the bartender if he could make this. This was not a problem. This was delicious and I had a second one. Then we went to the cabin to get changed for Orange Night. Once we were ready, we went down to the dining room. We had a short wait as there was a bit of a line at the podium, but once it was our turn, we were seated straightaway.
Graham started with the bay shrimp cocktail with Dutch cocktail sauce, and boiled egg. He then had the roasted chicken with French fries, and apple sauce. For his dessert, he had Dutch apple pie with vanilla ice cream. I finally got some Dutch green peas soup. This came with pumpernickel, and speck ham. For my main course, I had Bami Goreng, which were Indonesian stir-fried noodles, chicken, and shrimp satay, peanut sauce, and krupuk shrimp crackers. For dessert I had the Lindt chocolate tulip with chocolate cream, and flourless chocolate sponge. Our server brought me a side of vanilla ice cream, too. I was not going to argue with this. We had one more attempt at ordering the Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling. I think this time it was a Riesling, but not the kind that we ordered. I think the wine was probably German based on the higher acidity. It was however nice.
After dinner, we stopped by for some photos. They had all kinds of fun props. It was a real laugh. Once we were done with the photos, we headed back to the cabin. Graham was protesting that he was just relaxing, but soon he was asleep. I read for about an hour before I settled down for the night as well.
Leave a Reply