It was an early start and we had arranged to have breakfast in our room. Overnight the ship had sailed to Alesund and as we finished breakfast we were just approaching the dock. The first order of the day, however, was to get to the ship’s Medical Centre and for Diane to have her scheduled INR test. This was done in a matter of minutes and we were given the results immediately. We crafted an email to send back to St Richard’s so they could update us with the new dosages of Di’s meds.
We immediately left the ship and joined Trevor and Jane. We were ushered to our tour bus - this would be our home for the next 7 or 8 hours. The guide was very interesting and full of stories and information as we set out for the day. Her first observation was that Alesund had, so far, had 290 cruise ships this year. For such a small town, that seemed incredible. Alesund itself was noted for its Art Nouveau style and architecture. There had been a major fire in 1904 which had destroyed the old town. Because Europe was going through a recession at the time, builders from all over Europe came to Alesund to find work in rebuilding the town. As Art Nouveau was the most popular at Yale at the time, the town grew in that style.
We wound along the sides of the fjords and turned inland. The villages all seemed picture perfect and the guide commented that if you ever saw 5 cars or more in a line, then it was rush hour. Indeed the roads were deserted. We wove up into the mountains passing little farms where they grow fruit and tend a few livestock.
We stopped for a comfort break at a gorge at Guldbrand Bridge. The bridge crosses the Valdola which is a fine salmon river up to this point. From the gorge you can look down at a series of kettle holes. It was a nice spot for a 15 minute break.
As we left, Gmail pinged with the results from the Anticoagulant clinic. Dosages were adjusted, and Di can stop the daily injections. This was good news.
As we continued to wind up into the mountains the guide pointed out the huge scars on the slopes of the mountains, explaining how they have been scoured by avalanches. Avalanches are fairly predictable here - not in terms of when they will occur but where they will they will occur. We continued on up to the next viewpoint where we had another break. This looked out across to the Trollstigen. As we left the coach it started to rain and the wind was blasting through the mountain pass. By any definition, it seemed cold. Despite this we walked past the cafe (currently being refurbished after being flattened by an avalanche last year) and out to one of the overlooks. Jane and Trevor were a little more adventurous and walked on to a second viewpoint a bit further along. The views were wonderful as we peered down across the waterfalls to the valley below.
Trollstigen is the Trolls Stairway. It is a road with 11 tight hairpins that zigs and zags down from the mountain into the valley below. The coach driver no doubt said a prayer as started the descent. The views were spectacular. Each of the hairpins was named. One was recently name Nika after a woman (now 107 years old) who had worked to provide meals for the workmen as they built the road back in the 1930s.
We stopped for lunch at the end of the valley. It was very well organised with tables numbered for each of the expected tour buses. We took our seat and then queued for the sumptuous buffet. The signs over the various dishes revealed pasta, sweet corn, salad, salmon, pork, beef and so forth. I was amused to the the sign “Salmon (contains fish)” and “Pork (contains meat)” - I felt that was good to know!
It was a very good lunch and we had a good 90 minute break. Trevor and I wandered outside to take some photo, stretch our legs, and enjoy the fresh air. By this time, the sun was out and the wind had dropped. The valley was quite delightful.
Leaving the rest stop we went on a fourth 20 minutes and stopped at the Troll Wall. This is the highest vertical cliff in Europe at 1100m. We didn’t stop for long but we were able to get some photos before starting quiet drive back, arriving at the ship around 16:00.
Back aboard we heard that Arcadia’s sister ship, Iona, had diverted from its planned port of Stavanger because of the weather. As we sailed away from Alesund, we passed Iona makings way up the fjord. It was soon after this that we head that our itinerary had been changed. The weather was looking threatening and the Captain had decided not to call at Leknes in the Lofoten Islands, but head for Narvik instead. It is a shame, but safety comes first.
After dinner, we went along to the theatre. The comedian that we had seen the first night was back on. He did a completely different set. It was excellent and had us all in stitches - some jokes were no new but were well timed, others were definitely new (to us) and had us roaring with laughter. It was a super way to round off the evening.
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