Scandinavia - Norway Alesund

October 04, 2018

Scandinavia - Norway Alesund

We left Bergen early as the drive to Ålesund (Aalesund-Norge) was not necessarily far, about 430 km (267 mi) but it would be slow. It took over 9 hours with ferry rides, tunnels and stops. Did I mention tunnels. More than any other part of the trip. Norwegians are great tunnelers.

This drive turned out to be one of the most memorable of the whole trip.

As we drove, these beautiful valleys presented themselves. Every hill or mountain had at least one waterfall.

The biggest problem we encounter on our drive through Norway was that the roads were only two lane with no shoulders and very few turnouts. This severely restricted my taking pictures. The only alternative was someones driveway but those too were narrow and not very safe places to stop. I would have shot many many more vistas had I been able to safely pull over. Just imagine these images twenty fold. Bored yet?

It began to snow on the tops of the mountains. Just adding to the majesty of the area.

The single excuse I used to suggest this trip to my son was let's go see our ancestral home. Our last name was originally Brunstad. My great grandfather changed it to Brun after the first census in Alaska. He continued Americanizing each census until they say he ened up as Charles Brown from Carl Johan Brunstad. Anyway, Brunstad Norway was on maps I initially used to find the location. However, when we arrived in Iceland we noticed it no longer was. It seems that the Google maps we used to navigate no longer listed it. So as we drove along Norway 60 we figured we find it. And we did.

Brunstad turns out not to be a village or hamlet or ??? It is a community of maybe 100 small farms. The homes are big and each has at least 5 acres of land. This might even be a bedroom community of Sykkylven, a major furniture manufacturing town. Unfortunately, the rain was coming down so hard, I only risked exposing the camera for this quick pano.

Alesund, Norway

The shots below are taken from a bunker constructed by the Nazi during WWII. Great view of the surrounding islands and peninsulas.

The bunker had a 270 degree view of the surrounding area. It was well camouflaged into the hill and I really didn't want to shoot it. So took pieces instead.

Not the demonic son behind this gun port.

As the morning progressed the fog lifted from Alesund and provide this excellent view of the surround area.

We drove from the bunker to island of Giske Northwest of Alesund. Of all the tunnels we have traveled this one was unique. First it had go under the fjord. Second there wasn't enough land to do a normal straight tunnel. So they designed a spiral tunnel. You started at sea level and wound around this giant cork screw until you reached a point that you were below the deepest part of the fjord. Then the tunnel travel a few hundred meters and began to spiral back up. A very odd feeling to spiral downward in a tunnel knowing you would end up under an ocean of water.

On the island of Giske there are some rather high end homes. I assumed that the owners work in Alesund. There is was a small marina where some commercial fisherman ply their trade. Note the Norwegian lobster traps made of wood.

After Giske and the spiral tunnel, we headed for the Sunnmøre museum. This is an open air village that represents Norwegian homes from medieval times to the present.

Thankfully there are no earthquakes in Norway. Though it must have been a really cold floor during the Winter.

This construction method looks a little iffy. Though it seems to have worked for many centuries. I wonder how they were built? Stack the rocks to support the floor then build the house? Lot easier than lifting a house to place on rocks. Foundations seem to replicate the Icelandic "stacked rocks" or this is the inspiration for the "stacked rocks" found all over Iceland.