July 27, 2023 -Alesund , Norway

 July 27, 2023 - Thursday - Alesund, Norway

This Is our first port on this voyage. Alice and I have been here twice before so we opted not to take a ship’s excursion. We decided that we would walk the city center and take the Hop On Hop Off bus (HOHO). Sean and Shelly did not see an excursion they liked and joined us. The policy is that they can do whatever they like during the day as long as they joined us for dinner. That worked well onboard. 

Pursuit docked at the pier farthest from the city center and the cruise terminal. This was fine for us as it was the farthest point in our walk 9 years ago.

Alesund was destroyed by fire in 1903. Over 800 buildings were lost and thousands of people were displaced. The government and the people came together and rebuilt Alesund in Art Nouveau style. It was a masterful accomplishment. The buildings are lovely and we admired them as we walked along the harbor into the center of town. Once there we walked to the cruise terminal to board the HOHO. Even though the sun was not shining our spirits were high and it was not raining.

There is a viewpoint atop Aksla, the “mountain” overlooking the city. There are 418 steps up to it from the harbor. For us, it was just one HOHO stop away. We stayed up there for a while enjoying the views. Then we boarded another bus and completed the full tour. The narration was good and we appreciated learning something about what we were seeing. We all stayed on this bus while it started another trip around. Alice and I got off at the tourist information office near our ship. Sean and Shelly stayed on and went to the aquarium.

Alice and I did some more walking through the city before re-boarding Pursuit. At dinner, we learned that Sean and Shelly really enjoyed the aquarium.  However, when they got to the HOHO stop before the last scheduled stop, It did not come. They never found out why, and they had to walk back to the ship. Fortunately, they had enough time to get back and freshen up for dinner.

Although we enjoyed our day it could have been better with some sunshine and the absence of the huge MSC cruise ship. Their flood of people made walking a chore and overburdened some of the attractions.

We shared our stories of the day at dinner and enjoyed Imagine, a review of music from years gone by, presented by the Azamara singers and dances.

It is hard to believe that as I prepare to post this it is August 4th. We have been busy and time keeps slipping away.