29 May 2019 Onsdag 0800-1800 62*28.13'N, 6*9.3'E
Sunrise 0403, Sunset 2303. Temp 43*f
Ålesund wiki and/or Ålesund Google Map
In at 0800, out at 1800. One other ship scheduled in port. We have no activity scheduled at this point. Something will come along or we'll walk to see the Art Nouveau style architecture prevalent here. There's also a Hop-On-Hop-Off bus tour available.
Actual:
We spent part of the night rolling and tossing due to some storm. This whole cabin creaks and groans and pops while rolling. Woke up at 0800, rolled over and got up at 1000.
Found out via Fran that the HOHO bus is not running today (Technical difficulties). Weird. She says the little tourist "train" is running. We'll see if we can find that.
Photo Link
Dolores declared herself out of action today. She stayed aboard and rested.
Eventually O got out to the tourist train line (a disguised jeep & two trailing coaches) and ran into Fran. We waited in some strange weather - wind, sun, cloud, rain, rain, wind. Finally the second train showed up and we boarded.
The train wandered through city streets with a multi-language narration provided by headsets. It must have been keyed by GPS because it launched into a new subject at the appropriate time.
The architecture of the buildings is pretty much the same, since the town burned in 1904 and was reconstructed per the time. The town is on a bunch of islands connected by bridges and tunnels.
The big stop on the trip is at the top of Mt Aksla at which I took this picture of the town. You can see Rotterdam VI at the cruise ship pier. The closer blue-hulled ship has the name Amber (in Cyrillic characters). Fran & I enjoyed this stop despite the wind because it was clear at the moment and we could get good pictures.
The jeep-whatever train came back down the hill and all through the downtown area. It looks like a normal downtown with all the usual stores and jails and churches and halls.
We left the little train and boarded (in light rain) and agreed to meet at 1600. At 1600 we (less D) met in the Crow's Nest for wine and trivia. We chatted until Trivia, then scored 10 of 16 - but a brilliant group scored 14 of 16 and won.
D came with O to the Lido where O had steak & fries & dessert. D had two slices of bread and a couple of chocolate-chip cookies. We then retired to the cabin to take it easy. We found the bed-animal to be a doggie.
The above evolution was to be completed by 1900. We went through several more weather cycles like the foggy period to the left as 1900 came and went without certification. And 2000 found us at the same point alongside the pier.
Finally at 2030 we got underway to the east, turned sharply around a rock and headed west. Then we tied up to the pier again.
We have been sailing with one of these tenders missing. Perhaps it has been here under repair. See the note on "Rotterdam" page.
A few minutes later, the crane shifted the tender out from under the ships arms. Some weight was attached to the cables from the arms.
At 2200 the tender was being placed back under the arms by the crane. At 2215 the tender was (back?) aboard. The crane crew was making it ready to travel. They moved about 30 feet and started the whole evolution again with another tender.
Now I think they did this evolution on the port side before we turned around.