Wednesday 31 August 2016
We are back adjacent to the North Sea having spent the last two days tied up at berths deep inside the fjords. We are on a booked trip again today. Our first stop is the Town Mountain and a view down to the town and the houses all look a little like a Toytown, and they are dwarfed by our cruise liner! We see other smaller boats skittering around the port. The weather is much brighter today and we can appreciate the views.
The photos from the mountain can be found here. The consistent style of buildings is down to them nearly all being constructed following a major fire on 23 January 1904. As Wikipedia reports Kaiser Wilhelm had visited here previously and he sent significant help to the residents following the disaster. The rebuilding then took place over just a few years and is largely in the Art Nouveau style.
Our other destination on the trip is the Sunnmøre Museum which has a large collection of rescued Norwegian buildings. There is also a collection of boats and reconstructions some of which have been captured in my photos.
The houses are described in this part of the Museum website. The Church booths were interesting as journeys to Church for Sunday attendance were so long through the mountains. These little booths were used to allow for a change of clothing for church and eating on Sundays. The other buildings demonstrated how people lived and how the houses grew over the years.
Similarly the collection of boats is explained on this part of the website.
My own photos from this location are here and this includes a few photos of the town from ground level.
On sailing away we will start our return journey; we have one more port of call tomorrow. Compared to some of our other holidays being on a cruise saves the packing and repacking and the food does tend to be consistently good.