Alesund, Norway June 9 2015

Note:  We are finally headed south again towards Copenhagen, and the internet seems to be working at a better speed.  It would take about 5 minutes to download each picture, so was unsuccessful until this morning to get pictures to download.  Enjoy my recap of Alesund.

This morning we arrived at the beautiful town of Alesund, Norway, known as the adventure capital of the Fjords.  The town of Alesund looks like a fairy tale village.  Alesund sits on a narrow fishhook-shaped peninsula.  It is home to Norway’s largest cod-fishing fleet.

In 1904, there was a destructive fire that basically took out the whole town.  The city was rebuilt in a very short time with 400 new homes and buildings.

Sunnmore Mountain sits as the backdrop to this area and is picture perfect.  It is just like out of a fairy tale.

This morning, Elaine and I took a leisurely walk around the lovely town center amongst its’ 20^th century buildings.  They have a mall right in the town center and a couple of souvenir shops.  They even have a pharmacy where you can pick up some medicine for that cold or cough you have gotten during the cruise….just sayin….

It is misting a little this morning.  Not enough for a rain coat, but of course, it is a cold and blistery morning.

If you are interested in the hop on hop off bus, it picks up right outside the ship and is about $30 or $33 US for a 24 hour pass.  There is also a little train you can ride which is less expensive, but it does not let you hop on and off, you get on and ride for 1 hour and return to the port where we are docked.

There is a minature version of the Olympic Torch in townsquare from the Olympics.

One of the more popular places to hike to here in town is the Fjellstua.  It is the viewpoint for panoramic views over Alesund.  If you want to climb the staircase to the top I believe it is about 414 steps.  However, you can also take the hop on hop off bus to the top and walk down the steps if you like.  Those that went to the top said it was beautiful.

Our excursion is this afternoon.  We are headed to Sunnmore Village – A Celebration with Anna, Elsa & Kristoff.

We started our excursion by traveling through the town of Alesund with our tour guide pointing out the various historical sites and then we ended up at Sunnmore Village Museum, an outdoor replica village with authentic buildings.  Disney Cruise Line has exclusive use of Sunnmore Village this afternoon and it is closed to the public due to a “private event.” 

There were 107 guests from the ship that took this exclusive excursion this afternoon.  The local village was having a summer celebration (well, the weather really isn’t like summer to me), and there were festivities abound, from local musicians to old-fashioned games to exploring the many homes.  The Norwegians were all wearing their traditional outfits, the children were especially cute.  One thing I learned is that if a woman is wearing red stockings she is single, black stockings and she is married.  We were welcomed by town heralder and the bugles.

A couple has married and the celebration is taking place in the main area of the village.  There is folk dancing, violinists playing, craft making, tug-o-war games and more.  One of the homes is baking thin pieces of bread and they put butter and sugar on them.  They were yummy.  Another home is making loaves of bread.  It tasted like a 7 grain bread.

The tops of the houses have grass and other vegetation on them.  They told us they did not have money so they used whatever they could find to complete their homes.  In fact, many places around the town have these types of roofs.  Additionally, the houses are on stones and the top stone is flat.  The reason the top stone is flat is because the mice could not climb on the bottom of the flat rock and thus could not get into the houses.

The schoolhouse had school going on and you could take a test to check your knowledge of Norwegian history.

There were fishermen down at the lake catching their dinner for the evening.

I felt like I experienced what Norwegian life would have been like back in that time period.

Then we had Anna, Elsa and Kristoff arrive in a carriage led by a beautiful Fjord horse.  They stayed for an hour for photo opportunities. 

Sven also made it down.  He is growing his antlers right now and they grow quite quickly and there is so much blood in the antlers that they are very tender to touch and Sven does not like it, so his handler advises not to touch the antlers.  They were beautiful.  

It ended up being a lovely afternoon as there was no wind up at the village and the sun was shining.  Not quite as cold as it is down at the waterfront.

We received a farewell gift with this delicious bread ring (sweet) and a Mickey pin.  The bread ring was yummy.

We headed back to the ship (10 minute ride) and all aboard was 5:45 p.m.  The local band came out to play for our farewell.

The residents of Alesund were delightful.  Everyone is friendly and helpful that I ran into.  I had some nice conversations with some of the ladies at the Sunnmore Celebration and they were excited to share their lifestyle and history with me.  Having conversations with the locals and learning about their culture is what is so enlightening on these cruises.  And I know I would have never had these experiences if it were not for Disney Cruise Line.  They have given me the opportunity to travel the world and feel safe while doing it.

After arriving back at the ship, Commodore Tom says that we will not be leaving until about 7 p.m. and then basically we will be floating in the water until 5:30 in the morning when we will enter the Gerainger fjord for our next port.

Tonight we get to see Villians Tonight.  Make sure you see it when you are on the ship, as it will be having its’ final curtain in November and then Tangled will be the latest show on the Disney Magic.

We play bingo tonight.  Michael finally won one of the games!  Yippee.  He was on quite a dry spell.

At dinner, it is the Prince/Princess menu.  Once again they have added regional favorites to the menu.  I have a delicious cream of potato soup.  For my main course I have the pork chop.  It was good.  For dessert I have the Bread pudding (a regional favorite).  It was very good.

It is now 10:30 and we are basically floating in the water, just like Commodore Tom said.  We head off to Fathom’s for the Ventriloquist Paul Zerdin.  Jo, the club host, told us that actually tonight back in the United States that he is on America’s Got Talent.  I would assume he made it through to the next round, but she didn’t elaborate.  Paul is a very good ventriloquist and comedy was excellent.

After that is is time for Krazy Karoke.  Michael sings his version of Let Us Go (to the Norwegian Fjords) and then after that it is time to call it a night.

The internet is very slow and it is going on 2 a.m. in the morning so I am calling it a night and will try to post in the morning and see if I have any better success.

Good night from the Disney Magic!

P.S.  It is still cold, plan on dressing warm!