Day 9 - Alesund (still)

Welp, what can I say about day 3 in Alesund (pronounced kind of like Olsen). It’s 47 degrees but feels like 34. It’s overcast, windy, and rainy. Martha is still under the weather so I went on a walk about by myself. Mostly, I just took selfies around town, lol.

This is a World War II memorial in the harbor.

Wiki: Between 1940 and 1944, a series of sabotage actions by the Norwegian resistance movement and Allied bombing ensured the destruction of the plant and the loss of its heavy water. These operations — code-named Grouse, Freshman, and Gunnerside — knocked the plant out of production in early 1943. In Operation Grouse, the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) successfully placed an advance team of four Norwegians on the Hardanger Plateau above the plant in October 1942. The unsuccessful Operation Freshman was mounted the following month by British paratroopers, who were to rendezvous with the Operation Grouse Norwegians and proceed to Vemork. This attempt failed when the military gliders (and one of their tugs, a Handley Page Halifax) crashed short of their destination. Except for the crew of one Halifax bomber, all the participants were killed in the crashes or captured, interrogated and executed by the Gestapo.

Trolls are everywhere in Alesund. Given this Wiki explanation, I’m not quite sure of the fascination with them: Norwegian trolls are believed to be mythical creatures that live in isolated rocks or caves. They are believed to live alone or in small families and are hostile towards humans. (Maybe Martha is identifying with the trolls and that is why she doesn’t want to around people. She was the first one to notice them.) As per the troll legends, they are believed to be evil and dangerous beings that prefer the wilderness.

I can think of 1,000 better names for a bar than Milk. But one google search and one google translation later and here’s the story: The navigation history of MILK tartamudea from the Skateflua was a gathering point to enjoy milk and produce from the fjord farms and islands around Ålesund. The men were happy to hear news and gossip about everything that was going on and talk and trade went hand in hand.

Just a random selfie while walking near the harbor.

The boy in the harbor per AI: The statue of the boy in the harbor in Alesund, Norway is the Fisher Boy Statue, also known as Fiskergutten. It's a bronze statue that stands on the waterfront of Alesund's inner harbor. The statue honors the area's rich fishing history.

And finally, The Herring Wife is a lifelike tribute to those women who worked at salting herring, which was one of the town's main industries.

Wait! I did go back to one of the bars we visited for a local beer.

Don’t worry about Martha. She is fine. It’s the middle of the month and she is busy with work; she has to pay her teachers and send invoices for tuitions from the students. The new payment system is challenging and she is battling the ship’s wi-fi and VPN issues, as well as a small winter cold. But remember, the Explorer’s Lounge is ten feet away and there is an awesome room service menu. She is perfectly happy.

Well, we need to be flexible as we just found out we’re spending another night in Alesund and leaving tomorrow afternoon. The Captain says there’s weather out there, and I’m sure there is, but it definitely makes us wonder about ship damage from Sunday’s storm. Now he’s worried about wind and waves, but on Sunday we spent hours in the hurricane. Something seems very off in the Viking story.