Day 11 of the cruise was a sea day. Not too much exciting stuff happened on the boat…mostly just relaxing and eating and exercising.
Our cruise had 2 stops in Norway. I didn’t realize how narrow the country actually is. It’s kind of interesting though that it has such an extensive coastline heading toward the north pole. Since we were cruising, the two stop were both port cities. Our first stop of Ålesund is on the mid-western coast of the nation. This city is known for its German art nouveau architecture. I didn’t realize there were different types of art nouveau. Many of the sights again required driving of some sort but we decided to just hoof it on foot and explore the small town.
Upon arrival it was overcast and started to rain when we disembarked. Luckily the rain was intermittent throughout the day so much of it was just gloomy and gray (I actually like this kind of weather).
The first place we checked out was the Jugendstilsenteret and KUBE museum. The Jugendstilsenteret is the art nouveau center. I enjoyed learning about the history of the town and getting to learn about how they constructed many of the buildings.
Afterwards we then walked over to the Ålesund Church (Ålesund kirke). We didn’t actually go into the church but admired the architecture and construction from outside. 
In Scandanavian and Nordic folklore, they believe in many mythological creatures such as trolls, fairies, etc. We found that there was a lot of imagery scattered throughout the city streets. We also saw them in Iceland.
We parted ways with my folks at this point – my folks wanted to get some food back on the boat and we decided to check out the local food.
The biggest tourist highlight of Ålesund is the Aksla Viewpoint with Fjellstua located at the top. There are a few options to reach the top of Aksla. You can either take a bus/car to the top or walk up 418 steps from Town Park. D was not up for the walk to the top so I told her I’d make it quick and run up and get some pictures and then come back. She agreed to this. I estimated that I could probably do it in about 10 minutes (initially in my mind I was thinking 10 minutes round trip but I was incorrect in that thinking). I made my way up the stairs at a relatively quick clip. I soon found myself getting pretty sweaty (I’m normally quite easy to sweat anyway) even with the cooler temperatures. I had to stop a few times as my heart was pounding with the ascent. I finally made it to the top after about 8-10 minutes.
At the top I randomly ran into my parents who had also walked up on their own after their meal on the boat. The view from the top was quite amazing. We took some pictures together and then I left them up top as I made my way back to D.
We then proceeded to explore the town and check out some small shops and bakeries.
Just before you reach the security checkpoint to re-board the boat, there is actually a little microbrew on the docks. Since we had some time before the boat was to depart, we decided to stop in for a beer at Molo Brew. I wanted to try one of their OG beers and was referred to have the Hallelujah Helles. It was a nice light lager
D had the Blood Orange Gose, which was quite tart.
We then got on the boat and took off for our last stop of the cruise in Bergen, Norway.
-StewsCat
StewsCat 