In an effort to not waste a single second of shore time in Norway, thetwinsontour are rapidly becoming sleep deprived. Today, we found ourselves in Ålesund, which is known for its Art Nouveau buildings. Most of the town burnt to the ground in 1904, so it got rebuilt in the architectural style of the time–Art Nouveau–aka Jugendstil. So, really, what that means is that there are cool buildings. thetwinsontour were among the first people off the boat, and quickly headed for all the good sights, without having any idea what the sights were really or where exactly they were…

We wandered around, taking pictures, meandering towards tourist information. It was so early that none of the shops were open yet, which means that thetwinsontour could not be distracted and led astray by the lure of a pretty bauble or $6 magnets.

Armed with our map from tourist information, which was open, we headed off for our goal: 418 steps. Truly, that is what all the directional signs say– 418 steps. What are these 418 steps? Where do they go? I wasn’t really sure, but I knew that is what I wanted to do! 418 stairs doesn’t sound like a lot– until you start to climb them. Then, you get up like 14 stairs, and you’re like, are we there yet? And, if you think how many stairs are in a flight of stairs, like 6 in my house? 14 to not mess up the following calculations? That is like 29 floors?! I carry my laundry up 2 flights of stairs at home, and it wears me out. This is only 27 more floors– easy peasy, lemon squeezy.  Actually, I am not at all confident in these calculations. Sleep deprived. See above.

Regardless of my math or counting skills, it was all irrelevant as random stairs were numbered. And when I say random, I mean random. It just made 0% sense, and of that, I am 100% certain. 47. 82. 108. It took a hundred steps to grab the attention of my mathematical mind. It isn’t odd numbers. 213. Or multiples of 25. 237. Or prime numbers. 268. Some diabolical version of the Pythagorian Therom? 298. Then, they would move to the right side of the stair from the left. 323. JUST NO. 367. 408. Thank goodness by this time we had almost reached the summit. Because really, I think they planned this just to torture me!

Anyways, 418 stairs later, we made it to the summit of Mt. Everest (it certainly felt that high) and the observatory to observe the town and fjords below.  Translation–we dug out the selfie stick.  

You know what happens when you climb up 418 stairs? You have to go back down those same 418 weirdly numbered stairs! Needless to say, we hit our 10k step goal very early in the morning.

We wandered the town in a frantic, picture taking frenzy– snapping pics of all that Art Nouveau goodness. We were on a mission to see as much as possible as we needed to hurry back to the ship for an 11:45 excursion. And someone was trying to guide us back to the boat without paying attention to the person with the map. Someone was panicked. Someone was calm, cool, and collected because she knew where she was going!

Do you know what happens when you have an 11:45 excursion? You miss lunch! Boat lunch starts at 11:30, which does not leave time for a salad, a bowl of pineapple, and a donut! Luckily, thetwinsontour travel with snacks. (My daddy taught me well–never leave home without at least 2 granola bars in your pocket–it keeps the hangry away.) Where were we headed on this lunchtime excursion? The islands of Giske and Godoy! These islands are connected to Ålesund by underwater, subterranean tunnels! Yes. Unfortunately, in my mind, I picture an underwater sea walk at an aquarium. This was not the case. It was just a boring tunnel. You would never even know you were traveling underwater. Not even a mural of an octopus. Alas, it was exciting nonetheless.

These are just little tiny islands. Giske doesn’t even have any stores on it now that they have a tunnel and can easily go shopping in bigger places. We went to a church built in the 1100s by a prominent Viking family. You cannot go inside, but still several very interesting facts. It is built out of marble. Yes, marble! This is also something you would never know if I didn’t tell you. Marble doesn’t hold up well in the harsh sea winds, so they had to cover the outside with plaster. I don’t know how many years it took them to realize this though. It was a very important pilgrimage site for many years before the Danish king decided that Norway should be Protestant instead of Catholic. The Pope had written a letter to the church, and if you kissed the cross etched into the side of the building, all if your sins would be forgiven.

Also, there is a bit of a mystery as to where the marble came from because there is no marble in Norway. They think it’s probably Italian. Which leads us to another mystery! How did they get giant blocks of marble from Italy to Norway on little Viking ships? Probably Aliens. Has to be.

For the next island of Godoy, we also went through a remarkable, or is that unremarkable, underwater tunnel. Our goal there was a cool lighthouse. I’ll admit, I know nothing about this. I don’t know if the guide talked about it because I climbed the steep, narrow steps to the top. The steps that the old people were scared to climb down until I told them to go down backwards. What would these people do without thetwinsontour? It was super, super windy atop the lighthouse. It was also pretty windy on the ground. This is probably why they need a lighthouse here because of the wind.

Last stop of the day was back in town at the observatory which we had already climbed 418 steps to get to in the morning. Guess we could have saved a lot of steps if we had paid attention to the itinerary. Oops. But where is the fun in that? Since we needed time to shop and had already seen the view with a lot less people in the way, we ditched the end of the tour and willingly walked down 418 steps. But you know, thetwinsontour like to walk on the wild side.

Love,

thetwinsontour

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