Sightseeing in Alesund NORWAY

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For the first time we have been a little disappointed in our location. Was looking forward to Alesund (which is renowned for its modern architecture after being rebuilt following a fire in the early 1900s).
When we woke the cloud was right down hiding the mountains across the bay and barely lifted all day but we decided we would risk possible rain and went into Alesund on the scooter, dressed up against the chilly (iced ?) wind.

Only 5 km and one very short tunnel (fortunate. I Don’t do tunnels !) into the city but then we found a big problem.
Where on earth do you park a scooter in Norway ? Only a couple of other motorbikes, no scooters and we know better than to park by the bicycles after our ‘reprimand’ in Oslo.
Went into the tourist office where the girl obviously didn’t know and said we needed to park like a car, in a bay and buy a ticket. Ridiculous. Where do you stick the ticket so it doesn’t blow away ?! The reason we use the scooter is to avoid parking problems and we have never had any in any other country in Europe before.
We decided to park on the Bobilpark and once we got there we almost went back to the campsite for the motorhome as it was very nicely positioned overlooking the sea and sanitaires were fantastic. But at 160 kroner not much less than our very pleasant campsite where we still have free wifi and our washing blowing in the breeze.
Alesund itself did not live up to the promise of its advertising gumph. Yes, it does have some lovely buildings and lots of colourful ones lining the harbour which comes right up into the town but despite very restricted parking . there are still cars parked spoiling the views and eek..… the townhall / library building is truly awful, 1960s concrete block style. What an eyesore.
We walked round, “did” the architecture, the ‘not many’ shops (unless you want women’s clothes) then found a café for a quick sandwich lunch before heading back to the campsite.
I promptly fell asleep (knee not 100% happy about being on the scooter especially when as cold as today) while Bob planned our very exciting route for tomorrow.
Having just checked the photos I took I see that Alesund looks much better digitally than it did to us in real life today ! Maybe all it needed was a bit of sunshine.
We note that there are now far more children on the campsite and having checked see that the Norwegian school holidays started last weekend. Wonder if we will begin to have trouble finding spaces on campsites ?

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Photos

Alesund
looks good in the photos but was rather dismal today under low, damp cloud

Alesund
the cloud lifted a little so the buildings reflected their colours in the water

ugh- see Alesund town hall on the right
Wonder who decided that a 1960s concrete block style building could be built in this city of otherwise lovely architecture

sailing away
from Alesund