Something Fishy in Ålesund Norway (And it’s not just that funny thing atop the “A”)

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We needed to set an alarm to ensure that we’re able to make it to the Showroom by 7:20AM for our tour assembly. We slept all that we could before making it to the Lido. There it was all too apparent that we are still in a “Code Red” situation. This is no way to start a cruise, especially a longer cruise. We’d heard that the crew would be doing another complete scrub down today, just as they had done our first day in Reykjavik. There were crewmen at each sanitation station and at the handwashing machine to make sure that people used them. I was a bit surprised going out to the pool deck to see that the place settings were once again on those tables, all wrapped in the orange cloth napkins. There were still no salt and pepper shakers. It’s funny how it’s the small things that you miss. I miss the pepper grinder, right there on your table, in the Rotterdam Dining Room. The captain’s reported that we’re not out of the woods yet, there are still new cases being reported… but the trend is down! I’m guessing that he’s making one big push to ensure that people will be allowed ashore in Rotterdam. I had my cold-cut sandwich again. It makes it harder to tell the server what meat and cheese you want, and which roll, I say, “Sesame Roll” and he went right for the “Poppy Roll”. They haven’t run out of Icelandic bananas yet; so, I had one of them as well.

It’s over two weeks since we sailed, and that balloon next door doesn’t look like it will make it to Rotterdam. It may be one of the victims of the Noro-virus. Its reddish color is looking very pale and it’s breaking out in wrinkles all over. It hasn’t aged well on this journey.

Sharon suggests, “Let’s sit on the left side in the Showroom, so we’re not the last ones on the bus again.” We arrived in a crowded Showroom and the Excursion Team Member announces that those going on the Troll Wall tour should visit the restroom now; because, it will be over two hours before the first rest stop. Sharon hands me the bag and disappears. She gets back just as they call our tour and we head out to get our numbers. She said it was quite a hassle in the Lady’s room. It’s a very small one on that level by the showroom with only 2 stalls and barely room for 2 more people though they had 3 in there. Another woman with a European accent kept trying to get in and they told her there was no room but she kept trying. She kept pointing at Sharon to move over to the area between the 2 stalls which would have meant the women in the stalls would have had to way to get out. She tried this several times but Sharon wouldn’t move since it was clear to those in there that wouldn’t work. We get put on Orange 2 (of three And again, we’re among the last to get on the bus and wind up one or two rows from the very rear. At least this bus has a rear exit as well!

Our guide today for the Romsdal and the Troll Path Tour is Fernando, and our driver is Peter. Our guide does the introduction, “I am from the Canary Islands, but I live in Norway just during the Summer Season.” I suspect this is because the unemployment rate in Spain is still very high. “But don’t your worry, Peter is from Norway, and he knows the roads we will be driving today… so don’t worry when we go down the ‘harpeens’.” We thought that his word choices and phraseology were a bit unique and wondered if his Spanish accented English had a Norwegian flare. That idea was put to rest later when Fernando pointed out the Special School to teach people how to speak Norwegian. He’d planned to study there this year; but, found that they are closed for the summer. Fernando noted, “There are many people ‘communicating’ here in Ålesund among the various islands by boat.” He said that we’d be seeing many marinas, both big ones and small ones all along the shore. In Norway, every citizen has the right to have a boathouse on the shore, and one the water there would be many such similar small shelters huddled together.

As we headed past a sports arena of some sort, I recalled something that Oscar (our guide in Iceland) had said when someone had congratulated him on the performance of Iceland in the World Cup this year. He had said as an aside, “And I just want to say that we call it ‘Football’ because you kick the ball with your foot. In America, you mis-use the word ‘Football’. You should call it ‘Handball’ because you throw the ball with your hand.”

Along the way, Fernando had a lot to say about Ålesund. Its name means “Eel Sound” because the shape of the waterway resembles the body of an eel. The sound provides considerable shelter from the sea, and the water inside is, as Fernando said, “a mixture of salt and ‘sweet’ water.” Ålesund was (and still is) a major fishing village. Great masses of herring come from the Arctic to breed in the waters around Ålesund. The entrance to the sound is about 50 meters deep; but, within the sound the depths can reach 700 meters in the glacier carved troughs. There is also a great deal of fish-farming farther up the fjord. Fernando noted that these farms tend to be located in the bends of the fjord where the water flow is the swiftest. The reason wasn’t immediately clear to us until he later mentioned the staggering amount of fish-pooh that these farms can produce.

As our bus began to ascent we would see many farms with all of these large marshmallow-like bundles laid across the freshly cut fields. Fernando noted, “This is the worst summer for drought. In the month of May we got no rain at all this year! What you see is the first cut of this summer. Normally there will be 2 or three cuts by this time. Farmers are having to decide which livestock to kill, because there will be no food to feed them this winter.” He also told us the meaning of the different colored bundles of hay. We saw white, pink, blue and yellow bundles. The colored ones cost more because the price included charitable support for breast cancer, prostate cancer and children’s cancer respectively. We passed a pyramid of yellow bundles with smiley faces on the faces marked by a Sharpie.

“Here in Norway,” Fernando continues as if he’s lived here all of his life, and with considerable price, “Most farm animals live in the barns; but, the government requires that farm animals must spend at least 6 weeks out in the fields.” It sounded an awful lot like an “Animal Bill of Rights,” and I’m sure the animals are happier for that. “So, if you see some animals out in a field, they are just like you: They are on vacation too!” We continued on and Fernando continued, “On the right are some strawberry fields. Last year WE produced 900 tons of strawberries.” He told how in the past Norway had almost suffered the fate of Easter Island with the depletion of all of its forests. The Norwegians depended on the forests for so much: Wood for their buildings and then wood again to keep their buildings warm in the harsh winters. Today, there are three times as many trees as there were 100 years ago due to ‘conversation’ efforts. These Norwegians sure seem to do a lot of conversating and communicating! As early as the end of the nineteenth century Norway recognized the problem, and about twenty years later embarked on an ambitious program to conserve, manage and protect the forests. Less than 10% of the forests are preserved solely for their beauty and natural enjoyment as National Parks. The bulk are intended for commercial use and harvesting; but, Norway employs a rigorous reforestation program when trees are harvested. Continuing, Fernando noted, “Today, Norway faces another threat from Global Warming: And, we all know WHO’s to blame for that!” Okay, I guess it was pretty easy to spot that jab coming from a mile away. But the Norwegian do put their money (or is it the oil’s money that is causing all this Global Warming) and are committed to be a country selling only all-electric cars by 2025. To that end Norwegians can enjoy huge tax incentives and avoid paying a 100% tax on petroleum products. But if they were really all that concerned about the environment, they could just leave the oil under the sea!

Norway has endured great tragedies in the past. During the Black Death, 65% of the population of Norway was lost. In Ålesund at the turn of the previous century there were about 12,000 living in this region when a firestone destroyed most of the town leaving 10,000 homeless. It started in a fish factory where the owner was suspected of starting the fire for the insurance money that it would bring him. A storm from the west caused the winds to whip the fire and embers through the mostly wooden community. The Great Fire Storm of 1904 cleared the way for rebuilding, this time in stone and due to the times, it was rebuilt in the art nouveau style.

Previously, the primary means of transportation in Norway was by water. Land transportation along and up the fjords could be treacherous, and many roads were meant only for horse and buggy. But once oil transformed Norway from the poorest country in Europe to one of the richest a series of tunnels began to be built, not only connecting the various islands of Ålesund but also high in the mountains to get through from one side to the other. We went through several of these tunnels, and also saw a hydro electric station. Norway gets 95% of its energy from hydroelectric renewable resources.

We stopped at the Goodwin Gorge where it was time for my WC break. I don’t normally comment on toilet facilities; but, this was unusual. Everything was made out of stainless steel; except, the toilet seat that looked somewhat normal if you can call the very round European style toilet seats normal. They don’t exactly seem to fit an American style butt. There was no ceramic bowl, it was stainless steel. The door was stainless steel, the entrance of which was a jagged protrusion that made you think the stall would be slanted diagonally; but, it wasn’t. And the locking mechanism on the door was a stainless steel sliding bar rounded at both ends and completely hollowed out in the center that slid until the door was held in place by the pressure it exerted on the door against the stainless steel door frame. The view at Goodwin Gorge was achieved by a series of cantilevered walkways that wound back and forth until they deposited you on the other side of the narrow gorge; where our bus had crossed over to using a short bridge. The rushing, splashing water amid all of the greenery was worth the walk up to the bus.

Higher in the fjord we left the forested areas behind and had moved on into the tundra region. Here there were lichens and moss and some small shrubs; but, the trees we left behind. We stopped to see the major waterfall of the area, and again, there were a couple of walkways, one that went out to an overhang. Looking back, we saw the waterway that we’d crossed and walked around, now cascading towards us down a series of manmade ripples, each about a one-foot fall. Beyond the water rushed over natural rocks plunging down. The second walkway path required so considerable climbing very steep up to start, and then very steep decent at the end. This one is not handicap accessible, and the lookout spots require walking on uneven rounded rocks, so if you’re not surefooted, you might be well advised to avoid these. The view is spectacular from both. At the entrance to these pathways is a coffee shop type rest area with restrooms. I didn’t check these out, but from the outside they looked like they might be the same stainless-steel ones that I’d just visited. The roof of the coffee stop slanted down to the grown and was grown over with grass. Some sheep were milling around on top, and Fernando said, “They like the smell of coffee.” Sharon actually made a purchase at the gift show when she saw something she had to get for her sister who used to be a Troll Character at Magic Mountain when she was in college. I won’t say what it is since her sister reads the blog.

What followed was our drive down from the top, down those “harpeen curves” Fernando had been talking about. These are of course, hairpin curves. These switchback roads were designed for cars such as the Volkswagen bug, and not a 75-foot touring bus. More than once the driver would approach a hairpin turning right from the wrong side of the road and need to signal to a startled driver in oncoming traffic that it would be well advised if he also drove on the wrong side to get by the bus. “Don’t worry,” Fernando said. “If you get scared, just close your eyes like the driver.”

Fernando had mentioned that there was an old stone pathway and stairs down the mountain, and as we would zigzag back and forth across the steep face he would say, “There it is, you can see the stairs to the left,” and then on the next pass across the face that we were descending “On the right.” Each time you could just barely make out the narrow stone pathway and steps down the mountainside. Finally this woman with a heavily nasal Bronx sound demands, “Can we stop to get a photo of the stairs?” As if the bus driver doesn’t have enough to worry about so this lady can take a picture while blocking traffic up and down the mountain, and there was quite a bit of traffic going both ways including large coaches like ours! Fernando handled it very well, “We’ll be able to stop at the bottom where we can pull off the road.” I’m guessing that she better not be late getting back on the bus at the next stop or Fernando just might leave her behind.

We did stop as Fernando promised, and other cars and busses were stopped as well. Bus Number 1 from HAL was behind us, and we needed to stay ahead of it. Sharon said that they had probably done the tour of town prior to proceeding up the fjord, and that we would do that once we got back to Ålesund. We got five minutes to take some pictures, and we could see where we’d been up at that last lookout point. But Bus Number 1 appeared to be ahead of schedule and we needed to leave to make room for them as well.

We stopped at a “Troll Stop” for lunch. Tables were all ready for us. It was a buffet, and Fernando had promised us “Little Salmon, Herbed Salmon, and some other kind of Salmon and Reindeer Burgers.” Sharon wasn’t happy about the sound of Reindeer Burgers. As we went through the buffet, everybody was talking about the “Reindeer Burgers” and a serving girl overhead and said, “No, these are beef burgers. The reindeer is there…” pointing at some thinly sliced dark reddish meat with large white fatty spots (a sausage). Sharon hadn’t overheard the serving girl, and she looked at me really skeptically as I tried to convince her that this really was beef. What Sharon was most happy to see was the bowl amply full of boiled potatoes. I’ve never seen anybody get that relieved to see boiled potatoes. Maybe Ancestry.com is right, she really is mostly Irish.

We’re sitting across from two people sitting at a table for eight, and another elderly couple was sitting at the other end. I pointed out to Sharon as the other lady to a fork out of the dispenser holder in the middle of the table, put it back deciding something was wrong with it, and tried another until she’d found two suitable for the two of them. She then proceeded to do the same with the spoons and knives. I guess her husband caught a glimpse of us staring in disbelief at is oblivious wife; because, he cautioned her, “Just take two of each, dear.” I wished that he’d added, “…and try not to touch them all.” We hoped that this wasn’t our Typhoid Mary, and then she coughed. And it wasn’t one of those suppressed coughs you get when something irritates your throat or you need a drink of water. It was one of those “I am seriously sick” coughs thick with congestion. It’s likely not the Noro-virus… still. And then her husband started to cough too. Bon Appetit. Sharon managed to eat the burger and I asked her, “So, does reindeer taste like beef?” I don’t think that Sharon appreciates my rapier wit. She did chow down on more than her share of boiled potatoes. The tiny portion of salmon I took was fine, at least as fine as cold salmon can be. The same can be said of the several hot wings that I took. I did try some of the chocolate mousse with whipped cream they had for dessert; although, Sharon thought that she would forgo those calories. And if you wonder why we didn’t just go to another table… it was the only one with a bottle of Sprite on it for Sharon to drink (that was available) ok and it was too late to change at that point. We got 75 minutes for lunch; which, was plenty of time to eat and to take some pictures about this troll-promoting establishment. I even got a picture of the Norwegian flag to add to my collection. It was flying by a horizontal string of about one dozen other flags from around the world, from Brazil to Spain to Japan, I was able to recognize them all; but, Sharon insists it only counts when taken in the country they’re from. See what a party-pooper she is. I do however need to remember to take one in Canada on the way back.

Our next stop was at the “Troll Wall”. It had started to drizzle again, so Sharon let me go out and take some pictures. See how I said that, “Let Me!” while she stayed on the bus nice and dry and warm. The wall is a near vertical sheer cliff with a fifteen-foot overhang approaching the top that until the 1970’s was believed to be unscalable. In the 1980’s a number of people were able to jump and parasail from the summit; but, a number of accidents caused this practice to be forbidden. This is the tallest such wall in Europe and a very popular destination for rock climbers. It really is a foreboding cliff. It’s called the troll wall because they “believe” that all the small peaks at the top are trolls that met up with their families and started talking and didn’t see the sun come out which causes them to turn to stone.

On the way back into town we passed by the Waste Plant that generates heat used to heat a number of the downtown municipal buildings, to heat the community pool, and even to heat some of the downtown surface streets to keep them snow and ice-free in the winter. The tour almost became comical as Fernando proceeded to point out with some pride the library, the fire station, the school, the drug store, the grocery store and the ‘Kaffe’ shop. I almost expected him to stoop to the level of one guide in Nova Scotia who pointed out the town’s only garbage truck on its rounds picking up garbage; but, he did not.

We were back in time for Team Trivia, a quick stop in our cabin to pickup pens and we went up to the Crow’s Nest. We were about 25 minutes early; but, the first from our team to arrive. Everybody did eventually show up, and as we suspected, Jim had done the impressive walk up the hill to the view point. Most people took the little Troll-Train. Jim admitted to working up a bit of a sweat. Duncan and Pam had looked for Jim; but, he was off enjoying the excellent Wi-Fi reception and getting caught up on his email and such. We were puzzling over “Who hosted the 1976 Olympics making them the first in history to host the Games without winning a Gold Medal?” Sharon’s got the hosts for 1980 and 1984 nailed down, and I knew that 1972 was the Munich Games. And then I get an admonishing look on my face and say to Duncan and Pam, “You should know this one; but, I didn’t know that you guys didn’t win a gold medal at your own Olympics.” Pam got a sheepish look on her face and admitted, “Until Linda saw fit to embarrass us with that little factoid, we didn’t either.” This was, of course, the Montreal Games in Canada. Next came, “Which two movie stars are the only ones in history to win an Oscar for best performance by a leading man/woman in two consecutive years?” I knew one of them. “Tom Hanks” for his rolls in “Philadelphia” and “Forrest Gump”. And to be truthful, I’d have given him a third for his role in “Apollo 13”; but, I don’t think that Hollywood had yet appreciated the directing prowess of Opie Taylor. I suspected that the other one was from an earlier period; and then, Linda confirmed as much. We thought “Clark Gable”. I guess that we had forgotten about “Spencer Tracy”. Linda started her second question, “In Bumble Bees, how many…?” I was assuming that she was asking for wings and I was writing down 4. I’ve missed this one twice already and I wasn’t going to miss it again. But Linda continued, “…How many eyes do they have?” And she gave us a choice of two, three, five or six. So the four on my piece of paper was looking pretty stupid and I lamely explain, “I thought she was asking about wings.” We guessed 5. And recalling Stuart Sutherlands first talk about how thinks evolve; such as, from one, to two, to five (as in one body, two arms/hands, five fingers) I thought this was possible. Linda later said that bees have two complex eyes AND three simple eyes for OUR total of five eyes! Linda next asked, “In the movie, what does Han Solo say in reply to Princess Leah when she says, “Hans, I love you!” The entire Crow’s Nest erupted with an opportunity to correct the Trivia Master, “It’s Han, NOT Hans!” She repeated the question, this time careful to say “Han, I love you.” The best that we could come up with was “Of course you do.” One of the ladies at our table said, “Yes, he was an arrogant prick, wasn’t he.” And another replied, “He certainly was.” Sharon’s siblings needn’t raise any eyebrows, Sharon never saw this movie, so she wouldn’t know. We came close; but, what Han actually said was, “I know.” The bonus question was to name the four top tennis players with the most Grand Slam Championship wins. I wrote down “Margaret Court and Steffi Graff”. Rose Marie contributed “That Williams sister.” And I agreed writing down “Serena Williams”; and, the final one must be The Maestro, Roger Federer. We got all 4 bonus points; and, nearly won with 13 out of 20 points. Another team got 15.

We were asked if we minded sitting at a large table. In the future, I think that the answer to that question is going to be “Yes”. We had dinner for eight seated at the Captain’s Table for ten. I had one of the end positions, so I basically wound up with nobody to talk to except Sharon; and, she was busy talking to the woman next to her. I managed to talk across the table a couple of times, but it really is too noisy to carry on much of a conversation from such a distance. Three at our table were planning to go kayaking at the next port, something none of them had done before. Admittedly, they were a bit younger than us, and for one, this was their first cruise. I ordered the crab and asparagus quiche which was quite good. And I also got the twice baked potato soup; which, seemed to be a popular choice. I had to ask for pepper, since it is still not on the table. And all that you get in “Code Red” are the small little sealed pepper packets. Sharon went again with no appetizers. I ordered the Indonesian Tofu and Tempeh; while, Sharon is starting to morph into a turkey I think. Again, she is having roast turkey; although, with a baked potato. Several at our table were very happy with the Fresh Norwegian Salmon Coulibiac. One had said that he’d talked to the chef earlier that day, and the chef seemed ecstatic about the fresh fish that they had acquired and highly recommended the fish dishes in the next couple days. The salmon appeared to have been stuffed in its own skin, not quite what “Coulibiac” means, usually involving salmon contained in a puff pastry. But, everyone said the fish was most excellent. Evidently the chef knows how to do fish. Sharon was left to pick vanilla ice cream for dessert and isn’t thrilled with that. She could have had some very good chocolate mousse at lunch with fresh whipped cream; but, who am I to point that out to her now. I had the cheese plate. It was already past 8PM so we had missed the early show. Sharon went to make the Buffaloes stampede and I hung around the Fun-21 blackjack table for a while. The table had no dealer, so I watch the high roller lady play a bit at the $15 table. I think that the raised the table limit for her; or, possibly it is always $15 to $1,500. All I remember seeing is a $500 maximum bet at any of the tables. She seemed to be holding her own; and, she was playing the hands correctly without hesitation, so she does know what she was doing. She hit a bit of rough patch as I watched, and she didn’t hang around long once things moved against her. So she definitely knows what she’s doing.

I returned to the cabin, and Sharon soon returned as well.

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