Our first full day in Norway was a Sunday spent in Bergen. The city was hosting its annual food festival. Lots of tasty items on display and for sale. The information booths about goats, making cheese, organic gardening methods and the like were very much the same as I encounter in local food markets in and around Denver.

Then on to Alesund. Scroll down in the Wikipedia entry to the paragraphs "The town fire of 1904" and the following paragraph "Ålesund being rebuilt, 1904-1907" and note the involvement of Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany. I had one very brief stroll early in the morning, and more time later on that day after we returned from the trip up the Geiranger Fjord. By the time we returned, rain had begun in earnest, and the sky was dark and gloomy, but I still had a nice walk and took quite a few neat photos.

One of my interests is historic preservation, and Alesund is on the "see before you die" list of every historic architecture nut. So it was a very satisfying day.

Then on to Trondheim and a visit to the Gothic cathedral. Lovely expansive nave and gorgeous stained glass windows. We followed this up with a trip to a musical museum, with an extensive collection of antique instruments, along with some which are more current - a working Wurlitzer jukebox, for example. Our pleasure on this visit was was dampened somewhat by too many visitors from the steamer arriving at the same time, and a confusing set of instructions from the overburdened guides. By the time we got things sorted out, we were all weary, and listening to them explain things in small crowded rooms with nowhere to sit took the edge off of what probably is a very interesting place.

Tromso offered two stops. One was a museum and aquarium Polaria which was fascinating, but unfortunately, none of the photographs I took produced a visible image. By now we were above the arctic circle, and the exhibits offered very interesting information about that part of the world. Their indoor pool had a group of bearded seals who, in exchange for treats of fish, offered up a very entertaining show. Too quickly we were hustled off to the cathedral you see in the photograph. We later realized that we were within walking distance from the ship while at the aquarium and museum, and Mr Woodstock and I both wished we had stayed there to see more, and returned to the ship on our own.

I hope one particular person will read this blog entry this far down. If he does he should understand why I wanted to take a walk here. What I discovered on a rainy morning delighted me, historic preservation buff that I am. The central square has been closed to vehicle traffic, and quite a few very nice early 20th century commercial buildings are in good repair and obviously lovingly cared for.

My trip to see sea eagles in the next entry. Within a day or two.