Alesund
Port Town Rebuilt In Art Nouveau (Jugendstil) After The Fire Of 1904; Gateway To The Sunnmore Alps And Geiranger · Alesund, More og Romsdal
Alesund is a fishing and shipping town on the More og Romsdal coast, spread across a string of islands between the open Atlantic and the Sunnmore Alps. On a winter night in January 1904 a fire swept through the wooden centre and left thousands of people homeless in a few hours. Help poured in from abroad, most famously from the German emperor Wilhelm II, who knew the coast from his summer cruises, and the town was rebuilt in stone and brick within a few years in the Art Nouveau (Jugendstil) style of the day. The result is a compact centre of turrets, carved dragons, flowers and pastel facades around the Brosundet canal, best seen from the Fjellstua viewpoint on Aksla, 418 steps above the town park. Around it are the Atlantic Sea Park aquarium, the islands of Giske and Godoy reached through undersea tunnels, the Runde bird cliffs and the road to Geiranger. The honest caveat: the Art Nouveau core is small and walked in an hour or two, cruise days fill it and the viewpoint, and the weather comes straight off the sea.
Alesund town centre around Brosundet, with the Fjellstua viewpoint on Aksla above it, Alesund, More og Romsdal, Norway
A living town, open all year. The streets, the canal and the Aksla steps are free at any hour; shops keep roughly 10:00-18:00 on weekdays with shorter Saturdays and most closed on Sundays. The Art Nouveau Centre and the Atlantic Sea Park open daily in summer and usually close one day a week or shorten hours in winter - confirm. There is no railway: fly to Alesund airport on Vigra (roughly 20-30 minutes by airport bus through undersea tunnels), take the coastal ship, or ride the bus from the railhead at Andalsnes. Book summer hotels, Geiranger tours and Runde boat trips ahead.