Alesund

Calm sailing overnight but I was wide awake from about 4 am. Weather is great today. Forecast currently 0 degrees and sunshine in the morning. SB kindly went and procured us each a cup of tea at about 6 am. Met Captn D and Foggy at breakfast at 8. SB and I then ventured to the onboard laundry to put a couple of loads of clothes through the wash. The washing machines work okay but it ended up taking hours for the dryers to do their thing. I even checked the filters to make sure they weren’t clogged! As our tiny en-suite has heated floors,we eventually opted to turning the en-suite into a drying room which worked really well.
We have already stopped at a couple of little towns where locals get on or off, vehicles drive on or off and produce and equipment is loaded on or off. Some of the stops are for only about 10 minutes. The scenery is gorgeous as we travel through snow capped rocky outcrops and mountains. Picture postcard stuff. We have opted for an early lunch as we want to go with Kelli on a guided walk with her when we dock at Alesund. It is a pretty place that is renowned for its variety of Art Nouveau architecture. Everyone us advised to use their crampons on footwear as the roads and paths are very icy and therefore super slippery. There is no wind, so we really aren’t feeling the cold at all.


Kelli takes us towards the lookout but it is getting very steep and even more icy on the paths. SBand Foggy decide that they are going to aim to get to the lookout with a few others in our group, but Captn D and I decide discretion is the better part of valour and keep our dignity in tact and wander back down towards the ship, via a lovely touristy shop! I love seeing all the trolls popping up all over the place.

Time to head back to the ship after we met up with SB and Foggy. They didn’t quite make it to the top at the lookout as it became way too icy even for these intrepid adventurers.

SB and I have decided to host happy hour in our cabin so the 4 musketeers enjoy a quiet bevy but we did head up to Deck 9 to bid farewell to Alesund and are offered a taste of a traditional Norwegian food of salted dried leg of lamb. Didn’t think much of it so won’t be having it again if it’s offered! Back to our cabin to continue happy hour where we each start contemplating our next preferred holiday destinations. Finally time to part our ways until dinner time which gives me time to catch up on photo downloading and today’s blog. SB has kindly offered to make another cup of tea so I am being spoilt very nicely.
Breakfast and lunch is buffet style, with seating anywhere but tonight is our first set menu, sit where you are booked to sit. SBand I were supposed to sit at table 78 but as D &G were at72, we asked the restaurant manager if we could change to a shared table for the four of us. Yes, she says, but no she bloody well didn’t. What a fiasco. The whole thing frustrated the heck out of me so by the time we were settled at a table that we ended up sharing with Kelli and some other Aussie woman, I was not spreading sunshine and light. We managed to get through the meal which I didn’t think was much chop and could only be described as average at best (didn’t help that there was no choice) but thankfully we all kept up some form of conversation, and Kelli was very interesting with her condensed version of Estonian history. When the entree was served, I missed out, but finally a male waiter realized and came over with a plate for me. Had to laugh when as he was setting the plate down in front of me, he said “you didn’t get one. You’re not special!” Poor Kelli was really embarrassed but I just laughed and agreed with him. What he meant was that SB who was sitting next to me had received her vegetarian meal, but I didn’t also get a ‘special’ meal. When the main meal was being served he laughingly told me I wasn’t getting one as I wasn’t special! Dinner came to an eventual end and I was happy to head to the cabin, get out the kindle and then get into bed. Early start tomorrow and morning temperature likely to be about -15 degrees!