Norway’s tourist season is mid-June through mid-August, meaning that’s when most attractions outside of Oslo (besides ski hills) are open. Traveling here in April has been a relief after over-touristed Portugal, but you should know about the challenges too, particularly in Ålesund.
Our main reason for visiting Ålesund, a windy town in the western fjords, is to see the famous Art Nouveau architecture, which was built in hurry after a fire in 1904. (Let’s just say that, as Chicago residents, we have a soft spot for windy places by the water whose architectural origin story involves a catastrophic fire). We were planning on picking up a special guide to the architecture from the tourist information center or the Art Nouveau museum but the TI is closed and the museum doesn’t have the book in stock. The contemporary art museum is also closed and so is the museum of oldest house in town, though their posted hours say they should be open.
Oh well, I’ve invented my own walking tour of Ålesund’s architecture, called Steet Signs and Window Eyebrows, and Wait for It, a Fart.
Here are the street signs:
And the window eyebrows:
And wait for it, a fart:
(You probably thought I got the juvenile fart jokes out of my system in my last post: ha!)
Anyway, with a view like this from our apartment, who needs a tourist office anyway?
How we got to Ålesund: bus from Trondheim.
Where we slept: City View Studio Apartment. Price: €92 for a double. Recommended: yes.
Picnic at the Cathedral 
Reblogged this on U S A.
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Thanks for sharing!
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Looks like a very quaint place 🤩
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The location on the fjord is quite stunning.
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If a Chicago resident has the hood pulled up against a fart, then the place is too windy for me!
Are the museums closed outside of tourist months?
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The secret to windy weather is hood over hat, plus layers underneath.
Well, some museums are closed outside of summer but others are meant to be open but weren’t. The Art Nouveau museum was open (with shortened hours) but most annoyingly out of stock of the guide to the architecture.
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“Hood over Hat” sounds like a nice title for a book.
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Thinking of Norway has given me a craving for IFA Saltpastiller… Keep the, erm, farts coming!
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I saw some IFA Saltpastiller in the grocery—I should have bought them for a souvenir. Glad to find someone who appreciates the fart humor.
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They are an acquired taste but… I love them!
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According to Google Translator, “sakte fart” is Norwegian for “slow speed”.
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No fast farts in front of my lighthouse!
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There’s always a trade-off between being swamped with tourists or a town being closed.
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So true, though I think we landed on the right side of the trade-off this time.
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I think i would have been just a bit grumpy to trek to museums in the cold only to find them closed….My response would have been my father’s version of ‘Gone with the Wind’ – depart with a fart.
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Can neither confirm nor deny we responded as your father would have…
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You’re tough…just to fly to Norway on a discounted whim. 🙂
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