September 9, 2026
Hello all! Another day almost in the books. We cruised the night arriving to a town of about 60k people named Alesund, Norway. It is a picturesque spot with mountains and islands all around. Outside our cabin we have seagulls constantly flying around. I’m not sure why unless they have figured out that cruise passengers sometimes will feel them. Anyway….
We started our day in the buffet loading up on way too much food. I don’t know I do that. I have such a weakness for food. The food on the ship has been nice. Since it is more European than normal, you get all kinds of different types of things. But I have not eaten anything that I have not liked.
After eating, we left the bus around 9 AM. It was gray, cold and drizzling rain. Not the best conditions. We had planned to take the city trolley that takes you up the famous hill that overlooks the city and then all around the downtown area. In the early 1900’s, there was a fire that destroyed much of the city. As a result, the city has been rebuilt with what they call Art Noveau. I just see very colorful buildings. But it is nice. The trolley ride lasted 70 minutes in a small train that was enclosed but due to the cold and rain, the windows steamed up making it hard to see much out of them. We did go up to the famous lookout point and tried to get pictures. But again, it was very gray and rainy.
After completing the trolley, I decided that I’d like to go buy a beanie to keep my ears warm. So speaking with the Wayment’s, we decided to go to an H&M, a clothing store in Europe that is reasonably priced for what you get. So I set out with Denise. But at about 100 yards, Denise looked back for Kim and Ilene and they were no where to be found. We were dumbfounded as to what happened. We tried calling and texting with little success. So we just carried on to the H&M. There we did find a beanie and some mittens for Denise. Once we had that, we then needed a toilet and fortunately across the street was a mall that had public toilets. Yay! After draining our tanks, we decided to use locator to find the Wayments…and this worked. We walked right to them. They had found some nice things in a souvenir shop close to the pier. We then decided that we would make our way to a little lighthouse that we saw. But as we walked, we came across some scooters to rent. Denise was all over it. I was…OK…Ilene was all for it…and Kim, he’d rather be walking it…and I get it. My balance is so poor. And he worried about his too. Nonetheless, the women won out. It took a while to get the rental process worked out. But once we did, off we went with me doing the guiding to the lighthouse we were going to walk to. Funny part was that after we crossed the first street and started up a hill, a police car came up behind us. I read we’re supposed to have helmets, stay in bus lanes and so on. I thought we were busted. No, he just slowly passed and waved at us with a big smile on his face. I’m sure he could tell we were nuts! Anyway, we made it to the lighthouse, took some pictures and then slowly made our way back taking different streets to get there. I think in the end, we all thought it was a lot of fun (even though one hill was so steep that we considered walking them down!)
After all this, we decided to go back on the ship and get lunch…like we needed to eat again! But we did. After lunch, we went to a self portrait drawing class. Yep…my artistic side really came out. I’ll have to take a picture of our shirts and share it here. It was a lot of fun.
After the art work, the girls went back to the spa to complete their spa night and get their money’s worth. Kim and I put on our swimsuits and met at one of the hot tubs. Kim and I had a lot of fun relaxing, talking and hot tubing with young couples who need to get better dressed. I’m always amazed at what I see people where.
Lastly, at about 2 pm the sun came out and it has turned into a glorious weathered day! Heck, as I write this, I’m sitting on our balcony deck enjoying the sunshine as the boat begins to maneuver out of the harbor. It’s 4:30 departure time. And guess what, it’s almost time to EAT AGAIN. Holy smokes, I”m going to blow up.
More to come after dinner.
We probably had our best menu of the cruise so far. It was really good. We then went to the evening show which was a Rock Symphonic show by the Big Band at Sea and their singers. The instrumentals in this show were amazing, especially the Sax’s. Those guys blew some tunes. While waiting for it to start, we played some cards which is always fun. Great day…..
Here are some pictures:
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