Exploring Ålesund

Ålesund is a small city with an unusual history. In the early 20th century its old and cramped wooden buildings and homes were burned to ashes in a great fire. Kaiser Wilhelm, the German king and cousins to the Czar of Russia and the King of England whom he would drag into War World I, was a big fan of the region, often taking extended vacations there. When the city burned down, he paid, out of his own pocket, to have much of the city rebuilt. The result was a brand new city where streets were lined with lovely Art Nouveau buildings that make it one of the prettiest in Norway, if not Europe.

A third of the way up Norway's long coast, the October weather can get cranky. One minute it the sun is brilliant to the point of blinding and the next it looks like Ragnarok. We walked out of the Hotel Noreg (great breakfast, wonderful service, highly recommended) into perfect sunshine (and a few comical trolls), and within a single block, gusts kicked up, and the rain pelted down. If not for our rain jackets, we'd have been soaked inside of a minute. The clouds seem to appear from nowhere swirling and black like Kansas in the Wizard of Oz. I thought of Mark Twain, "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody ever does anything about it!"

But Ålesudians could care less and handle it all in stride. Umbrellas instantly popped open like small fireworks, but mostly, because of the wind, hoods suddenly appeared in the street surrounding us with clusters of slickered monks.

Just as quickly the clouds would part. After one hard rain, I saw the most spectacular rainbow I had ever seen. Given the weather, Scandinavians know a thing or two about rainbows or what they call Bifrøst or Bilröst, a bridge that reaches between Midgard (Earth) and Asgard, the realm of the gods. The riveting myths of Oden, Thor, Loki and Frigg go back to the ancient texts more than 700 years old and I always found the fascinating. So apparently, has Marvel Comics. These gods, by the way, have given us many of the names of the week: Wednesday, Oden; Thursday, Thor; Friday, Frigg. I'll have to look into how that happened and put it in the book.

I had never seen the very end of a rainbow, but there one was right there as I stood on a dock; great stripes of red, gold, green, blue that ran like a bolt directly to the sea on one end, before swooping into the mountains on the other. As I approached the water, still standing in a soaking rain a second rainbow appeared; more tentative, an ephemeral sister. I watched a single bird swoop like a Valkyrie over the rainbow's arch, and then slowly the Bifrost vanished. If I had seen nothing else while we were there, I told Cyn, that would’ve been enough.

You can cover all of downtown Ålesund by foot in half a day, but the town is so charming we spent two full days exploring it, and we made especially certain to visit Fjellstua, a promontory above the city that reveals a spectacular view of the islands that make Ålesund such a gem. The view is worth every one of the 500 steps it takes to get there.

To fortify us before the climb, though, we found Jaf's Fish ‘n Chips at Rasmus Ronnenbergs gate, a little gazebo with outdoor dining that bills itself, cautiously, as "probably the best fish and chips in the world." I've gobbled down some fish 'n chips in my time and Cyn and I had to agree, these were best we ever ate. The lightest, crispiest cod batter and a touch of lemon. Absolutely delicious. The remoulade, a typical Norwegian condiment, adds $3 to the $16 price. (I didn't say it was cheap.)

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