ALESUND, NORWAY: An Art Nouveau Gem and Much More

Alesund, Norway. View from the city park.

The last part of our recent trip to Norway was spent in and near the city of Alesund, a small city on Norway’s west coast, once the center of a thriving cod liver oil industry.

On the Alesund waterfront with statue honoring the historic cod fishing industry.

In 1904, most of Alesund was destroyed by a catastrophic fire. With help from other European countries, it was rebuilt, providing the opportunity for new architecture in the Art Nouveau style. Almost every building features some kind of ornament.

Alesund. Art Nouveau inspired house design.

Art Nouveau was a movement within architecture, decorative art, and fine art that took place during the transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. In Scandinavia it is known more commonly under the German name Jugenstil. New materials and techniques were explored, and the classical models of the past were abandoned in favor of creative forms of expression inspired by the organic vitality of nature. 

In the Alesund Art Nouveau Centre, everything--from furniture and window treatments, to wallpaper and doorknobs--is in the Art Nouveau style. 

Spiral staircase in the Alesund Art Nouveau Centre.

The Alesund Art Nouveau Centre, housed in historic buildings near the port, tells of the fire and its aftermath, and displays examples of Art Nouveau furniture and home decoration.

Bookcase.

Viking inspired silver baskets. 

The Fiskemuseet (Fishing Museum) in Alesund is also worth a visit. Exhibits, some with life-size figures, show how cod were processed to produce the rich oil, a source of vitamins A and D. I remember that when I was a child my mother put cod liver oil in my orange juice and how I hated the fishy taste.

Historic photos and containers of cod liver oil at the Fiskemuseet.

Many people come to Alesund for trips into the fjords, and before we came to Norway we had thought we would like to do that. But it turned out that our days in Alesund didn’t coordinate with the days of the boat tour. So we adapted our plans.

Former lighthouse at Alesund Harbor, now the honeymoon suite of a local hotel.

On our third day in Alesund we took a local bus to the Sunnmore Museum, a collection of 40 historic houses and other buildings resituated in a large park, as well a museum of boats, including several from Viking times.

Boathouse at Sunnemore Museum.

Graveyard of the Borgund Church, Sunnemore

It was a beautiful spring day, warm, and flowers were blooming.

People in National Dress at Sunnemore, on their way to a reception in a historic meeting hall.

As we walked around Sunnmore, we noticed groups of people in the traditional Norwegian dress—women in long embroidered skirts and men in dark suits. Even children and babies were wearing the national dress. While Norwegians don’t wear such clothing on a daily basis, it is apparently usual to wear the traditional clothing for confirmations and other special events. 

National dress, in store at shopping mall in Alesund.

Later, when we went into the shopping mall near our hotel, we saw the dresses and accompanying accessories on display.

Traditional design wall decoration, historic farmhouse at Sunnemore Museum. 

Our final excursion from Alesund was to nearby Runde Island to see the nesting seabirds. For more about that, go to my post of May 20, 2024 .

On Runde Island..

Norway is a big country and in the two weeks we were there we only saw a small part of it. But our visits to three cities—Oslo, Bergen, and Alesund—gave us a good taste of the landscape, culture, people, food, weather. We’d like to go back someday to experience more.

Art Deco window decoration, Alesund. 

  

TWO WEEKS IN NORWAY: Planes, Trains and Automobiles, and a Few Ferries Too

Norway. View of the mountains from the train between Oslo and Bergen.

As our train climbed over the mountains between Oslo and Bergen, we looked out the window and  marveled at the expanse of snow that stretched as far as the eye could see. When we stopped at the station, passengers got on holding cross-country skis in their arms. While sea level gardens in Oslo and Bergen were already blooming with tulips and irises, here it was still winter.

Tulips in the city park in Bergen.

At the beginning of May, Art and I spent two weeks in Norway, a country we had never visited before. Art had a scientific meeting in Bergen, so the trip was planned around that, arriving first in Oslo, where we spent a few days getting over jet lag (9 hours from our home in California), then to the meeting in Bergen, and afterward, five days exploring Norway’s west coast. The trip began on a plane from Los Angeles to Oslo (via Copenhagen.) From there we got from one place to another by train, ferry, and driving ourselves in a rented car. (We also took a few local buses and taxis.)

View of Oslo from inside the Opera House. We went to the opera Cenerentola (Cinderella) by Rossini.

In Oslo our hotel was in the center of the city and we could easily walk to most museums, the opera house, the harbor, and restaurants. But to visit the island of Bygdoy we needed to take a local bus. A friend helped us obtain a bus card (available at local shops), but during our trip—on a busy Saturday afternoon on the same day as a marathon race—the conductor never came to collect the fares so we ended up riding for free! 

Stave church at the Folk Museum and our guide, wearing traditional dress. The stave church, built entirely of wood, goes back to the 13th century.

Our destination was the Folk Museum, a living history park with museums, reconstructed farm buildings from elsewhere in Norway, and most famously, a historic stave church, moved there from a village in the mountains in 1880.

View from the train window as we passed through a river valley.

The following day we checked out of our hotel and boarded the train for Bergen. 

View from the train window at the top of the pass.

During the seven-hour trip we watched the landscape speed by outside the window—first past suburbs, then farmland, river valleys, small villages, and gradually up to snow covered mountain passes, then back down to more river valleys, fjords, and finally to Bergen on Norway’s west coast. It was an exhilarating trip.

Our hotel, the red building at the left, was part of a row of historic buildings lining the wharf in Bergen.

In the Middle Ages, Bergen was Scandinavia’s biggest city, due to its role as a trading center, largely as a distributor of fish from Norway’s coast. While the trading culture of the past is gone today, its heritage is preserved in Bryggen, the part of the city along the wharf which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.

Our ship, part of the Hurtigruten line, at the dock in Bergen.

After four days in Bergen, we set off for the city of Alesund to the north, taking an overnight ferry on which we had booked a cabin. As we sailed out of the harbor we watched the sun set at 10pm from the lounge on the top deck, only to wake up a few hours later in our cabin to find that the sun had risen again. 

View of the coastline from the ship.

As we cruised northward, we saw snow-capped mountains rising above a rocky coast, small farms and villages, and the occasional lighthouse. 

A brief stop at a village along the way to Alesund.

While most of the other passengers on the Hurtigruten ship were going all the way to the top of Norway, past the Arctic Circle, on an organized tour, we got off at the first stop, Alesund.

View of Alesund from the city park.

In 1904, most of Alesund was destroyed by a catastrophic fire. With help from other European countries, it was rebuilt, providing the opportunity for new architecture in the Art Nouveau style. Almost every building features some kind of ornament. Again, most of the museums and parks in Alesund were within easy walking distance from our hotel in the center of town.

Beginning of the path to the overlook of the cliff nesting sites on Runde.

Our final excursion was to the island of Runde, famous for its bird nesting cliffs. It is about a two-and-a-half hour drive from Alesund. We rented a car at the Alesund airport and set off for Runde, relying on our GPS to get us there. In Norway, most roads follow the shoreline of the fjords, islands and peninsulas that make up the Norwegian coast, connecting from one to the other usually by bridges or tunnels but sometimes by ferry. 

View from the car ferry between Hareid and Sulesund on Highway 61.

After leaving the main highway connecting Alesund and Bergen, we followed smaller roads along waterways, through coastal farmland (overshadowed by snow covered granite peaks), over bridges and through more tunnels, until finally arriving at a tall one-lane bridge that joins Runde island to the mainland. Luckily, there is not much traffic. 

Bridge connecting Runde to the mainland.

If you see an approaching car when you get to the top of the bridge, you wait at the layby until the car passes, before proceeding down the other side.

View from our hotel room in Fosnavag.

After spending the afternoon on Runde (see my post of May 20) we drove to the nearby town of Fosnavag to our hotel for the night. The next morning, we returned to Runde—going over the same narrow bridge again—for more bird watching, before returning to Alesund and getting ready for our early morning flight back to the United States.

Sunrise at 4:36am on our way to the Alesund airport.

Our two weeks in Norway were filled with fascinating visits to museums and other tourist sites, but the process of getting there--whether by plane, train, automobile or ferry--was half the fun. 

On the train from Oslo to Bergen.

 

BIRD WATCHING ON RUNDE ISLAND, NORWAY: Above the Cliffs and Along the Shore

Shelduck, Runde Island, Norway.

Thousands of seabirds—puffins, gannets, kittiwakes, gulls and more—make their summer home on Runde Island on the west coast of Norway. Birdwatching is always high on our list for vacation trips, so Runde was a must on our recent visit to Norway in May. After renting a car in Alesund, we drove to Runde, about a two-and-a-half hour trip which includes a ferry and numerous tunnels and bridges.

Bridge to Runde.

After leaving the main highway connecting Alesund and Bergen, we followed smaller roads along waterways, through coastal farmland (overshadowed by snow covered granite peaks), over bridges and through more tunnels, until finally arriving at the tall one-lane bridge that joins Runde to the mainland. Luckily, there is not much traffic. If you see an approaching car when you get to the top of the bridge, you wait at the layby until it passes, before proceeding down the other side.

At the information center.

Our first stop on the island was at the information center (also a café and hostel) where we learned that we were unlikely to see any puffins unless we stayed until the evening. (In mid-May the sun doesn't set until 10pm!) During the day one puffin parent goes out to sea collecting food, which it brings back at sunset to its mate, who is sitting on eggs in their tunnel nest on the cliff face. (Later in the season the food is for the puffin chicks.) So, even though we knew we probably would miss the puffins, there were plenty of other birds to see on Runde.

Starting out on the uphill path to the overlook of the bird nesting cliffs.

So, after eating a picnic lunch and parking in the designated parking lot, we set off to climb the steep path from the village to the overlook of the bird nesting cliffs. Huffing and puffing and making many stops along the way, we finally made it to the top, a distance of just one kilometer, but which seemed like much more.

As we peered over the top of the cliff face, we could see birds (gannets) wheeling over the water far below, but even with the binoculars, they were just tiny dots. We could see people at a further overlook spot, but we had no more energy for climbing and turned around to return to the bottom.

Skua.

The main path goes through a designated reserve where skuas nest. Skuas are the marauders of the bird world—in the Antarctic they prey on penguin chicks—but we had never seen them in the wild, so we felt lucky to see them here. We learned that on Runde the skuas chase the cormorants until they regurgitate the fish they have caught. Then the skuas get an easy meal. 

Pipit

On our way down the path we also spotted numerous smaller birds hopping around in the grass and perched on rocks and fenceposts.

Sheep.

Close to the village we passed a flock of sure-footed sheep, grazing on the rich green grass of the steep pasture. Like us, they were enjoying a warm, sunny day, although even in summer Runde can be cold and windy. I imagine the animals' heavy wool coats help keep them warm in the cold, dark days of winter.

Rocky shoreline on Runde.

Along the shoreline of Runde we had much better luck spotting birds. 

Greylag geese.

Some were foraging for food among the rocks or in the tall grass.

Oyster catchers.

We caught one pair of oyster catchers in the act of mating.

Kittiwake on a nest.

Some birds, like this kittiwake, were tending nests.

Kittiwakes displaying.

On the cliffs above, we watched kittiwakes performing elaborate aerial dives accompanied by loud vocalizations in what appeared to be mating rituals.

Shelduck.

In the shallow water, we spotted a swimming shelduck, its bright colors reflected in the calm water.

Shags.

And just off-shore, a group of shags had claimed a large rock. Shags are a type of cormorant. They are good swimmers and hunt for fish underwater.

After spending the night at a hotel in the nearby town of Fosnavag, we returned to Runde the following morning for more bird watching along the shore, spotting both seabirds and smaller birds like this pied wagtail.

Pied wagtail.

A total of 230 different species of birds have been sighted on Runde. Among the species we saw in our short visit were herring gulls, kittiwakes, shelducks, mallards, greylag geese, oyster catchers, hooded crows, herons, gannets, shags, swallows, wheatears, pipits, and pied wagtails. Although we never saw a puffin, the trip to Runde was still well worth the visit.

Hooded crow.

Note: Besides hiking to the top of Runde to an overlook of the cliffs, the other option for seeing the bird cliffs where the puffins nest is to take a boat trip around the island. Perhaps we can do that on another visit.

Village and path leading to cliff overlooks.