Norwegian Cruising Adventure 2022 - Alesund - Day 9

This is our last night on our ship. Fear not, we still have two nights at our hotel in Bergen. Our Tauck tour director congratulated our group as the first group to have no Covid cases. Every previous tour had up to 5% of the passengers test positive and be put ashore at the next port. He said that by day five they had positive test results on all the previous cruises. I guess we were just lucky.

Our Tauck contact on the ship was Rick Coward from Australia. He grew up near the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. He was an attentive host. I did not ask him if growing up with the surname Coward was a challenge. Perhaps it was like the Johny Cash song “A Boy Named Sue.”

We were up and out on our bus by 8:15 am. Our ship docked in Alesund last night. Alesund is a collection of seven islands connected by undersea tunnels. These tunnels were dug 450 feet under the fjords. The longest tunnel is 2.5 miles long.

The first stop was the oldest Lutheran Church in Norway. This church was built in the 1600’s as a Catholic Church. The church is surrounded with a graveyard.

On the side of the church are numerous crosses carved in the stone. The Pope extended 100 days of forgiveness of sins for every pilgrim that visited the church and kissed the wall.

Here is a view of the graveyard facing the harbor.

We drove out to the one of the farthest islands to visit Aines lighthouse at the end of the island of Godey. At one time the village was the most successful fishing village in Norway. We were treated to cake and coffee. We walked out to the lighthouse with the expectation to climb the lighthouse. It was locked. We took pictures of the lighthouse from every angle. We walked back to the bus and mentioned to the bus driver that the lighthouse was locked. He said the guide was supposed to get the key and unlock the lighthouse. The guide was sitting in the restaurant all by himself. I guess he was avoiding those annoying tourists. The next time we are in Godey we will be certain to get the guide to unlock the lighthouse.

The Aines lighthouse in Godney.

The next stop was the overlook above the city. This overlook provides a panorama of the entire city. On January 23, 1904 a massive fire raged through Alesund. Instantly 850 housed were destroyed and 10,000 residents were homeless but miraculously only one person perished. It seems that every town n Norway has burned to the ground or been destroyed by an avalanche or tidal wave at least once. The city was rebuilt in the Art Deco style of the time.

A view of Alesund and there she is our beautiful mega yacht on the left side.

Here is a close up photo the Art Deco buildings. Notice the reflection in the water. Photo by Priscilla.

We were back on the ship for lunch. As usual we had lunch on the aft deck. In case you are wondering how this blog gets written, I sat in the 6th deck lounge to get up higher to get better cell service and I made up this blog.

Enjoying lunch in our aft deck semi private restaurant.

Our ship set sail at 2:00 pm to cruise to our last port of call Bergen. We are out on the North Sea heading south. The sea gods have finally granted us a smooth passage.

Since this is our final night onboard the ship there is a farewell event in the theatre. Captain Regis presents his staff. There are 146 passengers and 115 crew members, All Covid free.

Captain Regis introducing his crew at the farewell event in the theatre.

We enjoyed our final dinner on the fan tail and showed our appreciation to the Three Musketeers Jay-Jay, IWahn and Rhyan. They were uber attentive and made our experience extra special. They mentioned that this ship is headed to Toronto, Canada in August to do some East Coast tours.

Bidding farewell to our favorite bartender IWhan and our Tauck tour guide Dale.

Back in our cabin we packed our suitcases. They need to be in the hallway for pick up at 7:00 am. Our ship will cruise all night at arrive in Bergen at 7:00 am

Just a quick update on Mary Yates. Remember Mary? She and several other guests that had lost luggage never did get their luggage. SAS airlines delivered their luggage to their homes in the US. Imagine going on a 10 day cruise with no luggage. It makes one rethink what to pack in your carry on bag.