I try - again - to stay up till sunset.....

As I write this blog, it is 10pm, and there is a (small) chance that I'll get out of the room around 11:30pm, to watch the sun set by the small lighthouse at 11:37pm....  but I would not bet too much money on it right now......  Joe and I went to the top of the hill that overlooks Aalesund again after dinner, hoping to watch the sun set from there, but we - literally- peaked too early....  about 2 hours too early.....  Joe is still there, not waiting for the sun to set, but because there is a big bonfire that is going to be lit shortly across the bay (to celebrate the longest day of the year) - the person at the front desk said:  "a lot of people go there and get very agitated".  I think she meant excited, but sometime it's hard to know with the Norwegians....  they may in fact get agitated.....
This morning, we took a historical tour of the city and it's many Art Nouveau buildings.  This city reminds me a lot of Napier (in New Zealand):  they both went through a devastating event early in the 20th century and got the rare opportunity to rebuild in one unifying style.  For Napier, it was an earthquake in 1923 - so they rebuild in the style of the times:  art deco.  For Aalesund, it was a fire that destroyed the entire city in the winter of 1904, so they rebuilt (in stones instead of wood) in the style of the time:  Art Nouveau.  The fire was not just devastating for the 12000 people who lost their home (one 1 person lost her life, which is amazing), it was also in the middle of winter, in Norway!  it ended up being a massive humanitarian effort, led by Kaiser Wihelm, to help the people of the city- there is still a street named after him, although after the war, there was a strong push to get rid of that.
They lucked out in a way, because Norway was going through a deep depression, so the many unemployed construction workers, architects, etc converged on the city and rebuilt it in record time.  650 new houses out of the 850 that were lost were rebuilt in 3 years.

 Here are a few examples of the colorful and ornate houses:  Interestingly, the color part came much later than the houses themselves:  originally, they were all grey - the color of the bricks and marble that was used.  But in the 70's someone decided that the town was so grey and depressing in the winter that they should paint them, resulting in the pretty city we see today.

Side note:  while the days are so long right now, they are obviously very short in the winter.  In fact, because the city is surrounded by mountains, there are 3 weeks in the year where there is no direct sunlight at all.......

On the north side of town, protected by the hills, a few houses survived the fire - this is one of the original wooden houses.

Along the way, we met this troll - very important to Norwegian mythology.  So we had to stop and take a picture!

We passed by a boat yard where they are building an exact replica of the wooden fishing boats that put Aalesund on the map - it was supposed to be finished for the tall ship races that will take place here next month, but that looks unlikely right now.....

 In the afternoon, we took the "commuter" boat, that island hops around the city to the little villages that surround it.  It was a lovely day (although a bit windy on the boat - not sure my hair will ever recover....), and it is really interesting to see all these cute villages, on these tiny islands, where people clearly live all year long.  While there is some industry (Rolls Royce has a plant on one of that island to build boat engine parts for instance), it is hard to understand what people do there.  It is undeniably beautiful and on a day like today, almost idyllic, but one wonders about the sun-less winters......

I had the official meal of the city - Bacalao:  2/3 of the word dry salted cod fish still comes from Aalesund!  The food prices are staggering.  The only way to deal with it is to not look, or not convert them into dollars, or we would not eat anything (not a bad way to loose a couple of pounds I guess....).  I had a $10 small cappucino today...   this is in part due to the fact that Norway is a very rich country- since oil was found in the North Sea (before then it was not.....), so the prices reflect the salaries of the people who work here (which I guess is good....).  2 examples of how rich it is:  the cobblestones streets are heated by underground pipes, so that they don't freeze, and the public benches are heated so that when you sit on them, your butt stays warm.  Now that I think of it these are also 2 examples of the fact that Norway is not just rich, it's also cold!

 Both Joe and I made it to sunset!  Joe stayed on top of the mountain for a while to see the beginning of the bonfire, and also, the change of colors in the sky.  this is the entrance of the fjord, a couple of hours before sunset.

 The bonfire was set right across the bay (it's the brown tower like structure that stick out.)

 The problem with having a bonfire at 10:30pm when the sun sets at 11:30 is that it is not really impressive, no matter how tall it it (38meters) - here, you can see flames coming out of it.....  still not that exciting....The sunset itself was much better!