Alesund

I slept well on my first night on the MS Spitsbergen as we sailed northwards from Bergen and this shows our fourth port of call along the route but the first where we have had time to go ashore. It is the town of Alesund which is built on islands and promontories so the buildings just seem to rise out of the sea. To get this photograph we had to climb 418 steps from the centre of the town up the side of Aksla. Alesund burnt to the ground in 1904 and was rebuilt in the Art Nouveau style which has largely been preserved.