The wonderfully picturesque Ålesund in Norway, which is located on the coast about half way between Bergen and Trondheim, it's famous for several things but mainly that the architecture of the town centre is largely art-nouveau in style, the original town (made of wooden buildings) burnt down in a fire in 1904 and was entirely rebuilt in the then current vogue. One of its other claims to fame is as the original home of "Rollo the Viking" (846-931) who left Norway and set up a new Viking community in Normandy, France where he was granted lands by the king of France in return for protecting the Seine estuary from Viking raiders. The descendants of Rollo eventually became the Normans (North Men) and his great, great grandson was William the Conqueror victor at the battle of Hastings and eventual King of England, small world! Anyway there's a statue of the fella in the park, I snapped the photo below while walking around the town and up to the viewing point from where the top picture was taken.
Another famous feature of Ålesund is Molo which is, yes you guessed it, a craft beer brewer. We dropped into their tap room and brewery for a couple of samples after a long and tiring walk around the town and its environs, the photo below is their beer board, quite a selection for a relatively small outfit.
The beer was great quality though, I opted for a straightforward "house pale ale" and it was delicious, classically true to the American pale ale (APA) style, tons of grapefruit and citrus with just the right amount of haze and bitterness, photo below..
After a lovely day in Ålesund we headed off to one of the many Fjords for some scenic wowzery and glacier action, so much to see, so little time!
No comments:
Post a Comment