Post by Grubb.
Standing on the upper deck above the stern of the MS Nordnorge in the wind and the rain this morning put us in the seafaring mode. For about five minutes. Then we left the ship and went into the town of Ålesund. First we explored upper Ålesund by cutting through a park that led to a stairway leading to the Fjellstua lookout point at the top of a mountain. More wind (at times I felt like I was sailing up the steps), less rain. Then back down into lower Ålesund, that, as Ella has pointed out, had a big fire and rebuilt during the Art Nouveau craze. We hit a museum with Art Nouveau artifacts that had an entrance through an old time pharmacy and an underground tunnel connecting it to another museum with movies shot during the Art Nouveau period (Méliès’ “Voyage to the Moon”). When I think of Art Nouveau I always imagine an Aubrey Beardsley drawing. Neither museum had any of his work, but there was a nice nouveau staircase, and walking back to our ship we passed some good examples of the asymmetrical beauty of buildings done in the Art Nouveau style, sort of Nouveau Chateaux.
