Jugendstil and strawberries

Our next destination after Geiranger was Ålesund. We stayed at the Scandic Parken hotel in the city centre, where the view from our room was another stunning one! From our room we could look out over the water and over the Jugendstil buildings.

The reason the city centre has this style of houses requires a little history lesson (thank you Google, for the recap). A big fire had burnt down almost the entire city centre of Ålesund on January 23rd 1904. A lot of help came from Germany in Kaiser Wilhelm II’s name, who was a frequent visitor to the area. Houses were rebuilt in the then contemporary Jugendstil (Art Nouveau).

My friend and I had a relaxing time in Ålesund. We, of course, first had to score some fresh strawberries. My friend is perhaps a bit of a ‘strawberry nut’, but I can’t blame her…Norwegian strawberries are the best I’ve ever had! After finishing our strawberries in record time – because yum – we decided to get massages. So nice to relax and get your sore muscles kneaded!

After our massages, we went up the Fjellstua, an easy climb up over 400 steps, with a very rewarding view waiting for us on top of the hill. Apparently, you could also drive up, but we are outdoorsy people…we can do it on foot! It started raining before we made our way back down. It wasn’t too bad, and with all the droughts going on all across Europe at the time, I’d say the rain was a welcome change!