Our first port was Alesund and I think, one of my favourites.
We were told to get up super early to make sure we watched the ship coming into port as the lead in was beautiful. They weren’t lying about the lead in it truly was breathtaking however we definitely didn’t need to get up super early. We made the best of it though, we had breakfast, went back to the room to get ready and then sat up on deck drinking coffee, eating pastries and taking in the world. Pure bliss.
Once we docked we allowed the masses to disembark, taking our time leaving the ship.
I had read whilst researching the port areas there was an amazing view point a little ways from where we ported.
With Riley’s wheelchair in tow (bearing in mind he had been quite unwell the day before), painkillers on board and water bottles filled, we began to wander the town looking for the view point. What we didn’t realise at the time was our pretty viewpoint we were looking for was the ‘bad guy hideout’ we had spotted coming in. If you look carefully at the above photo you can see the white building at the top of the hill (felt like a mountain), yep that’s the one we climbed.
We found the entrance to the start of the climb through a lovely park. We parked up Rileys wheelchair (we had brought one of those buggy locks) and began our ascent.
We had to take it very slow and make many stops. In total there were 418 steps.
It was exhausting but gosh when we made it to the top wow what a view, it was breathtaking (I kind of mean it in the literal sense as well, as the climb had caused all the asthmatics to struggle).
We spent a good few hours walking up, exploring and back down again. On the way back to the ship of course we got lost again but made it back to the ship with plenty of time to still have lunch.
We chose not to do any excursions in the ports, they were very expensive and we just wanted to take our time exploring the areas on our own.
Overall we adored this port, we got a real sense of achievement from climbing to the top of mount Aksla at 180 metres (590 feet) above sea level. It would not be a huge achievement to most but to a family with as many physical problems as us it was huge. The views were truly unbelievable, the photos really do not do it justice. Although we only spent a few hours exploring Alesund it honestly stole our hearts.
