Travel 2025 – Cunard Queen Anne – Day 4 (Ålesund, Norway)

Monday 29th September, 2025 – Ålesund

Cunard’s guide to the ports we’d be stopping in said that: “The cruise port in Ålesund is conveniently situated at the heart of the city, with a local Hop On Hop Off bus stop and pick-up point for the city train within walking distance. Many of the top sights within the city are around a 20–30-minute walk from port.” We weren’t sure what that would actually mean, and so we had pre-purchased Hop On Hop Off tickets from one of the two companies that operate from the cruise terminal on days when there’s a boat in (and all the time during the summer months). It’s often a good way to get your bearings and figure out where the things you want to see actually are. We were also wondering what sort of weather we were going to be hit with – the forecast hadn’t been especially promising. As it turned out we could probably have managed easily without the bus tickets, and the weather was overcast but dry and mild (14C) which meant the thermals were absolutely not needed and I could also have managed without walking boots and just gone in my running shoes. I’d bought the boots though, so boots it was…

They weren’t joking about the port being close to the heart of the city as was clear once we docked and I looked out from our balcony. We were ridiculously close. The buses stopped just by the white building and the city centre proper was just the other side of the blue building. We could not have been much nearer.

We queued to get on the bus, and were soon off on a tour of the main sights, J and J having gone off to do their own thing for the day. We stayed on all the way round then hopped off to go and investigate the history of the place. Ålesund, the ninth largest town in Norway with a population of around 56,000, has a lot to offer in terms of history (it claims to be the home of Rollo, founder of the dynasty of the dukes of Normandy, as well as an important centre of the resistance in WWII, among other things), as well scenery (there are viewpoint outside the town that are well worth the climb to get to them) and architecture, the centre displaying an especially harmonious collection of art nouveau buildings constructed between 1904 and 1907 in the aftermath of the dreadful the Ålesund Fire on the night of January 23rd 1904, which rendered around 10,000 people homeless.

We started with the Jugendstilsenteret and KUBE, one of several museums in the vicinity. The Jugendstilsenteret is in what us to be the Swan Pharmacy back in 1907, and is both a museum and a national centre of Art Nouveau. Being fans of Art Nouveau this was right up our street. The pleasure of the visit starts in the entrance hall which still contains many of the cabinets from its former existence, and continues throughout the rooms themselves, and the many glorious objects on display.

It’s a terrific museum, and my only disappointment was the lack of a catalogue to bring home with me. In fact I’d go so far as to say it’s fabulous, especially in the way it also covers the Norwegian Modernism slant on the art that reminded me very much of Finnish Modernism and is almost certainly related to it.

There is also an audio/visual presentation covering the fire and the rebuilding that followed, though we almost missed it, given how it was tucked away through a non-descript doorway that I only noticed because it had a notice above it saying “Time Machine“. You could easily miss it and I’m very glad we didn’t.

Afterwards we figured we needed a proper coffee stop – we’d already had one in the museum itself where we’d discovered what I think must be the uniquely Norwegian practice of setting out drinks and sometimes snacks for people to take on the understanding that you then return to the payment desk at the entrance and tell them what you had so you can then pay for it. It’s a refreshing gesture of trust in a world that’s pretty short on such things. This time though we hunted down in the coffee shop in Hotel Brosundet, which overlooks the water, a replica Viking boat, and a bunch of crazy people getting kitted out to go out in kayaks.

After coffee we thought we’d get out to one of the viewpoints, so we hopped the Hop On Hop Off bus again and headed out to the furthest point, passing the Sunnmøre Museum which we decided we didn’t have enough time for, and got off at what was billed as the Aksla Viewpoint stop but which is, in reality, about a 20 minute walk along the road or through the woods on a well-marked and lit path passing the Dammene fitness park, before you reach the Fjellstua Viewpoint viewpoint itself. It still seemed like a better option than climbing up the 418 steps that lead from a park in Byparken in the town. Lynne didn’t enjoy it at all with her vertigo and fear of water both kicking in strongly, but we were committed then, and had no choice. For me it was worth the effort for the views from the path and the viewpoint, which allows you to look over the town centre, the Sunnmøre Alps and the cruise port. I wasn’t so happy walking down all those steps as my left knee reminded me it really doesn’t like that sort of thing, thank you very much, and I was limping a bit by the time we got back down.

I should also point out that every so often the steps are numbered so you have some idea how many more of them you have to deal with. I’m really not sure if that helps or not… Either way, it was a relied to be back down on the flat, in a small and very pleasant park, where we also found the statue of Rollo that had been talked about in one of the Cunard Insight talks the day before.

From there it was but a short stroll back to the port and Queen Anne for the “All on board” time of 17:30. If you’re not there by then, there’s a chance they might go without you, and we didn’t want to risk that. We did want more time to explore Ålesund though, which was the start of a plan that we hope will take shape in 2027, the state of the world permitting. More on that later though.

Back on board we met with J and J for pre-dinner drinks but then we went our separate ways as they headed to the Britannia Club dining room and we headed for Deck 9 and the speciality dining option of Aranya. Apparently, Aranya means forest or wilderness in Sanskrit, and: “has been designed to surprise and delight guests, taking diners on a journey through the rich spice flavours of India with menus curated by experts in their field.” Whether it does that or not, I’ll leave to others. The food was very good. The service was also very good, apart from the somewhat inexperienced sommelier who tried to convince me that duck is a white meat, and then left me to pretty much make my own decision as regards the wine choice. When I asked if we could be moved from our initial table, which was in the corner nearest the Artisan Food Hall (or the buffet) because all I could see was an open expanse of empty tables instead of a view of the actual restaurant it was achieved smoothly and efficiently and I was much happier after that.

We started with a take on a pani puri, filled with a creamy yogurty mix that was delicious and after that there was softshell Malabar crab, with masala frites and garlic and coriander chutney, and Barbary duck seekh kebab, saffron, mace, and caraway with sesame prune marmalade for the starters, and there were poppadoms and a chutney to go alongside it.

A mango lollipop acted as a palate cleanser and then came roasted wild turbot, with tamarind-chilli tomato, wrapped in banana leaf and a massive grilled lobster tail, with butter-chilli garlic, stirred curry leaf, squash, and coconut moilee (which did carry a US$15 supplement but was well worth it). There were plentiful side dishes too with dal makhani (cream-buttered, 24-hour-stewed ‘urad’ lentils), saffron basmati rice, and naan breads to share. I’m not sure how many people they thought they were feeding but it was more than enough for us.