Alesund & The Atlantic Road

The weather has been a bit strange to us for the last few days, it seems to rain all night and then give us sunny intervals during the day. We arrived at Alesund after having travelled from Geiranger and parked up at the Sea Life Centre just on the outskirts of town. We managed to pick up a Wifi hotspot 2 miles away across the water from the opposite shore which while slow allowed us to get some more info on the town and plan out the days ahead.

There isn't a great deal in Alesund, but we ascended the 418 steps to the mound that is in the middle of the town and took the long route around the city covering about 5 miles with a few de-tours. We wandered around the town centre but didn't really find much and the thick guide book "in and around Alesund" concentrated more on the 'around'!

Today we woke up to blue sky and bright sunshine and it has stayed like that all day, we rushed round Rema 1000 to get a few bits and pieces food wise and found some in-store baked bread for 75p - the cheapest we've seen in all Scandinavia. I've not tasted crusty bread for weeks and looking forward to some toast in the morning! There was also a ferry crossing which took 40 minutes and was like a mini 'Spirit of Britian' inside - usually we just sit in the van but we got out for a wander. Free Wifi too! 

The Atlantic road was actually a little bit of an anti-climax, I mean it was nice and everything but it looks better looking back (from the Sea as per the brochures!) at it then actually travelling along it. The end of which there is a 6km under sea tunnel which is unavoidable, had I known they charged an additional £4 for passengers I'd have got Sophie to hide in the toilet! However, when I checked the charges I was just glad they classified us under 6 metres - £9.50 rather than £45 for 6.01m!, that said there are no measuring devices at this toll so you could probably get away with it in a larger van. 

Tonight we are parked in Kristiansund en route to Trondheim and still debating on if we travel on up to Nordkapp or not. We nursed 530 miles out of the tank but despite filling up at the cheapest filling station we'd seen all day the bill still came to £116 @ £1.49/litre. Roll on Estonia - currently £1.05!


Alesund Overnight Location GPS: (62.46582, 6.10039) - Large carpark for the Aquarium Centre - Wifi possible with long range antenna across the water (3 hotspots).