Alesund is a city of circa 40,000, located a little bit below, and to the west, of Molde--or north of Bergen, on the west coast. Apparently the principal occupations include fishing and furniture-making.
Posted on 05/01/2005 7:44:57 AM PDT by franksolich
Since nothing happens in Norway during the weekends, and because of popular demand--really popular demand; it boogles the mind--on weekends members of the Norway ping list have the opportunity, if they wish, to inspect some of the photographic glories of our gallant allies in the War against Terror--this week, featuring the delightful city of Alesund.
All of these photographs are from the public domain, taken by amateurs, one assumes; if something is not from Alesund, anyone may please feel free to correct me.
Also, some guy in Norway put together a wonderful collection of photographs of Alesund (none of which are featured here), which one can view by clicking on the red link atop this article.
Alesund is a city of circa 40,000, located a little bit below, and to the west, of Molde--or north of Bergen, on the west coast. Apparently the principal occupations include fishing and furniture-making.
Although Alesund is in the lowest one-third of Norway, on the globe it is as far north as the northern edge of Hudson's Bay in Canada, or the city of Fairbanks in Alaska.
Truly desolate. And to think what those earliest Sa'ami settlers in Pennsylvania thought when they saw trees!
Dang it.
Well, this is the first time.
On the red link, I didn't mean to insinuate the link is a "shameless vanity;" I meant to infer strongly that I am the one shamelessly vain, not this Norwegian guy.
Oops.
Actually, sir, when I was looking at photographs of Alesund, I was most entranced by the photographs of Alesund in wintertime (as the Norwegian guy has on his web-site; the red link).
Alesund in winter struck me as.....the closest one can come, to Heaven on Earth.
But then and again, I know I'm in a distinct minority; I prefer winter.
A beach, with sand, with water, with some weeds, with NO TREES.
It's a lot further South too!
Uh, sir, I'm in Nebraska.
I'm not too partial to trees.
Like mountains, trees block the scenery.
One also may have a loving spouse, a hearty stew, a good movie, and a cup of brew, forgetting the world without for the warmth within, all while the snow taps at the window.
Beautiful place, thanks for the post.
You got it, sir.
As long as the inside--of the house, of the person--is warm, the cold and the darkness outside are meaningless.
Thank you, sir; this is my first attempt at compiling a photographic panorama, and I learned some things I will do differently (so as to make it quicker) next week, when I feature my favorite city in Norway, the wonderful Narvik.
Everybody knows what Oslo and Bergen look like, and so I'm trying to show them what other places in Norway look like.
The bleaker photos are of Ny Alesund on Spitzbergen, which is a different place from Alesund.
Dang it, I checked the sources, and you are correct.
I didn't notice that little detail, the "Ny-".
Right; the bottom two photographs are from Svalbard, which is way way way way up north, near the North Pole, and Ny-Alesund is utterly different from Alesund.
I will try to be more observant in future travelogues.
Rats. Sorry everybody.
Very nice. Please continue with this type of post.
The third picture is from my city, Bergen, which is farther south on the west coast. (And by far the most beautiful city in the country, may I add...)
Thanks for the Norway ping, franksolich. What absolutely spectacular pictures. If there was any way I could be wheels up there, right now, I'd be there. Such beauty....
Thanx for the ping.
And thanx, Geezer, for a warm description of a cold winter.
Born and raised in Southern California, I never new what winter snows were all about. My wife and I bought a cabin in the Sierra last year, and have since found out the true beauty of winter.
But, sir, I'll take a few hills and trees, to watch the sun cast its shadows across, at sunrise and sunset.
That one photograph cannot possibly be Bergen, because it is similar with the other two of the first three photographs, and all are clearly identified as "Alesund."
But I could be wrong; fortunately, a member of the Norway ping list lives in Alesund, and if there are other errors, I surely hope he will illuminate us. And of course I extend my apologies if I slighted the wonderful town of Alesund in any way.
The deal is, these were culled from amateur web-sites, and usually web-sites in Norwegian, not in English.
I remember encountering "Ny-Alesund" several times, and sloppily thinking, "Oh, it's just a prefix (I do not know Norwegian), a minor detail, can't be important....."
Yeah, right.
The terrain and the buildings did not seem quite right, but then I figured, "well, most of these are photographs of the center of Alesund, and so these must be pictures of the edge of the town, where it's less developed, less built-up."
I will be more careful in the future, and here is the "deal"--for every time that I am similarly negligent or sloppy in future "travelogues" of Norway, I will send $20 to Free Republic in the name of the first reader to discern the mistake.
At least I can always guarantee the photographs are of Norway.....so the country is correct.
"Ny" means "new". There's a norwegian-english dictionary at http://www.freedict.com/onldict/nor.html
Yeah, I have a hard-copy Norwegian-English dictionary; I just wasn't using it at the time.
I hope to Hades that for next week, there isn't a "Ny-Narvik" in Norway, and that I downloaded some more erroneous photographs.
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