The city is quite small and invites to walks down paving stone streets surrounded by beautiful buildings in the famous art nouveau style. Down to the ports along the charming bridges that divides the city surrounded by 100 year old sea booths. From the dock you can get fresh shrimps and fish from the boats that just came to shore.

Even if you’re not in your best shape, you should take the trip up to the cities mountain cabin, which thrones on top of the city mountain Aksla. It is possible to get there by car, but it is preferable to walk the 418 stairs up the mountain side, almost straight from the city centre. The reward is when you get to the top and get to catch your breath on one of the restaurants terraces, where you get a perfect view of this beautiful city, the sea and the islands around.

Festivals and fish

Every city with respect for it self have their festivals. The most famous festival in Ålesund is the Foodfestival which is held in summer and shows the enormous food variations from the surrounding docks. The festival gets a lot of attention also internationally. The theatre festival that is held in winter is growing and is a popular event. Other cultural offers are the city museum, the art nouveau -centre and the fishery museum. And of course the Atlantic park which is a unique construction and one of Europe’s largest salt water aquariums. Here you can experience several fish sepsis you never knew existed. It is located on a spit right outside the city and the park also invites to other activities like swimming, scuba diving and is a popular place among the locals.

What is happening with the art nouveau city?

Ålesund is mainly known for its buildings in the art nouveau style. But will this be the cities brand in the future? In the last thirty years a lot of the art nouveau buildings are destroyed. Many claim that the cities future as a culture icon is destroyed as well when the buildings are disappearing. In January 1904 the whole city caught fire. There were 1100 wooden houses in the city and 840 of them disappeared in the fire, 10.000people became homeless. The next years the city was rebuilt completely and then got many elements of the art nouveau style that has made the city a popular destination.

Good to know:

Great flew to Ålesund from Olso with SASBraathens. There are eight departures a day from Gardermoen, and costs about 730Nok round trip.
www.sasbraathens.no