Guy Gadwa

Next on the Highlights of Ålesund tour was a drive to the nearby Sunnmøre Museum. The Sunnmøre Museum is an open-air museum offering historic homes with exhibits & period boats from medieval times to present.
Truth here, I stole this description from Google because this part of the tour was a bit of a dud. Our guide today was not the best, very slow and not too energetic, at this point, the family and I had about enough once we discovered what time we were due back on the bus, we headed off to do our own exploration and take pics.
D13 loved this part. It’s more green and lush compared to buildings and such. She said this was her favourite part. 
 








 
After the museum, the bus took us back to the port. Hubby stayed behind to walk around town on his own. Kids and I had enough and headed back to the ship where Leroy had my favourite room service chicken wings waiting for us. 😋

Where do I start? After posting those sail in pics from earlier, we headed off to our excursion which was the “Highlights of Ålesund” tour. Originally, I had my eye on the Stranda Mountain explorer with @GregDbut I went against my better judgment and held off on booking it. By the time I got around to doing it, it was sold out. I figured this tour that we booked would give us a nice overview of Ålesund. 
 
The tour started off with a viewing of a local church, followed by a walk through town to view the Art Nouveau architecture. 

 

Day 4 brought us to Alesund, and as you saw earlier the views are stunning. The landscape is lush and wild, and truly amazing. Our excursion today was Stranda Mountain Explorer, and it did not disappoint. Our guide was fantastic. We also lucked out weather wise because typically it’s cloudy and rainy. We had the most fabulous blue skies after the morning clouds burned off. Watching the landscape appear before our eyes was amazing. With the nice weather, and our amazing driver, who managed to hit the ferries that we took right at the point of departure afforded us to make a couple stops and some amazing viewpoints. I took 140+ pictures with my DSLR that I need to go through, but for now I’ll leave you with a couple of teasers until I can pick the best and get them uploaded with some better WIFI.
 

Add me to the speechless club when it comes to describing these views! I am amazed by it all.
 
Photos by me this time as Hubby and the kids decided to sleep in and now they are scrambling to get breakfast from who knows where, with 40 mins left before meeting our excursion group. 🙄
I also posted some videos to IG (same handle).


 

Even more
 

I just can’t get over these views!

Last night the seas were much gentler which resulted in some great sleep. It’s always a little trippy when traveling north and you walk outside at 1045pm and it’s still bright out.

This morning, our coffees were delivered and I wandered a bit while the rest of the family slept. We arrive in Alsund at 11:00. We have been sailing close to the coast the whole way up and the scenery this morning is stunning. The pictures don’t do it justice.



 

Our evening was not as exciting as @GregD’s as I cannot convince Hubby and the girls to try Wonderland again. We went our separate ways tonight; Hubby and I went to CK (Braised beef gnocchi and my favourite tofu tonight 😋) and the kids ventured off to Johnny Rockets. 


It was announced before dinner that they were going to preform The Gift again so we headed there with the kids after dinner. I am almost ashamed to say that after seeing that show for the 3rd time, I still have no idea what the bulk of the show means. However, since it has been 4 years since we first saw it, my 13 year old has now grown wise enough to explain it to me. 😂
By the time the show was done and we hiked all the way to our room, it was past 10pm. This is what the view looked like:



For people like us from Southern Ontario, this is quite the sight! It is now 11:44 pm as I type this and the moon is shining bright, but the sky is still visible and not dark. 

Dinner brought us to Wonderland. While I was looking forward to this, I’m willing try try anything once, and don’t mind weird food, I was apprehensive for The Boss and the kids. Heather is les adventurous than I am, and is also put off by certain textures. The kids also can be really picky too. 
 
The boss and the kids said they were willing to go in with an open mind and try it. They also went in knowing that they didn’t have to eat anything they didn’t like. Worst case scenario would be a message to Leroy to have Johnny Rockets delivered to the room.
The kids were won over as soon as we walked in and they got to “paint” their menus and Lava Flows topped with cotton candy were delivered. 
 

the kids both got the Mac and Cheese fries as an appetizer. Lydia got the wonderland burger, and Johnny got the popcorn chicken. They both enjoyed their meals, which made for happy parents.

We allowed the waiter to bring us a collection of appetizers that he thought we would like. 

We started with the liquid truffle mushroom risotto. Heather didn’t touch this one. She doesn’t like mushrooms at all. Flavor wise, it is definitely earthly, and has a texture that also would have put her off, so I ate hers. We followed this with the liquid lobster. This was good. It was rich, briny, and delicious. Heather did like this one. We then proceeded to the tomato water. We both though this was “different” but not terrible. Next were the crispy crab cones. These are eaten bottom to top and we’re delicious. We were then told to eat the Mad Hatter’s Purple potted shrimp. These were our favorite at this point of the meal, and there was a spicy sauce in the cup to dip the shrimp in. 
 
Next came the reconstructed caprese. Here they used gelatin to firm up a Bloody Mary to make the tomato, and the olives. This also tasted good. The final appetizer was the birds nest. Picture a smoked deviled egg, only the yolk was made with blue cheese and mustard. Absolutely delicious!
Our entrees we’re the braised short ribs and the pork belly. Both were outstanding!

Desserts consisted of The World, Forbidden Apple, and the mushroom garden. The world dessert was decadent, the forbidden apple and the mushroom garden was okay. (Pictures forthcoming)
After our meal, we were all glad we gave this a try, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The Captain was also there having dinner himself with two guests of his. 

Our day mirrored that of @Lovetocruise2002 since we did the same excursion together. We managed to have lunch at one of the local restaurants in the fish market area if the port before heading back to the ship. 
 
Heather and Lydia got fish and chips, I got mussels and Johnny got chicken nuggets. The menu was geared towards tourists since there were universally liked dishes on it, but it was fresh seafood forward, and the seafood was delicious.

 
We also had the same afternoon tea setup in our room too. 
 
After tea my kids wanted to ride the bumper cars again and D14 from our “friendly” neighbor (neighbour?) came along too. Someone must have forgotten to tell her that Canadians are supposed to be friendly, because she was cutthroat out there with the bumper cars. I was attacked relentlessly! Each time she had a smile on her face too🤣 maybe that’s the “nice” part. They smile while they are secretly trying to hurt you.
Way back when, I had talked about about having a genie would be beneficial, and today proved it. We walked into the seaplex and the line for the bumper cars wrapped around the entire outside. Leroy walked in and we were the first ones into the cars. Their protocol is that Star Class guests go onto the floor every other turn. We did two rounds and the kids were ready to do something else.
Lydia and D14 headed off on their own. Johnny and I went to the pool.
Tonight is wonderland for dinner….we shall see how it’s going.
 
 

When we got back to our room, we found Afternoon tea set up and waiting for us, compliments of Leroy.

Now stuffed and ready for a nap. 

The walking tour brought us from the port to the Old Town City Center. We found it to be informative and there was enough free time left to wander and explore. 

 

Kristiansand, Norway
Waiting for Old Town Walking Tour shore excursion to begin. 
 

Someone also wanted to try the French Toast. @Lovetocruise2002, he said it was “sent straight from the heavens.”

Well, last night certainly did not go well for 3 of us. Hubby was the only one standing by 9pm. Jamie’s was good as usual.


The motion got worse as the night went on. We tried to head to see the Gift but 5 mins into the show, they had technical issues (due to the rocking the sensors were off, that’s what Joff said 🤷🏻‍♀️) and the show had to be cancelled.


Just as well because at the front the rocking was awful. We headed back to the room to call it a night. 

After a long and rocky night we made it to Kristiansand. Good morning Norway!

“Hey Leroy, the kids are back in the stateroom watching a movie. Can you send them two slices of cheese, and two slices of pepperoni pizza?”
”sure thing!”
20 minutes later

 

Dinner brought us back to CK. The food coma is already setting in. RE, the snack delivery earlier.
 
Heather and I again got escargot, I also ordered the Maine Lobster Salad. Lydia had Caesar Salad, while Johnny had chicken noodle soup. 
For entrees, Heather had the Pappardelle, which she said “didn’t do it for her.” I tried it and the sauce seemed too sweet. I had the veal tenderloin, which was good. Lydia ordered the kids steak, while Johnny had a special request of chicken alfredo. It wasn’t on the menu, but in typical fashion, our waiter, who has been superb, said that he could make it happen.

 
Following dinner, we all said we were stuffed so we were going to skip dessert…..so of course, we got dessert🤦🏻‍♂️…..

Heather and I just finished a nice soak in the hot tubs. Leroy asked us if we wanted to do the flowrider. There was a special star class event. We were in the hot tub when he sent us that message. Told him there was no way I was trading hot steamy water with cocktails for cold water and North Sea winds.

With Northstar cancelled due to winds, we headed to kill some time and get some coffee from La Patisserie. A charge from that showed up on my account. I will check with Leroy later to get that removed. 
 
Lunch was at Izumi today. With no Udon noodles on Quantum class Izumi, I was worried the kids would not find anything to their liking, however, everyone was quite full by the end of it all.
Small change I noticed halfway through lunch, the Izumi staff changed from their N95 mask to the blue surgical ones. They seemed very happy about it. After lunch we heard from a few other crew members that a memo had gone out earlier today that they could change. That is good news for them.  

We started with bumper cars as @GregDalready mentioned. It was a lot of fun and surprisingly quiet. Normally the line snakes around 3 of the 4 sides but today almost zero line. Perhaps people were not aware or maybe 9-11:30am was too early for people with the time change, not sure. Either way, we all enjoyed a few rounds. 

For lunch, Lydia ordered the Crispy chicken kara-age

heather and I had the spicy crispy shrimp roll and the futomaki roll.

the kids had the beef and chicken teriyaki 


 
internet is starting to get fun as we get further north. Pictures are rotating automatically when I upload smaller sizes and I forget how to rotate them back, so looking for suggestions 

It’s a rule for dads to get as many embarrassing pictures of their kids and blast them to everyone right? If so mission accomplished, if not, oh well, enjoy anyway!

 

Someone just had her first she’s a geisha cocktail.
New favorite she said
 

We were also scheduled for the northstar this morning, but that got canceled due to weather. Leroy already has us rescheduled for later this week. 
 
We also decided to check out the concierge lounge. There are a few people here, as well as a stowaway. Hopefully someone doesn’t scare him away, the Captain came on to give an update, and the closest land is 40 miles away. He still has a long journey to Kristiansand too.

Lunch is at Izumi today