Carnival Pride Cruise Day 4 & 5: Alesund & Molde, Norway

The second port on our cruise was Alesund, Norway. When I realized this, I reached out to a friend who had spent a couple of months living in this town a few years ago. She recommended some things to do and I'm so glad we took her advice! Alesund was destroyed in a fire near the beginning of the 20th century. Everything was rebuilt and designed in a very specific style (art nouveau). It's picturesque and the weather cooperated so we were able to enjoy our time there.

Our first stop after we disembarked was Raccoon Coffee. This coffee shop was small, but made an excellent chai latte! Brennan got a latte and we enjoyed our hot drinks while walking around town. 

One storefront had old antiques and collectibles in the window. We were curious, so we went inside and looked around. It was a small store, but they had a lot of interesting things inside! One of them was a poster for the Ringling Brothers Circus-a little taste of Sarasota in Alesund.

After our window shopping, we decided to take on the hike up the stairs in the middle of town, headed up to a lookout. I had seen this from the balcony in our room and could tell it was steep, but had no idea just how intense the hike would be! We had to stop several times so I could catch my breath. The older people around us made me even more determined to make it to the top though. My competitive nature wouldn't let them win!

The view was amazing the whole way up and we stopped for some photos as we went. It was rewarding to see the view from the top, as there was a lookout that allowed you to see in 3 different directions. After all that hiking, we grabbed a croissant and cinnamon bun at the cafe. It was great to see the view as we snacked. 

I figured the hike down the hill would be easier, hike back down was also challenging. I hadn't noticed on the way up, but the stairs were uneven, so you had to pay attention to get down.

When we got back down, I knew I wanted to stop and get a jacket. It was cold and only supposed to get colder throughout the week. I found a jacket at H&M and we headed back to the ship. Once on board, we grabbed a late lunch and I found dessert. This was my way of "celebrating" 4th of July! Brennan brought his hot sauce to dinner that night and our waiter thought it was hilarious that he was traveling with his own hot sauce.

Later that night, listened to live music at the piano bar. Our sleep schedule was way off at this point, so around 1:30AM, we decided to go up on the top deck. As you can see from the pictures, it was still so light out! It was a very cool experience, but I can't imagine living somewhere it was bright out so late!

As I always said to my students, choices have consequences. We went to sleep at nearly 3AM on July 5, so we also woke up late. The weather was cold & rainy when I looked out at Molde, so I didn't wake Brennan up. By the time we were both up and ready to do something, it was nearly 1:30pm and we were scheduled to leave at 3:30. We chose to stay on the boat and hang out on the lido deck. Around 4:00, they announced a couple's name and through some inferring, we figured out they were not back on the board. We heard later on from several people that a couple did not come back on time and was left by the ship! Crazy!

After spending the day on the ship, we experienced the most waves and movement during dinner. I had some minor seasickness, but thankfully, we were able to be distracted with some stand up comedy that evening which was surprisingly good!

While we ate dinner, we booked a tour for Olden, which was our next port. We decided to go see-glaciers on our anniversary! I'll write about that next-we had quite a surprise while hiking!