"The Drive to Alesund" a Ålesund Travel Page by Kiwigirlie

We left Vik the next day and got our first fjord ferry from Vangsnes to Hella, on the great Sognefjorden! The biggest fjord in Norway. Amazing with a capital A! Everywhere I looked I wanted to take shots but I had to remind myself that I will be seeing plenty of mountains and fjords and that we were on a tight budget! Then we drove around to Sogndalsfjora which is a nice little place and then on to Kaupanger. We found a really amazing little boat museum and while we were looking around the exhibits I notice more porpoises playing out in the fjord! Truly magicial! The museum is a must for any boat building enthusist and too be honest - I really enjoyed it too and that's saying something!

As we didn't really have a schedule, lack of camp grounds and because we weren't sure on distances between towns we decided to make for Alesund that day. On the way from Sogndalsfjora we noticed in our very limited Lonely planet guide book to Europe that Boyabreen Glacier is worth checking out... Lucky for us we were coming up to it fast! You actually drive under the glacier at one point and we were both extremely excited about this... But it's really only a tunnel... From the road, you can only see a small part of the glacier as it starts high up in the mountains. But what you can see is impressive and beautiful and definitely worth the visit - if you are near by.

Driving into Alesund was actually very tiring. The roads wind on forever and I know Austin was getting a little grumpy towards the end of a very long day. BUT and this is a big but - it's sooooo worth coming up this way! Alesund is so beautiful and the town isn't that big so easy to get round! The only thing for us was - it rained the whole time we were there... On our last day we were really worried about packing up a wet tent (my least favourite thing!) but the sun came out and everything was dry by lunchtime! So we made the most of the glorious sunshine and headed up to the look out point above the town. I can not recommend this enough! It's so beautiful!