21 Dec So, Norway. You think you’re cute?
There are places that you see in photos and say: "I want to see that!" Alesund is such a place. Squeezed onto a little inlet, the town looks like a doll house city from the Sunnmøre Mountains above. And with its fairytale facades, it's charming personified.
Reachable by two ferries from Trondheim-- and a five hour drive -- Alesund feels like it's on another planet: one inhabited by everything cute. Flowers etched into window boxes, and cafes that smell of cinnamon.
The town burnt to the ground during a major fire in 1904 -- 850 houses went up in flames, and then it was heavily bombed during WWI. Ironically enough, it was the Germans, who traded a lot with the town at the time, that helped rebuild in the Art Nouveau style, which is quite Dutch.
