West Coast Islands

12 June 2015

A rainy day again. We have certainly had more rainy days than sunny! The temperature seems to be 8-10 degrees C during the day, but feels much lower when the wind is blowing (most of the time). Occasionally the sun comes out fully and then the temperature is very comfortable. We and the Norwegians sit in the sun and roll up our sleeves, and start making Vitamin D. 

But sometimes the moody weather makes for pleasant photos. 

We are heading for the coastal Islands for a change from stupendous mountain and fjord views. 

13/6/2015

We had an unpleasant thing happen to us last night. At 4 am we were awoken by a car pulling in behind us (blocking our exit) while we were parked off the road in a secluded place. The car had 5 drunken youths, who were laughing and shouting, playing their music very loudly, slapping the side of our vehicle, and mooning us. They stayed about 15mins, before leaving with shouts of "have a good sleep" etc. meantime we stayed quietly inside, with Joe taking photos from the window. We also recorded their number plate. There was no damage done, but it was quite unpleasant. 

We reported it a day later when we could contact the police. The car is registered to a local man in his fifties, so it is assumed that it was his son driving the car. The police are going to talk to them and will get back to us if they need the photos etc. They promised us some feedback. 

14/6/15

We visited the island of Runde, near Ålesund, to see the puffin colony that nests there. Puffins are cold climate birds with markings on their faces which make them appear sad, or comical. They are very cute. We took a tour in a small boat (the "Aquila") with a very entertaining and knowledgable skipper. We went right around the island, stopping at the nesting sites of a number of species of sea bird. We definitely recommend this "tour". 

I was very keen to get photos of the Puffins. But here my inexperience as a photographer caught up with me. I have not a single useable shot of Puffins! I can blame the rocking boat, or the low light. I know the low light exacerbates the movement of the boat, and of the birds because the low light causes the aperture to widen and the shutter speed to slow. But not a single useable shot!!! So getting a good puffin shot remains on my bucket list! 

Here is a Puffin borrowed from the net, in case you don't know what I am talking about.....

Oh well, I did get a very few useable shots of other birds...

But I won't embarrass myself by showing too many. 

We finished up the island tour at Ålesund. This town is on an island and is linked to a number of other islands by tunnels and bridges. These islands are all in the North Sea, so we can tick the North Sea off our bucket lists. 

Ålesund is beautiful, as the following photos will show. It is famous for being an art nouveau city, but we saw only small snippets of art nouveau in the old part of the city. But I think it is a beautiful city in general, art nouveau or not. 

This is the view point and resturaunt overlooking the city. It is accessible via the zigzag stairway, or by road. I guess the climbers were even more disappointed than we were to find the cafe/resturaunt closed! But the view!

There was a "Norwegian Star " cruise liner in port, absolutely towering over the city! But it did look appealing, with its balconied rooms, and glass walled resturaunts. That would make a coastal/fjord cruise very nice indeed! 

The countryside on the uplands was very pleasant too.