Ålesund

The home of Rollo (some viking dude) whilst appearing to be hundreds of years old is mostly less than hundred years old, back in the early 1900's there was a fire which destroyed pretty much the entire built area on this island. The island which forms the old town and the touristy area of Alesund is fairly large and back then covered with predominantly wooden structures, much like most of Norway, makes sense when you see how much wood they have 🙂 durign that fire there was also a gale force wind, described as strong enough to blow a man over, thus you can only imagine how fast a fire would propagate through nice dry Norwegian timber and it did.

We stayed at the big white one off to the left, not a bad view from it, especially in the dining area, this one of the few we stayed in during our visit to Norway and whilst expensive, it is comparable to Sydney so not that bad I suppose.

This was shot well after sunset, from memory about 11pm and the glow from the sunset, which seems to last for hours , glowed off the hotel strip and created some very nice reflections off the water.

Aksla Viewpoint – Alesund

Aksla Viewpoint - Ã…lesund - (c) Gerard Blacklock

Aksla Viewpoint – Ã…lesund – (c) Gerard Blacklock

ya gotta view this large and zoom in

The view from above the town of Alesund, a beautiful spot for sunset at 1030pm. I met a real nice young chap from Poland whilst up here, he was over for a few days on some cheap flights and apparently there is a direct flight from over there to Alesund. I reckon people who live in Europe do not realise how lucky they are being able to travel only a short distance to see such varied places, scenery and and also demographic. Try flying the 22 hours to Oz 😉

8 shot panorama image with each shot bracketed (0EV and -0.7EV)
D750 coupled with Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 @ 60mm Aperture: f16 Shutter Speed: 1/2.5 seconds Normal exp and 1/10s for the underexposed bracket
ISO: 200
Out front: Lee Graduated filter 0.9X

Alesund – At the midnight hour.

Ã…lesund, Midnight Hour - (c) Gerard Blacklock

Ã…lesund, Midnight Hour – (c) Gerard Blacklock

At the midnight hour.

Alesund is a real pretty city perched out on one of the many little peninsulas on the west coast of Norway, some say its the most beautiful city in Norway, it certainly has some very cool old buildings in the main touristy area which is the older part of town.
We stayed in the Alesund Scandic Hotel just around the corner from this spot, it was one of the few hotels we stayed in whilst in Norway, although it was definitely dated, it did have a nice outlook and a pretty darn good breakfast 🙂

When you think or search for Alesund the most common image that comes up is the awesome scene which can be seen from the lookout that is situated above the town, its a bit of walk up alot of stairs, but worthwhile, the next image will be from that spot and you will be able to see just where this little vista is located with respect to the rest of the town 🙂

The best thing about shooting sunset.. or more correctly twilight here was that most people were in bed so whilst normally the stop is teeming with people I was able to enjoy some quiet time to get a few snaps, this one is a 12 shot panorama which each frame bracketed to get the highlights and shadows. No reflections artificially generated 🙂 it was glassy still.