Page 223 - WDT MAGAZINE PORTUGAL

summer. Lunching at Lyst restaurant, we feasted on
enormous plates of fresh boiled shrimp in garlic and
butter with white bread and mayonnaise, just like
Alesunders like them.
Just a few miles from Alesund’s city center is
Sunnmøre Museum, a collection of old houses and
boats that show what life was like in the 1800s. These
fascinating wooden homes are covered with sod roofs,
complete with green grass and wildflowers growing on
them. “They used to put goats on them,” Bente told us.
Then we took a trip to the fjords on The Fjord
Experience by 62º NORD Cruises that disembarked
from the center of Alesund.
This land of fjords — a Norwegian word that has
entered the international lexicon — is a waterscape
like no other. There are so many of these watery
passageways that Norway’s coastline measures some
63,000 miles compared with its north-south distance
of only 1,100 miles. These narrow inlets were created
by ancient ice masses that carved out deep valleys
with steep rock walls, then melted to let them fill with
the sea.
Two of Norway’s fjords, Naeroyfjord and
Geirangerfjord, have been named World Heritage
Sites by UNESCO, simply because they are so
spectacularly beautiful, “among the most scenically
outstanding fjords areas on the planet,” according to
UNESCO.
The Fjord Experience by 62º NORD Cruises
combined boats and buses to take us to
Geirangerfjord. Characterized by those narrow and
steep rock walls, punctuated by many waterfalls
cascading through deciduous and coniferous forests,
the boat cruise to Geirangerfjord was jaw-dropping
gorgeous.
Atop these seaside cliffs lie seemingly improbable
old farms, attesting to a way of life now long gone. On
some of these verdant farms, perched on vertical cliffs
that fall thousands of feet to the sea, “they’d have to

The cruise along Geirangerfjord is utterly
gorgeous, passing by little seaside villages
backdropped by moutainous cliffs dotted
with waterfalls. Right: Freshly boiled shrimp
with white bread at Lyst in Alesund; finger
bowls with lemon end this feast cleanly.

222 WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE 2019