Day Twentynine - Jul 10, 2014

Trollveggen, NOR to Alesund, NOR

High Point: The Atlantic Road, easy winner of our coolest-bridge award

Low Point: Driving into the cloud cover the moment we passed Molde, like Norway flipped a switch

Miles Boat: 7

Miles By Automobile: 168

Today's Antiquities: The Hustad church, the coastal village of Bud, Ålesund's Art Deco old town

Today's Weather: Sunny in the south, cloudy as soon as we got north of Molde. In the 60's.

Tonight's Lodging: The Scandic Hotel, room 541

Touristic Events: Two ferries, the coastal drive through Bud and Hustad, the Atlantic Road, an evening walk of Ålesund's Brosundet canal and Art Deco old town

Travel Tip: Detour through Bud and the Hustad church on the way to the Atlantic Road. They are tiny, and that is the point.

Daily Didactic

A driving day, which in Norway means a day of ferries with a little road in between. We took one last look at the valley from the station manager's old railway flat, then crossed the bay from Åndalsnes on the morning's first boat, the kind sized to swallow a cement truck without commentary. The road north hugged the water through Bud and Hustad, two coastal towns small enough that the only reason to be there is the drive itself. In Hustad we stopped at a white church far grander than the place seemed to require, where Theresa fell for a row of teal, orange and green watering cans hanging under the eave, and Brian wandered around back and got ambushed by a coastline.

The Atlantic Road is the part everyone photographs, and fairly. A short run of bridges hops across a chain of rocks doing their best impression of islands, and one bridge in particular curls up at the end like it's about to launch the car. There were signs reminding us the sea down there has opinions about sailors. Brian and Todd took a shot from the parapet that Theresa was ready to call cheesy and we were ready to defend.

Another ferry, smaller and faster, and then the cloud cover arrived right on cue just past Molde, which is roughly Norway's default setting. Ålesund gave us soft evening light, which suits a town rebuilt all at once in Art Deco after a 1904 fire. We walked the Brosundet canal slowly, past the Cooper at his barrel and the Fiskerkona keeping an eye on both, through a covered market with sausage and a fudge counter and a sign of Viking laws for the confused English-reading visitor. The Scandic gave us room 541 and key cards made of actual wood, which we admired possibly more than the room.