Alesund to Trondheim - May 20th

We woke up rested and headed to the included breakfast buffet at the hotel. This time everything looked fresh and yummy. Again, this time Ethan wasn't much into eating breakfast. He started by knocking over the easel-type sign announcing the breakfast hours. We were able to corral him a bit and get him to still down a little to eat some pancake and drink some milk. Otherwise he spent his time looking out the window. The view was gorgeous! (Our hotel is the large white building next to the water.) The rest of us ate some good food including more fresh veggies than I have seen in a while. I noticed a few people making sandwiches and wrapping them up for later so I no longer felt guilty. I made 2 rather large adult sandwiches with good meats, cheeses, and veggies on bun. I made 2 sandwiches for the kids too.


After breakfast we had more time to kill since the aquarium didn't open until 11am. I convinced Nic to let me go do some shopping until then - and I did. I had about 45 minutes to walk around a bit looking at some more buildings. Once I came back we checked out and headed towards the Atlantic Ocean Park Aquarium. The aquarium was out of town (not by much) on a beautiful spot next to the ocean. This may turn out to be one of Ethan's favorite activities as inside the aquarium was built around a large rock formation (it was big) and Ethan climbed over every inch of it. So again, Nic and I tag teamed while Ethan climbed rocks - we looked at fish! Nic and Gwyneth immediately had fun with this.


The aquarium also had snakes and everyone got to touch or hold this king python. Gwyneth looks a little too happy I think. You can watch some interesting videos on facebook. It keeps striking Nic and I how much they let people do in Norway and probably Europe in general. Holding a snake may not be the best example, but I do think it is a little unusual. Having some giant rock formation that kids can climb on (and get hurt on) is probably a better example. They did have a sign - climb at your won risk. The aquarium also had an outside area with another spectacular view. We found some penguins (I really want to see a Puffin in the wild!) and found a sand box where the kids could dig out a whale bone. After some coffee and ice cream (of course) we were on our way (about 1PM).



We had a long drive ahead of us (6 plus hours) and we could not take the E39 back all the way to Trondheim as a portion of it was closed (as we discovered on the way down). We also wanted to to take a drive over the Atlantic Ocean Road (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanterhavsvegen) which was supposed to be very scenic. It has 8 bridges that connects 17 islets and it was on the drive back from Alesund.


The ride home was long! I think we got in around 9:30PM. (I'm still blogging at 12:30 but I am almost done! ) We took 3 ferries (we thought it was only going to be 2, but it turned out the map was not clear in some place. Again, the closure of E39 added at least an hour to our drive home. We got a little nervous at the last ferry since the cars were backed up when we got there and the ferry only ran on the hour. Tomorrow (May 21st) is another holiday and perhaps more people than usual were travelling. In any case, we sweated it a bit but were able to make the ferry. Nic noticed that they were squeezing them on at the end, and some people had to wait! This was around 6PM and so we had a ferry dinner. Hot dogs wrapped in bacon for the adults, a plain hot dog for Gwyneth, and an ice cream for Ethan. (Later on in the car he did eat most of his cheese sandwich). Nic did a great job driving and the kids were great passengers for the most part. Big "E" had a few moments, but we worked through them and having the Cars movie on DVD did wonders. If only the laptop had more battery time!

Once home, we unloaded the car. We need to return it by 8AM tomorrow morning. Nic then did a quick turn and drove to the grocery store - tomorrow is a holiday and the stores will be closed. Our refrigerator was empty to it was a bit imperative. We tentatively have plans to go with Siri to the music museum but are a little afraid of how Ethan will deal with it. The lack of schedule seems to be difficult for him and he just may need a day of rest. He keeps asking for his "real home" but we have ways to go yet. I think he misses his toys and he definitely wants a TV that is not "speaking in Norwegian".!