Today we return home. We don’t have to check out of the hotel until 12, and we’re getting picked up to go to the airport at 1 – so that is good.
We’ve had a little potter around, but it’s a long day as we have to drive back from London airport when we land. 
Whilst in Norway I have learnt:
Driving is easy – there aren’t many cars at all. Roads are long and straight when driving to different places.
Everything is expensive. Except for petrol, which was strangely reasonable.
For our last full day we drove to Molnes, Vigra. I think that it is still part of Ã…lesund, but it is on a different island.
It was a nice coastal walk, and the sun was shining. There were sandy beaches, rocks and mountains! 
We were both a bit tired though, so we came back not long after dinner time and had a nap.
Today we picked up the hire car. I was somewhat nervous (to say the least!) but we set off out to Alnes because I wanted to see the lighthouse. This is about a 30 minute drive from Alesund, and so with the trusty sat nav on, off we went.
Getting to the Alnes was pretty straight forward, but I wasn’t too keen on the tunnels we had to drive through, the strips of light on the ceiling made my eyes go a bit funny. 
When we got there the lighthouse had scaffolding around it! So I was a bit annoyed as it was my main thing to photograph today. We walked around for a bit though, and found the beach. We then set back off to drive to the other side of the island where there was a hike to the top of the cliff.
On the way there we made a pit stop at another lighthouse. This one was without scaffolding, and the views were much better. 
We stopped there for a bit and admired the view. It’s odd how everything in the distance is blue. Blue and misty. The weather today has been hot again! The weather forecast predicted cloud and rain from 4, but it was mainly sunny and we had a thunderstorm at about 8.
The hike up to the top was a bit nicer than yesterdays. It was more smaller rocks, which means that the ground was, on the whole, much easier to walk up. It was still a steep uphill walk though. 
When we got to the top we had more great views, slightly different to those of yesterday because we were further south. We could even see a snow topped mountain in the distance.
At this point the sun went in for a bit, so it was the ideal time to whip out my skirt and take a selfie 😉 kB says I must be the only person in the world who climbs up mountains to get changed and take a picture 😛 
After last nights post there was a lovely sunset.
The sun sets at almost 11pm, and rises again at 4am. It never gets past civil twilight, so it is never truly dark. 
It’s really odd to be going to bed when it is still light!
On to today. The weather forecast was predicting rain, but in actual fact it has been really hot. I’ve caught the sun on my chest and one arm v_v Who comes to Norway to get a tan? 
We set off just after 10am. As we don’t have a car we had to walk to the hike. This took us an hour.
We got to the start of the hike, where it is covered by trees and the ground a mix of mud, roots and rocks. The start of the hike is quite steep and the ground is uneven. 
After about 10 minutes we came to a viewing point, so we had a bit of a rest and a drink (After all we had been walking for an hour before this!)
Once you get out of the trees, it’s a bit flatter and easier to walk on. There is also the added bonus of no roots. As much as I love the look of an exposed root, they’re not the greatest to walk on. 
Towards the top it gets steeper again, but it’s just rocks. The views at the top are spectacular, and as it was a nice, sunny day we could see for miles.
At the top it was really hot. We sat down for a bit and ate some dinner before walking back down. The walk down seemed a lot easier, but we both really needed a drink, and as it was Sunday the supermarkets were closed. Luckily a little cafe had opened at 1, so we popped in there and got a slush puppy and a diet coke/iced tea (And a bit of a sit down) before walking the rest of the way back to the hotel.
A lovely day, which was nothing like the weather forecast predicted!
Today we went up to the viewpoint at Aksla. We also bought loads of goodies from the supermarket.
This morning we sat on the balcony at the hotel, before going on a little tour around Ã…lesund, and finally walking up to Aksla viewpoint. 
Tomorrow we are going to go to Sukkertoppen as we ran out of time today, and it will take about 4 hours to walk to, up and back down. I think the weather from this point gets a bit more … hit and miss, as today has been lovely and sunny!
Today begins our week long trip to Norway. Norway has long been on my bucket list. Fjords, mountains, black metal, vikings. Perfect!
We had a long day yesterday as we had to drive to the airport, which was about 3 and a half hours. We finally checked into the hotel at the airport just after midnight.
This morning we had a casual 5 minute stroll to the check in desk, before having a relaxing few hours in the airport. Once we were in Norway I started with “oooh will you look at that” (The only correct response for cloud topped mountains), before the weather changed and Thor welcomed us with a thunderstorm. 
Once we were in the hotel and unpacked it blew over, and the rest of the evening has been warm and pleasant. Now, as I type this we are sat on the balcony at the back of the hotel. kB is drinking his £14 beer (!!!!) and we’re looking out at the various islands and mountains and watching the sun dip lower in the sky. It’s still light though, and it’s almost 10 o’clock.
Tomorrow we are going to go and get some bits from a supermarket, and explore the city. Apparently we can go on the Ã…lesund city tour for free, and I want to walk up to the Sukkertoppen and explore the area around there.
Manadh Photography 