Alesund...My Aim is True

The fjords of Norway are professed to offer some of the most majestic natural scenery in the world. Alesund, the lovely town at the water's edge pictured above, makes a marvelous starting point. With first rate Art Nouveau architecture and right-off-the-boat seafood, a few days here will be a lovely reminder of life a full century ago.

Just a few hours away via express boat is the famous Geirangerfjord, one of the most photographed fjords in the region. It's hard to imagine a more geologically dramatic sight than surrounding yourself with towering cliff faces -- many with tumbling waterfalls plunging downward into the deep blue waters below.



Cruising along these waters certainly seems the best way to truly experience the fjords as well as the famously precarious "shelf farms" -- slivers of farmland carved right into the cliffs. Showpieces of human ingenuity to eek out an existence wherever possible, these farms carry with them persistent rumors of parents roping their children to keep them tethered as they worked the fragile land.

Maybe they tied them to Norwegian Wood?