Things to do
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Ålesund kirke
Rebuilt in stone in 1909 after the fire, with a scheme of frescoes and stained glass carried through the whole interior rather than added in pieces. It is the clearest single statement of what the town chose to become after 1904. A slow circuit of the interior is the way to take the scheme in.
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Jugendstilsenteret
An hour is enough, and the preserved 1907 pharmacy interior is the reason to come; one ticket also covers the KUBE art museum next door, so allow a little longer than the art nouveau rooms suggest.
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Alnes fyr
A red and white lighthouse of 1876 on the exposed north side of Godoy, with a gallery of Ornulf Opdahl paintings and a cafe in the keeper's house. The drive out through the undersea tunnels is half the outing. Wind off the open sea can make the gallery walk a short one in autumn.
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Atlanterhavsparken
One of the largest saltwater aquariums in northern Europe, built into the rock at Tueneset with tanks fed straight from the sea outside. Divers hand feed the big North Atlantic tank daily, and the coastal path around the headland is open without a ticket.
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Brosundet
The canal through the middle of the town, lined with the turreted warehouses that went up after the fire and crossed by low bridges. Small boats still tie up along it, and it is where the art nouveau reads best from water level.
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Fjellstua
The lookout on Aksla, reached by 418 steps up through the town park or by road from behind, giving the full plan of the art nouveau centre on its islands with the Sunnmore Alps behind. Going up at dusk is the standard advice and it is correct.
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Godøy
The outermost of the islands linked to the town by tunnel, with a fishing village on the sheltered side and open Atlantic on the other. Residents of the town come out to swim, walk the shore and watch weather arrive.
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Hotel Brosundet
A fishing warehouse of 1904 on the canal converted by Snohetta, keeping the timber beams and the loading doors. Room 47 is in the Molja lighthouse at the harbour mouth, out on the breakwater with water on three sides. Breakfast is served in the old warehouse hall under the beams.
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Runde
The southernmost large seabird colony in the country, holding around half a million birds from February to August, including puffins, gannets and kittiwakes. The walk out to the cliffs takes about an hour each way, and boat trips run under them from the harbour.
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Sunnmøre Museum
Fifty five historic buildings around a sheltered inlet at Borgundkaupangen, a trading town that worked here from the eleventh century. The boat collection is the reason to come: forty vessels including full size copies of Viking age ships that are rowed in summer.