An interesting piece of information we found out in Alesund, our second port to visit in Norway. Back when I wrote about Honfleur, I mentioned that Normandy was controlled by Vikings. And a Viking named Rollo converted to Christianity to resolve the battles between the Vikings and the Franks. He took the name of Robert.
It turns out that Rollo came from Giske island, near Alesund. The Giske family was extremely powerful in the area. The Giske family played a role in bringing Christianity to the Alesund area in the late 10th and early 11th centuries.
Around 1150, the Giske Church was constructed on the island of Giske. It is now one of Norway’s oldest surviving churches. Like in Eidfjord, all the Catholic churches converted to Protestant churches after the reformation.
In the late 19th century, Protestants in Ålesund were influenced by the pietist movement within Norwegian Lutheranism. Pietism emphasizes biblical doctrine combined with living a holy Christian life.
On January 23, 1904, a huge fire broke out in Ålesund. It started from a spark from a butter factory during a stormy night. The fire destroyed nearly 850 houses and left about 10,000 of the town’s 11,000 residents homeless. Fortunately, only one person died.
We took a 1½ hour bus ride to Strandafjell mountain which overlooks the Storfjord. We took a sky lift to the top for a beautiful view of the Storfjord. The trip included a bus ride on a ferry across a fjord. We took some great pictures at the top of the mountain, but the day was a overcast. The pictures would have been better on a clear day.
Our tour guide was a retired school teacher married to a British guy. She was quite funny and gave us great Norway facts.
Norway is a wealthy country. It discovered oil in 1969 in the North Sea. Britain discovered oil in the North Sea as well, but Norway was smart. It puts all oil revenue into an oil fund for the benefit of its people and future generations. It has over 1.6 trillion in it. And Norway really spends it to improve the lives of its people.
Norway has a lot of money. Everything is well-maintained. More than I’ve seen in any country in Europe. Roads are fixed. Buildings are fixed. Nothing looks like it’s in disrepair or non-maintained. The roads look immaculate and extend over islands, fjords, and mountains to the most rural areas, even above the Arctic circle. There are over 500 miles of tunnels.
Certain items are heavily taxed, particularly those harmful to the body: cigarettes, alcohol, even sugar. Alcohol is highly regulated. No sales on Sundays. No Wine and spirits are limited to a few hours on Saturday at state-run stores. Wine and spirits cannot be sold after 5:00 p.m. on weekdays. Beer can be bought until 8:00 pm. The government of Norway pushes a healthy lifestyle. There are dozens of fitness centers. Health care and universities are completely free.
Nearly all public transportation runs on electric power. 90 percent of its electricity comes from hydropower. However, Norway is a paradox. It produces oil that is shipped around the world which does the opposite to the environment to which it preaches. Kind of hypocritical in a way.
Norway is not a stupid country. It tends to make policy decisions that are best for its people. For example, it is very difficult to emigrate to Norway. You can’t get in unless you can provide useful skills. If you are a tunnel builder, it’s easy to come in.
Norway is expensive. I guess it’s not expensive for Norwegians. Norway is not completely socialist. It seems that Norway has taken the best of capitalism and socialism and combined them into a process that works. In fact, I know it’s not totally socialist because the rich guy who owns Viking river and ocean cruises, named Tor, is from Norway.