Alesund and the Godoya Island nearby

Alesund is a sea port, much smaller than Bergen with about 45,000 inhabitants. Its Art Nouveau architecture makes it particularly interesting. Although pretty and well located in between many islands, Alesund appeared to us quite dormant. Well, we arrived on a Sunday afternoon. EVERYTHING was closed, including restaurants. We had to work hard to find one restaurant that we liked. We had reserved an Airbnb room in an apartment with beautiful view on the water. Indeed, what a view we had! The bedroom was small but the view compensated for it. Our host went into her room and we had the living room for ourselves to watch the sunset (immortalized in the picture below). Quite nice! On an aside, our Airbnb experience has so far been more than excellent for the price we pay. No problem at all. People are nice, they review us, we review them, so everyone is on his/her best behavior. Places must be clean so people do not comment on it negatively in the review. Guests must clean up after themselves...for the same reason. It just works for hosts and guests, although it is not for everyone. Liking the sharing part  is key when it is not a private apartment or house.

The next day, we visited the Godoya island, located 1/2 hr from Alesund by car. We went at around 10 am and there was absolutely no one anywhere in Alnes, a small community at the end of the island. We walked to a beach, watched the waves for a long time (may want to call it meditative time), then we went to the light house for coffee and a delicious non-sweet pancake with brown cheese (a type of Gouda indeed brown). Then closely looked at the fisheman's cabins (rorbuers) that are well known in Norway. You will see them on the pictures, mostly painted red. This is where the fishermen clean the fish and freeze it. Some of these cabins are now rented to tourists. They are pretty along the water.
We drove back to Alesund, visited a couple of small museums dedicated to the history of the town, the influence of Art Nouveau after the fire destruction of the entire city in 1904. In 2011, there was  an international design competition for the future development of the city. Some buildings have been constructed based on this new plan. There is great emphasis on the use of light in the new design.
The people from Alesund want a lively city, realizing that there are currently something missing to this city and try to come up with new ideas. For us, just spending a day in Alesund as tourists, we found that there were very few places to sit in the streets or in the squares, and when they exist, they are awfully uncomfortable so no one feels like sitting for any length of time. There are few cafes or other places you can stop for a drink or a snack. There are no green spaces in the city center. There are few restaurants and most are quite unattractive. We had to go for fish and chips on our second evening, nothing else appealing at all....at least from what we saw as we walked through the streets. Also not many stores for shopping. Pretty city but not lively.