We arrived in Ålesund along with a cold front; and it was the last of our warm weather. Hereafter, the daytime temperature never climbed out of the low 50s; at night, it was in the low 40s. The weather also became unsettled, with clouds, rain, wind, and sunshine chasing each other across the hours and minutes of every day.
But the weather didn't matter; Ålesund was beautiful. Its center destroyed by a devastating fire in January, 1903, the city was rebuilt within two years in a distinctly Norwegian interpretation of the most modern architectural style of the era: Art Nouveau. Because the whole center of the city was rebuilt, Ålesund has a felicitous harmony so stunning that now even new buildings honor its character.
All afternoon I roamed the streets of Ålesund, camera in hand, drunk on details.
At 10:50pm that night, after another rain shower cleared away and I started to draw the curtains on our north-facing windows trying to make it dark enough to sleep, I could see sunlight in the sky. Late, late afternoon sunlight with pink clouds suggesting that the sun just might set sometime within the month. "Hurry!" I urged Dan. "Let's go outside!" There, in the cold wind, we found an unsettled sky and, yes, as I'd hoped, a rainbow--and the most beautiful light I'd ever seen this side of midnight.
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