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Forget your cares and dream about Alesund
That's in Norway and if you live there you don't even have to worry about oil prices going up; fortunately I've been paying off the mortgage rather than buying new stocks (though JPMorgan is up), so maybe I can visit. Here are other memorable photos, albeit not of Alesund.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on March 17, 2008 at 04:11 PM in Travels | Permalink
Comments
What about sea levels going up? ;)
Posted by: at Mar 17, 2008 4:51:27 PM
From the looks of that picture, even a good wind will put the town underwater.
Posted by: MH at Mar 17, 2008 4:56:24 PM
Price of a gallon of gasoline in Norway: More than 9 dollars. Needless to say, Norwegians find it quite amusing when Americans complain about rising oil prices
Posted by: Norwegian at Mar 17, 2008 5:18:08 PM
Wow. Looks like the first two commenters has the exact same reaction I did...
Posted by: Chris at Mar 17, 2008 5:33:46 PM
Why pay off your mortgage? You're decreasing your liquidity, since it will be difficult to borrow as much or at as good an interest rate in the future.
Posted by: DK at Mar 17, 2008 6:06:50 PM
What we see here is what has become a blight at so many beautiful locations: A giant, ugly, unsleek, unshiplike, floating megadump.
Posted by: Critic at Mar 17, 2008 7:19:51 PM
It looks like a scene on the inside of a snow globe.
Posted by: Daniel at Mar 17, 2008 7:32:25 PM
Boats are propelled by petrol derivatives too.
Posted by: geego at Mar 17, 2008 7:37:10 PM
...the link to 'other memorable photos' led me to the blog of some Leo Hickman, who, as it turned out according to Wikipedia, is a journalist with The Guardian. He regulalrly writes for the Ethical Living section of Guardian Unlimited offering advice on readers' ethical concerns. Hickman also wrote two books on the theme, Life Stripped Bare: My Year Trying To Live Ethically and A Good Life.
...and I randomly clicked on the link to his latest blog post (Why we need to throttle 'breakneck breaks'), concerned with the proliferation of leisure airtravel, and subseqently to more carbon polution blah-blah-blah...
...and on the right side of the page there is (why am I not surprised) an advertisement block -
Africa Adventure Holidays ... Kenya Dhow Sailing Adventure... Vacation homes for rent close to Disney in Orlando, Florida at reasonable rates. Heated pool and hot tub with on-site management...world cup tickets...travel insurance ...
...ain't these enviros preposterously hilarious?!
So much for 'Ethical Living'...
Posted by: artvar at Mar 17, 2008 7:52:09 PM
The city is actually named Ålesund. :)
Posted by: Nitpicker at Mar 17, 2008 9:13:04 PM
What makes Ålesund so wonderful is that it had the misfortune to be nearly destroyed by fire in 1904. Just as the great Chicago fire of 1871 attracted all the best and brightest young architects to rebuild that city, many of the best young Nordic architects flocked to Ålesund.
The prevailing avantgarde style was Jugendstil, and Ålesund is an extraordinary treasure trove of quirky, inspiring Jugendstil buildings. A similar story – this time an earthquake in 1895 – explains why Slovenia's capital Ljubljana is filled with fantastic Secessionist buildings.
Posted by: Lance Knobel at Mar 18, 2008 2:35:31 PM
