What a comedian

....That was an exciting lead in, wasn't it? Blimey!

Sunday night we explored Alesund's local bars and, turning from the more well-to-do tourist traps of the high street, took a detour down a side street to the less-immediately-inviting but much more authentic looking "Darts and Billiards Bar".

"Yes" I thought, walking in to loud heavy metal music as several tough bearded locals turned to stare at us "This certainly has a certain je ne sais quoi". Darts stopped mid-air. Even though we were in Norway, I fully expected one of the Beardies to turn and say, in a thick West Country accent, "ere be strangers, not from these parts". But they grunted and went back to their beer.

It was a friendly enough place though; and the heavy metal music, it turned out, was part of a pleasant medley on the pub jukebox, and not part of "How to Intimdate Strangers Volume V" selected specicially by the pub landlord for "strangers in these ere parts".

Soon enough one local came over to talk to us. He looked a bit like one half of Hale and Pace. Gareth Hale, I think, not Norman Pace. I suppose Gareth Hale would be more than one half of Hale and Pace, strictly speaking, if you were doing it by body weight. Anyway, this chap didn't try and sell us any Clorets, so we safely assumed that he was not Gareth Hale.