What a day this was! After only 4 hours of very sound sleep, it was time to rise and shine for a very full, but magnificent day in one of the undoubtedly most spectacular areas of Norway, and possibly the World
My first tour was entitled 'A taste of Vesteralen'. It started in the little fishing town of Harstad, which is growing very rapidly as Vesteralen grows to meet the needs of the rapidly growing tourist industry, which has now overtaken fishing as the prime industry.The Lofoten Islands are struggling to cope with tourist numbers, and so the very beautiful, and much less visited Vesteralen will be the next destination!
We had an excellent, multi-lingual guide on tour. He was very knowledgeable and funny, speaking German and English fluently, French too.
Our first port of call was the Harstadt church, medieval farm and museum. All very interesting.
T farm was just outside Harstad, with gorgeous views over the hills
Their cat reminded me of my lovely Big Mike, who so loves to meet and greet people and to be the center of attention! |
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The displays and presentations were also fantastic. I didn't know there was a Santa Barbara!
W stopped at a beautiful lake. The bright purple flowers are everywhere. The growing season is short, but things grow exceptionally quickly because of 24 hour daylight!
From there we had to take a 20-minute ferry ride to the next island, to avoid kilometers of driving around the islands. We did get held up a bit while waiting to pass these fit young ladies training for cross country skiing!
We were offered waffles and brown cheese to taste. I love the caramel tasting cheese!
The scenery was gorgeous, with hills of 1000 meters, clad in lush, green vegetation, and all around us those beautiful purple flowers! Our destination was Sortland, meaning black country. Here they want to change the name to blue land, and are busy repainting the houses in blue.
As we arrived at the town and crossed yet another of their fantastic bridges, the Nordkapp had also arrived and sailed under us, horns blowing and flags waving. Great timing!
We got out for a brief stretch of legs in Stokmarknes, where there's a museum, a ship-in-a-bottle, with a retired ship, Finnsmarken in it. Apparently, the founder of Hurtigruten, Richard With, started the Coastal Express in 1893 here in Stokmarkness
A sauna perfectly situated for plunging into the very chilly water. Great if you are an exhibitionist and want hundreds of people watching you! I opted for a soak in one of the ship's spa pools. Nobody around and lovely to sit and watch the rare sight of rain falling! There was a magnificent rainbow too, as the weather cleared. The next few hours on the boat were amazing. We had definitely enjoyed this area on the way north, with spectacular sunsets, and although the sunsets weren't there, the landscape is nevertheless hugely enjoyable and thanks to the wind dropping and clear skies, we had a second chance to visit the Trollfjord.
It was just as breathtaking and spectacular as the first time. The different light makes everything look so different. It was very clear that we had very little room for error in this narrowest of fjords!
It was just wonderful and a bonus was seeing a sea eagle gliding above us. Sailing along Raftsund to Svolvaer was just as beautiful as a few days ago. We were told that it is not very deep and so at low tide there is only about 1.5 meters clearance for the ship. It's definitely made to measure! At Svolvaer we hopped straight on a new bus, this time for a tour of the Lofoten Islands. Oh how lucky Jim and I were to experience Norway before it was truly discovered! We traveled by campervan from Nordkap to Bergen, mostly alone on the road and where we camped. A true paradise. If you look closely at the photo above, you can see the tents crammed in under the drying racks!
Lofoten islands consist of over 100 islands, but 8 main ones. We visited three of them.
It was a stunning trip from start to finish, although horrendous to see how overrun the little fishing village of Henningsvaer is. Apparently, it was worse than usual due to a music festival starting next week. How I pity the locals. In the 18th century, this was the most important fishing village with only 500 inhabitants. Now, fishing takes second place to tourism!
I didn't like to think how this looks after a summer season invasion!
I had found a fantastic spot, absolutely alone and well away from the thousands of campers
While most on the tour visited the village, with all its pubs, cafes and souvenir shops, I went in search of the unbelievably beautiful islands and cliffs we'd seen as we arrived. As with all bus tours, they are hugely frustrating if you want to take pictures. I did take some from my side at times, but for most of the trip I sat back and simply watched the magnificent cliffs, islands and fiords from the comfort of the bus! It was spectacular.
We only got one lookout point stop, but it was gorgeous.
Fortunately ,we got the chance to see the hundreds of little islands from the deck of the ship as we left.
Wow, what a full, rewarding and memorable day that was.
Time to catch up on a bit of sleep!
Lfote Islands
So green!
Toll fjord again
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