This post will probably be not so many words, but a lot of photos. Most of Feb 10 we spent on the boat, but a lot of beautiful landscape.
So here goes. We woke up to a beautiful morning.
Our first stop (after we woke up) was Risoyhavn. We only were there for 15 minutes so couldn’t really go anywhere, but some brave souls ran over to a gallery for a few minutes. The other people in the photo were apparently arriving home, being picked up by friends or family.
We got off the boat just to take photos, but didn’t venture too far. This shot shows the cargo bay (on the right) and the passenger ingress (on the left)
Then it was time to move on. You’ve probably noticed by now that we saw a lot of bridges. I probably mentioned this before but Norway has 250,000 islands, so, you can imagine the need for bridges. Here are some shots approaching a bridge and going under it!
Then we arrived in Sortland. We had a half hour to walk around a bit.
Then it was time to move on again – our next stop was Stokmarnes:
This shot shows the Hurtigruten Museum (aka Museum of the Coastal Express), with the first ship of the fleet also part of the museum. This town is where Richard With, the Coaster Express’ founding father, established Vesteraalens Dampskibsselskab in 1881. We didn’t go in.
I took this shot to show just how clear the water was!
Then, off we went again.
I know these shots are dark, but we were approaching the Troll Fjord. In the summer the boats go into the fjord, but in the winter, the danger of avalanches is too great so we just went to the entrance. It’s about 5pm in these shots!
And here is the Troll Fjord. It is 2km long and only 100m wide at its mouth. Troll Fjord is apparently famous for the Battle of Troll Fjord which took place in 1880. The battle was between fishermen in steam-driven boats and fishermen in ‘femboringer’ (boats with sails and oars for five oarsmen). They were fighting over the fish that swam into the fjord.
Travelling on, we landed in Svolvaer. We departed from there for our next excursion – horseback riding in Lofoten. We drove through a few tunnels on the way there. Here is one:
And then we made it to Lofoten!
I forgot to get a photo of me on the horse, but this is Sif. It was a bit unnerving riding at night – very dark out – and it was icy too. But, we survived!
And here is a shot from our ride back to the boat. We saw the northern lights on the way back – probably the best ones we saw – they were undulating and moving – it was cool (even though they were “just” grey to the naked eye)
We got back on the boat in Stamsund around 10pm.
All righty then. Til next time!