Lofoten

A 3 day stay in the Lofoten archipelago was our last stop on our Norway leg of summer. We wanted to experience a day without a sunset, but unfortunately, the timing of our trip made that not possible. The best we were able to experience, was a few days with no darkness. The sun did set, for a few hours between ~12.45am and ~2 am or so, leaving us in twilight for those brief few hours.

We flew in on a relatively small turbo prop airplane operated by Widerøe. It makes a 3 legged loop from Bodø –> Leknes –> Røst, and was a quick 20-30 minute flight. We were all tired from the trip, but didnt want to waste good sunlight, and so we decided to go to the Beach at around 8 pm.

Vik beach was close by, and gave us a chance to stretch our legs and dip our feet in the cold arctic waters.

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The next day, we planned to head south, as far as the road through Lofoten would take us. Purni had read a lot about a very scenic hike near the village of Reine, called Reinebringen, so that was the first stop for the day.

The drive to Reine was really scenic and took us through varied vistas. It was an experience to imagine how remote this part of the world is, but still so accessible.

Reine was incredibly photogenic, and after a bit of hunt to find parking, we made the long walk to the trail head. There was a volunteer at the base of the hike advising people on the difficulty of the hike and making sure that people had the right footwear as well as water with them to be able to finish the hike. While the distance of the hike was not very long - only about a kilometer - the difficulty was in the almost 2000 cut rock steps that the hike was made almost entirely of.

The kids lasted about a 100 steps before bailing, and Purni graciously volunteered to go back down with them. I was able to continue the hike, and climb the whole thing. My legs were jello like after the climb down though.

After some lunch in Reine, we continued driving south till we reached the fishing village named Å

Having reached the southernmost point, we turned around and drove back to Leknes. Tejas had spotted a beach in Ramberg on the way, and since there was still daylight (heh), we stopped for some more Arctic beach time.

We wanted to go see the sun set at midnight, and the weather seemed to indicate that this night might be our best chance, so after dinner, we headed to Uttakliev beach.

We were surprised to see that the beach was quite a popular place for people to go camping, and a lot of people were still up and about at midnight.

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The next day promised some rain, so we slept in a bit, and headed to the Lofotr Viking Museum. The museum both houses a collection of unearthed artifacts as well as a reconstruction of a viking long house, containing a variety of replica arts, crafts, weaponry etc. With volunteers cooking a stew over an open fire in the middle of the long house, the atmosphere had the smell of smoke and fire, which made the immersion and the realism stronger.

A short walk away from the long house, was a small viking ship that gave rides around a lake (we unfortunately did not get to experience this, since the lines were pretty long) as well as a variety of activities like axe throwing and archery, which we also got a chance to try our skill at.

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Our next day in Lofoten was a drive more to the north. We decided to visit the scenic fishing village of Henningsvær. We parked a little outside the town (the town parking lot was full and overflowing) and walked into town. We had a lovely day of walking around this town, visiting some local art studios and shops, as well as walking to the end of town to see the views. The football stadium at the end of town was surrounded by fish ladders for drying fish, but (thankfully?) it was not fishing season and the ladders were empty.

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With an end to our stay in Lofoten, we were catching a 7 am flight out of Leknes. We found ourself at the airport before any staff arrived, and had to wait to be let in … oops.

The flight to Zurich involved stops at Røst, Bodø and Oslo, and we spend almost the entire day in transit.

But Switzerland is next, so read on.