The Lofoten Islands are connected from Bodø by plane, ship and ferry.
Arriving in Bodø, the ferry "Landegode", named for a nearby island, does a 360º pivot landing.
Ticket purchase is done dockside, with most passengers using plastic swiped in the handheld wi-fi p.o.s..
There are some people, however, who still use Norwegian Kroners to buy a cup of coffee.
When a ferry is this empty, you know the tourist season is over ...
... and when you see forbidding seas and clouds like this, you know why!
The "big boys" of car rental industry service the airports; smaller ports (such as Moskenes) have a version of "rent-a-wreck", for example ours, a 1996 Nissan, with 246,000 km on the odometer.
Last night's stormy weather brought sun and puffy clouds in the morning,...
...making small towns like Å, with its rental "roubuer" (fisherman's) cabins, look so charming.
Climbing stairs to get to a transmission tower, the islands stream off to the north and ....
...to the south. Its upon this rocky outcropping the Opera Hotel Chain plans to build...
...a Snøhetta designed lodging. Well worth going back in order to stay, if ever constructed.
At the end of the Eggum national scenic by-way is this head by...
... the Swiss sculptor Marcus Raetz: head is up and ...
...head is down.
There are also the remains of a 1944 German radar station, and in the hill on which it sits...
...is a cafe by Snøhetta (2007)....alas closed for the season.
Another such way-side stop is a picnic shelter, ...
...and another is a bird blind.
Not part of the national program, but certainly an attraction, are rural residential mailbox shelters.
Near the small town of Alstad is the "Lofoten Turist Senter", a restaurant with tent and RV sites and three cabins.
It was lunch time, serving a buffett with ....
... many choices, and draft beer.
Not far was a place to watch the sun set before,,,
...settling into one of the cabins for the night.
Near it is Borg, and the reconstruction of a Viking Long House. Remains of the original were discovered in 1983, and explorations lasted until 1989. It is the largest such House to be discovered. The wooden posts in the field in front mark where the original House stood. The replica, based on the evidence and designed by Gisle Jakhelin, was opened in 1995. It is thought a clan occupied the area from 500-900 C.E. and buiIt not on the sea, but tucked into a valley for protection from storms and raiders.
However a series of lakes and canals connect the site to the ocean and the nearest lake provides a place for Viking ship replicas to dock.
More recently a visitor's center and museum have been built.
Striking graphics, ...
... artifacts (here the tractor which struck the remains leading to the discovery) and ...
a multi-lingual audio guide. After choosing a language, wave the wand, and the audio begins.
These liife size mannequins did not talk, but...
this real life guide was happy to do so.
The Long House itself illustrated the life of the Viking Era, from this room illustrating myths, to...
... the kitchen prep. table.
The Lofoten's have rugged coasts with crooked fingers of water reaching toward mountain peaks.
And all along them are small (and a couple larger) fishing villages.
The town of Ballstad hired Scott Thoe, a Norweigian-American (and University of Washington grad.), to paint the side of a dry-dock enclosure, hoping to lure some of the tourists to their out of the way location.
But it is fishing (and boats) which the towns depend upon. In the first months of the year cod fish are caught, cleaned and hung out to dry.
They get good and hard, and then, stacked like cord wood, they are shipped through out the country and the world.
Nusfjord's historic core is well preserved,...
...where Sund's is a bit more strung out and chaotic. The Museum and Kafe were closed, but...
...smoke belched from the smithy's shop. Tor-Vegard Mørkved has made his mark with hand forged...
...cormorants. Seattle's Nordic Heritage Museum once asked him give a show but, he said, "...its too damn expensive when traveling with metal and stone."
Slightly less heavy, but a tad bulkier, are the many views of Reine's harbor, by an itinerate Polish painter.
Arriving in Moskenes, the ferry docks straight in, the bow raises, and the vehicles roll off, as the walkers line up to buy their tickets in the rain, for return to Bodø.
