LOFOTEN
Where your heart stops !
Kabelvaug
Blessed with the most beautiful landscapes that explode right in your face, Lofoten (pronounced as loo foh ten) is a bunch of islands strung together, shaped like a leaf, springing westward out of Norway’s upper tail region, of course, lying within the Arctic circle. Known to be a traditional archipelago, these group of islands record proof of human settlements dating back to as far as 250BC. Each season brings about a new, stunning appearance, so it is always the right time to visit the place. Characterised by short mountain ranges with sharp, pointed peaks, surrounded by water bodies and sprayed in varied, unimaginable colours, its rugged, untouched beauty attracts millions over the world and inspires creative minds time and again. To add to its elegance are the coloured houses of its inhabitants, that are totally unique to this place.
Most times the area seems like a no-man’s land with plenty to explore in so less time. So make sure you keep aside at least 4-5 days to explore the entire area peacefully. The archipelago found a place in our itinerary just by browsing its images available on the internet.
NORWAY AND DENMARK DIARY - Day 7 - 06TH April 2019 :
BIDDING FAREWELL TO TROMSO :
It was 7 am and a cold morning but a nice and bright day. Snowing had completely stopped. Our frozen hands dragged luggage to the TROMSO PROSTNESET (ferry port) to board our ferry to HARSTAD, we were excited. We purchased our tickets at the counter and boarded our ferry. It was a three hour ferry that would reach us to HARSTAD by 11 am. The ferry looked big enough to accommodate 200 odd passengers. The journey was great. We never escaped views of the snowy landscapes. Drifting through blue waters, we reached Harstad comfortably. We had now officially touched the Lofoten land.
We were then picked up by ARTICBUSS company, which arranged for our transport to SVOLVAER - which was our destination for the next 3 days. It is from here, we chose to discover the wonderful LOFOTEN ISLANDS. The bus looked huge for a 16 seater. The driver found us at the entrance area of the Harstad ferry port on time. And there she was....our 16 seater ARCTIC BUSS... luxury at its very best, waiting there for us, all ready to ferry us from HARSTAD to SVOLVAER. As we boarded our luggage into this beauty, the driver looks at us with a surprise & curiosity and says" Are you guys on vacation or are you shifting to Norway"... we were all in splits...it meant we were carrying so much luggage he had ever seen. Kind man he was.
SPEEDING THROUGH HARSTAD TO GET TO SVOLVAER
We comfortably and on time, glided through the pretty villages on the way. The scene in every turning was to die for !..
It was interesting to see long tunnels through the snow clad mountains at every bend, which could give any of the best National Highways around the world a run for their money. So well maintained and too good to be true. The Gorgeous scenery all around between such tunnels kept up the variety.
As we moved on in our bus towards our destination, we made a quick stop at a small roadside petrol bunk, attached to which was a necessities store. We shopped for some milk and other basic items. We saw these cute dolls which we had earlier spotted in a few places but were not aware of its importance. Yes ! the trolls.
So what's it with the TROLLS all over Norway we asked. The people in Norway have mythological stories which narrate that the TROLLS used to be friendly and naughty characters that would step out only at nights and trouble people, for eg. misplace their things, hide a few others, etc.. (reminded me of KUTTICHAATAAN behaviour in Kerala). They are believed to be auspicious and therefore have become synonymous to Norwegian beliefs.
Up close and personal with the TROLLS
THE YUMMY SLUSHY !!
We did not fail to relish this delicious treat , wherever we found it, across the entire country. It was Crushed ice with different flavours and colours added to create each layer. Yummmm !!
Such Tranquil and peace all around. There was not a soul in sight. We sped away in the bus, on an almost two hour journey. The winding roads, the endless tunnels cutting through the mountains, the lovely bridges, the cool views, beautiful fishing villages all along the way, there was no dearth for Scenic wonders that our eyes captured. We felt truly blessed to view them so closely. The image of this particular fishing village on our way, with its reflection was shaped like a fish. You would want to take a closer look at how progressive the village is with all latest means of transport and infrastructure around.
The changing scene at every nook made me wonder ," Isn't this heaven". How lucky the people staying here were, they could drown deep into these extremely beautiful surroundings and lead such a peaceful and enviable life. These pictures were taken from our moving bus. Happy we could capture the moments. A village on the E10 highway , just look at the various colours - land, water, mountains far away, sky, clouds, pretty houses, road. Unparalleled !
Out of a tunnel on E10, stepping into SVOLVAER finally, can't wait to get to our new home. Another scene, same you may wonder, snow clad mountains, water and ice, but this is a half frozen lake, which is slowly melting. Oh the fjords !!
We reached SVOLVAER by 1:20 pm. House no. 14 Nonshaugen awaited us. The village was as silent as the darkest of the nights.
WELCOME TO SVOLVAER
Address :No. 14, Nonshaugen
After settling down in our SAFE HAVEN, we unpacked swiftly. Making Jeera Rice was the quickest option. It was cold outside, the house kept us warm. It seemed rather uncomfortable in the bedrooms at the beginning, but when we settled down, we knew it was the right choice. It was close to the super markets. We felt relaxed. Two of the group members were put up in another small but cute place nearby, Address : 43 Storoyveien. A 5 min walk from 14 Nonshaugen -. Pretty close right ?. The TV room was always occupied by us, and the kids loved it. There were 2 balconies one at the same floor as the kitchen and the other on the second floor, where 6 of us had rooms. We stepped out that evening, it was raining a bit, there was snow everywhere. Remember ! We are still above 68Deg North... ?, I mean the Arctic Circle. No doubt It was BITTER COLD, but lovely. We walked up to the village Center. As it was 6:30pm shops were closed.
ADDRESS : 43, STOROYVEIEN
A cute little house, tucked away on the banks of the water body. It had views to die for, a big verandah, a barbeque oven there, and looked very Christmassy on the inside with lights twinkling away. Even cuter was the host , Tora, who i fell in love with at the very first sight.
It is very noticeable that the people of Norway are extremely friendly and pure at heart, just like the blessed nature around them. 43, Storoyveien being just at a 4 min walk from 14 Nonshaugen , we co-ordinated well for all outings.
EXPLORING SVOLVAER VILLAGE
We were out to explore this marvel filled village that evening with a hunch to cover as much as we could. The views outside our house was nature at its very best right at our feet. Walking up and down the hilly, snowy streets as slowly as possible was challenging at times, as they could get slippery due to rains. We found our way to the village center. All along the way, we saw closed shops, beautiful buildings, supermarkets. As it was an island, we were soon at the water front once again. With pretty red houses of the fishermen lined up against the backdrop of a jaw dropping row of the mountain range, it couldn't get more picture perfect. Just look at it ! The lovely and colorful boats just added to the aesthetic look. We walked down to reach the boats and satisfied ourselves with pictures of this evening magic. We were also looking at opportunities to settle for a boating experience which never materialised. Nevertheless, there was no dearth for activities around. Even if we chose to sit at home and do nothing, it would be eventually the SOMETHING we were looking for. Such was the atmosphere. This is exactly what we did. The next day , we just relaxed in the house , playing a bit of cards, watching movies, eating and sleeping until early evening.
07th April 2019
Experiencing Lofoten in a day
A pre-arranged Articbuss day tour of Lofoten islands was the schedule of the day. The Bus picked us up sharp at 10 am. We moved from village to village down south-west. The experienced driver took us to the most important parts of every village, while we savoured the delicious nature around, every moment of the journey. Every curve and bend filled us with "ooos" and "aaahhhs". We crossed many tunnels cutting through the mountains and long bent bridges once again. A bright sunny day again kept us away from missing any opportunity to have a good photo shoot anywhere we liked. Kabelvag, Henningsvaer, Leknes, Reine and A , were some of the villages we stopped over, to view few scenes and important landmarks. It took us 8 hours to complete the entire journey and we stuck to the E10 highway route, which is the only road that reaches the end point of this archipelago by land. The rare feature of short mountains with pointed peaks, covered with snow, surrounded by icy fjords and colourful homes of fishermen, is unique to this archipelago. Every mountain seems at a climbable height by a normal person, but when you get up-close you realise they are steep.
KABELVAG
First up was the village of Kabelvag (pronounced Kabelvaug). Based at the foothill of a steep , picturesque cliff, occupying the southern base of the Austvagoya island, this historical village in the Lofoten group of islands is one of the chief towns here. It served as a port for a long time. It was founded by King Oyster who built a church and a hostel for the fishermen of the area. For centuries together it served as a prime fishing location, specialising in cod fisheries. It has now moulded itself into a summer resort and a cultural centre.
Lofoten Cathedral - Vagan church
Our bus made a stop at the The VAGAN Church (the LOFOTEN CATHEDRAL) which lies in the outskirts of KABELVAG village. The current church is a renovated version of the earlier, historical, stave church that existed since the 12th century.
This parish church is big enough to seat 1200 people at a time. The church came handy as a polling station for the first national elections held in Norway.
The Kabelvag breakwater
The alluring beauty of the waters and the mountains never failed to impress. On turning each page, we witnessed flawless views, that one couldn't take their eyes off. This part of the Kablevag village is a photographer's dream. In fact, any part of Norway seemed that way with each scene out-beating the other. We made our way to the KABELVAG BREAKWATER called MOLO in norwegian, where the LIGHT HOUSE is situated. This was our second stop of the day . It didn't look that small from far away, but as we walked the pathway, moving closer to it, very evidently it seemed to be the shortest light house we had ever come across. The pathway, with rocks on either side, fresh wind blowing on our faces, the surrounding snowy peaks made it a pleasurable walk. We enjoyed ourselves in the calm atmosphere and thanked our driver for bringing us to see this wonderful Breakwater.
We climbed up few rocks on our way, till we got to the light house. Then it was time to climb the LIGHT HOUSE itself. With not much time in hand, we had to make the best use of time, to do as much as possible. We were told that the light house served its purpose only in winters to help fishing boats find their way, as the summers are pretty much bright throughout. A life buoy hanging around the corner adjacent to the light house , provided a setting for some “TITANIC pose” pictures. We don't leave any stone unturned do we?
After these precious moments, we returned via the same path to our ARTICBUSS and got on our way to the next glorious destination. The day had just begun. There was plenty to come.
Drifting swiftly away from this water front, wading through a few more jaw dropping scenes around, we quickly reached the foot hill of the famous STATUE of KING OYSTEIN. Our bus parked itself below, as our group quickly headed upward to the statue (see pic on left). The views of KABELVAG from the top were surreal. Not a difficult climb upward. There were benches provided on the top to sit, allowing us to slowly melt into the moment. It was cold, but the wind was at bay and the bright sun was out, so it was manageable. King Oystein is supposedly the person to have encouraged the fishermen on these islands to build their own houses that stood partly on land and partly on water, distinctively red colored , called RORBU cabins. In recent times, these have been rented out to tourists and are quite classy.
STATUE of KING OYSTEIN
HENNINGSVAER
From the Beautiful to the more Beautiful.... where does this end ? After gliding through the roller coaster like E10 highway, we reached yet another fantastic village - HENNINGSVAER. The Dramatic mountains and valleys all along, curving bridges, colours of the sky, colour of water changing every minute due to the effect of the clouds and sun, it was sheer magic playing around. The day was getting better and better at every step. We stopped by at the village center. A walk down the village threw light on how developed it is. Shops, Restaurants, movie theatres, churches , you name it ... you could find it ! The village is known for its cod air drying process. All along major roads, you can find cod drying out in the open on wooden frames built for this reason. The drying process takes around 3 months.
Blessed with natural wonders, the village swears to preserve its traditions and originality since times immemorial. The red fisherman huts referred to as the RORBU cabins, line up alongside other buildings in the water front, providing a befitting sight amidst the waters and snow covered peaks.
HENNINGSVAER CHURCH
We visited a Church here. It had an unusual structure for a church. A work of art -a giant ANCHOR was found outside the church, which made it a photo shoot spot for us. Walking up the village, we stopped at a fabulous restaurant and filled our tummies with yummy bakery stuff and some hot coffee. We then continued on the highway till we reached the outskirts of this village. There is always something surprising at every turn .
We reached someplace where our driver pulled the vehicle back and nudged us to get off the bus. We walked down a marshy piece of land and in front of us found heaven. That wasn't all !
A BEAUTIFUL BRIDGE
A little on the outskirts of this village, we found the most beautiful views of a bridge, swelling up and curving its way down to merge with the land. We requested our driver for a quick stop here, to click the best of what we saw. Oh ! We loved the variance in the blues all around. It was a painter's delight.
SCULPTORLANDSCAP
Stories of our journey, till we reached the next place of surprise, never ceased. Our driver parked the car in a befitting spot. We were wondering where he was leading us to. We then walked down the muddy land with marsh and water, still wet from rains probably. " Ah ! We are here for the mountain range views" we guessed...but it wasn't.. after a short walk he brought us in front of a most amazing work of art !...THE SCULPTORLANDSCAP...!!Wowwww....
We were going berserk at the sights around and continuously clicking pictures. Did u see the first picture on this page carefully ? There she sits, the work of ART, the massive mirror !! Have a look again…..
It is said that there are 42 and odd art pieces placed all over LOFOTEN, at different places. We were more than happy to visit this one - The "SCULPTORLANDSCAP". A person, Dan Graham is the creator of this wonder. As you can see, it is a massive mirror type rectangular glass with a concave surface, that is stationed right in the middle of this scenic wonder. It reflects the impressive landscape in front of it, while simultaneously producing a distorted figure of the scenery. It covers everything , the fantastic mountain range, the water body around it, the marshland and of course the tourists who place themselves in front of it and enjoy their reflections being infinitely multiplied in different angles. The rear side of this mirror faces the road and therefore it offers the surprise element until we get closer, get around to have a peep and then understand what it really is. From the moment we took a look into this mirror, we were in total awe and our excitement knew no bounds.
No dearth for photo opportunities, just that most of them were taken on the move, from our bus. Still managed to get a few good shots. There were plenty of frozen fjords on the way. I was lucky to capture these.
The E10 highway looked like it ended right into the middle of a mountain, but thats where its bend began downwards. Lovely, is it not ?
We edged past many such scenes and couldn't take our eyes off it even for a moment. We were twisting and turning our way down the highway and made a small photo stop at LEKNES village. Another fishing village, the beauty was that it had the shortest of the hills around as compared to those what we saw all along the way. It was therefore probably more sunny out here. We stepped out of the bus for a quick photo shoot. It was the half frozen lake that interested us. We made our memories and soon got back on our way. We were running short of time, the driver said as we were heading to A (pronounced "AWW" at the southern tip of Lofoten. It was getting more and more exciting.
Check out the half frozen lake on one side of the village and running blue water on the other side. Fascinating, for a village that supposedly has the same temparature all around, how can one part be frozen and the other not, despite being on the same plain? At least it looks that way.. So mysterious.
LEKNES
MOSKENES
The bus made it way uphill as you can see. There was sudden change in the climate and the mountains grew taller around. There were clouds and the fog engulfed the entire surroundings. These were breathless sights which can never fade from our memories.
We were speeding our way into the highway and soon going to cross another village - MOSKENES
Finally we reached the end of this wonderful Archipelago. Our car stopped at a spot , where the road ended and there seemed to be nothing further, but water. This village, A is so silent and so far away from everything. We had about 15-20 mins in total here. We were running around finding photo spots to get an idea of the place. Taking a deviation into the village streets got us to some enchanting points.. Quickly we found ourselves walking down the tunnel to reach the village spot, as seen above . The name of the village was seen on a colorful board
A
We requested our driver to stop in this wonderful spot, where we could take a closer picture of one of the frozen lakes. It was just too good for words, we felt like walking over it, but lacked courage to do so. We were on a holiday and enjoying, so we wanted to keep it safe. A few pictures kept us happy…….
This ICYLICIOUS treat to our eyes never died down. Even to this day when I think about it, the feeling is something inexplicable. The only regret is that of not having walked on this bed of Ice when we had the opportunity.
REINE
On our drive back was a village REINE which we couldn't stop by to enjoy, due to lack of time. It proved to be highly spectacular just as much as we had heard of it, Didn't miss out on a few pictures from our moving vehicle. Oh dear Lofoten.. wish we come back some day. We returned to our homes in SVOLVAER very contented & happy that evening.
Aurora Borealis - The Northern Lights
That night (7th April 2019), after spending the most memorable day out around LOFOTEN, the Northern Lights mobile Application predicted the possibility of positively viewing the lights around 11:30 pm to 2:am in SVOLVAER. Wow ! The group was dead tired, but the urge to view the lights once again, totally free of charge, right outside our balcony, put us ladies and kids on our toes. We got dressed for the expected grand display at midnight. A few who didn't want to miss their sleep expressed their displeasure at our behavior, but we stayed determined. We shivered in cold, waiting outside on the balcony, for the beauty to to be out quickly and dance for us and Voila , we weren't disappointed. Can you spot the ray of thick LIGHTS behind us in the above pictures? That's how they began....Sadly all our pictures, thereon, were quite blurred as the camera settings didn't seem to behave itself. We didn't give up and managed to churn out a few of them worthy of finding their place in this album, at least for the sake of records.
THE NORTHERN LIGHTS
08th April 2019 : Our last day in Lofoten. We just relaxed in the morning, in house. We played cards, watched movies and just slept. We decided to step out not before 4pm that evening. In the evening, we walked around the other half of the village to get a feel of the surroundings once again. We were leaving Lofoten the next day and therefore wanted to make the best use of the time to relax and just go for a laid back walk around the village. Beautiful views of SVOLVAER from across the fjord. So colorful it was, making an almost clear reflection in the waters.
A bit of the supermarket, yummy menu at home and once again the NORTHERN LIGHTS at night, that's how our day ended. Just fabulous !! Worth every penny….
