Norway Part 2: The Lofoten Islands

Our adventures in Norway were just getting started as we cruised into the Narvik airport for part two.  Julie wasted no time on the adventure front either.  She slipped and fell down after her first step out of the airplane onto a very wet, slippery metal staircase which leads down to the runway.  Thankfully she was ok!  But this just added to the stress of knowing we had a mad dash across the Archipelago ahead of us.  We had exactly 4 hours to reach our little Rorbu (fishing cabin) before the very last stretch of road would close down for construction and leave us stranded on the wrong island until 3 a.m.  Thankfully our car had 6 gears. 

Starting off with iPhone pics… I promise they get better

It soon became clear why we spent part of our “vacation” driving 400 miles, flying across the country, falling out of airplanes onto metal stairs, and crossing many bridges in a single day (which is a big deal when your wife has a phobia of bridges).  These islands felt like magic.  After a long ride on windy roads we made it to our construction zone just before the road closures.  After a half hour delay we were allowed to pass and we witnessed what building roads at the end of the world looks like.  At this point Julie, who was swearing to never drive over a bridge again, was wondering if we had made a bad decision (I guess I had my secret doubts as well).  It was dark, rainy and the roads no longer seemed safe.  But once we passed through this treacherous zone it felt like we entered into a fairy tale-like world. 

Taken by Julie through the car window

Hard to tell but this was on the edge of a sheer drop down to the water

Rein is one of several old fishing villages that historically housed up to 20,000 fishermen during the fishing season in wooden cabins, called Rorbu.  Our little Rorbu was absolutely adorable and equipped with two bedrooms, a kitchen, one bathroom, and even a secret little attic loft.  [End HGTV narrative summary.] 

We would definitely recommend Reine Rorbuer!

Left: View from our window at 11pm at night; Right: View from our deck

We stocked up on groceries the next day, had a hearty breakfast, and set out for our first full day of adventure in Lofoten.  Naturally we managed time for a photograph here and there as well. 

Only a few miles from Reine is the end of the road at the town of Å (the last letter in Norwegian alphabet – no idea how to pronounce it).  Here we stopped and spent the afternoon exploring and hiking.  This has to be one of the coolest spots in the world to sleep in a tent (or a Rorbu for that matter). 

I cooked up some hearty jambalaya for dinner with my Norwegian ingredients and we enjoyed our very long, slow sundown where the light lingered until almost midnight. 

I picked up some cinnamon rolls for breakfast on our second full day.   Naturally, it did not take Julie long the day before to find what is probably the only fresh bakery on the entire set of islands.  This day we backtracked on our initial drive so we could go back and enjoy some of the scenery we had flown past in the dark. 

I want to mention there were also plenty of tunnels in this part of Norway too

We visited Nusfjord, saw some awesome beaches, had a hike along the coast and managed to use those three cameras we had been lugging around with us.  The Norwegian Sea is surprisingly not too terribly cold and we saw a few people swimming (well I think those backpackers were technically bathing).  But since the air temperature was only in the 50s I decided it would be best to stay dry (or as dry as possible with the random waves of rain that would come).  

Nusfjord

Skagsanden Beach

Ramberg Beach

Kubbholmsundet

The questioning faces of the sheep when we were on the wrong path (except for that last sheep - he isn't as smart as the others)

Our Ytresand hike

And because these islands feel so magical all the time it was no surprise that we had a magnificent rainbow to greet us on our drive back to Rein for the evening. 

Then after another home cooked dinner in our Rorbu, the sun poked through the clouds and smiled at us.  No really, this lighting was better than what photographers can dream of.  Therefore, I proudly present the best photographs from our entire photography adventure: 

We ventured out for a nice 4-hour hike on our third full day.  We started with some very vague internet instructions for a lakeside hike back in the town of Å and ended up following the streams and waterfalls deep into the valley for an unexpected adventure.  It seems on these islands there is a continuous network of magical lakes which are terraced along the mountainside.  Over every hill is a new lake with cascading waterfalls in between.  Eventually our food and water supply was getting low, so we went back into town for some lunch. 

On the drive to the hike

Hiking around a different part of Å

It’s unfortunate that restaurants are so expensive in Norway, because we did not get to try much local cuisine on our quest to save even a bit of money.  However on this particular day we splurged on an awesome fish burger/sandwich at a popular fish market.  It was absolutely delicious!  Easily the best meal we had over our entire stay – even despite the dried fish heads staring us down at every turn. 

From left to right: dead fish, fish heads, fish heads

Delicious fish sandwich

We spent the afternoon and evening enjoying our cabin lifestyle.  And Julie spent some time continuing the process of narrowing down our several thousand photos into a reasonable amount, just so we could deliver these blogs to you in a decent amount of time. 

We also found Julie's name on a Coke bottle too in Lofoten! (or not)

We said goodbye to our Rorbu the next day and slowly made the drive back across the archipelago toward the airport (we were spending our last night closer to the airport so we could avoid repeating that mad dash across the islands again).  Since we had all day to make our way back, we stopped at two of Lofoten’s highest rated beaches.  Both definitely lived up to their hype.  We also had some more fun with our filters making the ocean look even prettier than it already is. 

Haukland Beach

We had a little otter friend chowing down on some fish

Utakleiv Beach

All the pullouts we had marked on the beautiful drive coming in were no longer as fantastic as we had remembered.  It seems 3 days at the end of the Lofotens had spoiled us and diminished our sense for beauty, or what was beautiful enough to merit a car stop.  The entire island group is incredible, but we found the land at the end of the road was definitely the best. 

Ok - this part of the drive was worth the stop

Later that day we stopped off at an ice sculpture display, called Magic Ice.  Although this place has a lot of potential, the almost $30 entrance fee to walk through a frozen, poorly lit room made the whole experience entertaining in a different way than they intended.  I could not convince Julie to go for a second 5-minute ice stroll around the giant room just so we could get our money’s worth.  Julie likes to blame this terrible idea on me, but she also fell for their very clever little marketing and cozy looking parkas. 

Afterwards we continued our drive and settled into and our cheap little hotel for the night.  We enjoyed (reluctantly accepted it as the cheapest option) another convenience store hot dog meal for dinner.

Before flying home the next day we had a few hours to explore the area around Harstad.  Another set of vague internet instructions for a viewpoint hike falsely led us to a dirt road and the very end of a fjord.  Here we found the remains of an old military bunker and explored the dark caves and ruins at hand.  I eventually got scared, so we left. 

Driving in Harstad

The beach at the end of the fjord

Elgsnes kystfort (a coastal fort)

And so our Norway adventures came to an end with an overwhelming amount of photos to show for it (thousands and thousands taken whittled down to the top 808 to keep).  The Lofoten Islands are a photographer’s paradise and we spent every moment enjoying our time there.  And as Julie will readily admit: all of those awful bridges were worth it.  And knowing her, I know that means this trip was really a once in a lifetime experience. 

Bye Lofoten!

Norway Part 1: Bergen and the Hardangerfjord

This month Noah and I had our big vacation of the year (I emphasize ‘our’ as Noah already had an epic trip to Brazil in June).  Our destination: Norway.  We spent 10 days traveling the amazingly gorgeous and amazingly expensive country, splitting our time between the Hardangerfjord area and the Lofoten Islands.  Since we saw so many things and took way too many photos, I decided to split the blog in two.  This is Part 1 – Bergen and the Hardangerfjord Area (my title should have already given that away).

We began on Friday the 8^th by flying into the coastal town of Bergen, which is apparently the leading cruise port in Norway.  In fact the Norwegian Air employee asked if we were going on a cruise when she saw we were checking into a flight to Bergen.  Heck no we aren’t!  Not with my fear of boats!  Our trip started off with a snag when our first flight was delayed an hour due to tire issues, which led us to miss our connecting flight in Oslo.  The good news was Norwegian Air automatically rebooked us onto the next flight out.  The bad news was our checked bag didn’t receive the same fate.  Luckily they were able to deliver the bag to us that same night at our hotel. I think our leverage in getting the bag quickly was the fact that we would leave Bergen early the next day to our hotel in the fjords.  My guess is Norwegian Air wanted to avoid that drive.

Knowing we only had the one evening to explore Bergen, we decided to make the most of it and check it out by foot.  It helped that the sun sets so late in Norway in August (no midnight sun though) which gave us plenty of time to walk around.  After a quick sushi dinner, we meandered through a very cute little neighborhood near the harbor.  It seemed like the perfect little fairytale small town that the Gilmore Girls would live in if they were Norwegian. 

We then made our way to the Bryggen Wharf – the tourist hot spot of the city.  This section of little shops and restaurants lies directly on the Bergen Harbor.  We were able to find our main Norwegian souvenir here too – a beautiful blue wool blanket to match our green Icelandic version. 

Though the most impressive find of the trip was to locate a ‘Noah’ Coke bottle.  The cokes with people’s names on them have been around Europe for a few years, and we knew we would never find our names in Germany.  Recently they made their way to the US where a website will show you if your name is available.  As is typical with poor Noah (which actually is a common US name so I don’t get it) – his name was not an option.  So to find this here in Norway, among the Øysteins and Bjørns, was very surprising.  And we checked – it was a Norwegian bottle, not an import.  Next door to the Coke discovery was a bakery selling delicious skillingsbollers (a Norwegian cinnamon bun).  Perfect combo to sit and watch the sun go down. 

 Saturday morning began our road tour of Norway.  Our hotel was 2.5 hours away via the most direct route and assuming no stops.  However we chose instead a route with a small detour to see some waterfalls, plus we had to stop often to enjoy the views from all the lookouts we passed along the way.  We quickly became acquainted with Norway’s tunnel system.  I cannot even begin to count the number of tunnels we passed through during our 10 days driving around Norway.  Though I can count the dollar impact of the tolls for some of these tunnels… but that is another story. 

Two of the smaller stops (as in – hop out of the car and take a few pictures) before the main waterfalls included a lookout at Trengereid followed by the Krigsminne waterfall. 

After only one wrong turn (even with Garmin’s help), we made it to the Steinsdalsfossen falls.  These are amazing waterfalls because they have a path that takes you right behind the falls safely (as opposed to the frozen slippery ‘path’ of the Seljalandsfoss falls in Iceland).   These waterfalls were great practice for us and our new ND filters – filters that block out light so you can get long exposures of water in the daylight.  Of course this meant taking more photos than ever necessary. 

As we continued our drive towards the hotel, the weather began to turn dark and stormy.  But Norway is such a beautiful place that instead of dampening our moods and views and making the drive miserable, the terrain was almost enhanced with the ominous and spooky lighting.  

It was on this point of our trip that we encountered underground roundabouts in the tunnels.  Yes – the Norwegian tunnel system is so vast and complex that they even have roundabouts in them!  It felt like something out of an older alien movie. 

Finally in the late afternoon we made it to our hotel – Hotel Ullensvang.  Hands down this hotel has one of the best locations I have ever seen, with a wonderful heated outdoor/indoor infinity lap pool you can relax in to take in the views (which we did every day we were there).  

The view from our hotel room

Sunday morning we were off to (what else) another waterfall!  After stopping to buy a bag of apples from a roadside farm, the next stop was an overlook with an incredible view of the Osafjorden and Eidfjorden. 

Left: The apple farm and the bridge of my nightmares (had to cross it a few times, once was because of a wrong turn); Right: our bag of apples

We were incredibly lucky to have the sunny blue skies at those fjords, because not 30 minutes later this was the view along the road (Simadalsfjorden and Eidfjorden). 

Eventually we made our way to the Voringsfossen waterfall.  We definitely checked it out from all angles.  First from the main roadside overlooks with the gift shops (hard to get a good view here), followed by driving to the Fossli Hotel for the best views (and the most crowds), ending with hiking out to the source of the waterfalls (though only the photos of the river that feeds the falls were any good).  

Left: Roadside overlook; Right: View from Vossli Hotel

Source of Voringsfossen

Downstream from the waterfall is a nice lookout area that leads to Måbø Bru – a bridge that crosses the Bjoreio and leads to the old road.  While we were taking our long-exposure shots of the rapids below the bridge, we caught the attention of a little weasel.  He was so funny to watch – he would pop his head out of one hole in the rocks, then seconds later appear two rocks over.  It felt like a real life version of Whac-A-Mole, minus us trying to smack the little guy in the head. 

We ended the night by checking out the hotel’s Norwegian buffet and sitting out by the dock to enjoy the not-quite-sunset.  The highlight of the buffet was the long dining table that was covered in all kinds of desserts.  I skipped the small dessert plates they had set out and grabbed another dinner plate to load up my first plate of cakes and pies.  To my credit, I fit the second trip to the dessert table on one of the smaller plates. 

Our best sunset - the sun was always behind the clouds in the evening

The next morning we headed south to see a swamp monster.  Kidding – it was another set of waterfalls.  The Låtefossen falls near Odda go right under the main road, which makes it easy to see (and another popular tourist spot).  The spray coming off of that thing was fantastic – I donned my poncho and Noah his raincoat to walk along the bridge a bit for better views.  

After getting our fill of falling water, we decided to make the drive up to Folgefonna National Park.  Originally I had checked out doing a glacier hike up there, but because of the constantly changing weather and the fact we had done one in Iceland we decided against it.  But why not just head up to the glacier area anyways?  The road heading up was rather intimidating to me as a passenger, so I can’t imagine how it was for Noah.  The road was often wide enough for one car, which made it difficult to maneuver around descending vehicles.  Though this made the drive an amazing adventure in itself, with unique and gorgeous scenery urging us upward.  

Towards the bottom of the mountain

A few of our obstacles in the road

I don't even want to know how that happened

Almost to the top

A sense of the one lane road

At the top is actually a summer ski area – though it looked like the season was at its end with all the blue ice peeking through. 

A bit below the peak was a small parking lot with a little trail heading off.  By now the rain and wind had found us, but from our short experience we figured we would have a break in the weather soon.  After about 10 minutes the rain seemed to let up, so we grabbed our camera gear and headed to the path.  Our ‘hike’ lasted long enough for us to take a few photos of the river running down before the break in the weather ended.  Thankfully I had on my trusty orange poncho and could keep both myself and the camera safe and dry. 

Running back to the car when the rain returned

Our last night consisted of eating crappy convenience store pizza (gotta save that money somewhere!) and watching the Norwegian version of Schlag den Raab, a German game show we are familiar with.  Then the next morning it was back to the Bergen airport so we could fly way up north to the Lofoten Islands.  Which you can read about in Part 2 of the blog – once Noah writes it and posts it!  

No meaning behind this photo Noah took other than I liked it and had nowhere to put it