Paul and Jean visit Norway: Day 13 - Vesteralan and Lofoten Islands

Vesteralan Islands

We were up early this morning for our next excursion – visiting the Vesteralan Islands, which along with the Lofoten Islands lie about 250 kms west of mainland Norway. The tour took us from the port of Harstad to a very old stone church where we had a short service by the priest. The priest said the same reading and pray in 4 different languages (Norwegian, English, German and French) and then we sang a hymn but each had to sing in their own language and without any music so it was a bit of a row. We then visited a very interesting history museum followed by a drive around the islands stopping at various view points. We rejoined the ship a few stops on at Sortland but the coach stopped over a bridge just as the ship was arriving and we were able to see it pass beneath us on the bridge and in recognition of those visitors on the tour it sounded its horn 3 times. Sortland attempted to attract tourists by painting all of the buildings blue. They started but then disagreements over the shade of blue to use started so the whole project stopped. There are still some of the original blue buildings in existance.

Trondenes Church

Fjord at Harstad

Ferry across Fjord

Frozen Fjord on Vesteralan Islands

Fjord with some ice on Vesteralan Islands

Bridge at Sortland

Blue buildings at Sortland

Other visits

After lunch we docked at Stokmarkenes which has the Hurtigruten museum. It also has the former MS Finnmarken ship as a museum piece but it is being restored at the moment. We didn’t think there was enough time to visit this so just had a walk around the town instead.

Stokmarkenes - previous Hurtigruten MS Finnmarken ship

Attractive pub in Stokmarkenes

The ship sailed through the very narrow Raftsundet, as we had done late in the evening on day 4. The peaks each side of this stretch of water rise up to 1000m and this is what separates the Vesteralan and Lofoten Islands. Again the ship stopped at the entrance to the Trollfjord. This time it was in daylight so we got some good photos. The ship is not allowed to sail into the fjord during the winter as there is a risk of avalanches.

Raftsundet channel

Entrance to Trollfjord

Svolvar, Lofoten Islands

We had an early dinner and then got off the ship when it stopped at Svolvar and visited a bar called Magic Ice. This was a bar in a freezer! Entrance was through a large metal sliding door which was shut behind us. Inside there was a bar, together with tables and chairs all made out of ice. All around the bar were sculptures of boats, flowers, animals and many other things. There was even an ice slide which I had 2 goes on and it was great fun but got a very cold backside. We had a cocktail which was served in an ice glass. A really unusual place and well worth a visit. The temperature in Svolvar was 4C and all the snow was thawing and there was large puddles of water everywhere so it was a bit difficult walking around. Before returning to the ship we looked around an art gallery with paintings from the artist who is commissioned to produce the artwork around the Hurtigruten ships.