Lofoten Islands, Norway

An ode...

How does one describe the Lofoten? I don’t think there are enough words in the English language, or maybe my vocabulary isn’t as expansive as I would like?! Ah, expansive. That’s a great word. That is definitely the feeling you get when you are there. A feeling so deep that your heart just bursts every time you open your eyes.

When planning our Norway trip, Ro and I knew that we wanted to end up in Svalbard at the end. The fun part was figuring out the journey we wanted to take to get there. Had it been up to us and not our Schengen visas, I think you would still find us roaming a fjord, mountain pass or lake. Sitting here in Australia now as I write this, I can’t believe this was a place that we were able to experience.

Sorry, I digress.

We came across the Lofoten as a “must see”, and after doing a bit of research we soon discovered why. The Lofoten is an archipelago that is 160km long and only 2420m km from the North Pole, it is entirely above the arctic circle.

Our adventure further north began after a decent breakfast at our Trondheim hotel. We jumped on a train to the airport. We caught a flight from Trondheim to Bodo and then we jumped on a tiny plane to Leknes. Flying from Bodo to Leknes was incredible. Looking out of the windows all you could see were these little islands dotted all over with this incredibly clear water surrounding them. I like to imagine sometimes what life must have been like for people from years ago. Looking down at these islands I tried to imagine myself as a Viking woman 1000 years ago. What type of life would I have lived in such a remote, yet beautiful place?

Before long we had landed and we set off to pick up our rental. An electric Merc, much to Ro’s delight. We found the grocery store on our way to the airbnb and drove in the dark on some pretty narrow roads. As we arrived it started to sleet and we were all laughing and screeching as we were trying to unpack the car. After a satisfying meal of oven pizzas and I think some pasta for Julz, we all went to bed and had really good nights rest.

The next morning we woke up to the most beautiful sight. I still get teras in my eyes when I think about it and have a look at the pictures. One of the joys about arriving in the dark is that when you wake up in the morning, its such a wonderful treat to see your surroundings. And man alive, were they incredible! Snow capped mountains right out back and the the bluest of blue ocean out front.

Our warm weather and rain gear were definitely going to get a chance to shine on this part of our trip!

We took a drive down to Å (it’s pronounced ahhhh, like when the Dr asks to see the back your throat), it is a village on the southern most point of the Lofoten Archipelago. The drive from our airbnb in Vestvågøya to Å was around 84km’s of magic scenery. We ended up at a little bakery for a coffee and cinnamon bun.

The next day was our 12 year wedding anniversary. Ro and I woke up early and went for a stroll on the beach as the sun was rising. The colours were something out of a Monet painting. Once everyone was up and ready we went for a drive to Bøstad. Another scenic drive where we had to stop at least 100 times to soak in the absolute joy and beauty around us. We found another coffee shop with another delicious cinnamon bun. To end our special day we made a super tasty roast, shared a very smooth bottle of Shiraz and watched the sun set over the sea.

The last day of September was spent doing a very Norwegian thing in very Norwegian, above the Arctic Circle kind of weather. We went to a sauna! Let’s set the scene. The air temperature must have been around 7 degrees and the water temperature the same, or lower. Our sauna was a log cabin all on its own set to around 40 degrees. We all went inside and changed into our cozzies. As we started to sweat we began to question our sanity. As we knew that we were going to have to leave this cozy little cabin shortly to plunge ourselves into the cold sea!

Well, it was an experience that is for sure. All of us braved the cold and took a dip in the freezing cold sea. Some of us fully submerged ourselves, others just went ankle deep. The effect felt the same though. What a way to make you feel alive and vital.

Our last day in the Lofoten was spent dreaming about ways we could stay longer, warm cups of tea while watching all the autumn colours through the windows. We also spent a fun few hours at the Lofotr Viking Museum. Dressing up in Viking armour and seeing how people of old used to live. The museum is based on a reconstruction of an archaeological excavation of a chieftains longhouse. It is the largest longhouse to be excavated in Norway. It is estimated to have been occupied between 500 to 950 AD.

The mountains were getting whiter every day with each snow fall. The days were getting shorter. And unfortunately it was time to pack our bags, yet again and head to the most northerly town of Svalbard.

More on that in our next Sub stack.

As always, we are so grateful to have you along on our journey and we appreciate you for being here with us.

All our love,

The Grow Travel Family xxx