The Beauty of the Lofoten Islands ~ Day 4 of cruise

Tuesday, April 30, 2019

It was beginning to get dark as we made our way toward the world famous Lofoten Islands.  The weather had begun to change from our stretch of blue skies to cloudy and cold.  But despite darkening skies, people were bundled up at the railings with cameras and cell phones in their gloved hands to capture the first glimpses.  The islands had an "other worldly" quality in the dusky light.

As soon as we disembarked, I joined a bus tour that went through several of the eight inhabited Lofoten Islands.  There were two buses, one all German speaking and the other (which I was obviously on) about half German and half English speaking.  There was a guide up front in our bus whose mic was turned up rather loud.  He was German speaking also.  I ended up sitting in an aisle seat with an empty toddler seat next to the window.  This made taking pictures extra hard.  We weren't allowed to take off our seat belts either so I couldn't get up and lean over it.  The seats were a garish print that often showed up in reflections.  All that said, the islands are quite unique in climate and culture.  It was pretty hard to understand some of our guide's English but my understanding is that they rely much on fishing and quite a bit on tourism.  There is little unemployment.  They cannot grow much for produce as they have extremely short winters.   Our ship brags up the little goat/sheep farms and the cheese they produce but that seems to be quite minor.  Other than one green pasture, most of the land that wasn't rocky, seemed brown and boggy.

Another tour was all about the vikings that used to live in this area.  Below you can see a viking longhouse that was built on a foundation that they discovered.

Viking Longhouse

We stopped at a viewpoint overlooking a beautiful valley.  A Canadian couple that I've gotten to know a bit offered to take my picture.

See the ground?  It's boggy and clumps of dead grass.

The inhabited islands are connected to each other and the mainland by bridges. 

Beautiful glacial water in one of the many lakes

What a privilege and blessing it has been to spend so many hours just soaking up the beauty of God's creation.  There are small challenges along the way but I am so grateful for this opportunity.