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Norway
We spent the day transitioning from Zijdewind - Cor delivering us to Schiphol airport in plenty of time for our mid morning flight to Oslo, and onto Tromso in the Arctic Circle, with our flight arriving slightly late. For the first time ever, we were paged to hurry to our final flight to Andenes on Andoya Island. These flights (on de Havillands) are basically island hopping 30 minute flights, with passengers alighting and boarding. We were the first stop, and got off into 8 degrees late afternoon. After nearly a week of temperatures in the mid 30’s it was both a relief and a shock to experience wind chill - as well as light rain - for the first time in a month! Luckily we had extra layers in our carry on bags and donned them in Oslo.
A long awaited reunion (after 31 years) ) with Rory McDougall, and
a marathon ‘catchup’ session into the wee small hours - technically not correct as the sun doesn’t set for 2 months mid summer (now)
So there was no clue as to how late it was as the light just didn’t fade!!
We finally called it a day at 1am, shut
Rosco and Rory
Together again after 31 years!!the blinds and our eyes for a few hours.
The first day started with a personalised tour with Rory, who is project managing an extension of the Andoya Space Centre, which concentrates on atmospheric research of the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis). Fascinating....the rest of the day was spent island hopping and sightseeing with Rory in his VW Caravelle - a treat in itself.
We travelled through scenic fjords, many bridges and tunnels, with ethereal views of waterfalls, fishing villages, enjoying a farmhouse lunch along the way.
We found accommodation in the picturesque town of Svolvaer after 250km and after dinner overlooking the harbour, more catching up on our lives over the past 31 years.
Friday saw us continuing onto the Lofoten group of islands and spending a couple of hours at the Viking Museum there, which included a wonderful display of artefacts excavated on site, a film depicting the history of the inhabitants at the time and a functioning longhouse with craftspeople re-enacting daily life.
We walked down to a lake where a longship was taking groups on a short ‘voyage’ - all in all, a fascinating insight into Viking life.
We travelled back to Dverberg in the late afternoon,
arriving back soon after Sissel had returned from her weekly commute to her work further afield.
We walked to the local pub for a ‘all the prawns you can eat’ meal, overlooking the small picturesque harbour where the daylight just kept going and night was non existent.
Hard to get used to.........but tiredness eventually overcame us and we headed to bed.
The next day we spent around Dverberg, a small but very active community - visiting the local community hall complete with craft shop with locally handmade products, had coffee and fresh cinnamon rolls warm from the oven at a local soap making and craft shop, and spent some considerable time at the local motorcycle club rooms and museum - enthusiasts are the same the world over, so passionate over their Motos!
Pizza, beer and local liquer made from rowan berries finished us off and by now we were getting used to going to bed at midnight in full daylight.
Sunday dawned (not!) and we noticed a dusting of fresh snow in the mountains on the next island as we set off for more exploring around Dverberg. The weather over the past three days had been showery with cold winds,
Andøya Space Center
Rory is project manager for the expansion project. but we were treated to blue skies and after a short concert by a local musician at a cafe, we were able to sit in the sun outside while Rory and Sissel prepared fish on the grill for our dinner before the run to Andenes airport for our flight at 10pm to Olso - perhaps we would see the non setting sun as we flew?
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Josie and Wayne
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Hi there travellers
Looks like you are having a fabulous trip. Xx