Lofoten Islands

July 20, 2018

June allowed us the opportunity to travel to Tromsø & the Lofoten islands - an archipelago in the county of Nordland, Norway. Lofoten is known for it's distinctive scenery with dramatic mountains and peaks, open seas and sheltered bays, beaches and untouched lands.

Though lying within the Arctic Circle, the archipelago experiences one of the world's largest elevated temperature anomalies due to it's high latitude

It is one of the more scenic areas of Norway. If one looks for images of Norway one would most likely see photos from this part of the country.

It is an area Dad has always wanted to visit but never had the opportunity to do so as there is only one member who lives on the islands, so missionaries very seldom get the opportunity to visit. The member lives on the southern most part of the islands and he is part of the Bodø branch. It is a 3 hour ferry ride from the islands to the mainland of Bodø. Pictures can't capture all of the beauty we were blessed to see. The weather is unpredictable. It had been raining almost every day for the past month and was projected to be raining for our visit but we encountered only overcast skies and sunshine during our trip with a sprinkle of rain here and there. Never enough to dampen our spirits or our trip. We count it as one of the Lord's tender mercies while serving in Norway.

Typical boat houses lining the coastal shorlines of Norway

Gillefjord parking lot waiting for the next ferry to cross from Senja to Andesnes

In Senya with Sister Berquist and the Miller's.

Einar (the only member on the island of Senja) and his mother.

The ferry we will take to the island of Andesnes.

cute troll and yard art at this home

looking back at Lofoten from Ferry headed to mainland again - Skutvik

We were able to see three albino reindeer in this one herd on the island of Andesnes. They are very rare, not many get to see one.

Such an unusual plant that looked like stars.

Henningsvær

These are Cod heads out on the drying racks. The bodies have already been dried and cut off to be used like jerky. And, Yes they stink!

Elders Miller, Bergquist & Cook

Fish heads, fish heads
Roly-poly fish heads
Fish heads, fish heads
Eat them up, yum

In the morning, laughing, happy fish heads
In the evening, floating in the soup

Ask a fish head anything you want to

They won’t answer, they can’t talk

If you look closely on the right about half way up you will see some climbers.

This is what salmon farming looks like.

The mountains are so majestic and the water is blue, green and purple.

Reine

Dasher, Dancer and Prancer, but we never saw Rudolph.

Elder Ashby and Elder Putt.

many of the roads and roads connecting the islands narrow to only one lane at a time. One takes turns passing and crossing them

Reine is a picturesque town on the way to Å.

It looks like an upside down dragon in the middle.

This is our little Troll cloud.

This is the hotel in Lødingen where the Bergquists and us spent our first night.

The upper right window in the room we stayed in.

This is the lodge where we orginally wanted to stay but in January when we booked we were told it was full. Ended up the Millers were the only couple there. We could have all stayed but we already had reservations about 5 km down the road in Lødingen...This sami lodge would have been nice.

Fun traveling companions... The Berquist's and Miller"s.

cod racks are everywhere. This is the main industry on the islands

ship that was dry docked

Henningsvær

salmon farms

Birthday dinner for Dad... Yum! Happy Birthday!

end of the road on Lototen - Å

White sandy beaches... who knew Norway had a tropical beach!

view from our hotel room window in Svolvær - our second night. This is at Midnight.

As we walked around Svolvær at 10p this is one of the few vendor stands still open. This is one by a russian lady now living in Tønsbeg. We had an interesting conversation with her for about 1/2 an hour as she explained the history behind the nesting dolls of Russia

Å is as far south on the islands as you can go then it is into the ocean. Can't think of another town with only a one letter name.

can you find the troll?

Our hotel the second night at Svolvær.

Svolværgeita (The Svolvær goat) - looks like goat horns, people have jumped from one horn to the other...No thanks

Midnight Sun! The view by the Hotel at midnight.

Norway is the land of tunnels - there are over 1000 of them, some go under the ocean connecting the islands, some cut through the mountains to the other side.

anyone for an ocean bike ride?

We enjoyed the midnight sun on our trip.

Dad out enjoying the sun on the deck of the ferry.

Skrova (small island village stop on the Ferry) on the way to Skutvik on the mainland (only way on and off the island except private boats.

The Millionares bench. Quite well used it seems.

We drive into the ferries through it's mouth... so it seems.

Bodø

We made it to Bodø. This is Elder's Brooks and Sperry. We visited them, inspected their apartment and took them out to dinner before flying back to Oslo.