Lofoten in the Rain

I suspect I’ll be able to repeat the title of this post for the rest of the week. The fine weather has definitely gone. While only 4mm was forecast it was delivered by way of drizzle all day.

On my way to pick up the rental car I called into the tourist information centre. The woman there suggested Thursday morning would be the best time for the Trollfjord cruise so that’s all booked.

I’ve a little Mercedes A Klass which is about 13 years old. So no annoying technology and I was told that they are used cars so not to worry if I scratch it.
It a the first time I’ve driven the the right side of the road. I was talking to a woman from the US on the boat and she mentioned driving in Scotland and said all she saw was the road. I uderstand this now. It takes a lot of concentrated to remember to stay on the right side of the road. There’s really only one highway (double lanes road) on the islands and that’s not so bad to drive on because there’s a yellow line down the middle. It’s the roads with no centre marking (all the others so far) and turning left. The bloke at the rental told be to make sure I turn out wide when I turn left so I don’t drift onto the left side of the road.
I may not do as much driving as I’d originally thought I would.

I drove down to Kabelvåg which has an aquarium, museum and art gallery. They were all quite small but interesting. The Lofoten aquarium doesn’t really compare to the one in Ålesund. It’s much smaller and most of the sea life I saw at Ålesund.
The art gallery was all on the work of Kaare Espolin Johnson who had poor vision which influenced his use of scraping and layering soot. A lot of his work features northern Norway fishermen and their families. I watched a video on his life and he explained his thoughts and the processes he used.
The art is really interesting and very different.

The museum was also small but interesting. It’s based on a farm of a wealthy fisherman. Unfortunately the manor house was closed but the rest of the buildings had a lot of history in them.

I then went down to Henningsvær. The drive tested me as the the roads were narrow in places and you have to watch for oncoming traffic. There are areas to pull over and wait for the traffic to pass. I also came across two lots of traffic lights - on either end of two bridges as the bridges are only wide enough for cars going in one direction.
The drive was very pretty, what I did see when not focussed on the road. I’ve read this area gets really busy in the summer time. I definitely wouldn’t want to be driving these roads then. I did stop in Henningsvæer but after trying and failing to get the easypark app to accept the rental car I gave up. The drive home was a bit easier as I was more confident.

The area is so beautiful. Looking forward to seeing more of it.Read more