42. Narvik to Svolvaer Norway

James Joyce is quoted as saying " A man's errors are his portals of discovery."

Our mishaps trying to get from Rovaniemi to Svolvaer Norway included booking a flight to Narvik Norway and taking a 4 hour bus ride to Svolvaer the next day, instead of getting a flight directly to Svolvaer. (Don't ask)

What a delightful mistake. Narvik is a charming small town of 20k people on the mainland coast of Norway. Its pretty far north, over 100 miles above the Arctic circle, where winters are long, cold and snowy, but we laid over there on a 70° sunshiny day. There were minimal tourists around, and the town had a very attractive feel of mostly locals. The flight in was quite picturesque.

Our actual destination of Svolvaer is the central point from which we would explore Lofoten. The 4 hour bus ride there (that I begrudged having to take) turned out to be a highlight. The ride took us around the sparsely populated fjords which, by definition, are deep narrow waterways mostly surrounded by mountains. The stunning views were enhanced by the lack of humans, except for the small towns, more like villlages, that occasionally dotted the shore or hillside. The ride ended up being chicken soup for the mountain/lake lovers soul. A few pix here.Les mer