I am beginning to run out of superlatives for the views that we wake up to, today’s was once again a wonderful site. The mountains, if anything, were more rugged than those in the fjords but there appeared to be more of a coastal strip and more small fishing villages.
This was the last port in which we needed a tender and the ship moored in the bay overlooking the small fishing village of Gravdal.
The tendering operation was completed smoothly and in no time at all we were ashore on a coach ready for our excursion. The coach first took us through the undersea tunnel to the island of Vestvagoy, one of the six islands that make up the archipelago. The tunnel was built in the late sixties together with the road that links the islands to the mainland. The tunnel features a sonic device to prevent the foxes on one island taking the tunnel to eat the rabbits resident on the other.
The first stop was the historical fishing village of Nusfjord, where fishing has been carried out since 400AD.
The village is now a preserved museum where you are free to wander around the village buildings including the first power station in Norway. However the principle business here is fishing and the drying of the cod to produce Torrfisk or Stockfish. Here some of the fish heads drying, these being used for animal feed or fertilisers.
The colours of the houses signify the status of the occupants with red being the commonest followed by yellow and usually one white house per village. This was general reserved for the village owner.
The village was very picturesque with photo opportunities at every turn, in fact it was difficult to choose the photos for the blog tonight.
These two choose themselves…..
…...
We haven’t seen much evidence of wildlife so far on this trip with the exception of the reindeer at North Cape and the sighting of a porpoise in Flamm. The white tailed eagle with a wingspan of up to 4 metres is apparently common on the islands but unfortunately we did not see any. Our Norwegian wildlife watch today was limited to these beautiful wild flowers….
….although we did see some sheep on the roof of a house. They use them to keep the grass at the right level.
We next made our way to the Lofotr Viking Museum a reconstruction of a viking long house together with a display of artefacts. A local farmer discovered the site of a 1500 year old viking settlement after ploughing the first time with a new modern plough. Using the measurements from the archeological dig a reconstruction of the original long house was made.
Inside the buliding was split into three sections , the stables, the banquet hall and the living area. In each recontructions of various items of Viking paraphernalia were at hand to touch and play with. Sylvia tried her hand at cooking…...
…..but I think it will be a long time before I get my meal!!!
Tomorrow is a sea day as we make our way south out of the Arctic Circle.
