Bradley Vacation Blog: July 31 - August 1 Leknes & Harstad Norway

We continue our cruise up the coast of Norway. We stop at Leknes on Lofoten Island, located above the Arctic Circle. As an aside, although the sun does set, it never gets dark through the night. It remains twilight for about 4 hours. But it's also been grey and cloudy, so we haven't really seen the sun. There is a solar storm going on, but we haven't seen Northern Lights because it never gets dark enough.

Our guide on a ship's tour described Lofoten as the "flat" island, suitable for agriculture. Flat is not the word I would have used to describe it.

We visit Ballstad, a fishing village, known for its catch of cod during the winter months. Lofoten is a primary supplier of cod liver oil.

A mural depicting fishing in a long ago time.

Bumblebee on fireweed.

Haukland beach. They are very proud of this beach, with camping and hiking adjacent. These were the only hearty individuals who were willing to brave the elements. It was about 65F with a water temp significantly lower than that.

The climate is mild year round since Lofoten sticks out into the Gulf Stream.

Our guide explained that the Norwegian Coast Guard was coming to help a whale entangled in a fishing net in this bay.

We drove across the small island to Mortsund. Lots of red or white painted homes, but this was the only blue one we saw.

A photo stop at Einangan overlook. You can see Marina out in the bay.

There were lots of sheep on the hillside, as sheep outnumber humans on the island. This woman (with two others scattered about the steep hillside) was harvesting blueberries.

This is the only tender port on this segment - but we'll be doing this frequently on Iceland and Greenland in our next segment. Today we had very calm seas and little wind.

A new month and a new port, Harstad. There's not much here so we chose to walk through the city. Here's an adventurous playground for kids with people camping in the parking lot behind it.

Architecture detail was interesting throughout the city. There were lots of apartment buildings along the waterfront. Large glass windows and balconies are featured.