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.

According to Google, this 50-meter high sail honors the old Viking Asbjørn Selsbane.

Harbor with boat repair facilities. Hub of fishing and trade for the area.

Wall art

Pedestrian shopping street

July 28-29 Kristiansand & Bergen Norway

 We've never been to Kristiansand, a small city. It's a Sunday morning and the place is deserted...but Mac's is open.

Marina reflected in a harbor building

Street art

Deserted shopping street

Kristiansand Cathedral, with a fountain. The street level fountain suitable for kids to play in seems to be a theme of this trip.

City Hall

Posebyen is the old section of town, but well kept.

Street art in front of a restaurant.

On to Bergen, where we've been several times before. There are a number of island communities on the way in through the fjords..

One mystery solved. This is a water bus/water taxi stop a couple of miles from the Bergen dock. Shortly after we passed a small boat pulled up and the people boarded. I guess that's how they can commute to Bergen for shopping on those islands not connected by roads and bridges.

This looks like the ultimate thrill ride. On most commercial ships the lifeboats are set up to plunge from the deck into the ocean when necessary. This may be a training center for sailors.

Old harbor fort

The famous Bergen Bryggen

The church and homeless camp. A number of people were ministering to the needy.

Floibanen Funicular. We were up there on our first trip to Bergen. Excellent views of the harbor.

No, we didn't

Interesting reuse of a telephone booth -- it's now a small library

One seldom sees a boat this clean and freshly painted. It was docked across the pier from us.