Lost in Lofoten August 18, 2006

My advice to anyone traveling in Scandinavia is do not use Europcar. We went to pick up the rental car this morning and for the third time a Europcar rental office was unmanned during regular business hours and the second time that we had an appointment to pick a car up at a specific time and the agent was not there. Considering we have only needed to visit a Europcar office three times, once each in Ostersund, Kiruna and Narvik, they are batting a negative 1000. This morning 40 minutes after our pick-up time I hiked down the road to a marina and where a very nice gentleman helped me track down the Europcar agent on the phone. He arrived at the office 20 minutes later without as much as an apology and was not very helpful. If we would not have been on foot we would have gone elsewhere and paid more if necessary, but the “cutting off one’s nose” saying came to mind and we bit our tongues, got the car and left.

Now that that is out of my system on to more positive things; we left Narvik around 11AM and headed north on highway E6 in route to Lofoten. Let me say now that the drive was spectacular. The E6 and then the E10 run along the fjords and provide the scenery that you come all the way to Norway to see. High craggy mountains plunging a thousand or more feet into the fjords, small picturesque fishing villages and more waterfalls than the average human would expect to see in ten years. We ended our three hundred kilometer drive on a one and a half lane road that detours off of E10 to a village named Henningsvaer. You will need to look at the photo site to see the pictures here as words do not do it justice.

Lofoten is a group of islands that jut into the North Sea about ¾ of the way up Norway or between 68 and 69 degrees north latitude.

We are staying in Henningsvaer tonight in what is called a rorbu. This is a fisherman’s hut that sits on pilings over the water. The real ones are used in the wintertime by the fishermen who work the waters here for cod, herring, salmon and crab. Ours is a small cottage with a kitchen, bath and even comes with the omni present smell of the fish processing house that sits less than 500 meters away. Like everywhere its all about location and what you pay for is the view. Our rorbu does not disappoint in this department and we can see for miles in several directions taking in the mountains, islands and the endless ocean. It is much cooler here with a temperature of about 50ﾟF (10ﾟC) and wind chill of around 40Fﾟ. We will sleep well tonight although with the proximity of the fish house Holly may need to add a nose plug to her nightly arsenal of ear plugs (my snoring) and sleeping mask (20 hours of daylight).