JodockWorldTravel

August 20, 2025

Today we are in Leknes, the trading and shopping center of Lofoten, an archipelago in Northern Norway known for its towering mountains, deep fjords and picturesque fishing villages. This is not the Lofoten we saw.

We were met with typical August weather for the area, cloudy skies and a near-constant rain. It was like being back in Seattle! 😊

Our excursion included a one-hour bus ride through the countryside followed by a 90-minute catamaran ride through the Reinefjord. Our guide explained that we would be on three of the eight inhabited islands of Lofoten. Lofoten’s total population of about 25,000 is distributed among these eight islands, the largest number of whom reside in Leknes. We drove through a farming/fishing area, surrounded by beautiful soaring mountains. The church in the picture below was built in 1780 and is the only church on the island.

Soon we entered the tunnel that would take us from our first island to the second. Located 220 feet below sea level the tunnel is a little more than a mile long and very narrow. It’s a good thing the buses do not have any side mirrors. Instead, they have cameras mounted on inside either side of the giant windshield that serve the same purpose as the mirrors. In preparation for a construction project that will widen the tunnel it is currently closed between 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., creating more than a little inconvenience for the townspeople who have no other way to get between the islands late at night.

Soon after leaving the tunnel, we encountered what was once a typical Scandanavian style of roof – a turf or sod roof. To create a sod roof, several layers of birch bard are placed on gently sloping roof boards. The bark is covered with sod, the weight of which helps to compress the layers of bark. It’s a bit of a misnomer to call it a sod roof, because the active water-tight element of the roof is actually the birch bark. The sod helps to insulate the home, but the bark is what keeps you dry. Despite advancements in building techniques many people still prefer sod roofs because of their low cost and efficiency. The one down side to a sod roof is that it does need to be mowed every now and again. Some people actually do take a lawn mower up on the roof, but others, as seen in the photo below, will take a few goats or sheep up on the roof, leave them there for a week or two to get the job done, and then bring them back down.

We also passed lots and lots of drying racks. Fishing is an important industry here, and another hold-over from days gone by is preserving fish through drying it. During the months between February and May the fish are caught, their heads are cut off for sale to Nigeria, and then a portion of the fish are hung on these racks to dry. They are taken down before dry weather and its bugs arrive.

Dried fish can be beaten with a hammer, broken into smaller pieces and eaten as-is. This is very popular with hikers or long-distance bike riders. Pam tried a sample the day we did our e-bike ride and did not like it. It tastes very…fishy. Go figure!

The fish can also be rehydrated and prepared just like you would a piece of fresh fish. It takes about a week to rehydrate, and can be done using water, milk, or a marinade. A dried fish marinade recipe you might have heard of is lutefisk. Did you know this traditional Christmas dish is made using actual LYE??? And it looks so harmless!

Someone asked how long the dried fish lasts. Our guide recounted a newspaper article about someone who’d found a 50-year-old piece of dried fish, ate it, and lived to tell the tale.

We needed to cross a bridge to get to our next island. These narrow, one-lane structures are the only place you will find a stop light in all of Lofoten. You can see the stoplight on our side as we wait our turn, and a light at the opposite end as people on the other side wait for us to cross. Our guide told us that they usually get about five feet of snow over the winter here, but in 2017 they got seven feet of snow in just 24 hours. This led to an avalanche which caused the main road and this bridge to be closed for three days. Babies were born at home kids were sledding on the rooftop, no one could get anywhere. Because of this they are planning to replace the bridge with a tunnel.

We continued our scenic drive until we reached the port where our catamaran was waiting to take us back to the ship.

It was not a day conducive to getting great pictures from the catamaran, but Ken braved the elements and got the best shots he could.

All in all Pam thinks he did pretty good!