The day starts with a nice warm bath - one has to take the opportunity of having a bath tub in the hotel!
Harstad is the only harbour along the Hurtigruten road along Norway's west coast, where a southwards and a northwards going ship meet - at 08:00 a.m. I had view over the harbour from our room so I took a picture.
Finally breakfast!
View from our room over the town (or rather roof tops) of Harstad.
We would have loved to stroll through the town and visit the Adolfkanonen, but since Engelbert suddenly suffered from a "conjunctivitis" we had to spend the morning hours in Harstad's hospital. They examined Engelbert's eyes, prescribed some medicine and everything was alright again so we could leave towards Stokmarknes.
On the way we pass at Kåringen Senter, another place where we send groups from us for lunch.
Shortly before arriving in Stokmarknes, we see already our boat "Nordlys" which left (as one of the two boats) in the morning Harstad and stops now at its next harbour Stokmarknes.
We go on board the boat which takes us on a 3 hours cruise through the narrow Raftsund/Trollfjord to Svolvær.
On the Hurtigruten boats there is only little space for cars. And those few cars that are booked on it find their place right next to the freight down in the belly of the boat where they get by taking a little lift.
The Hurtigruten museum in Stokmarknes, state of birth of Hurtigruten.
It's 15:15 and we leave the harbour of Stokmarknes for an amazing trip through a breathtaking landscape in combination with incredible lighting conditions - which for an amateur photographer are difficult to catch on pictures. But I tried.
We drive into the Trollfjord. The Trollfjord is a 2 km long sidearm of the Raftsund between the archipelagos of Lofoten and Vesterålen. The mouth of the Trollfjord where it joins the Raftsund is only 100 meters wide. The fjord widens to a maximum width of 800 meters. The mountains surrounding Trollfjord are between 600 to 1100 metres high.
The big Hurtigruten boats go in there... and actually turn the whole ship in that narrow fjord - quite a delicate manoeuvre...
...where the ship nearly touches the flanking mountain walls.
On the way out...
... towards destination Svolvær.
Arrival in Svolvær.
A stroll through town...
... passing also the Rica Hotel Svolvær, which we use for our groups as well.
We continue 30 minutes by car to our final destination for the day, to Henningsvær...
... a small, typical and well preserved fishing village.
We check in to our cosy hotel, Henningsvær Bryggehotell,...
...before enjoying our evening meal on a nice spot somewhere outside the hotel.
No comments:
Post a Comment