VDM Fam-Trip Lofoten

End of April I accompanied 3 employees of our biggest French client to Lofoten. They had actually started their trip already on Vesterålen Islands together with my colleague Caroline since Tuesday. I joined them on Friday morning for the weekend.

Friday, 29th of April:
Regular SAS flight from Oslo to Bodø.

Arrival in Bodø at the same time as one of the Hurtigruten ships.

In Bodø, I changed on to one of those small propeller planes that took me to Leknes on Lofoten Islands. Those dark clouds didn't look too promising :-(

I was picked up by Caro and the 3 clients with the rental car we had for this trip. First stop: Statles Rorbusenter for lunch and a quick visit of the various rorbu types they offer.

Everywhere on Lofoten they still have the cod hanging on those wooden racks to dry. Winter is the cod fishing season. They hang up the catch to let it dry before exporting it as stockfish to the whole world. End of April one could still smell the scent (or stink - as you perceive it) of fish in the air.

After our lunch break we first had a quick shopping stop at the local supermarket. The next two days we had to rely on self-catering. The tourism high season on Lofoten hadn't really started yet and our overnight place for that weekend hadn't yet opened the restaurant for the season.

Once done with the groceries we headed towards Nusfjord to visit one of the oldest and best preserved fishing villages with long fishery traditions in Lofoten and to inspect some of the rorbu accommodations there.

Pretty cosy, I think!

Not far away from Nusfjord is one of the most beautiful beaches on Lofoten: Flakstad beach in Ramberg.

 

My colleague Caroline and me fooling around :-)

 

In the early evening we arrived in Reine. Upon arrival we are welcomed by a dozen of orcas swimming in the bay (difficult to get them on the camera, though).

Accommodation for the next two nights: 3 beautiful rorbuer at Reine Rorbuer.

 

After home made salmon dinner (very classical - and therefore a must for our clients on a tour through Norway) in the kitchen of one of the rorbuer, we had quite a funny and long evening à la "meet the locals". Drinking, dancing and singing with the local village population that totally dressed up for the event of the week: a miserable karaoke evening in the local, rather unspectacular bar which seemed to be THE meeting place that night.

Saturday, 30th of April:

Good morning! What a beautiful, sunny (start of the) day.

Initially in our programme there was a kayak tour planned in the morning. However, after having talked to the kayak guide who wasn't too optimistic about the wind conditions in the morning hours, we rescheduled the tour to the afternoon.
Therefore we started the day visiting Eliassen Rorbuer - another supplier we work with. Unfortunately, all their rorbuer were fully booked that date which inhibited us from visiting the accommodation facilities from inside. However, we could still show our clients the location and its surrounding.

Only a couple of kilometres from Eliassen lies Sakrisøya with yet another supplier of rorbu accommodation. On top of this, Sakrisøya is known for its famous fish burger take-away/restaurant and shop.

We headed further southwards on Lofoten Islands.
Shortly before the end of the road, we stopped at Tind, a little village with an agglomeration of just a hand full of rorbu. Our CEO Anette owns one of those rorbuer there which she rents out during summer season. Interesting product to sell and thus to see also for our French clients and thus worth a quick visit.

One more kilometre further, we reached the end of the road on Lofoten and thus at the "end" of Lofoten islands. We arrived at the village of Å (yes, this place has a name of just one letter!). All alone (seemed we were the only people in that village that day) we really had the feeling of being at the end of the world. A moment to relax in the sun and enjoy the silence and solitude.

Back at "home" in Reine, we showed our clients the popular Norwegian fast food lunch (in summer time): hot dog sausages grilled on a typical "engangsgrill" (single use BBQ) wrapped in hot dog rolls or "lompe" (a thin potato flour wrap).

Lunch time in the sun, on the terrace - just wonderful!

A short digestive nap!? Or just sun bathing?

Coffee someone? At this cute coffee shop that's actually very cosy inside?

After lunch we met again with Sandro from Reine Adventure, the guide for the kayak tour. Now he was more confident about going out on kayaks. He took us on a 2 hours tour around Reine and Sakrisøya. Beautiful!!! What a stunning surrounding!
While Caro shared a kayak with M., I shared one with A.-L. (E. opted out of this activity.)

What a pity though that the orcas didn't come back into that bay that day. Would have been to great of an experience to paddle with orcas!

In the evening, like the day before, we prepared some dinner and afterwards enjoyed the beautiful sunset - which, by the way, was not before 21:45 that far up in the Northern hemisphere!

 

Later at night we checked if our local "friends" from the village were at the pub again to have a couple of drinks.

Sunday, 1st of May:
Not easy to get up that early if you haven't slept that much...
Well, luckily there wasn't much on the programme anymore that day. We had breakfast, packed, checked out and headed to Leknes Airport for our return flight to Oslo - again with that small propeller aircraft to Bodø...

...and further on with the bigger plane to Oslo.

Though it was just 2-3 days, it was a great short trip with mostly great weather and a lot of fun together with our clients. It looked like also our clients really really enjoyed this trip - which was the scope of this tour. They seemed super enthusiastic about what they have seen and experienced. So hopefully that leads to an increases in their sales now :-)

P.S.: I used quite a few pictures taken by my colleague - she definitely had the better ones including all the selfies and group pictures. Merci for that, Caro :-)