Monday, August 7 - Leknes, Lofoton Islands, Norway

The ship arrived in Leknes around 7:00 a.m. However, before we arrived in port, I was out on the balcony admiring the scenery...

when I became aware of a seagull who was flying alongside me; at times I could almost touch him. He seemed to be having an exhilarating flight, and I kept trying to photograph him with the amazing scenery in the background.

The Lofoton Islands are characterized by dramatic scenery with granitic, craggy peaks and water everywhere.

The water never freezes and cod fishing takes place from January thru June.

Our first shore excursion was the "Tjonndalen Scenic Hike" from 9:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. with guides Andre and Ian. We loved this hike. Almost as soon as we began the hike, we were greeted by all manner of domestic animals, including a large herd of goats who were very curious about us:

(I thought it interesting to find a tiny home in the middle of nowhere...)

Cows:

Sheep:

We hiked for about 5 miles, with good elevation gain, past lovely scenes like this:

Occasionally we would be rewarded with glimpses of ocean:

You never know what you're going to find out in the middle of nowhere!

We hiked up to a radio tower, where there were beautiful views in all directions.

Someone was kind enough to take our picture for us!

Then we hiked back down...

Past more sheep...

Toward an area called Rolvsfjord!

Along the way I collected some wildflowers! The assortment included fireweed, bluebells, buttercups, cloud berries, and "old man's beard".

In Rolvsfjord, more sheep greeted us!

Note that there are trees growing from this entrance roof!

Here is the little cafe where we enjoyed an apple cake snack!

We enjoyed conversing with our guides. Andre was German, and Ian was a Swedish snowboarder.

We boarded the bus here and returned to the ship for lunch; I enjoyed some oriental food from the buffet.

Our "Panoramic Lofoton Bus Tour" took place from 2:45 p.m. - 5:15 p.m. It started raining immediately.

The bus tour stopped at some of the same spots we stopped at on the hiking tour.

This is one of my favorite photos, which shows off our new "Dale of Norway" sweaters and hats! Fireweed is in the background.

The best stop was high up on a hill where we had good views in all directions. We could see another cruise ship coming in...

and we even spotted some surfers in the ocean!

The scenery was very dramatic.

We had a lovely evening, treating ourselves to hot/cold treatments at the spa. We dressed up and enjoyed some drinks at the Explorer Bar as we watched the shoreline go by. We had dinner at "The Restaurant"; Brock ordered Halibut and I ordered Paella.

Here are some interesting tidbits about the Lofoton Islands:

• They are located about 100 miles North of the Arctic Circle;

• They have surprisingly mild winters, with average temps in the winter of -4 degrees Centigrade;

• They are surprisingly uninhabited and don't get that much snow.

• Fishermen make $200,000 - $300,000 per year for 6 months of work.

Brock enjoyed getting the exercise on this stop as well as the cool temps.