Our hotel in Tromso, the Clarion Collection.
We had breakfast in our hotel and then went next door to the other hotel, where we had originally made our reservation, to meet up with the others who had arrived on the Hurtigruten ferry at midnight. It was good to see them all again and to hear about their time in Honningsvag, which included a fishing trip. They caught lots of fish and then had them cooked at the fisherman's house. I'll post some of Bob's photos when I get hold of his SD card.
We left Tromso at around 9.30am for the 400kms drive to Svolvaer. The road was more or less due south and ran through more stunning scenery. Here are a few photos taken on the journey. Sorry if they appear similar to ones from previous days, but the scenery is so spectacular I just have to post more of the same each day!!
At one point, we saw a sign pointing off the main road to a memorial for the Battle of Narvik, which took place in 1940 at the beginning of the Second World War. We discovered that the Germans suffered their first defeat of the war in this engagement.
Apparently, there are six of these memorials, placed at particular locations of the campaign and we soon came across the second. To get to this memorial we had to walk through deep snow.
We then turned off the E6 and took a wonderful side road that ran alongside one fjord after another. At the beginning of the road there was this amazing waterfall. It was very, very close to a house and I wondered how anyone could live there with such a roar from the water rushing past the back door 24 hours a day!
Near to the waterfall was our third memorial to the Battle of Narvik. This one was particularly poignant as it listed the names of a Norwegian company of men who had been killed by the Germans as the Germans were retreating and came across the Norwegians by surprise. It was the greatest number of Norwegian casualties suffered in one action in the Second World War.
If you click on the photo above to enlarge it, you will see that the unit involved in the fighting were from Alta, the town we stayed in a few days ago.
We walked down to the shore of the fjord and by it was an old grass-covered barn with two oystercatchers on the ridge of the roof, with a seagull nearby. They were making a 'hell of a racket' and I wondered if they had a nest on the roof and were trying to scare off the gull.
As we continued around this particular fjord, we came to another memorial, at a village called Laberg. This one was not for the Battle of Narvik, but for the victims of a shipping tragedy in 1939. A seal-hunting boat that sailed from Norway to Newfoundland was lost at sea and everyone on board perished.
While we were looking at the names and where they were from, a local Norwegian stopped and came over to us. He was a 75 year old retired teacher, who had lived all his life in Laberg and was now a fisherman. He told us that an uncle and a cousin of his were amongst the victims. A second sealing boat had also sunk but all the crew were saved. The brief conversation we had with him was another one of those small but memorable moments from this wonderful trip.
The drive along route 825 was almost as good, but not quite, as the drive we had a couple of days ago from Alta to Tromso: magnificent scenery with mountains and fjords alternating as we drove along the twisting road. It was time to stop for lunch and we pulled over to the side of the fjord where, as luck would have it, there was this strange sculpture on the rocks by the sea. It was called The Seven Magic Points. We tried to work out if the name was related to the number of mountains surrounding the fjord but couldn't quite make it exactly seven!
The sculpture was done by a Finnish man, or is it a woman, Marti Aiha in 1994.
We were now just at the beginning of the Lofoten Islands and it was interesting to see how very green the landscape had become. I presume this is as a result of the Gulf Stream, which makes the sea comparatively warm.The water in the fjords was often like a mirror giving us wonderful photos of the reflections of the snowy mountains.
As you drive down the chain of islands, there are tunnels linking them, with one tunnel being 6 kms in length. It's a fantastic drive and definitely another highlight of the Baltic tour for us all. Here we are about to enter one of the tunnels.
We reached Svolvaer, the capital of the Lofoten Islands, at about 4pm. Our hotel, the Rica, is on a small island and to get to it you have to drive across a short causeway. We have a wonderful view from our room, looking at houses at the water's edge and mountains in the background. Life could not be much better!!
Looking back across the causeway towards the centre of Svolvaer.
In the evening, we had another expensive Norwegian meal. Will we ever get used to the high cost of living here? Adding to the fun of the meal was the fact that Kenny couldn't find anything he liked on the menu. As there was a pizza bar next door, which we thought was part of our restaurant, we tried to get a pizza for him. This caused all sorts of problems and the poor waitress came back saying the chef refused to allow Kenny to eat pizza in his restaurant! I made a fuss, which perhaps I shouldn't have done and, in the end, the waitress said she would cook it herself! Whether she did or not, I don't know, but back she came a few minutes later with an enormous pizza. We made sure she got a good tip for her efforts.
We have three nights here, so that we have time to explore the islands, before we take the Hurtigruten ferry south to Trondheim.
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