Our stay in Leknes was very short and limited to its airport. The airport is extremely small, so after walking five metres we got our luggage, five metres more and we got our rental car. Finally, five metres more and we were in the parking! This time we got a Toyota Verso, quite a big and complicated car, with a lot of lights in the dashboard. After driving just 50 kilometres, we arrived at Henningsvaer, our first destination.
Henningsvaer is known as one of the most beautiful villages in Lofoten by every travel guide in the world. Bridges connecting it to the other islands were only built in the eighties, so one can say that it has been isolated until recently. As we drove through it, it was completely full of tourists, out of control, going from one side to the other of the road. It was quite an stressful drive of just two kilometres.
Our accommodation was used during winter by some fishermen and the smell of fish could be really felt there (so much that I had to throw away some shoes for the shower because the smell they got was unbearable). That evening we decided just to go for a walk and to sit in front of the sea and relax. After some minutes, we saw something bright under the water and we thought it could be some kind of plastic sunken buoy under water. After some minutes, we realised that it was a medusa, approaching us with only God knows which intentions... It was really big and scary: a very persuasive invitation not to swim there.
The next day, though, I managed to get my legs into the Atlantic Ocean, in a beach on our way to Andenes, the most northern village in Andoy island. I have to admit that the water was not so cold as I expected (remember we were around parallel 68º North), maybe less cold than in Iceland, two years ago.The trip to Andenes was quite nice, crossing a lot of islands and with always scenic landscape. In Andenes, we rented a very nice apartment, for our own use for two nights. It was an invitation to be at home as much as possible, and we enjoyed our days there a lot.
In Andenes, we could feel the fact that there was no darkness in the whole day: there is the same light from 8pm till 8am. It is quite a strange sensation, the mind (at least, mine) knows that something is not normal, it keeps on like waiting for darkness to come, but... Thanks to the mask that I took with me, I could sleep during our days in Norway.
We had also booked a whale watching trip in Andenes. When we went there, the crew was hesitating about the conditions of the sea but they finally decided to sail. Bad decision, since soon more than half of us were vomiting (I was one of the tough guys there) and one man even had to be taken to the hospital in ambulance. In the end, the majority of us just wanted to come back, without caring at all about whales. The crew should feel they did something wrong because they gave our money back without any question. This is the second time I try to watch whales (first one in Iceland) with limited success, will there be a third time?On the way to Tromso, final destination of our trip in Norway, we took a ferry to Grellyfjord (the ferry was moving also, but the situation did not reach the critical levels of the previous day with the whale watching), which turned out to be quite a nice fjord, whose water is of a beautiful colour turquoise (see picture below). From there, we drove through forests and hills to Tromso, with a lot of traffic signs warning drivers against mooses, but we did not meet any. In this area you can really find that nature is really hostil to the human being.
Tromso was our final destination in Norway and we did not make much there. Honestly speaking, the city has not so much to offer (somebody called it "Paris of the North", probably one day he was totally drunk). It is a starting point for further expeditions to the North Pole, but in our case it was the starting point to the way back to Frankfurt, via Oslo. As final picture, you can see a Hurtigruten boat going under the bridge in Tromso, probably the most interesting attraction in the city.
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