mike on tour: lofoten

Lofoten is an archipelago and a traditional district in the county of Nordland, Norway. Though lying within the Arctic Circle, the archipelago experiences one of the world's largest elevated temperature anomalies relative to its high latitude.Lofoten (Norse Lófót f) was originally the old name of the island Vestvågøya. The first element is ló 'lynx', the last element is derived from Norse fótr m 'foot'.The shape of the island must have been compared with a foot of a lynx.

Vågan (Norse Vágar) is the first known town formation in northern Norway. It existed in the early Viking Age, maybe earlier, and was located on the southern coast on eastern Lofoten, near today's village Kabelvåg in Vågan municipality. However, the Lofotr Viking Museum with the reconstructed 83 m long longhouse (the largest known) is located near Borg on Vestvågøy, which have many archeological finds from the Iron Age and Viking Age.

The islands have for more than 1,000 years been the centre of great cod fisheries, especially in winter, when the cod migrates south from the Barents Sea and gathers in Lofoten to spawn. Bergen in southwestern Norway was for a long time the hub for further export south to large parts of Europe, particularly so when trade was controlled by the Hanseatic League. In the lowland areas, particularly Vestvågøy, agriculture plays a significant role, as it has done since the Bronze Age.

Lofotr was originally the name of the island of Vestvågøy only. Later it became the name of the chain of islands. The chain of islands with its pointed peaks looks like a lynx foot from the mainland. In Norwegian, it is always a singular. Another name one might come across, is "Lofotveggen" or the Lofoten wall. The archipelago looks like a closed wall when seen from elevated points around Bodø or when arriving from the sea, some 100 km long, and 800-1,000 m. high.

i was looking forward to this one. i have heard just great things about the lofoten and the pictures following will tell it was what i hoped fore.

the streets on the lofoten takes you along the ocean, through valleys and over mountain riches. it is like island hoping you just drive from one island to the next one, but some hoe they are still all connected. one of the most beautiful drive i have done so fare.

of course there is a little bit architecture involved, but so fare i did pretty good to get around it ;-)

first night on the lofoten and it keeps getting better

i drove all the way

to the bottom of the lofoten

to the little village Å

the street is ending here and it is worth staying for a couple of days. it is a small and tiny, but i can tell you it makes up with the beauty. the houses are standing mostly half in the water half on rocks. there is not much of grass or dirt, shaped by the elements it is a power full, energy loaded part of this wonder full world.

i think there is not much of fishing going on here it seems like they changed to fishing tourist. still the stock fish is all over the place and the smell just fits to the place.

thousand of these dry little fishes all over. i want to take a picture of a man who was taking the stock fishes down, but he only replayed. you can take pictures of the fish but not of me. bloody tourist. probably would say the same if every five (bleppi) minutes the next idiot with his camera comes along.

the rest of the day i was hanging out on the beach and enjoyed the sound of the ocean and thinking about people i would love to have with me to share.

i looked for a spot to place my car and get ready for my hike the next day

yes i gonna hit you baby. good night

in the morning than it was time to see how long i can go straight up. sometimes i do ask myself why i am doing this to myself. straight a 800 m, through snow, mud and rocks.

yes i know. mike don't do hike this in sneakers.

often i really bit me in my a... not to be serious about things i do. hiking boots would have been definitely applicable ;-) but hey, all this worries about things like that, i does not MATTER. it pays out any way, you just have to do it. look at this few

and here i found my limit to hiking by myself. it was just another 20 m up but i was shitting my pans to do this with out any friends. fazit. not skilled enough and shit scared ;-)