Our second place to stay in Lofoten was at Hamnøya, a tiny island with fishing cottages and boat houses converted to places where tourists could stay for a few days (or weeks). Hamnøya is the island to the right in the first picture above here. The sun is out and shining on the clouds but haven’t quite reached the mountains and islands yet.
One main road, the E10, connects all the islands through a number of bridges and tunnels. The image below shows the bridge between Hamnøya and the next island to the southwest, Toppøya. I was actually standing on that bridge, when I took the first two pictures and you can still see a couple of photographers on the bridge.
The small rorbuer, cottages, were covered in snow. We lived in one of those, when we stayed at Hamnøya. And behind the rorbuer the mountain of Olstind is towering above the houses.
Originally the fishing industry was the main provider for the inhabitants of Lofoten. To preserve the fish (cod) they hanged them to dry and they could be preserved for a year and more in that state. They had to be reconstituted by putting in water and brine again. We have something similar in Western Sweden and eat it on Christmas Eve, but I have never learnt to appreciate it. But in Norway it is regarded as a true delicatessen!
They hang the cod on special racks and the photo below shows such a rack. Two months later, sometime in March or April (the image was captured late January), those racks will again be full of fish hanging to dry. The smell can be felt far away!
Notice how low on the horizon the sun is. The image was captured at 10:30 am, and the sun has hardly succeeded to climb above the horizon and will not reach much higher before it turns down again.
