Norway Day 4: Exploring The Fjords and Svolvaer

​Today we had a great day with perfect weather exploring around the small town of Svolvaer.

We started out with an excellent breakfast - which we will talk about more tomorrow (teaser).

Around 8:45 we boarded our “Fjord Explorer cruise and safari” - a big name for our three hour boat trip out into the fjords around town.  The scenery was spectacular - with huge peaks, very charming little red fishing cabins, fall colors and, surprisingly, turquoise water.  Truly lovely!

An added bonus was the presence of many white-tailed “sea” eagles.  On the islands at the entrance to the fjord, they were mostly just hanging out on the rocks, but later when we got into Trollsfjord, they were circling above us and calling to one another.  It was fun to see so many, especially since the season is over.

Trollsfjord was especially beautiful - a relatively short and narrow fjord, with beautiful rocks and cliffs, lots of eagles, and a small hydro electric generator at the end. We enjoyed the story the guide told us about the troll family that used to live there when it was as lake, but the father troll got mad and broke the mountain with his axe, creating the fjord.

We had a yummy lunch of sweet potato soup and black bread on the boat - especially delicious after spending the whole morning in the sun and the wind.

In the return trip we passed another group of islands with even more eagles, and at that point the guide told us that the eagles had been hunted by local fisher men until there was only a population of about 300 pairs left.  Norway banned hunting in the late 1960s and now the population has recovered in Northern Norway to about 3000 pairs.

After the cruise we headed our for a walk to see the statue of the Fisherman’s Wife at the end of the breakwater.  It was a fun walk on a beautiful day.  We passed a lot of old fishing industry and shopping industry buildings, as well as many many huge triangular racks for drying cod. 

We also passed a series of WWII German bunkers and gun embankments that were put in place after the Norwegian resistance destroyed a fish oil plant.  It was interesting to see how thoroughly the Germans built up defenses in this tiny little fishing village. However, although there was a strong German military presence in the town, after the initial battles, the soldiers there saw no more action.

The statue of the Fisherman’s wife  at the end of the breakwater is cool.  We saw it from the boat as well - from that perspective it was easier to see her gestures.

We got back from our hike around 4 and after a rest went out for a short walk before dinner.  We visited an old church, which is built on the only hill in an otherwise flat town, and is therefore visible from EVERYWHERE.  We also visited a couple of cool art objects behind the church.

Then we joined the group for a nice dinner.