Day 4: Lofoten - Travel to Henningsvaer

We got an early start today, because today is a travel day.  Time to say goodbye to Stockholm, Sweden and hello to Henningsvaer, Norway.  Henningsvaer is in the Lofoten islands north of the arctic circle.  To get there we take the train from Stockholm to the airport, then take a flight from Stockholm to Oslo.  Then a second flight from Oslo to Bodo, and lastly a third flight from Bodo to Leknes.  What surprised me is that the first two flights were only about half full.  Plenty of empty the seats.  The last flight was 24 minute flight in a large-ish prop plane that was filled to capacity.  I guess the lesson is to not underestimate the draw of the Lofoten islands.  

Leknes has a very small airport.  One gate small.  We get our bags and notice that there isn’t anyone at the Avis desk.  I call the number on at the desk and a man answers the phone.  I explain that I’m at the airport to pickup a car and he says that it’s booked for 6:00 pm and he is about 15 minutes away, but is currently on his way.  I tell him we’re happy to wait.  When he arrives we sign some paperwork and get the car.  The rental is a very modern Peugeot SUV.  Sat-nav, backup cameras, everything you could want.  

We punch in the address of our AirBnB into the sat-nav and set off.  While waiting for the Avis guy Dawn and talked about their being two routes we could take: a scenic one or the direct one.  The direct one was a whole 6 minutes faster so we opted for the scenic one.  Once we got the car and punched in the address that conversation was forgotten and evidently the car selected the direct one… which wasn’t 6 minutes faster.  In fact, about 5 minutes from the airport we hit standstill traffic because of an accident followed by slow traffic because of road construction.  Once we got past all of that my primary problem was actually watching the road because the scenery around the car was breathtaking…. But the roads are small and windy, plus full of blind corners and shenanigans.  More than once we had to cross big arching concrete bridges that are evidently single lane affairs that are managed by traffic lights.  I won’t lie, I was super nervous my first time driving on the island.  I hope I get more comfortable with practice.

Once we got to Henningsvaer and found someplace to park, we dropped our bags off in the AirB&B.  It’s a little smaller than the photos led me to imagine, but much larger than our last hotel, which as a bit on the tiny side.  We took a short stroll around the town and bought some groceries so that we’d have breakfast in the morning.  After that we ate dinner at the local hotel/pub which was the only open restaurant we saw.  The menu had several options, but they all featured fish, butter, and cream in various ratios.  Dawn got the fish soup and I got a carrot and bacon stew that had fish on it.