Today, I dragged Bill out of bed at 0800 local time so we could make it to a sea kayaking trip I'd set up a couple days ago. He was unenthusiastic about getting out of bed. Wait until he hears what time we're getting up tomorrow.
The local kayak tour company said today was the last trip they were doing this year, and it turned out we were the only people booked. The weather was perfect and we didn't have to share the experience with other tourists, fantastic! Since I rarely get to take my kayak out, and Bill has only been in one a few times, we opted for the double kayak. This kayak also had a steering rudder, which was new to me. Steering worked by pressing foot pedals, like a helicopter.
I completely neglected to give Bill the rules when we first got in, but he picked up quickly:
1. Front seat sets the paddling pace and calls out obstacles.
2. Back seat steers and calls out if they need help with a turn.
The guide, Peter, took us out of the harbor, navigating through the wakes of the few other boats out today. We wandered between several small stone islands, eventually approaching the larger island at a mountain named after a troll. The legend says he went fishing one night, and a northwest wind caught his vessel, making him late to get back to the island. He was climbing the mountain when the sun came out and turned into stone. Or, at least, that's the story the guide told.
Next we went into a bay where one of the oldest villages on the island used to be. Only 2 houses are there now, and one is a fairly new construction. This is because when people moved to Henningsvær, they took apparent their wooden houses and rebuilt them because lumber was so hard to come by.
Henningsvær is spread across a few islands, and until the 1980's was only accessible by ferry. Eventually they build the 1 lane bridges used today to drive there. The piers where the ferry parked on the larger island and on Henningsvær are still visible, with the city side one right next to our apartment.
After three hours of paddling about in the ocean, we were ready for a quick snack and to finally purchase the picture Bill had picked out yesterday. The photographer was at the shop today, and told us that the most recent street art on the island is about 3 years old, and much of it has faded with the weather or been lost to construction projects.
Next, we hit the cafe again for coffee and macaroons before wandering to the last part of Henningsvær we hadn't walked to. That turned out to include another International Arts Festival building, so Bill was subjected to yet more modern art.
The bottom floor was showing a film exploring race and class through the history of Memphis from MLK's assassination through modern day racial disparities and musings on cyborgs. The second floor had a 90 minute video of a guy in a suite at a desk smashing things. People would bring him some random object (toy dinosaur, wooden box, egg, water bottle, keyboard) and he'd smack it with a rock until it was sufficiently broken, sweep it off the desk, sign and stamp a receipt and hand the receipt over to the person. There are a lot of inaccessible pieces in this show, but this was pretty clearly a meditation on bureaucracy and institutionalized violence. I was very disappointed when I googled to find a clip to link to and discovered that the artist has been falsely claiming to be 1/4 Cherokee, prompting a letter earlier this year from tribal representatives calling him out for violating the Indian Arts and Crafts Act. Weirdly none of this was mentioned in the program, which in other places makes claims about the importance of preserving and valuing indigenous peoples.
This was the last building for the art show. Overall, it was interesting to see what is essentially a single exhibit spread over so many smaller locations in an island village with great views. There is already a modern art museum in Henningsvær, so it's not as out of place a show as it might be in other small villages. At the same time, the collection is extremely heavy on film based experiences, which I have the least interest in. Basically, I want to interact with art on my terms and in my own time, and these pieces, by format, force me to experience them on the artist's terms while demanding large lengths of my time. And this is the view they're competing with:
For dinner, we went back to Fiskekrogen so I could try the whale and the lamb dishes. The smoked minke whale was quite interesting and considerably better than the cut we had in Iceland. The lamb was good, but not quite as good as the lamb Bill had last night. The mashed potatoes were heaven. No room was saved for dessert.
Much later in the evening, we went back out to the south end of the island to catch the northern lights. Predictions were for less activity than the previous night, but I had a tripod attached to the smart digital camera and still caught a few. We also tried spotting them behind one of the cafes that hosted LIAF with little success. Accurate forcasting.
The local kayak tour company said today was the last trip they were doing this year, and it turned out we were the only people booked. The weather was perfect and we didn't have to share the experience with other tourists, fantastic! Since I rarely get to take my kayak out, and Bill has only been in one a few times, we opted for the double kayak. This kayak also had a steering rudder, which was new to me. Steering worked by pressing foot pedals, like a helicopter.
I completely neglected to give Bill the rules when we first got in, but he picked up quickly:
1. Front seat sets the paddling pace and calls out obstacles.
2. Back seat steers and calls out if they need help with a turn.
The guide, Peter, took us out of the harbor, navigating through the wakes of the few other boats out today. We wandered between several small stone islands, eventually approaching the larger island at a mountain named after a troll. The legend says he went fishing one night, and a northwest wind caught his vessel, making him late to get back to the island. He was climbing the mountain when the sun came out and turned into stone. Or, at least, that's the story the guide told.
Next we went into a bay where one of the oldest villages on the island used to be. Only 2 houses are there now, and one is a fairly new construction. This is because when people moved to Henningsvær, they took apparent their wooden houses and rebuilt them because lumber was so hard to come by.
Henningsvær is spread across a few islands, and until the 1980's was only accessible by ferry. Eventually they build the 1 lane bridges used today to drive there. The piers where the ferry parked on the larger island and on Henningsvær are still visible, with the city side one right next to our apartment.
After three hours of paddling about in the ocean, we were ready for a quick snack and to finally purchase the picture Bill had picked out yesterday. The photographer was at the shop today, and told us that the most recent street art on the island is about 3 years old, and much of it has faded with the weather or been lost to construction projects.
Next, we hit the cafe again for coffee and macaroons before wandering to the last part of Henningsvær we hadn't walked to. That turned out to include another International Arts Festival building, so Bill was subjected to yet more modern art.
The bottom floor was showing a film exploring race and class through the history of Memphis from MLK's assassination through modern day racial disparities and musings on cyborgs. The second floor had a 90 minute video of a guy in a suite at a desk smashing things. People would bring him some random object (toy dinosaur, wooden box, egg, water bottle, keyboard) and he'd smack it with a rock until it was sufficiently broken, sweep it off the desk, sign and stamp a receipt and hand the receipt over to the person. There are a lot of inaccessible pieces in this show, but this was pretty clearly a meditation on bureaucracy and institutionalized violence. I was very disappointed when I googled to find a clip to link to and discovered that the artist has been falsely claiming to be 1/4 Cherokee, prompting a letter earlier this year from tribal representatives calling him out for violating the Indian Arts and Crafts Act. Weirdly none of this was mentioned in the program, which in other places makes claims about the importance of preserving and valuing indigenous peoples.
This was the last building for the art show. Overall, it was interesting to see what is essentially a single exhibit spread over so many smaller locations in an island village with great views. There is already a modern art museum in Henningsvær, so it's not as out of place a show as it might be in other small villages. At the same time, the collection is extremely heavy on film based experiences, which I have the least interest in. Basically, I want to interact with art on my terms and in my own time, and these pieces, by format, force me to experience them on the artist's terms while demanding large lengths of my time. And this is the view they're competing with:
For dinner, we went back to Fiskekrogen so I could try the whale and the lamb dishes. The smoked minke whale was quite interesting and considerably better than the cut we had in Iceland. The lamb was good, but not quite as good as the lamb Bill had last night. The mashed potatoes were heaven. No room was saved for dessert.
Much later in the evening, we went back out to the south end of the island to catch the northern lights. Predictions were for less activity than the previous night, but I had a tripod attached to the smart digital camera and still caught a few. We also tried spotting them behind one of the cafes that hosted LIAF with little success. Accurate forcasting.
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