London and 14-Day Arctic Circle Crossing: Edinburgh Evening Stay Holland America Cruise: Day 14 Leknes (Lofoten), Norway- Vestvågøy Island & the Viking Museum May 25, 2025

 

My husband K got up and headed off to the gym at 6:30. I managed to sleep until my 8:15 alarm. I'd been up several times during the night, but I slept okay.

When I looked outside at 8:30, the waves looked a bit rough and the weather looked threatening. But, 6 minutes later, there was some sun.

 

Our daughter J arrived at 9 and we went up to the Lido deck for breakfast. It was really hard to find a table and we wound up at the pool. I suppose everyone decided to sleep in, since we were arriving relatively late.

After breakfast, we got washed up and got our gear for the day. I noticed civilization out the window at 10:04. We were heading up what was probably a fjord to Lofoten.

  

 

10:30 found us waiting in the World Stage for the Vestvågøy Islands and the Viking Museum tour. We could not dock, so we were sent down to board a tender. It was 11:14 and there was wind and rain. It was 45°, but felt like 39°.

The trip in wasn't bad and we were off the tender at 11:29. At 11:33 we were on the bus with group Orange 23. Anuk was our guide and was from the Netherlands. Sana, the driver, was from France.

As we rode along, Anuk told us people like to hike in the Midnight Sun. She also said that fishing was the major employer using tiny vessels. It is now regulated how much they can catch. The cod is dried with the head and body separate. 

At noon, we reached the parking lot of Haukland beach, one of Norway's best beaches. It was not beach weather, but the water did look nice and the surrounding landscape was striking. We did walk down to the beginning of the sand, where I could pick up a couple of small seashells. There was a brand new snack bar in a building with new restrooms. The water there was nice and warm after a long wait in line.

 

We spent a lot of time up near that cafe, because of the wind and occasional rain. On the other side of the road was a bit of a farming community, complete with sheep.

 
To the left, as you looked at the farm was a tunnel. If you can't go under it, you must go through it. Unfortunately, we didn't get to use it.

Another interesting bit of landscape was some obvious subsidence to the right of the farm.

When we left at 12:25, the driver discovered that her intel that the road was open that was a more straight room was untrue. It was going to take a few minutes longer to get around due to the muddy ground.

 Our next stop was the Viking Museum Lofotr. We parked at 12:24 in the lot at the bottom of a steep hill. It was also raining a bit. Not fun, especially since we had to hustle, because we were late.

We got in at 1:10 and waited in the entry building that had the shop and food, while she got tickets. We then went through to the longest Viking house at 85m by 12m. It was a reconstruction, of course. It had been occupied for about 500 years. The family left when the first Norwegian King, Harald the Fairhaired appeared in the country. They hunted whale, seal and walrus. They collected feathers and stored fish. They had wealth. The chieftain emigrated when there was a king.

The longhouse was not nearly as empty as we'd seen in the video on YouTube at home. There were groups everywhere being talked to. We had to work our way around them. 

A docent talked to us a bit, telling us the above info. Then, we were set loose to look around, go see the museum down in the entry building, buy souvenirs, and get out to the bus by 2:15. There was no time for dilly dallying. Not optimal, but we had no choice.

Here are shots from in the longhouse. They lived and worked here and their animals were in here, too.

  

 

  We moved through the long house fairly fast. Back outside, it was not raining, which was good for taking photos of the view, the surroundings, the longhouse, and even the swine they kept, I guess for atmosphere.

By 1:40, we were down in the museum looking at the artifacts they've found. They had items they'd found in fire pits, shards of glass- a surprise to me-, beads, etc. I particularly liked seeing the clothes they would have worn. Some of the beads and such were acquired through trade down in the Mediterranean. Vikings were not always raiding and plundering. The axe head below is from the 800's A.D. The blue glass shards are from a bowl in the reticella technique from the 700's A.D.

  

 

In order to have any time in the shop, I really had to hurry. I managed to find a couple of things and J joined me. I pointed out a surprising item for sale- replicas of the Lewis Chessmen. I had seen the originals in the National Museum of Scotland and even bought a replica. The nms.ac.uk site says:

The style of the carving links the pieces to Norway. There is a similar chess piece from Trondheim, and the Lewis figures’ thrones are reminiscent of carving in medieval Norwegian churches. 

Most of the Lewis chess pieces are made from walrus ivory. This was probably obtained in Greenland and traded back to Norway. Two of the pieces in our collection (and three British Museum pieces) are different, carved from sperm-whale teeth.

 A quick pit stop and we were heading down the hill to the parking lot. Along the way, we saw horses to remind us that yes, the Vikings had them, At 2:10, I got one last shot of the longhouse.

 

We were on the bus at 2:15 and on the road two minutes later. My window seat afforded a chance to see the variety that is Norwegian housing. Very modern designs, but also a farm that could be in our Midwest if not for the mountain in the background. Really interesting.

 

  

At 2:40, we pulled into the parking lot of a small park with picnic benches and an incredible vista. We were able to see the port at Leknes with a cruise ship in the harbor, although we couldn't see ours. The mountains and clouds were breathtaking. The sun did try to peak through.

 

 

We left at 2:50. A few minutes later outside of Hol, I saw this amazing house, which I think might be part of a farm. Anyway, both it and an outbuilding had thatched roofs. And yet, the house looks pretty modern.

At 2:59, we were crossing an area where the tide had definitely gone out. Here, we saw our ship at anchor.

At 3:02, we reached the port. There was a little shop, which we visited before getting in line for the tender. It was spitting, while we were in line. The dock for the tender was actually floating. We were on the tender at 3:24.

At 3:37, we were parking by the ship and we were onboard 5 minutes later. We hadn't had lunch and we went directly to the Lido deck for a snack. Regular food wasn't out. So, insanely considering the temps, we had chocolate ice cream and Coke products. K managed to also find a pear.

We picked up a crossword to solve later. We also stepped out on the veranda to take photos of the Buknesfjorden, which was the water we were parked in. We also took note that it was the lifeboats on our side that were being used as tenders.

  

 

At 5, we were in the dining room for dinner. There was a bit of a Dutch/Indonesian theme and we tried to take advantage of it. For appetizers, we had bay shrimp cocktail, Westland salad (from a Dutch chef), and green pea soup.

Our entrees wer hodge podge klapstuk (Dutch recipe using brisket), bami goreng (Indonesian fried noodles), and beef tenderloin with mushrooms.

Dessert was great. There was an amazing Lindt chocolate tulip (a chocolate mousse), tompouce (a rectangular Dutch pastry featuring two layers of crispy puff pastry filled with yellow custard and topped with a smooth, sticky layer of pink or orange icing0. and Lindt chocolate fudge sundae with stroopwafel.

 

When we finished at 6:20, we went to the room and did the crossword. 

7:15 found us at Effy to get a brown crystal before going to our cabins for the night. 

At 7:24,  we hadn't set sail yet and I got these cool pictures of patches of sun on the shore.

 

These first two pictures were at 11:30 pm and 12:42 am, the latter being 1 minute after sunrise. The third was at 1:24am, 1 minute after polar sunrise. You'll note that there is not much difference.

 

My phone logged 7,158 steps for 2.8 miles and claimed I'd climbed 5 floors by the time I went to bed after the last photo.