Day 11 Monday, March 9th Lofoten Islands and Stokmarknes

After the excitement and activity of yesterday, we had a more leisurely time today.  We were later down for breakfast and the weather did not look very bright.  We were now alongside the Lofoten Islands and some people had got off at an earlier stop for a tour.  After breakfast we went to a lounge to watch the boat's progress and catch up with the blog and knitting.  

Risoyhamn

We stopped at a pretty little port of Risoyhamn and took some photos.  We were soon underway and the coastline as usual was spectacularly

Church isolated on the coast

beautiful with the odd hamlet along it.  We were soon approaching Sortland with its bridge which eventually connects to the mainland - the Norwegians certainly have exceptional infrastructure.  As we went 

lovely coastal valley

under the bridge coaches from the boats tour timed it so they would go over it and the ship blasted its

under the bridge with coach on top

hooter at the same time as the coaches blasted their horns. 

 



the bridge at Sortland

We docked and picked 

typical coastal church 

the people up and were soon underway.  It was raining a lot and so we stayed indoors and enjoyed lunch.   We were going down some narrow channels with the cliffs near to the boat and we couldn't go down Trollfjord because there was too much wind.  

narrow channel

(We have happy memories and photos from our previous visit)  Eventually we came out of the shelter of the islands and into open sea.  The boat began to move a bit which wasn't too good for some people.  We arrived at Stokmarknes at about 1430.  Stokmarknes is the home of Hurtigruten and there is a museum of the company's history.  Unfortunately we were delayed in getting off the 

exiting on the car ramp!

boat because of problems with the gangway and we had to leave the boat via 

murky, windy weather

the car ramp which was a much slower process.  Eventually we got off but had a much reduced time to visit the museum.  It resulted in a quick tour but I feel we could have benefitted from better timings and a longer visit as there seemed to be quite a lot of nautical interest.  The gangway was fixed when we returned and we were soon leaving the port again.  The weather had not improved, it was murky, raining and windy but we were safe and dry inside.

We did not go outside again but for the rest of the day enjoyed the cosiness and hospitality of the boat.