After an uneventful day of roaming around Oslo with a one-day transport card, seeing all the things I’ve missed in my last visit last year, it was time to head to the Lofoten area.
It was a very early morning for a Sunday, and after grabbing some breakfast at the hotel, I was heading to the airport on the local train. We were delayed for about 20 minutes on the tracks for some reason. As all the announcements were in Norwegian I could not really tell why. That might be the case I have arrived to the airport with plenty of time.
The concept of self-check in is taken to its maximum absurdity in Oslo airport. I really do not like much the idea that seems to be common in the European airports of self-printing luggage tags. After I’ve printed my tags I still had to stand in line to drop the luggage and spend 10 long minutes with the check in agent trying to override the fee on the second bag, as the system did not want to acknowledge that as TK *G I don’t need to pay. Once that was over it was time to pass through security.
Although the lines are shorts and the agents are courteous, they were in full search mode and literally took my camera bag completely apart. Every len, every camera, every piece of cord was taken out to be scanned independently. I admit that my bag is packed full and compact, but I have never seen such scrutiny.
SAS operates a lounge in the domestic part of the airport as well, although I guess the word lounge is a bit of an overkill. There is no dragon in the domestic lounge, so better be sure your boarding pass has *G designation on it as otherwise the automatic gates will just won’t let you in. The lounge is really a second story above the departure gats with very limited offering. Something that would make United Club proud I guess (so you can understand the standards). WiFi though was free and fast.
There is not much to tell about SAS domestic flight and the OSL-BOO section was uneventful as it comes. My pre-selected exit row seat never vanished from the reservation and the extra leg space was appreciated.
The next section BOO-LKN was far more interesting. This is really a local bus services for the locals around. There is no assigned seating (so I had to vacate the exit row because my bag was under the seat – they are very strict about that). And on the way to Leknes we had a stop to drop off some people and get others in Røst, which is really an airport with a small island attached to it (population 605). As such the flight was in low altitude and very scenic.
We were staying in Reine which is almost at the edge of the Lofoten and one of the most amazing places to photograph. Every corner you’ll turn there will be a photograph waiting to be taken. Half of the group had stayed in the Guesthouse Det Gamle Hotellet which is run by the wonderful Lillian, a Dutch settled in Reine and where we had all out (home cooked and wonderful) meals. I, and half of the group were staying just across the road in traditional fisherman huts. As fishing lost its glory days, a lot of those huts are being converted into lodging and you can see them all over the Lofoten.
Those huts though are extremely basic. The beds were really one-person bunk beds, and the internal rooms for each person are small, but cozy. The bath room is shared, and there is a common area. Unfortunately, despite having a router on the ceiling it was inoperable for all of our stay expect for random couple of minutes a day. T-mobile free international roaming was a life saver, with constant connection at reasonable speeds.
We were very lucky to see the Northern Lights in our first evening in town, and it was a magnificent display. This however, was the only time I’ve seen it in the two and half weeks of the entire trip.
Some more pictures from the Lofoten for your viewing pleasure:
