Day 13 (4th of July): Trondheim -> Lofoten

We got up for breakfast & it was probably the best one so far on the trip. Pretty much anything you could want including a chef making omelettes. I had a local sausage meat put in mine. My coffee was definitely the best from a hotel setting. My second course after bacon, bread, & omelette was pancakes with Nutella, a cinnamon twist roll, & pan au chocolat.

The Britannia hotel has art exhibited all over all of the shared floors common to restaurants, the gym, conference areas, etc. The main artist right now is Elling Reitan who has lots of colorful pieces of work.

We packed for the airport and drove 40 minutes mostly along road construction. They are widening the highway between Trondheim and the airport. This involves carving about 10 tunnels through the mountains along the route. We got through security with extra liquids in the bags. Then I saw our propeller plane. Two flights from Trondheim to our small airport (Bodø then Leknes) on the Lofoten islands on this size plane that holds about 20-30 passengers.

From Jill's texts:

There's some NatGeo teen tour going from Bodo to the Lofoten Islands on our flight. 

They're having a meeting at the terminal to discuss food shopping and logistics. It took 5 minutes to get them to come together for "the meeting". 

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The person at the gate said to the teens "you're children so you can board". The teen closest was surprised but then agreed so they could get on in front of most of the people waiting. We snuck in right in front of them & watched the boarding pandemonium happen. Bags not fitting in overhead. Bags under seat ok unless you're in exit row. This flight took far longer to board.

Widerøe airlines gave us a chocolate square along the way on each flight. Now welcome to the arctic circle!

We drove to Hattvika Lodge where we are staying for a few nights. We have kayaking & hiking planned with the guide here. This is a small fishing village that we walked around in before dinner. Towards the end of the walk, Jill decided she was going to jump into the water today. The temp is about 10C (50F) and the swimmer Marc said no thanks today and likely tomorrow.

We walked over to the restaurant & chose the 5 course tasting menu for the evening. Our kayak and hiking guide (Roland) walked up to our table to discuss timing & conditions tomorrow for the kayak. Looking out the windows from the restaurant after 8pm looks like about 4pm in the summer from Seattle. It's weird to think tonight the sun 🌞 will not be setting.

We had a small bite with Klippfisk before the tasting menu. The first course had arctic char which was good. Jill had a langoustine dish while they made me a pea soup that was great. Then we had a dish with a roughhead fish that wasn't bad but not a favorite for me. This was followed by a lamb dish. What a savory finish.

We enjoyed the rest of our red wine & our server suggested a pour of an issider local beverage based on apple that pairs well with our milk & honey based dessert.

This last image was taken @ midnight with blue skies!