Land at last!

There was a tangible sense of excitement amongst the passengers as the onboard screens showing in turn the locations of the four ships in the Fred Olsen fleet showed our location in between the Lofoten Islands and the mainland of Norway, but the cloud cover and limited visibility conspired to hide any coasts from us for some time.

Having seen nothing but sea and sky in every direction for four days now, we were ready for a change. Barbara rushed into the cabin saying that she'd spotted land, so I climbed as high as I could in the ship for the best view:

There were definitely islands, hills and mountains, partly obscured by cloud, but visible at last: 

 

 Then we spotted the harbour pilot approaching at high speed: 

I wasn't convinced he needed to be going that fast - showing off for our benefit I reckon. He swung round our aft at the same sort of speed, and before I had a chance to walk round there, he'd pulled alongside, offloaded the pilot and was off back to the harbour again. 

Many passengers were also admiring the views as we pulled into the tiny port of Leknes:

Plenty of views in every direction as the ship spun on the spot, ready to reverse into the relatively tiny jetty.

 

And very soon we were all securely tied to the jetty and being allowed onto terra firma.

 Various tours were going off in different directions; we'd chosen tour 'A', Nusfjord & Vestvagoy Museum. The buses were already waiting for us so once we were all aboard our assigned bus, we set off around these charming islands with our local young lady describing everything in perfect English. 

Lots of charming fishing villages:

And glacial valleys:

And then we rolled into Nusfjord:

Much of the fish caught is apparently dried out on racks to form the local speciality, lutefisk. These remaining specimens were left out for the tourists!

From a rocky prominence, the harbour is particularly pretty:

There were small and pretty things as well:

Then  Bernadette (Didier & Bernadette are our evening dining companions) came along while I was taking a photo of Barbara through the door of the old cod liver oil factory:

Next stop was the Vestvagoy Museum with a typical fisherman's hut roofed with turf and built to sleep 24 men sleeping three to a bunk!

There was a nice view across the bay to the ship as we walked back to the bus:

Then we stopped a few more times to admire the views .....

Including the ship:

And again .....

Our ship again, a bit closer now.

And then back to the ship and off into the night, such as there is up at these latitudes. Next stop Tromso.....