By train to the Northern Lights - From Ramberg to Svolvær

प्रकाशित: 19.10.2023

The bus ride from Ramberg to Svolvær, the capital of the Lofoten Islands, went by quite quickly. 2 hour journey, changing once in Leknes. The scenery was beautiful, but it rained constantly. In Svolvær I was confused for a moment because there were two hotels called Thon Hotel, both near the bus stop. But I found the difference and checked into the right one. I've stayed in many similar hotels in this price range, but this is one of my favorites so far. It's the details that matter. So I found a Bose box in my room and the view was magnificent. But best of all was the breakfast. I have never had a better hotel. The in-house restaurant is also excellent.

My hotel right at the harbor. When I travel, I like the contrast between a lonely hut in nature, a mid-range hotel in the city and an (appealing) hostel.
Feel-good room.
My favourite place. I often sat here and wrote a blog, listened to music and looked outside.
The highlight in my room - the Bose box. On the first evening, as I was listening to music, an Abba song suddenly started. Apparently some neighbor had accidentally (or intentionally) connected to my box. Abba of all people 😂

However, on the first evening I ate sushi again - vegan. Although I don't fully understand why there is often no intermediate between meat and vegan. The night was excellent and so was the breakfast - as already mentioned.

The warm food. There was also some vegetarian options.
I've never had such a large selection for breakfast. In addition to the standard things, there were also really crazy and exclusive things.

Since I had booked a Northern Lights tour for the evening, I used the day to relax, write a blog, read and take a short walk through the city. I was hoping to get a really nice Norwegian sweater here, but somehow I haven't found anything tasteful in Norway yet.

I have no idea what that is, but it looks nice.
The port of Svolvær.

There were also eider ducks swimming around there.
They pulled something up from the seabed and swallowed it whole. Maybe a sea urchin or some kind of mollusk.

And a guillemot (in plain dress) also swam in the harbor and dived for food.
I also explored the hotel because the weather that day wasn't exactly conducive to spending a long time outdoors. The view from the 10th floor.

In the evening our tour guide called and asked if it was possible for us to postpone the Northern Lights tour to the next day as the weather conditions were quite bad. Unfortunately, if it's too cloudy, you won't be able to see the northern lights. I almost expected that. But that suited me quite well as I had booked a sea eagle and Trollfjord tour for the next morning and I would have more sleep that way. So I went to the restaurant in the hotel that had been laughing at me the whole time. The food was incredibly good and, above all, tastefully prepared with attention to detail. This is how food should be. And I'm happy to pay a little more for that.

Delicious fish soup.
And the dessert called Snowball.

The next morning I went on a tour that would lead to the sea eagles and the so-called Trollfjord. I found out in advance that the animals were specially fed so that they could be photographed better. I tried to find an agency that doesn't do this, but in vain. The only provider that sounded quite reasonable only offers its “silent tours” until the beginning of October. Apparently no one really questions things like that, which is a shame. But since there were no other tours that were interesting to me at this time of year, I decided to do the tour despite the doubts. At the agency we then received a safety briefing and our equipment, such as cold suits and protective goggles. I would have preferred to do something like this with a stable boat, but the tours were only available with so-called RIB boats, i.e. solid inflatable boats. The awkward German term for this is rigid inflatable boat 😅. I was a little nervous about taking the boat, but luckily it was calm and sunny that day. Accordingly, it was very pleasant and actually really fun, even when a few small waves made the boat bounce slightly.

My travel group. The cold suits were really warm, I would like to have something like that for home.

The landscape was incredibly beautiful.
After a short time the first sea eagles appeared. But no wonder, since the animals know when food is readily available.
The other boat in my tour group. The animals were already waiting everywhere on the rocks and circling above the boats.
A young sea eagle.
After the first stop we headed towards Trollfjord.
There were small waterfalls everywhere in the Trollfford.
The view from the Trollfjord. By the way, the name comes from the fact that when it gets warm, the water stored in the rock thaws and when it freezes it freezes again. As a result, the rocks are constantly working and the cracking and rumbling noises sound so eerie and mystical that they are said to be trolls. In addition, boulders often fall from the mountains, which is probably also caused by the trolls.
Herring Gulls.
At the next stop there were some sea eagles waiting again.
Our guide had some fish with him and threw it quite close to the boat. He also sometimes held the fish in the air and made strange luring calls, well. By the way, cod.
I took a series photo here. Kind of like a flip book. The fight in the background and then someone unexpectedly appears from the left...
This is one of my favorite pictures.

The sea eagles were incredibly impressive, even if the whole spectacle wasn't really natural. But I'm glad I was able to have this experience. On the one hand because of the incredible landscape and the ride on this boat, and on the other hand of course because of the sea eagles. But I would always prefer a more nature-conscious option if possible.

Afterwards I needed a warming soup because I was pretty cold despite the suits.

My tour to the Northern Lights was scheduled to take place in the evening and the weather looked promising. The meeting point was at 8 p.m. in the agency's office and some participants were already sitting there and waiting. 2 Indian couples and a Polish family were my companions that evening. And Geir, our guide and driver and hobby photographer. Then we walked 30 minutes out of the city to a location with little light pollution and lots of peace. The sky was starry and you could literally see the Milky Way glowing. So far I have only been able to see the sky in Mongolia. We waited outside in the cold for the lights, only they didn't appear. Geir was very optimistic and tried to keep us happy. After just a few minutes, most of the participants moved into the car, which was at least a few degrees warmer. The outside temperature was just below zero. Surprisingly, I managed to stay outside for over an hour, but then I just had to get into the “warm” car. Although I had tea, a hand warmer and a blanket with me. After a while the lights appeared, but only very faintly and difficult to photograph. On the way back we saw the northern lights a second time, this time a little better. When Geir dropped us off at the hotel, I decided to have another smoke. In this case, smoking had something good. Because I saw the northern lights over the roofs of Svolvær and was even able to take a good photo of them.

The lights are easier to see on my camera and computer.

But we'll probably also get the pictures that Geir took that evening, including the one of me in front of the starry sky. That looked incredibly great. In the room I couldn't stop looking out the window because the lights kept coming on. But I eventually went to sleep as I had to check out the next day.

I enjoyed the delicious breakfast one last time and learned that the hotel was taking part in some kind of competition for the best breakfast in Norway. So it couldn't be better.

In the morning I watched this seagull dropping a mussel from the air onto the ground several times so that it could get to the meat inside. Luckily she did this right in front of me and it was so exciting to watch that I forgot about taking photos or filming the situation. Just one photo before she flew away.
The remains of the shell remained on the path. There probably wasn't much in it.
Enjoy the view from my room one last time. Great great great.

I sat in the lobby for a while, wrote a blog and then took the bus to Narvik on the mainland around 3 p.m.

Until then and thanks for reading ❤

उत्तरम्‌

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