"Hinnoya Island" Ahartry's photos around Svolvaer, Norway

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• published: 02 Mar 2011
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Preview of Ahartry's blog at TravelPod. Read the full blog here: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahartry/58/1282462767/tpod.html This blog preview was made by TravelPod using the TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow creator. Entry from: Svolvaer, Norway Entry Title: "Hinnoya Island" Entry: "A day with absolutely perfect weather and a great tour of Hinnoya island. We woke early for brekkies, then dressed for nice weather and went out to meet our tour bus. Our guide began by asking who wanted a tour in English and who wanted a tour in German. No one requested German (the bus contained people from the US, the UK, French-speaking Switzerland, Holland, and France ... but no Germans, which was surprising as German is, by far, the most dominant language on board the Hurtigruten). She then informed us that we planned to meet the ship a little after noon ... but that they were anticipating a potential delay so we would need to wait to learn when we would see our ship again. The first part of our tour consisted of a driving tour of the town of Halstad. The bus we were on was so hip -- it even had a video of the road ahead, so that those sitting in the back could look forward, even if only sort of. Driving through town, we learned a bit of history about the town -- that it is new by Norwegian standards, dating just to the early 20th century; that it was founded on processed herring; that it is quite unique in that most people live in single-family dwellings instead of flats. We paused at one high point to have a view of the town ... as we were there, Paul's phone rang, and it was SAS saying that they had recovered our green bag and would deliver it to the ship in Bodo. We had no idea where that was, but we assumed they had it all worked out. So, we were very happy that the bag had been located and we could start the recovery process. Our first stop was the old church, built sometime in the 13th century (probably). We were invited in by the pastor, or whatever Lutherans have, who read a couple of passages from the Bible, then invited us to join her in a hymn. We were given the words to the hymn in English, but no one seemed to have the faintest idea of how the tune went, so the pastor performed a solo. Fortunately, she had a decent voice, so it was all okay. We then briefly toured the church and the grounds. Since the day was so gorgeous, we concentrated on the churchyard and nearby memorial to Russian prisoners of war who died here during the German occupation of Norway in WWII. From the church, we walked to the folks museum, to learn a bit about the history of the region. The museum was interesting: the rooms were kept fairly dark, atmospheric sound tracks played, murals provided background, scenery provided appropriate foreground, and mannequins were placed around the rooms to make one feel part of the scene. As usual, I focused more on the museum set up than on what they were describing. But, we learned that there had been feuds, retold in the sagas, and that fishing has been, is, and will be important. Sounds like every other area of Viking territory. We did learn that the Apostle of Greenland has a mountain on the moon named after him. Why, we don't know, but apparently he does. Good for him. Then we were back in the bus, heading to our next stop. As we entered a new fjord, we were told that some local people are trying to grow mussels in the water. The "caterpillars" grow for two years, then they are ready to eat. We are confused. It is a new industry, so no one knows yet whether or not it will be successful. In the meantime, we will stop to walk across a bridge, where wild mussels grown in abundance. More interestingly, the water which appears to be a stream flowing into the fjord is really the tide rising or falling. We did indeed walk across the bridge, see the mussels, and were impressed with the strength of the tide, which, since it changes about 2.5m, would indeed be reasonably strong. As we boarded the bus, we were told that our ship had no yet left Halstad, and that they did not know when they might leave Halstad, so the driver and guide were trying to make other arrangements. In the mean time, we would cross a fjord on a ferry and have coffee and local cakes, then would make a couple of photo stops. We reached the ferry just in time to board; the bus drove us on, then we all went upstairs (walking, not in the bus), to the cafeteria, where coffee and cakes had been set up for us. This is clearly a commuter ferry, as there was no good place to stand to take photos. So we sat and had ..." Read and see more at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahartry/58/1282462767/tpod.html Photos from this trip: 1. "Harstad to Svolvaer" See this TripWow and more at http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-00e0-9b6c-5e49?ytv4=1