Norway's Lofoton Islands - Motorcycle Road Trip

Let the road trip commence. Fancy a tour of the Lofton Islands? The town of Aye has one of the oldest bakeries in the Lofton Islands and we've just gone to see the oven and it's pretty spectacular. It's awesome in there, you've got to go check it out. Apparently the oven is 300 years old. Wow looks awesome. They're still baking everything fresh every day. Are these breads and cinnabons? Yeah breads and the classic cinnabon, I think it's very famous. So this is one of the iconic things to do in the Lofton Islands, especially in Aye, is to come in here, see the oven and grab some baked goods. They have a focaccia here that's vegan so we're going to have a little bit of that, a coffee and then really start our road trip. We got to the bakery just behind me there just as it was opening. Apparently they only bake a certain amount so if you're not there first then you might miss out. But we got there just as it opened and about 15-20 minutes later there's hordes of people there. It's a really small bakery so it's worth getting up early and getting there the first so you don't miss out. I think Em's gone up into the souvenir shop, she's offered her after a Lofton Island badge or sticker for the top box. So we're about to get back on the bike and go and explore some more of this island. I think that was a successful operation, was it Em? It was. Another one to add to the collection. Oh that's a nice one. And two stickers for the top box. Awesome. This one is cool because it's from the actual town and then this is just a general Lofton sticker. We might have to go to the other top box, the other side panniers soon as you're filling up these. But how beautiful is that, that's such a good souvenir, there's so much tat in there. The guy in front spent over 200 euros on bottles and like thumb, you know like thumb, you know when they put the thumb and they're trying to needle things in like shop glasses. 200 euros. This came to less than six. Do you see any main differences from the mainland Em, straight away? I just think that the rocks are more jagged, more island like, I guess. They're not rolling hills are they? They're shooting straight up but into a peak. The fjords were quite soft at the top and then were soft. These seem like raw, jagged, very natural. They almost look volcanic don't they? I think yeah and they've all got like, they've all got greenery on them whether it's like damp from the moss or it's grasses growing on them. But it is, yeah it is quite a stark difference to the mainland. I do feel like we're in a different country even though we're not. But we are on an island even if it's still Norway technically. It is a different climate. This is a cool road. There doesn't seem to be so many roads on the island does there? This main one which is the E10 is it Sean? That's right yeah the E10 is the main one that goes straight the way through. I thought there would be like lots of little roads everywhere but it appears not. So I think if you really want to see everything you're going to have to have some weeks for hiking. It seems like every little bit of dock or inland to the sea has got a fishing port on it. It must be really important to them for the winter to get a good stock of the fish. That's a good point yeah. I can't imagine how cold it gets here. Yeah yeah, I mean it's not exactly warm today. It's supposedly summer. Wooden things. I've seen them in a few of the villages. I think they dry the fish on them. Or they hang the fish up. I don't know if they cover it and they smoke it. Well yeah I think when they come back from the big catch they hang them all up and they it's one of the ways of preserving them. I didn't know that. Let's learn something new every day. Well there needs fact-checking though. It might be horribly, there might be a washing line or something like that. I think we're about to do like the first little bridge over. It is a little one. I love the red houses perched with the grass roofs. Yeah they look great don't they? Every corner a new like spike, a new shard of mountain comes into view. They're awesome aren't they? Coming in on the ferry last night it looked like we were going to a different world. Especially through the mist when the mist broke. It looked eerie. Mysterious. Oh that was good timing. It was wasn't it? Red light, green light go. Here we go, another little bridge over. Look at that view from here. Sean have you seen that? It's spectacular isn't it? Oh look can you see up ahead as well at 11 o'clock there's a bridge, another cool bridge like the one in the south. It's just like little hopping over each island. There we go. Does he stall? No he didn't. That's a good idea I guess in these conditions. Yeah I'm definitely gonna have to do some sauna in Finland. Yeah I think we're gonna have to come back to Norway anyway. Yeah there's too much to see in a few weeks isn't there? Well maybe we should move here. No but then we'd miss Switzerland and the Furka and the Susten. That's true. Have you seen the terrain on the sat-nav Em? No. Give you an idea. We go out a bit. It's really cool. It really is just a collection of islands. That mountain over there to the left looks like a wave coming out. Like the flap. Oh it does doesn't it? Yeah. A bridge! That is insane. It's a real steep one. Is that steeper than the other one? It looks it. I think we can pull in somewhere and maybe at the bottom of the bridge shall we? Yeah definitely. It's like you get a panoramic view from the top. Up, up and away. Oh wow look at that. Wow look at them Em. Wow and even he's being chased by a seagull. They're a pain those seagulls. And on to the second bridge. Straight away. Got the little fishing village just beyond there. It's quite a bumpy little bridge. The mountain is so steep. This one here the the pointy one. It almost feels like a runway it's so straight. It does with a takeoff. On to the next fishing village. I think so it won't be long. I'm surprised I haven't seen any like sea lions or anything. Yeah. Is it getting too cold for them when they've moved? We've seen seagulls and ducks. We have yeah. And we saw dolphins on the boat which. That was a bonus wasn't it Em? Yeah. All right I'm back on to the E10 we go. Not a good tunnel. No. They're pretty cold these tunnels. It's not much warmer out here actually. Now I'm getting the issues. Well that's nice the sun. Oh yeah. The sun trying to break through. I think the forecast is cloudy for the next couple of days with no rain and windy so maybe that'll blow the clouds out. I can already feel that wind picking up. It's a big heron. Some of the things you say I'm like what? So what are we doing Sean? We are in the Lofton Islands sat on a rock overlooking the beach being randomly attacked by birds defending their nests cooking lunch. And it's starting to rain. And it's just started to rain yeah. Ideal. We started and stopped at a like supermarket and picked up a few fresh produce because we wanted to do a nice little picnic outside today but it's just started to spit and we couldn't find anywhere that had a picnic table so we've ended up here on a rock but the view. It is a lovely little location. It is simply beautiful. Sean's got the pasta going. I also got some mushrooms and some tomatoes and a few other bits just to have a few moments of relax time. The situation's got a little bit desperate. It's cute though. It is cute. It's bringing us together. It is literally. Under this tiny little travel umbrella but it is doing the job. And we're having a lovely experience with our pasta. Looking good. It's really tasty actually. It is isn't it. And the view's absolutely amazing. It is. And there's nobody else here because it's raining. Yeah and it's only spitting it's not like full on. No it's not full on. We had planned to get further north than we did today but the weather had other ideas so as we couldn't really see much of the Lofton Islands late this afternoon we decided to call it a day because we didn't really want to miss all of the beautiful sights. Yeah we're lucky enough to have quite a few extra days spared so we're going to spend the evening here. We are currently on the east side of the Lofton Islands and we found a hotel where we're going to be spending the evening that has these incredible views behind us so hopefully tomorrow we'll wake up with a bit better weather. Yeah I think so. I think it's going to be a little bit overcast but it's going to be dry so we should be able to see everything tomorrow. I think it's a good idea. Yeah I do too because this is such a special place you can tell even in the rain and even in the bad visibility it is stunning here so we want to really enjoy ourselves. So tomorrow we will be continuing our road trip further north into the Lofton Islands. But now we're off to dinner. Dinner has arrived we've got two veggie burgers, Sean's grabbed a beer, a local one, a dark brew and I grabbed hot chocolate. I was feeling the vibe in here it's very very hygge, very relaxing and we're going to spend the rest of the evening here. We've actually got views of the lake and the Lofton Mountains from this restaurant window so it's time to dig into dinner. So cheers guys, cheers Sean. It's the end of the first day in the Lofton Islands and this morning it started off really sunny we had great views of all the mountains and the vistas and we had dry riding conditions but then as soon as the afternoon came the rain came pouring down and we couldn't see much because it was mist and the road conditions weren't very nice so we decided to call it a day so that we could see the Lofton Islands a little bit better tomorrow. We've got the gear drying out in the hotel room there so hopefully that'll all be dry for the morning and speaking of the morning the plan for tomorrow is we are currently around this area here we're going to ride to the very most northerly point of the Lofton Islands and we're going to go to Andanier which is where I think you can do a lot of whale watching in the summer. Anyway we're going to take a five o'clock ferry which is going to take us all over to the Grillford and then from there we're still going to have two to three hours of riding. We're going to take this road all the way down here and then back up here and then all the way back up to Tromso where we'll be staying the next couple of nights. But that's good night from us, good night from the beautiful fjord just outside there and we'll catch you tomorrow as we ride to the most northerly point of the Lofton Islands.