"No man is an island".... but Norway is 50,000 of them!

Norway is a colossal collection of more than 50,000 islands.

Today we visited one of them — Lofoten, which is at the 68th degree of latitude.

This puts us within the Arctic Circle. You know, home to polar bears and Santa.

But we didn’t see either of them today. It was a bit too warm for that.

But I did see gorgeous land formations as the sun rose, although, to be accurate, it never really sets at this time of year.

We visited the virtual “capital” of Lofoten island, Svolvaer, today where I spotted a bank confirming the geographic latitude of the island::

Then we hopped a local bus and rode to Henningsvaer, an even smaller town. More like a village on Prince Edward Island.

In America, we had Woodstock… here, in the fishing village of Henningsvaer this past June, they had….

All over Lofoten you see wooden pyramid-shaped structures and wonder what are they for?

Speaking with a fisherman, I learned they are drying racks where fisherman splay and hang their just caught cod — to make salted cod.

If you want to fit in like a local, you have to get used to eating animals that you hadn’t thought edible.

Where we have roadside stands selling strawberries in rural America, the Svolvaerians (sounds like an exotic race of people from a Star Trek episode, doesn’t it?) dine on whale, musk, and bear sausage….

While fish are on the lines of fishermen here, they’re also on the labels of aquavit, the national spirit, and on restaurant menus.

One of the local aquavit brands is Lutefisk, which translates “lute fish,” a locally caught fish.

Can you imagine calling your vodka Walrus, or Otter Juice? But that’s the equivalent here… and the orange ribbon on the label says, “Love it now!”

Most restaurants on Lofoten try to lure patrons in with shtick — or should I say with fish shticks like this….

More when it happens.

Jim