Europe 2018...Day 12: Nesland...

We woke up on Sunday to sunshine!  We were so excited that we hopped out of bed around 0630 and jumped in the car.  We wanted to make sure to get some pictures while we had the sunshine.

The Lofoten Islands is beautiful no matter what, but the sunshine really shows off of the beauty of this area.  Our first stop was the beautiful beach where we had visited the other day.  It really looked wonderful with the sun out!

I cannot believe this water and sand is in Norway.

Such a beautiful coastline

We loved the beach and water against the mountains

Absolutely stunning

If only that water was not just barely above freezing

We left the beach to drive to A to see it in the sunshine.  The views we saw along the way were beautiful.

Beautiful A.

We had a great time wandering around A.

I would like it if my view was this everyday.  By the way, this was officially the tip of the Lofoten Islands.  Amazing to be that far away from home.

I love the red fishermen huts

Early morning in A.

After leaving A, we drove to Reine.  It is pronounced Rye-Nuh, which I cannot say without squinting my eye.  I am in the process of learning German, so I instantly want to pronounce it as Rhine, but alas it is Rye-Nuh.  

Beautiful Reine.  Reine is thought to be the most beautiful village of all in the Lofoten Islands.  

The red huts are called rorbuers.  

Reine truly did look like a post card

We wandered around Reine in search of coffee.  Sadly, the cafes do not open until 11:00.  I have never heard of such a thing.  Coffeeless, we made our way back to our hotel for a little breakfast and coffee.  With the sun out, we decided to eat breakfast outside.

After breakfast I went for a quick run.  I wanted to see Hamnoy with the sun out one more time.

Hamnoy looking as darling as ever.

After my run, we were trying to decide what to do for the day.  Our hotel suggested we take a ferry and do a hike from there.  We had plans to do that, but wanted to drive to Nesland first.  We were a little bummed we missed Nesland the day before so we wanted to check it out.  

On our way the ambulance stopped us so that life flight could take off.  The ICU nurse in me was rather intrigued.

We drove to Nesland and stopped at the Lofoten Nesland Guesthouse for coffee.  We were greeted by a charming Norwegian lady named Lil-Anita.  She owns and runs the guesthouse and actually sat down and had coffee with us.  We chatted about all kinds of things and learned that she is an artist that studied in Canterbury England and that her great, great grandfather built the house we were in.  

She was such a delight to talk to.  While we were chatting with her, Ken and I decided to skip the ferry and just hang out in Nesland for the day.  We did not want to cut our conversation with Lil-Anita short.  She did share with us that Americans are few and far between as far as visiting Nesland goes and that Europeans always speak of how difficult the hiking is in Norway.  I was relieved to hear it was not just us.  :)

We said our goodbyes to Lil-Anita and wandered around Nesland.  Our plan was to "hike" down the gravel round quite a bit and stop for a picnic before turning back.  We were armed with lunch and wine and excited to finally be able to enjoy a glass of wine while out on a hike, even if it was down a gravel road.

Adorable Nesland

Having a wonderful time around Nesland

Seeing mama sheep with her babies was definitely a highlight for me!

This may have made my entire day

All but one of them looked at me.  I call that a win.

Our lunch spot.  The wind picked up, the sun went away, and it cold chilly.  We enjoyed our wine and our time by the water.

Enjoying our hike for the day

The rugged coastline that we saw the entire time we were in Lofoten

Adorable place in Nesland

The white house in the center is where we had coffee with Lil-Anita.  It was such a great part of our trip.

One of my favorite parts of the day.  The reason you do not hear me on the video is that I was unable to breath or talk because I was laughing so hard!  We have fun with the silliest things.

We were both glad that we decided to skip the ferry and stay in Nesland.  We had a wonderful day together.  We ended the day with dinner and a little shopping around Sakrisoy.