August 14 Bodø (Day 322)
Another beautiful day to explore. Today we caught a late morning train for the 45 minute ride back to Bodø.
Bodø, like every Nordic town we’ve been in, has lush flower beds scattered around town!
We spotted some of the murals on the map we picked up at the visitors center.
And we had to go into the town hall to see the unique architecture the host at the visitor center told us about! Optical illusion! The furniture is stuck on the wall!
We walked to the harbor and out to the point at the harbor entrance. Coming back we saw the cruise ship enter the harbor. We have to check that out for a future trip!
Some quirky art work showcases some of the wildlife, the Sea Eagles and the Moose!
We caught a mid-afternoon train back to Fauske and enjoyed complimentary lattes and little chocolate squares that are available in the sleek, modern train cars.
We enjoyed the view of the fjord with the small boat houses and fishing boats that belong to the cabins hidden in the woods on the other side of the tracks.
Shortly after we returned, our hosts arrived back from a blueberry picking excursion in the mountains. Our host asked if we would like to go see the Saltstraumen Maelstrom that is about an hours drive away. We had actually heard about the whirlpools formed when the tide flows through a narrow channel in a fjord in Norway, but we didn’t know it was this close! We jumped at the chance to go see this phenomenon! We had a little time to get ready since it’s best to see it when the tide changes. Soon we were off, being driven back along the highway following the train route towards Bodø. Turning left onto a peninsula between the Saltfjorden and the Skjerstad fjord we came to a bridge over the narrow inlet from the sea to the fjord.
On the fjord side at water level it looked calm and people were fishing from the bank with a few fishing boats in the water.
We then drove over the bridge to the right, parked and walked up onto the bridge.
Looking down from the bridge you can see the water beginning to churn and swirls forming, as “Up to 400 million cubic metres (110 billion US gallons) of seawater forces its way through a 3 km (1.9 mi) long and 150 m (490 ft) wide strait every six hours.” This is considered the strongest tidal current in the world!
Saltstraumen wasn’t at its strongest today though, that would be at the full or new moon, we are at half moon now. For a good description here is a Youtube video of the Saltstraumen Maelstrom. Before we returned to Fauske our host took us to another venue which has roots in the Viking era. Tuvsjyen is a restaurant experience harkening to the stone age, where the food is cooked in a pit and served in an earthen hut on rough wood tables and benches.
Winter is actually a busier tourist season for this area with the Northern Lights on display!
We are lucky to be able to head back to Fauske and cook our dinner on an electric stove!