I will never forget my first siting of Lofoten. Tall craggy peaks fringed with snow jut out of the Arctic Ocean like some kind of ancient monster. They appear so inhospitable from the sky (and the land for that matter) that you wonder how humans have managed to survive here for 6000 years. Well they haven’t only survived, they have thrived. Every winter the meeting of the Gulf Stream and the icy Arctic Ocean draws huge amounts of Arctic Cod past the Islands and the area is a very lucrative place for fishermen. Almost everywhere are huge drying racks filled with thousands of fish and the ubiquitous smell carries almost everywhere throughout the islands. Lofoten is situated in the North of Norway and I picked it for my latest trip after seeing photos in National Geographic. The village we stayed in, Reine, was named one of the top 10 most picturesque villages in the world and you can see why, the beauty of the area is simply staggering.
