On to the Lofoten Islands

We checked in Friday night at the Scandic Svolvær in the Lofotens after a full day of skiing in Narvik, one last stop at the Narvik public beach, and a beautiful 3-4 hour drive. Narvik felt warm in the morning at 32 degrees F and bright sun. It felt much colder in Svolvaer at 34 degrees, overcast and windy. Many of the shops and restaurants there were either closed or open reduced hours until the summer tourism season.  The restaurants open when we arrived were either very high end or low end. We opted for low-end, bringing our dinner home from the local Narvesen, a convenience store which  serves Trygg's favorite, Ostepolser med Bacon (a cheese hot dog wrapped in bacon.) Svolvaer is the big tourism town in the Lofotens, but it is also an industrial center for the islands. Its population is about 5,000, but it appears bigger than that probably because all of the hotels, shops and restaurants to serve the tourism industry, and also because it provides the infrastructure of a hospital, an airport, and a ferry boat terminal for the area around it. Though it is in a very beautiful location, its beauty is diminished by an industrial presence throughout the town, and it does perhaps border on being a little too "touristy."  It does not come close to approaching the over-the top touristy feeling of the Wisconsin Dells or parts of the Black Hills, fortunately. The food prices in Svolvaer are noticeably higher than the other places we've been in northern Norway.