Figure 8 On A Bike

From Sandnessjøen we started with mostly flat and good weather biking. We stopped at a really old church (Alstahaug church, built in 1150) and looked inside at the deep walls designed to keep out the cold and tried to remember Christian symbolism as we stared at the art behind the altar. From the church, I sped down the road fleeing allergies as Norwegians cleaned out their barns. I felt mighty proud of myself for catching up and passing the e-bike tour group. I got to the next ferry in Tjøtta and it looked about ready to leave but the worker told me they were waiting 10 minutes. Ben just made it, literally biking onto the ferry right before they closed the ramp. So satisfying! We rode on, past a sculpture landscape art installation that was a little underwhelming, but also impressive for the work that must have gone into it once you thought about it. A little too much to interpret in this artwork

It was finally time to move on from Lofoten and our experience on Vågakallen/Nordryggen dictated that we needed to drop the plan of climbing Stetind (Norway's national Mountain). It was a much harder grade and more elevation. So...based on how Vågakallen went we decided to not become a rescue story. In order to get off of Lofoten we either needed to bike what we had already biked or do some public bus shenanigans again. So we anxiously waited at a bus stop, asked the driver, (Wait is that the same driver that Ben was aggressively befuddled at a few weeks ago!?), and loaded the bags and away we went back to Leknes. The bus was running very behind so we assumed we would miss the connecting bus from Leknes to Moskenes, but the next one had waited for our late bus. Quick unload the bikes, the bags, reload the bikes, the bags, success we made it! This driver tried to aggressively make up the time lost and an RV clipped off one of the side mirrors along the way. A little stressfu...