Bodø, the Ferry, and Getting to the Lofoten Islands

After a 90-minute flight from Oslo on Monday evening, we arrived in Bodø (pronounced like Buddha), a town that’s just north of the Arctic Circle. Our hotel was a short taxi ride from the airport; Bodø is quite compact and easy to get around. Once we dropped our bags in the hotel room, we walked down to the ferry terminal to scope things out.

Our Monday evening walk and attempt to figure out how the heck this ferry works.

There’s a car ferry from Bodø to the Lofoten Islands, and Tim had spent a lot of time researching it online. He wanted to see for himself what the ferry set-up was, as he couldn’t purchase our outbound ticket in advance. Torghatten Nord, the ferry company, sells 50% of its tickets ahead of time – these are the reserved tickets; the remaining 50% of tickets are on a first come, first served basis. Even though Tim had tried to purchase our ticket a few weeks earlier, the reserved tickets were completely sold out.

When we arrived at the ferry terminal, about 8pm, there were a bunch of camper vans and cars in the first come, first served line. We learned that all of those cars were in line for the 3:15am (!) ferry. After the 3:15am ferry, there was another ferry at 5:30am, then 6am, and then the one we were hoping to take – at 11am. We walked around the cars in line and managed to talk to a few folks. They told us that the ferry fills up fast and it’s best to arrive quite early to grab a spot if you don’t have a reserved ticket.

With this information in hand, we walked back into town and grabbed a late dinner, then returned to our hotel. Wyatt promptly fell asleep in his bunk bed and Taylor crawled into hers to read. Tim, on the other hand, pulled out his laptop and began panicking over our ferry plan.

Nothing like Murphy bunk beds.

Tim had planned to pick up a rental car for us when the rental company opened the next morning, at 7:30am. But now he was worried that timing would be too late and we wouldn’t get a spot on the 11am ferry (again, considering all of the cars lined up at 8pm for the 3:15am ferry…and the caution we received from folks in line for that ferry). So he poured over the internet.

At 9:30pm, Tim announced that he had reserved a different car and was headed to the rental company to pick it up. He drove over in a taxi, only to find that the rental company had closed. They probably weren’t expecting a booking so late at night. Foiled, Tim found a scooter, downloaded the app to access it, and rode back to the hotel (bringing a new perspective to our Skootertrafikk blog).

By this time, both Taylor and I were ready for sleep. Tim jumped onto his laptop again and tried to unwind the car reservation he had just made. It took a while; he finally had to call someone in order to cancel the new rental. He got to bed after midnight.

None of us slept well that night, except perhaps Taylor (again). There was no air conditioning in the room (we don’t think there’s A/C in any Norwegian hotel room), and we couldn’t leave the window open because we were just up from the street and the noise outside was way too loud (people were up at all hours – because it really doesn’t get dark at night here!). Tim, in particular, did not sleep well. He was stressing the whole night about the car rental and the ferry and if we would get the ferry we wanted – or if we’d have to wait for the next available ferry at 3pm.

Fast forward to 5am. Tim was awake. Wyatt was awake. I was awake. And because I was wide awake, and because it was broad daylight, I headed outside for a run. I came back at 6:30am, and by this time, Taylor was awake and dressed, too. All of us went downstairs to breakfast (included with our hotel stay!) and once again marveled at the delicious buffet. Seriously, Norway does breakfast right!

Tim hopped on a scooter just after 7am and scootered all the way to the (original) car rental site. As we’ve come to expect, the rental company opened exactly on time and was efficient as ever. Tim picked up our electric rental car and then zoomed over to the ferry terminal. And (wait for it) there was barely a line. BARELY A LINE. All of that fretting and stressing and…it was so easy and totally fine.

Tim's new wheels.

Yeah, BARELY A LINE.

Tim hung out in our rental for a while, walked around and talked to a couple other people waiting in line, and watched some people fish. The kids and I walked over from our hotel about 9:30am* and took in the scene as well. The ferry arrived about 10:15am and unloaded, very quickly. Those of us waiting in line got back into our cars and a woman with a scanner came around and took photos of our license plates. We didn’t quite know what was going on, so later, as we were driving onto the ferry, we asked, “How do we pay for a ticket?” We were told, “We took a photo of your license plate, so you’ve already paid.” Well, actually, the car rental company paid and no doubt we’ll get the bill later, but can we once again hear it for Norwegian efficiency?!

We drove onto the ferry and parked, then grabbed what we needed and headed upstairs to the deck. Just after 11am, the ferry pulled away. It appeared that everyone who wanted to get onto that ferry made it; we didn’t see cars still waiting in line.

So happy to be on the ferry!

The ferry ride took three hours. We ate lunch on the ferry, walked around a bit, and then all four of us napped for a while.

Shortly before docking in Moskenes on the Lofoten Islands, we were told to head back to our cars. We soon drove off the ferry and down the road for 10 minutes before pulling into Reine, a small fishing village. Our Reine hotel was a set of historic fishermen cabins – incredibly quaint and picturesque.

We spent five minutes getting acquainted with Reine (literally; the town is that small) and took ourselves on a long walk in the sunshine while we tossed around ideas for Wednesday plans.

Hanging on the dock by the bay.

"Our cabin is that way."

There were two options for dinner in Reine, unless you wanted to eat at the local Circle K; we chose to eat at the hotel restaurant. Tim ordered whale steak and said it was good and rich, and he probably won’t order it again.

We all stumbled in to bed by 8:45pm and slept sooooooooooo soundly. We opened all the windows in our little cabin and the fresh air felt wonderful. Yay for the first good night’s sleep since we got here!

*I managed to leave our travel plug adapter in our hotel room in Bodø. I’m blaming it on fatigue. The question is: Can we find a replacement adapter on the islands of Lofoten? I think it’s 50/50.