Wall of fame — Norway's spectacular Lofoten Islands offer thrill of discovery

LOFOTEN ISLANDS, Norway — It started with a photograph we saw while visiting a Park City art gallery in late April.

The title was simple: "D. Lofoten Wall."

But the image was otherworldly. It showed a mountain peak rising sharply from the ocean and highlighted by a ray of sun. In the foreground were tiny fisherman cabins painted in bright hues. A mist of clouds hung in the background.

Does a place like that truly exist?

We discovered for ourselves about three months later, after scrambling to rearrange a previously planned trip to Scandinavia for a 2 1/2-day detour to the Lofoten Islands, a remote island chain north of the Arctic Circle in Norway.

Because the islands slice upward from the ocean so sharply and with such imposing grandeur, they are referred to as "the Lofoten Wall." Scientists believe the mountain peaks are among the oldest on Earth at about 3.5 billion years old and some island settlements date back to the Vikings.

For my husband and me, it was a trip that brought an amazing thrill of discovery as we explored picturesque fishing villages, dug our toes into white sand beaches, climbed jagged mountain peaks and reveled in almost 24 hours of daylight.

Our visit started with a series of flights, first from Denmark, then two stops in Norway until we reached Leknes, which is located on the southern half of the Lofoten island chain. From Leknes, we found ourselves hitchhiking to a nearby town, hoping to find a rental car or at least catch one of the few daily buses.

It was a bit unconventional for us, to say the least. We're planners. But somehow, we found a car and made our way to the village of Fredvang where we had arranged to sleep in a historic rorbu, or fisherman's cabin, on the edge of an ocean inlet.

Our host, Liv Lydersen, explained how life within the Arctic Circle, or "land of the midnight sun," revolves around the cycle of seasons. People don't sleep much in the summer. They soak up the sunlight because in the wintertime the light can disappear for as long as 24 hours.

For the most part, the people of Lofoten rely on fishing, agriculture and tourism to survive. In the summer, you can see rows of empty racks used during the fishing season to dry the daily catch, including cod and herring. The tourists, who are mostly Scandinavian, come with campers and tents to enjoy this Arctic playground.

Like the natives, we didn't sleep much but instead took advantage of the light.