Glimpses of Lofoten's history in war and art
Sunday, September 17 It is raining hard when we wake up, and puffy clouds are hanging low on the mountains. The square below is wet and empty. The hotel restaurant, however, is warm and bustling with Sunday brunch guests moving through an impressive array of options, catering to meat-eaters and vegans alike. A waif-like child-woman is playing the piano and I ask the server how old she is. "Oh, she's old," she says. "More than 20." Dodging the rain we skip around the corner to the Svolvær Krigsminnemuseet – the World War II Memorial Museum – several rooms filled with uniforms, photos, and war memorabilia, which tell the stories of acts of courage and terrible loss of life during the intense battles, which took place in this region. By 1944 the Germans had 370.000 soldiers here. There is even an enigma machine, captured in Lofoten by the British during a raid in 1941 and also the headgear from a concentration camp. The museum has an incrediby st