We had never heard of Petter Daas either......

There still was not much sun this morning when we left Bronnoysund, but the colors were still very pretty, and it was quite pleasant.
(the mount in the back is the one where the famous hole is!).

We are following coastal road 17 for a bit, and "coastal" is actually code for "ferries"....  So even though we only traveled about 60 miles, there were 2 ferries involved, one 20  minutes long, the other one 1 hour.

The second one went through and around the islands that form this archipelago (can't remember if there are 6000, or 13,000 islands in this one....  I'm getting my Norwegian achipelagos (archipelagi??) confused....).  This requires some serious navigating skills....  but I guess they are used to it, and we made it, on the way getting a wonderful view of:
The fish farms that dot the fjords,

the little houses that stand alone on the shore (oh so alone....  what do they do in the winters?),

 and the mountains and little islands all around us.

It was nice on the deck, but chilly.... (oh yes, that's my hair trying to escape!).  After the second ferry, we arrived on the island of Sandnessjoen, which is supposed to have a large population of moose - there are roads signs everywhere warning you about it - however, the guidebook says that "they are often seen at dusk", which is a problem, because dusk is not until.... August?

We stopped by the Petter Daas museum.  Nope, never heard of him either....  He is apparently the most famous person in the county, was a poet and priest and used his poetry to convince people that they should obay the king, and follow the bible.  Seemed like a fun guy!  Even his monument makes it look like he was a ton of fun!  (not sure why he looks so dour, he is facing a truly beautiful sight, overlooking the archipelago).

 His museum however is very nice, on the site of an old church (the first part dates to the late 1100's, which you can tell from the design on the arches).  It was expanded in the 1800's - by people who had travelled throughout Europe, and brought back the "onion" spire.

The cemetery next to it has some graves from the late 1700's.

A lovely spot to share eternity with some very peaceful and happy looking sheep and lambs (there are a lot of them around here, they all look happy!).

The museum itself was designed by Snohetta (see blog from Oppdal) and one can indeed recognize the style.

 Joe could not help himself and had to take a few arty pictures.....

The road to Sandnessjoen follows the ocean, and provides a lovely view of the rugged landscape.
(oohhh!!!  look, there is blue in the sky!)

 In town, there is an easy walk (no - really - it was easy - I was surprised too!) to the crest of the hill between the mountains and the fjord, which provides both panoramic views of the fjords,

 and of the "7 sisters" mountain range (I could only fit 5 of them in the picture, I hope the other 2 are not feeling left out.....) .

Tomorrow, we cross the arctic circle!