How Bodø Has Become Norway’s New Culture Capital

Two white-tailed eagles circle overhead because the rib pilot kills the ability and we idle on shimmering waters, necks craning skywards because the solar bounces off the snow-capped peaks and islands that line the Bodø archipelago in northern Norway. The vivid afternoon solar has forged the whole lot in excessive definition, making it laborious to think about that simply a few months in the past the height of midwinter afforded only one hour of daylight a day. “We’ve got the identical quantity of solar annually in Bodø as Sydney or Benidorm,” says the pilot as we bid farewell to our avian buddies and decide up velocity once more. “It’s simply that right here, it’s distributed in a different way.”

It’s early March in Bodø and, sat simply north of the Arctic Circle, this diminutive metropolis of fifty,000 individuals has simply emerged from winter, with spring nudging sundown to a good 6 p.m. Nonetheless a bit method off from a month-long interval of midnight solar, when nights are bathed in golden mild because the solar lingers above the horizon, I’m blessed with clear skies for an outing to the Saltstraumen—the world’s strongest tidal present.

Twice a day, because the tide surges out and in between Saltfjorden and Skjerstad Fjord, it forces 1400 million cubic toes by a slim strait, with the ensuing maelstrom a star native attraction that may attain as much as 20 knots. With the shore lined with anglers benefitting from fish flung upwards by the present, the pilot deftly negotiates his method by fast-emerging whirlpools as uneven seas dance to huge underwater forces—a mesmerizing spectacle that embodies the extremes of nature that characterize this nook of the world.

It’s my second journey to this beautiful area, the primary being a fast cease en path to the picture-perfect Lofoten islands. This time, although, as soon as free of my oilskins, I’m right here to turn out to be higher acquainted with a metropolis within the midst of an thrilling metamorphosis. Whereas Bodø, pronounced “bood-ah”, has at all times been blessed with breathtaking landscapes, with 9 nationwide parks equipping its inhabitants with ample hiking trails, ski runs, and secluded islands, latest years have reworked town – one thing evident on a late-afternoon stroll across the metropolis, as locals head-to-toe in outerwear criss-cross town’s pedestrianised centre. Having been largely flattened by the Luftwaffe throughout World Conflict II, Bodø’s rationalist post-war rebuild is seen within the boxy buildings that line the shores and a skyline punctuated by the angular Nineteen Fifties cathedral.