Cycle Route Coastroute North Cape-Trondheim

June - August:
Monday-Friday: 09.00-20.00
Saturday: 10.00-18.00
Sunday: 10.00-18.00

Opening hours rest of the year: Monday-Friday 09.00-15.30

Bodø is the seat of Nordland county in Norway. With 50 000 citizens, it is the second largest city in Northern Norway. Bodø is located on a peninsula facing the open sea, and infamously windy.

It is a gateway to the Arctic, being the northern end station of the Norwegian railway network (except the short connection from Narvik to Sweden), and an important ferry station.

Understand

In the Viking Age, the province was known as Hålogaland, and famous for shipmaking. In 1663, Bodø was mentioned as a village with postal service. In the 19th century, fish canning became an important industry for Bodø, and made the city grow. As Nazi Germany invaded Norway in 1940, they bombed Bodø on May 27, destroying most buildings. The city was rebuilt after the war, and therefore looks remarkably modern.

In 1960, the American spy plane U-2 heading for Bodø was shot down by the Soviet Union, and Soviet leader Nikita Chrushchev threatened to bomb Bodø.

Bodø has a university, and a young and rapidly growing population.

See and do

Museums

• ⊙Norwegian Aviation Museum (Norsk Luftfartsmuseum), Olav V gate. Located in the shopping centre area, a 20-minute walk from the city centre, you can visit a quite large museum and experience the history of aviation and highlights from the Cold War. Bodø is one of the airfields used for U-2 high-altitude recon and ozone monitoring.  
• ⊙Bodø friluftsmuseum (Bodø open air museum) (South of the Bodø camping). Open 24h. The inside of the houses can only be visited by appointment. Various traditional house styles from Bodø. Free. 
• Kjerringøy handelssted. Kjerringøy trading post is a 19th-century trade centre typical for Northern Norway. It's a museum, and you can get guided tours. Kjerringøy is a peninsula with beautiful scenery and many tourist activities. Busses from Bodø 

Churches

• ⊙Bodø Cathedral (Bodø domkirke), Torvgata 12. Modern with a separate bell-tower and a beautiful window.  
• ⊙Bodin Kirke (Bodin Church) (In the South part of Bodø). One of the oldest churches in Norway, built around 1240. Free entrance.  

Saltstraumen is a small strait with one of the strongest tidal currents in the world. It is located in the municipality of Bodø in Nordland county, Norway. It is located about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) southeast of the town of Bodø. The narrow channel connects the outer Saltfjorden to the large Skjerstad Fjord between the islands of Straumøya and Knaplundsøya. The Saltstraumen Bridge on Norwegian County Road 17 crosses Saltstraumen.

Saltstraumen has one of the strongest tidal currents in the world. Up to 400 million cubic metres (110 billion US gallons) of seawater forces its way through a 3-kilometre (1.9 mi) long and 150-metre (490 ft) wide strait every six hours. Vortices known as whirlpools or maelstroms up to 10 metres (33 ft) in diameter and 5 metres (16 ft) in depth are formed when the current is at its strongest. Saltstraumen has existed for about two to three thousand years. Before that, the area was different due to post-glacial rebound. The current is created when the tide tries to fill Skjerstad Fjord. The height difference between the sea level and the fjord inside can be up to 1 metre (3 ft 3 in). When the current turns, there is a period when the strait is navigable.

The above account of the Saltstraumen is rather different than what The Norwegian Pilot reports. The Pilot’s description of the normal current is based on the time of the high tide at Bodø. The greatest southbound current occurs about one and a quarter hours before Bodø high tide, when the inflowing current reaches about seven knots. The speed of the current has a broad maximum being greater than six knots from three hours before Bodø high tide until half an hour after Bodø high tide. The greatest northbound current occurs about four and a half hours after Bodø high tide, when the outflowing current reaches over eight knots. The speed of this current also has a broad maximum being above six knots from two hours and forty minutes after Bodø high tide until five and a half hours before the next Bodø high tide. The behavior of the current may differ from normal due to strong winds or when more fresh water than usual is entering into the fjord from the surrounding mountains.