Time capsule -- At the western end of King Olav's Highway (E10), much of the village of Å has been designated a museum, preserving the culture and history of the Norwegian fishermen.

It might be just as well. With the shrinking supply of Arctic cod and dropping prices for the Norwegian stockfish, commercial fishing in the calm waters south of the Lofoten islands is becoming ever less viable.

Steinar Larsen should know. A Lofoten fisherman and stockfish trader all his life, his main quarry is no longer the cod that spawn here in winter, but the people who visit mostly in summer. He manages sixteen rorbuer -- fisherman's cabins, renovated from ones actually used by mariners since a century ago. Steinar is also the curator of the Lofoten Stockfish Museum (Lofoten Tørrfiskmuseum), a three-storey landing station demonstrating all aspects of processing cod and its dried incarnation.