This morning came early after watching the Northern Lights for so long.
After breakfast, we headed down to the fjord Mjoifjordur to kayak. The water was like glass and so very clear. There were some seals swimming around us trying to figure out who / what we were. I could have stayed out longer, but we were scheduled to go into Isafjorour (the “large” town nearby – 125 km from where we were staying) with Stella the guesthouse owner. Stella is in her mid 70’s and knows everybody and has many stories which she told us during the day. She has 4 people from the Czech Republic working for her, cooking, cleaning and giving tours.
Today Stella toured us around the West Fjords. Our first stop was to be at the Arctic Fox Museum, however, they were closed so we drove on to Isafjorour stoping many places along the way to take pictures. By the time we got to town it was time for lunch, which we had at a hotel in town. Lunch was fresh halibut with a lobster cream sauce. After lunch, we tried to go into the area church which was locked. We then headed over to the library which used to be the hospital and was built in 1926. By this time, it had started to snow / sleet out. Inside the library, they had books dating from the 1700’s. Crazy, that you could take them off the shelf and look at them! There was also a little museum of hospital items on the upper floor of the library.
Next stop was the city hall to see how the town looked when it was settled in the mid to late 1700’s. We then drove around to see some of the old houses that are still around. We then headed to see the Osvor Maritime Museum to get a feel for how life was like for fishermen. The exhibit was built on the ruins of old fishing huts.
The last stop of the day was at Litlibaer i Skotufirdi which is a farm house from 1895, which has been renovated by the National Museum. Two families (around 20 people) lived in the house which is only 3.9 x 7.4 meters x 2 in size (about 12.7 x 22 in feet). It is times 2 because there were 2 floors. It was a very small house. It is generally only open in the summer, but Stella knows a gentleman (Christian) who’s family last lived in the house. We sat in the dining room and had coffee and waffles and chatted with him and his wife. They did not speak any English so Stella had to translate. It was very fascinating! The Icelander’s love there stories!
We got back to the guesthouse around 7:30 pm and went right to dinner. At dinner, we had a guest eating with us. He is an Icelandic gentleman that is walking the old postal route from Reykjavik to Isafjordur. He said it will take him a total of 5-6 weeks to make the route. Wow!
Dinner tonight was lamb with pecans and mushrooms. Very good as expected. Dessert which I really didn’t need was a carmel custard dish. It was very much like a flan.
Early night tonight, went back to the room around 10 pm. It was rainy so no Northern Lights tonight.
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