But we did eat at this beautiful blue building, which had great soups and sandwiches and baked goods, and a gorgeous interior. I can’t remember what it was called.
Clearly in the 20th century Iceland had one architect, who was hired to design all of the churches in bigger towns, because this is by the same guy who designed the big church (and a pile of other buildings) in Reykjavik.
After lunch we got really excited because we saw this:
Our shadows!!!! SUN!!!!! Then I ran into my Icelandic sister.
We continued our drive toward the northern-most town in Iceland, Siglufjordur. The drive was – again – mind-blowingly beautiful.
We arrived in Siglufjordur and checked into probably our best accommodation so far, The Herring House, run by the ex-mayor of the town. We have a whole little house to ourselves, and the town is just spectacularly gorgeous. Here is the view from our bedroom window.
I wish we could stay here for longer. It’s a sleepy little town, and there aren’t a lot of tourists here (which is nice. Though I must say, even in the heavily touristed areas of Iceland, it is never a problem getting around, or getting parking, or getting a table – not once have we wound up behind a slow-moving tour bus or RV as happens in Canada all the time). We went for a short walk along the avalanche barriers above town last night (yes, you read that right). And that’s when I had my troll sighting. I took this photo of the town:
Then suddenly I saw a flash and caught this on camera.
In this case, FISH. Like the ones caught by the fishermen feet away from the restaurant, below.
I had the red fish, which I’ve finally decoded to be ocean perch in English. Oh god, it was delicious!
This morning, after a lovely breakfast with our hosts (in their other house) we went on our hardest yet most rewarding hike of the trip so far. We’d been told “there’s a path – sort of” up and into the valley between some of the mountains. So Husband, with his bloodhound sense of direction, took us up a very steep non-trail – really, NO TRAIL – into this valley. About 45 minutes straight uphill, grabbing onto lupin roots to pull myself up in spots. This is where we wound up, in this valley. But it wasn’t over yet.
We then continued to hike up to the top of the mountain – where you can see the snow patches, above – another hour and fifteen minutes, for a total of 2 hours straight uphill with basically no trail, and very, very steep for the last half hour. I wanted to kill Husband for a while because it was somewhat terrifying for me (not for them – I think this was payback for the whale watching) – but then we reached the top, and these views:
That’s them, by the way, those two little dots in the distance.
We looked down into the next valley, and to the ocean beyond. It was magnificent. And you can see the town, way way down below. You can also see the sweat stain between my boobs. We were all sweating like pigs by the time we made it up there.
We had fun sliding down the snow patches on the way back. Then, after showers back at the Herring House (which was metres from the start of the trail) we wandered around town and came upon this adorable little grass-roofed house.
Then it was down to the water …
Followed by a truly terrific visit to The Herring Era Museum. No wonder this place has won awards; you feel like you’ve stepped back in time, to a time when the herring industry was booming in Iceland, and especially in Siglufjordur.
Then, for the first time in a long while, we actually had a rest back at our wonderful guest house. The days have been so packed! The difference here is that we didn’t have to take the car anywhere. For dinner we did, indeed, go to the “red house” – again, magnificent food. And we had our first al fresco meal in Iceland – rather bundled up as you can see!
Siglufjordur is an amazing little town (population around 1000). It’s going to get busier, though – they are building a hotel as we speak. Right now there are very few places to stay. But even with the hotel, it will still be a great place to visit. Probably one of my favourite places in a trip full of favourites. Tomorrow is Son’s birthday – we will have our longest driving day so far, about 5 hours, to the Snaefelsness Peninsula. I heart Iceland!
