More photos from our day can be found here.
Thank to our friend Will who stepped in to mow our lawn after big (unexpected) rain in Lafayette that caused late August grass (unexpectedly) to grow!
After a quick breakfast, we started out on our first included tour of this cruise. we are in Isafjordur, which is the northernmost town in Iceland. It is located in the Westfjords region, which is a Peninsula connected to the island of Iceland with a rather small isthmus and located on the north west side of the island. Our ship docked right close to the center of town . The town is surrounded by colossal terraces of sheer rock. It has around 3000 inhabitants, a grocery store, a post office, a couple of cafés. If a municipality has 1000 residents they’re able to have their own government. In the past the main industry of Isafjordur was fishing and there’s still quite a bit of fishing in the area. As we drove through town our guide pointed out the avalanche fences and metal terraces aimed at slowing down and breaking up avalanches. One area of houses can only be inhabited in the summer as they have no avalanche protection. A short distance away we stopped to see waterfall high up on the mountain and to get a taste of the clear clean water from the fall.
Throughout Iceland we have enjoyed the availability of clean great tasting water.
We headed back through town toward Bolungarvik village To get there we would travel through a 3 1/5 mile tunnel through the mountain. The legend goes that an American company was hired to build the tunnel. As they started there were all kinds of trouble, equipment breakdowns, rock slides, etc. A man from the village came to the man in charge of building the tunnel, telling him the mountain was the home of the area elves and they were angry they weren’t informed before the building began and wanted an apology. The American man wasn’t convinced, ignoring the man and continued to build. The project continues to be plagued with equipment breakdowns and rock slides. Finally, the American man offered a public apology (supposedly you can watch it on YouTube). The tunnel project was completed with no further delays or issues.
We completed a short drive through Bolungarvik and headed to the Ossvor Maritime Museum a fascinating replica of an old fishing post that offers a glimpse of how life treated the Icelandic fisherman until the beginning of the 20th century. All the structures had stone walls th a wooden upper level with turf roofs. There were drying houses and housing for the fisherman, There was no heat in the buildings to fisherman slept two to a bed.
A old fisherman dressed in the typical fisherman garb for the time talked to us about fishing, showing us the various tools of the trade and demonstrating how they were used. Fishing at this time was largely for whales. When they’ve caught a whale, they would cut out its liver and discard the rest of the whale as they were looking for the oil in the liver.
After leaving the fishing village replica, we headed back into Bolungarvik for a musical presentation. We were treated to a delightful of songs from Icelandic tradition, both folk tales and a patriotic song about pride in Icelandic heritage.
As we left Bolungarvik, we were treated to a story of the first woman to settle in the area and her special powers. She has some control over the sea and would give each family that settled in the area a fishing boat to provide for themselves. She came to town with her brother but they didn’t get along. Their feud continued until the brother cast a spell on her that when she died she would turn into a rock on the windward side of the mountain, perpetually being pelted with wind, rain and snow. The woman, not to be outdone, cast a spell on her brother that when he died he would turn into a rock on the side of the mountain below the outcropping where the birds nested to he would be pooped on for eternity.
We headed back to the ship and had lunch. We didn’t have anything on our agenda for the early afternoon to Joyce decided to see if the laundry was busy. Viking provided 4 washers and 4 dryers on each deck of the ship. Soap and use of the appliances are included. Joyce knew people would likely be planning to use the laundry on the upcoming 2 sea days. There were two washers open, so we hurriedly sorted our clothes into two loads and started washing. Being able to put both loads in at the same time is a huge time saver.
Laundry was done in time to go to afternoon tea. We got there a couple minutes after it started, but all the tables were full. The maitre d offered to take our name and ask up to return in 20-30 minutes. We weren’t that hungry, just wanted the experience, so we said we would come another day.
We went back to our stateroom for just a short time until the lecture with Peter Mawby: Life on the Edge of the Continent. The lecture explored the challenges faced by wildlife and the dependent human communities in the Nordfjords of NW Iceland.
Alan found a recording of Hamilton on our stateroom TV, a show he’s wanted to see, but missed when it came out on video a couple of years ago. He started watching before we went to dinner. Tonight we shared a table at dinner with Vicki & Gary, from Beloit, Wisconsin and Mike and Chris for Philadelphia. Mike was a retired Pennsylvania state policeman and Chris was a former physical education teacher. Vicki owns a construction company and quarry and Gary was a mechanical engineer with a couple of patents.We shared stories from our various travels and had pleasant dinner conversation.
After dinner was the tradition Welcome reception with the introductions of the various heads of departments throughout the ship. As usual, we skipped the welcome reception part and got there for the introductions of the crew and then stayed for the evening’s entertainment.Tonight’s entertainer was Simeon Wood multi-instrumentalist. He dazzled us with several kinds of flutes, from the traditional concert flute, to a recorder, to a pan flute, and others. He even used an adjustable cane as a flute! He was fairly witty, and played music appropriate to this particular audience (of a certain age!)
We returned to our stateroom and Alan finished watching Hamilton.