Iceland Day 7 - Seydisfjordur
Seydisfjordur. At the moment I can sort of pronounce it correctly (SAYdisFEordoor). But by tomorrow all bets are off! Ahhh...we got to sleep in just a bit this morning because we are not doing anything until the 10:45 walking tour of this quaint little fishing town. When I walked to pull back the curtains I thought it was going to be cloudy because it seemed darker than normal around the curtains. The weatherman had predicted a cloudy day for us today, but alas, beautiful sunshine. We ate breakfast outside, and our food was a snapshot of yesterday pretty much...but very good. During breakfast we decided to skip out on the walking tour. I can see groups going out and they are walking REALLY slowly, so we decided to read up on the town (according to Wikipedia...but Guy actually did this yesterday) and self-educate. ;)
By now a few clouds have rolled in and we decided to take it a bit more leisurely and do up a bit of laundry. Tomorrow is an at sea day and I’m thinking the laundry room will be pretty popular. So after the laundry we set out to explore the town. The day is beautiful but breezy, however our coats immediately went into the backpack after exiting the ship and the sleeves on our long sleeve shirts were promptly pushed up as full sun has once again made an appearance. Oh well...better to be prepared. And it’s one of those days where if the sun isn’t out, it would be cool. So we continued on.
As we made our way to the blue church we started passing some homes. Outside sat two little girls who had a stand, that sported the Icelandic flag, selling local goods to the ship’s passengers. They were off school now until the middle of August and she said she sat up her stand on the days the boats came in. It wasn’t your usual lemonade stand, these little entrepreneurs were selling rocks they had picked up off the ground. But some were a bit more “special” as they were from the next town over and carried a much bigger price tag. The girls had gathered them themselves and were quite proud of their mini shop. All I had was a US $5 bill and they had no problem taking it. ;) For this she pointed out all my options, (the three for $5 section, the two for $5 section, then the entire $5 for the really special section). There was one in particular that was unusual and it took the entire five bucks for the quarter-sized rock. They also allowed me to take their photo and another little neighbor girl joined them. There were no real treasures purchased in Iceland (except my Fox Center T-shirt), so this rock will hold great value to me.
As we walked around the village of 700, we passed a few little hotels, restaurants and bars as well as a few shops. One said local crafts, so that one of course was worthy of a stop. Her goods were indeed lovely, but a little felt hat/beret was 89,00 krona, which translates to about $70 and a Christmas ornament was around $25. They certainly are not afraid to charge in this country. :) We were looking for the local grocery store but didn’t come across it. We like walking around grocery stores in different countries. We are weird, but it’s a thing for us. There has got to be one somewhere, but we must have not walked down that street.
Next we headed up to the waterfall. I counted over 20 waterfalls coming down the mountains on both sides of the ship. Most are tiny, but there was one that was quite breath taking. We hiked to the top and took lots of pictures along the way. Even though it was not on the level as the waterfall we saw yesterday, there was something magical about it, seeing it coming from the top of the snow-melting mountain and hearing the rushing water coming down over the stony creek bed. There is just something about that sound. This is where we’d have stopped to eat our sandwich today (if we had packed one in our bag).
After a few more photos we walked back to the ship that was never out of our sight. We had a bite to eat for lunch. A slice of pizza and veggies to counter balance it. I had rum raisin and salted caramel gelato and it was so very good. I mean really good. Guy had me hunt down some Nutella to spread on his slice of baguette. Currently I’m writing up the blog as Guy once again sits shirtless with his swim trunks on (that he almost didn’t bring). Another couple commented today that they have a bunch of clothes they haven’t even been able to wear yet. The same goes for us.
There is a bit of history at this fjord town! Interestingly early on, as you’d expect, it was a Viking settlement, but in 1848 Norwegian fishermen and merchants had the first modern whaling station here. The town was also the first in Iceland to have a telegraph cable to Europe, making it the hot spot of international communications. Also, a dam was built in a nearby river to generate power for street lamps and homes, the first electricity to light the island. One side of the fjord is called Mount Bjolfur and the other Strandartindur. No, I can’t pronounce those today nor tomorrow. Everyone here speaks English but on our flyer for the day at the bottom it tells you how to say “Please take me back to the ship”. “Vinsamlegast taktu mig aftur til skipsins”. I’m gonna be better off just pointing to the paper.
At 4pm I went into the theater to listen to a talk about Iceland and it was good. The most interesting part was the movie showing the 5 gates the Icelandic horse. That’s one thing I forgot to mention. This breed of horse has been on Iceland for hundreds of years and no other horses can be brought in. These horses are unique because they actually grow a winter coat that sheds in the summer, have short legs, and have 5 different gates (other horses in the world only have 3 to 4 gates). 80,000 horses are on the island and 100,000 horses have been sold and moved off the island. They are highly sought after because they are such a pure breed. Once they go off they can’t come back.
Dinner tonight was in the specialty restaurant, Manfredi’s, which was Italian. It was very possibly our best food so far. I had a Caprese salad and Guy had calamari. He talked about it non-stop until his main course arrived, so I’m taking it that it was superb. My entree was chicken parm and gnocchi. My gnocchi was actually two round patties that were unique but delish. I probably wouldn’t call it gnocchi, but more of a polenta feel. I would order it again, so that’s the main thing. Guy had a ribeye with a side of pasta carbonara. They also gave us a lovely basket with all kinds of breads, which I forgot to take a picture of. They were all so very good. Dessert for Guy was a cheesecake that to me tasted like fruitcake (not a good thing) and I had the Nutella panna cotta. If I could have stuck my tongue down in the little jar I would have. Dessert ... ding ding ... Beth wins!!
Back at the room we are going to watch a movie and stay up late. Sadly the Blues play at 2am (and there is a dude from L.A. that is a huge hockey fan and he is setting his alarm to wake up and watch them). He high-fived us when he found out we were from St. Louis (close enough). He is rooting for the Blues as well. Not sure we’ll be able to stay up that late, but will find out what happened first thing in the morning. But tomorrow is a day at sea, so we can stay up as late as we want. Good night from the Viking Sky now headed away from Iceland and on to other adventures.
By now a few clouds have rolled in and we decided to take it a bit more leisurely and do up a bit of laundry. Tomorrow is an at sea day and I’m thinking the laundry room will be pretty popular. So after the laundry we set out to explore the town. The day is beautiful but breezy, however our coats immediately went into the backpack after exiting the ship and the sleeves on our long sleeve shirts were promptly pushed up as full sun has once again made an appearance. Oh well...better to be prepared. And it’s one of those days where if the sun isn’t out, it would be cool. So we continued on.
As we made our way to the blue church we started passing some homes. Outside sat two little girls who had a stand, that sported the Icelandic flag, selling local goods to the ship’s passengers. They were off school now until the middle of August and she said she sat up her stand on the days the boats came in. It wasn’t your usual lemonade stand, these little entrepreneurs were selling rocks they had picked up off the ground. But some were a bit more “special” as they were from the next town over and carried a much bigger price tag. The girls had gathered them themselves and were quite proud of their mini shop. All I had was a US $5 bill and they had no problem taking it. ;) For this she pointed out all my options, (the three for $5 section, the two for $5 section, then the entire $5 for the really special section). There was one in particular that was unusual and it took the entire five bucks for the quarter-sized rock. They also allowed me to take their photo and another little neighbor girl joined them. There were no real treasures purchased in Iceland (except my Fox Center T-shirt), so this rock will hold great value to me.
As we walked around the village of 700, we passed a few little hotels, restaurants and bars as well as a few shops. One said local crafts, so that one of course was worthy of a stop. Her goods were indeed lovely, but a little felt hat/beret was 89,00 krona, which translates to about $70 and a Christmas ornament was around $25. They certainly are not afraid to charge in this country. :) We were looking for the local grocery store but didn’t come across it. We like walking around grocery stores in different countries. We are weird, but it’s a thing for us. There has got to be one somewhere, but we must have not walked down that street.
Next we headed up to the waterfall. I counted over 20 waterfalls coming down the mountains on both sides of the ship. Most are tiny, but there was one that was quite breath taking. We hiked to the top and took lots of pictures along the way. Even though it was not on the level as the waterfall we saw yesterday, there was something magical about it, seeing it coming from the top of the snow-melting mountain and hearing the rushing water coming down over the stony creek bed. There is just something about that sound. This is where we’d have stopped to eat our sandwich today (if we had packed one in our bag).
After a few more photos we walked back to the ship that was never out of our sight. We had a bite to eat for lunch. A slice of pizza and veggies to counter balance it. I had rum raisin and salted caramel gelato and it was so very good. I mean really good. Guy had me hunt down some Nutella to spread on his slice of baguette. Currently I’m writing up the blog as Guy once again sits shirtless with his swim trunks on (that he almost didn’t bring). Another couple commented today that they have a bunch of clothes they haven’t even been able to wear yet. The same goes for us.
There is a bit of history at this fjord town! Interestingly early on, as you’d expect, it was a Viking settlement, but in 1848 Norwegian fishermen and merchants had the first modern whaling station here. The town was also the first in Iceland to have a telegraph cable to Europe, making it the hot spot of international communications. Also, a dam was built in a nearby river to generate power for street lamps and homes, the first electricity to light the island. One side of the fjord is called Mount Bjolfur and the other Strandartindur. No, I can’t pronounce those today nor tomorrow. Everyone here speaks English but on our flyer for the day at the bottom it tells you how to say “Please take me back to the ship”. “Vinsamlegast taktu mig aftur til skipsins”. I’m gonna be better off just pointing to the paper.
At 4pm I went into the theater to listen to a talk about Iceland and it was good. The most interesting part was the movie showing the 5 gates the Icelandic horse. That’s one thing I forgot to mention. This breed of horse has been on Iceland for hundreds of years and no other horses can be brought in. These horses are unique because they actually grow a winter coat that sheds in the summer, have short legs, and have 5 different gates (other horses in the world only have 3 to 4 gates). 80,000 horses are on the island and 100,000 horses have been sold and moved off the island. They are highly sought after because they are such a pure breed. Once they go off they can’t come back.
Dinner tonight was in the specialty restaurant, Manfredi’s, which was Italian. It was very possibly our best food so far. I had a Caprese salad and Guy had calamari. He talked about it non-stop until his main course arrived, so I’m taking it that it was superb. My entree was chicken parm and gnocchi. My gnocchi was actually two round patties that were unique but delish. I probably wouldn’t call it gnocchi, but more of a polenta feel. I would order it again, so that’s the main thing. Guy had a ribeye with a side of pasta carbonara. They also gave us a lovely basket with all kinds of breads, which I forgot to take a picture of. They were all so very good. Dessert for Guy was a cheesecake that to me tasted like fruitcake (not a good thing) and I had the Nutella panna cotta. If I could have stuck my tongue down in the little jar I would have. Dessert ... ding ding ... Beth wins!!
Back at the room we are going to watch a movie and stay up late. Sadly the Blues play at 2am (and there is a dude from L.A. that is a huge hockey fan and he is setting his alarm to wake up and watch them). He high-fived us when he found out we were from St. Louis (close enough). He is rooting for the Blues as well. Not sure we’ll be able to stay up that late, but will find out what happened first thing in the morning. But tomorrow is a day at sea, so we can stay up as late as we want. Good night from the Viking Sky now headed away from Iceland and on to other adventures.
Comments
Post a Comment