Monday, July 2, 2018

Day 23

Today was a very long day.  We spent nine hours driving around Eyjafjörður!  After getting off to a late start leaving the apartment at noon we first drove south to visit the area where Þorunn and my ancestors used to live around Vatnsendi.  On the way there we stopped at Jólagarðurinn, a Christmas House, where there is a building always decorated for the holidays.  Going inside the building was even more amazing since it was packed with all kinds of Christmas decorations being sold year round.  They had cute little figurines made out of rocks that were painted to look like people.  Also, there was a pile of rock assembled to give the appearance of a cave entrance which was supposed to represent the home of Grýla (the scary troll mother of the 13 yule lads).  Attached to the building was what was claimed to be the world’s largest advent calendar, a tower-like cylindrical room with wooden panels representing each day in December that opened up on the walls.





After walking around the Christmas House, we continued the drive south to Torfufell where Bergþóra Sigurðardóttir and Jón Jóhannesson (my great great great grandparents) lived on a farm from 1855 until 1870.  There is a farm in the same area today probably build next to where my relatives’ old farm used to exist.  Then we drove to Vatnsendi only a couple minutes’ drive from Torfufell, where Jóhann Vilhjálmur Jónsson (one of my great great grandfathers) lived in 1874 before emigrating to Gimli, Canada at the age of 24 and becoming a farmer.  We think the old grey wall structure might have been where his house was. 
This area of my ancestors was beautiful to travel through: a deep, wide valley where farms had been built and steep mountains on each side so high that they make you feel insignificant.  On the mountain sides there were striations made from glacial runoff.  All around is abundant with green grass and brush in the valley and along the mountain sides.  Upon seeing how peaceful and protected it is the valley, it was easy to understand why my ancestors had chosen to live here.

Torfufell where Bergþóra Sigurðardóttir and Jón Jóhannesson lived:
 The structure around where Jóhann Vilhjálmur Jónsson once lived:
 The road that Þorunn and my ancestors traveled down and additional pictures of the area:





On the way back to Akureyri we had lunch at Kaffi kú, a café where you could view cows while eating.  The café was situated on the upper floor of a large barn with around 150 cows that you could see through glass windows all around the tables.  Below us, the cows were able to move around as they chose from an eating area to sleeping area to an automatic milking robot that had some extra desirable food located near it.  We were served tiny waffles in the shape of hearts with whipped cream, melted caramel, and rhubarb jam on the side.  It was a very sweet and tasty lunch even if it didn’t smell the best in the café at times due to the cows around us.

After lunch, we drove north and passed through Akureyri and Dalvík on the way to Siglufjörður.  We had to go through three tunnels in the mountains to get there.  The first tunnel had only one lane with areas for cars to pull aside roughly every 100 feet so cars going the other direction could pass.  It was a little nerve wrecking with the cars coming at us and several cars close behind us.  Finally, we arrived in Siglufjörður where we drove by the harbor and explored The Herring Era Museum that describes Siglufjörður’s history as one of the most famous areas in Iceland for herring fishing.  It was this industry that the small town’s economy relied on during the 20th century and which Norwegian traders helped develop.  Salted herring was a highly desired food in Europe during the first half of the 20th century, so it became one of the main exports of Iceland to Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Russia, Germany, and the US.  Even when not salted for human consumption, herring oil was used to make soap.  Although, we arrived at museum 20 minutes before closing, we were still able to walk around the main building and outside of the other buildings.  The museum was built where the old large herring processing plant used to be.  We saw the workers quarters that included cramped bedroom spaces and tiny kitchens with low ceilings.  You could also see the area where herring were poured down a long basin that would’ve had an assembly line of workers along it packing the fish into wooden barrels.  The barrels would later have salt water added to them before they were exported.

Around the Herring museum and harbor:





After Siglufjörður, we drove back south to Dalvík and saw its’ small downtown area from the main street.  It was a nice small town with a beautiful view of large snowy mountains across the fjord’s body of water. Then we visited the farm that one of the Snorri participants is staying with their relatives near Dalvík.  It was so nice to see them again and meet their relatives who had an adorable three year old collie/Icelandic shepherd mix.  Þorunn had a wonderful time talking to their relatives and they connected over mutual friends who had previous lived in Dalvík.  Eventually we had to say goodbye and drive back to Akureyri.  Once we got back, we all ate dinner at a quick to go restaurant then Þorunn and I walked around while enjoying the sun shining through the clouds at 10:30 pm.

The cute dog in Dalvík and other pictures from the drive along the northern part of Eyjafjörður:



The weather today was mostly nice with the afternoon being very sunny and in the high sixties so I could walk around in t shirt no problem.  Later in the evening when we were in Siglufjörður, which is farther north in the fjord and thus more exposed than Akureyri, it was in the mid-fifties and misting.  So I had my range of temperatures for the day but at least I wasn’t in Akranes where we heard it was raining hard and windy like usual all day long.  Tomorrow afternoon we will drive back to Akranes.  Hopefully this time there will be better visibility along the way so I can take some better pictures of the highlands.

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