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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