ISAFJORDUR, ICELAND--Monday, June 9, 2014

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Isafjordur, Iceland--Monday, June 9th

Before we left home for this cruise, we googled around to learn about the next two communities in Iceland we were to visit. This community is located on the west coast and the other, for our visit tomorrow, is located on the far north coast of Iceland.

Isafjordur we learned was very tiny, with a population of about 2,600. It is the largest town on the peninsula of Westfjords and is located on a spit of sand, in the Skutulsfjorour fjord that meets the waters of the larger Isafjaroardjup fjord. Think you can pronounce these names?? We sure can’t. Anyway, the maps of the place showed that the cruise ship docked close to the village and we could walk a few blocks and be in the midst of it so, we didn’t schedule a tour here.

Once in port, and everything was ok for us to disembark, we set off down the road to the museum we could see in the distance. The largest collection of old timber frame houses in Iceland (mostly constructed by foreign traders in the late 18th century) are in this community. The maritime museum we were walking to was named Turnhus, built in 1744, and was once one of these places. In the front of the museum are memorials dedicated to the men lost at sea, as well as various fishing boats, and assorted sea/fishing related items.

Inside the museum, were pictures of the history of Iceland as seen through the shipping/fishing industry. One interesting artifact was a full seal-skin, thereby waterproof, suit used long ago obviously, before rubber ones were in use. Upstairs, were ship building workshops as well as a completely “out of place” collection of accordions. We caught the very tail end of a tour group and were able to sample some Icelandic food that was set out for them. One bowl held Hakari, a smelly, rotted/then dried, ice shark meat (poisonous when fresh) and the other bowl held dried thin flakes of salted cod. I only tried a bit of the cod—wonder why? Valerie tried both and her comment was “blech!, blech!, blech!”

Back outside, we watched some of our passenger shipmates maneuver their kayaks in the bay. Not my cup of tea as I am not sure how I would fold myself into one, but Valerie wished she were spryer to try it. We then walked along at the back of the museum to look at the fishing boats docked along the pier. Several were large fishing trawlers with HUGE backend metal doors that opened to haul in their nets full if fish.

Fishing has been the main industry in this town and it has one of the largest fisheries in Iceland. A severe decline in the fishing industry, for a variety of reasons, such as fishing restrictions in the early 80s and a decline in the fish population, has led the fishermen to seek work elsewhere, leading to a decline in the town's population. The harbor also serves as a port for ferries to nearby settlements as well as larger cruise ships like ours.

We continued our wandering into the middle of the village. People off our ship, along the way, praised a bakery, so of course, we headed toward that. Before we reached it, however, we came upon a store selling “made in Iceland” goods. Really, showcased some nice stuff and we bought a natural colored wool felted, about 3 inch high, set of Nativity figures for our Minister who has a collection of them and then one figure sort-of-in native costume, for our Christmas tree.

The bakery was absolutely packed with people from the ship. We placed an order of what we thought was a marzipan cookie (the word looked like “marzipan” in Icelandic on a label), but the treat didn’t come close to it at all—neither the almond paste nor cookie described it. Oh, well, thankfully, since the prices were very high, we only bought one to split. We ate it sitting in a rock-paved square in front of the bakery where they had parked old time bakery delivery trucks.

We wandered into a couple of more stores to browse before we decided to head back to the ship for lunch. On the way back, we met some shipmates, who raved about a shrimp salad they had at a nearby restaurant. They didn’t tell us the salad was $22.00 each!!! One of those times you sit in the restaurant, look at the menu, and want to pick up and leave. We didn’t, but no way was the salad of greens, cukes, a few tomatoes, and small shrimp worth that amount of money by Atlanta standards. That amount paid for one meal here, would buy both of our meals in Georgia.

Walked on back to the ship admiring the neat, very old wooden houses, some painted a pretty blue color, and looked at the flowers blooming in the yards. Spring flowers were in their prime flowering time here with tulips and others filling the street medians. Nice, pretty town. Arrived back at the ship, checked in, and called it a day until time for dinner.

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