Ísafjörður
Ísafjörður was another tender port but our tour start time was a little later than yesterday and our tour was a private one so we didn’t need to get to our meeting point until 9AM. After our pretty busy yesterday we were looking for a more relaxing tour.
David and I took the tender to the port around 8:30 and met our tour guide Ástra at the pier where we took off in a private car for the long ride to the Dynjandi Waterfall. It was a spectacular morning with blue skies and temperatures in the 60s, quite unusual for this area. Our ride to the waterfall took us through 2 large tunnels carved though mountain rock. Prior to the tunnels, the area was inaccessible to tourists and the locals took dangerous mountain roads which were closed during the winter months cutting off major areas of the peninsula for months.
Our first stop was to the beautiful Dynjandi Waterfall, one of the main attractions for visitors to the peninsula. We had plenty of time to take photos as we walked up the trail to the base of the waterfall. About halfway up we decided it was a bit too steep and rocky to go all of the way but we still had great views of the waterfall and the beautiful surrounding area.
From the waterfall we headed down a 14km dirt road to our next stop, a museum/cafe which was just across the fjord from the waterfall. The road had many potholes and was single lane in many places. Ástra noted that it contained the only 2 stop lights in the peninsula and they ere to control one way traffic on the dirt road electrical update construction. As we traveled she had some interesting family stories as her father’s ancestors lived in the area for hundreds of years. Her grandfather was the last ferry board driver across one of the waterways prior to a bridge being built.
The museum/cafe overlooked the beautiful fjord. A family lives at the museum and bakes all of the wonderful sweets they serve in the cafe. We chose to try the Hjónabandssaela, also called the Happy Marriage Cake, a whipped cream topped dessert made from oats, butter and rhubarb. It was delicious. We enjoyed it sitting outside overlooking the fjord where we got to see humpback whales swimming in the fjord. The small museum is dedicated to Jón Sigurðsson who fought for and helped win Iceland independence from Denmark. It provided a great overview of some of Iceland’s history
We had a short time after visiting the museum to walk around there property which housed a small church and traditional Icelandic buildings.
Our drive back to the port took us back thought the 2 tunnels and towns we traveled though on our morning travels. At the port we said our good-byes to Ástra and reminded her to go grocery shopping prior to the eclipse when thousands of visitors will decend on her peninsula inhabited by a few thousand people.
Back on board the ship we spent a quiet afternoon followed by dinner at Murano, one of the ship’s speciality restaurants where we thoroughly enjoyed a lobster Dinner prepared at out table by our waiter Mary.
After dinner we called it a night.
