Torshavn
Where
does it say that we have to be the ones who are put on the top floor – no lifts
– end of the corridor – 200m from reception and more stairs, etc? Nevertheless our 4 star hotel is the kind of
place where you want to spend time. Cool
Danish/Scandinavian décor, roomy, comfortable, stylish (if not completely
functional). Don’t care that it’s
raining again. Actually, all we’ve heard
from the people we’d spoken with on Suduroy, no rain for three months and
there’d be no grasses to harvest for the winter. They’ve never had a 3 month drought. And, here I am complaining of moisture in the
air!
We
decide not to book into the restaurant tonight as they only have a four course
set menu for around $80/person. The Koks
restaurant, apparently has quite a
reputation both here and abroad. This is
too expensive for us if we are to continue this trip and not go broke. Mind you, I could do with a bit of
starvation, have NEVER eaten so much bread in my life (and I love bread), the
cheese and sandwich meats are adding bulk to my middle and the walking seems to
have no effect. Oh, I miss my veggies
and greens. Tonight we opt for the hotel
café, pay $12 for a 120ml glass of wine and huge salad buns at roughly $32 each
and that settles it! No burger in the
world is worth that.
Friday 20th
Another
early start as we need to be at the harbour for the 9.30 ferry to the nearby
island of Nolsoy. A bit of a shock as I
look out our picture window, besides cloud, a gigantic German cruise ship fills
the harbour. We are parked in time for a
bit of a walk around the “old town” on the way to the ferry. It’s all a bit informal and we walk on board
with nary a look at our voucher. At the
other end we are met by an equally laid back guide, Jacob, the head teacher at
the Nolsoy, 23 pupil school. And so
begins a leisurely walk around the village with interesting facts and
stories. We are left at the local café
for another smorgesbrot lunch after which Howard and I take our daily uphill
walk to get the lay of the land. A
couple of Zodiacs filled with cruisers in yellow waterproofs, zip in and out of
the little harbour, on their “See the Faroes in one afternoon” trip, then
disappear into the distance as our ferry returns to take us and half the
village over to Torshavn. It’s going to be a big night in Torshavn as their
summer festival is in full swing, culminating on the last weekend in July. Jacob has a couple of his children in a
wheelbarrow which is left at the wharf, with many others, for their return
later that night.
Back
in town we make another visit to the info centre, Howard buys a DVD of the
Faroes and we do a little shopping for dinner in our room. On our way to the car we spy a puffin fridge
magnet in a wool fashion shop – about the only puffin magnet in town and we’ve
been looking. Then back at the car park,
we find we’ve been fined 200DKK (more than $32) for not setting the timer on
our windscreen clock. We’re in an 8 hour
free parking lot but it’s an honour system and we are expected to show what
time we arrived. We won’t forget that
one again. We hightail it back up to a
bank in town and pay the fine. On the
way home I ask Howard to find directions to the local liquor store because now
we deserve a little drink after that shock and after driving round in circles
we find the right shopping centre and get a pleasant surprise by both the
prices and the stylish design of the store.
Back
home I have my next surprise - I find I have outsmarted myself by deliberately
leaving the AU connector plug for recharging my new camera battery, behind. I have about 4 days worth of charge
left. We will look for a multi adapter
at Copenhagen airport on our way to Norway.
Saturday, 21st
We
have a partly lazy morning, go up for breakfast in the restaurant and beat the
crowd. Almost without fail, patrons, as
they leave after breakfast take one or two pieces of fruit with them. In our Faroe Island literature from Nordic
Tours back in Mosman (Sydney, NSW), we were particularly warned against
“stealing” food not eaten at the breakfast table and that Australians have an
ugly reputation for this. Well, we are
the only Aussies here and are a little indignant at this label now. Note to self; inform Nordic Travel of their mistake.
We
are headed to Klaksvik today, via Vestmanna and a coastal cruise to look at
some spectacular cliffs and outcrops. On
our way out of the hotel grounds we see a man with a grass trimmer up on the
roof of the three story hostel next door and walking along the lower floor roof
of our hotel, another man pushing a lawn mower.
Seriously, the grass was too wet to be cut! First on our list though, a short detour to
the old Viking village of Kirkjubour.
This detour follows climbs and descents in thick fog. We won’t know this but that same thick fog
has closed Vagur airport preventing a hoard of entertainers and visitors
entering the Islands for a weekend rock festival. In fact, as the days go on, we gradually
begin to realise that our eventual exit is completely ruled by the fog!!
After
tramping around the old village where one of the houses has been continuously
lived in for 800 years, by the same family line and walk around the ruins of an
unfinished cathedral – unfinished because the locals grew tired of the
excessive tax burden and revolted, we doubled back through town and made our
way north and east via the mountain route, scary to say the least, because of
the high winds. Found an unused pier at
Vestmanna and had lunch looking out into the harbour then when the time came
drove around to the wharf where our cruise boat was tied up. It was the same style boat as the Mykines
ferry so we knew we would be comfortably seated. NOT!
You can’t be gawping up at cliffs, caves, soaring birds and suicide
sheep hanging off rock ledges sitting inside!
Everyone was on the decks and the mate handed out safety helmets (with
rope chin straps) because we were winding in and out of crevices, deep ravines,
archways and rock stacks along with quite a variety of birds. What an amazing couple of hours, with stories
and anecdotes along the way to keep us gasping or laughing. We almost forgot to be cold! The photos can’t do it justice, particularly
as I was saving battery and didn’t take nearly enough. On the return run heading back into the fiord
we noticed some sheep rock hopping and were told that they like to add seaweed
to their diet, this also gives sheep meat a certain enjoyable flavour (I take
their word).
https://picasaweb.google.com/irenewheatley/2012FaroesCoastalCruise?authuser=0&feat=directlink
https://picasaweb.google.com/irenewheatley/2012FaroesCoastalCruise?authuser=0&feat=directlink
Back
on the road and a few very long tunnels later we were in Klaksvik and booked
into our very basic, alcohol free hotel.
Tell the truth, this was no less a standard than any of the other 3 star
places we frequent. Lonely Planet
describes it as “sparse”, my, their reviewers must be a spoilt lot is all I can
say. We even had another large flat
screen TV! The hotel restaurant was
closed Saturday night but we were recommended to the Hereford restaurant (as in
Mooo), just down the road. I had two
very tasty seafood starters (spicy prawns & greens and lobster soup – both served
with bread) while Howard caught up with his steak desires. His came served with a giant swirl of frozen
parsley butter and all the vegetables he has missed out on recently.
https://picasaweb.google.com/irenewheatley/2012FaroesCoastalCruise?authuser=0&feat=directlink
22nd Next morning we were
all down at the ferry wharf for the 20 minute trip over to Kalsoy Island, where
the one road took us up the coast to the tiny village of Trollanes. The mist and rain stopped for us while we
were being shown around the local smithy’s workshop. The smith was an amiable man who decided to
take up iron & steel work as a hobby and to reintroduce an ancient craft to
his village. He made a nail and gave it
to Howard plus we bought two more as souvenirs.
His other crafts were quite pricy and probably a bit bulky for our
luggage. After the demo, we headed for
the start of the lighthouse walk. Yes,
steep uphills, wide traverses and yet more uphills until finally we saw it
perched up high in the distance. We all
battled the strong winds, sat and looked in wonder for a while and the other
two men, Hans Erik (the Dane) and Zjev (Jeff, the Hollander) exercised their
cannon like cameras for a while before we returned to our cars. We were exhausted and on the last descent, I
even got on my bottom and slid down a few grassy steps – this being easier for
me than the deep, sometimes slippery steps ( along the sheep tracks – as usual). We utilised the village common house for
lunch and it was so cosy and warm inside we almost didn’t want to leave. However, we each made our way back towards
the ferry, at a snail’s pace as we had time to kill.
https://picasaweb.google.com/irenewheatley/2012FaroesKalsoyIslandVisitWalk?authuser=0&feat=directlink
This
evening the dinner was roast beef, I asked for just the vegetable portion which
was caramelised potatoes, boiled potatoes and red cabbage salad. I’m not sure whether my potato plate was
larger than those with beef, but I couldn’t finish it and we took the remainder
with us for tomorrow’s lunch. Somehow,
in our tired states, we two vegged out in front of the TV later that night and
put ourselves through the second instalment of Kill Bill, a film that I think
both of us had managed to avoid up until now!
23rd July
The
realisation that we were on our last two days on the Islands has hit us. We were to drive over to the remote village of
Gjov, on Esturoy Island– a village we’d seen from the lighthouse yesterday and
the long and winding road over had me biting my nails – figuratively, because I
couldn’t take my hands off the wheel. We
had mist and rain and high winds again and occasionally we had a break so that
I could take a photo.
Our
last two days and the nights at the guesthouse passed in a blur. Tuesday we had a visit to a fish market and a
knitting firm/showroom. We were to
receive instruction for the market and an old rectory museum from the showroom folk
but somehow they got their details in a twist and left out the part where we
would go to a local café for lunch. The
fish markets were a waste of time as no catch was brought in that morning. All the boats were in until the end of July
so the sailors could join in the summer festival. We had an interesting talk at the wool
showroom, got some history on the industry and I even bought a couple of
pattern books – in Faroese, but I’ll work it out – and a gorgeously coloured skein
of wool to get me started on my favourite top.
After
the wool shop, a short drive out to the village of Nes to look at the first
rectory in the islands and here the caretaker lady showed off her sense of
humour with her witty anecdotes. We also
knew there was a lunch involved and didn’t really think her meagre setting of
cookies and coffee did it, until the Danes got into a discussion about who to
give our vouchers to (our last Faroes Holiday vouchers), which mentioned lunch
and the lady asked about the lunch to which the Danes replied that we hadn’t
been given any further information.
Laughter all around as the misunderstanding revealed itself and
caretaker lady got on her phone to find out what was up. Then she asked Howard if she could borrow one
of the vouchers as her husband was hungry and she could get him a freeby! Anyway, after coffee she led the way to the café
in her car and we all got stuck into giant sized serves of fish & chips. Howard and I ended up saving a fillet each to
have on bread for our dinner. Finally we
all got around to exchanging names and addresses as the Hollanders were going
back to the Airport Hotel for their last night – something which we should have
thought of as our 8.15am flight meant an early getup and a slow 80km drive over
the mountains. We enjoyed coffee with
the Danes after they had their dinner and then headed to our room to pack for
the flight to Copenhagen.
Wednesday, 25th July
- This morning, the little Citroen car would try to tell me for the last time
ever, which gear I should change to! Too
bad the smart design engineers couldn’t write a program that could take into
account the weather affected driving, the arduous hairpin corners and the
narrow roads. We left the guesthouse
just before 5.30am, and it took until 7.00am before I parked the car at the
airport, including two fuel stops where Howard tried to overfill the tank because
suddenly the gauge wouldn’t move to full!!
We left a note taped to the keys, that the tank was full (and that we
wouldn’t be happy if charged for refuelling).
The Hollanders were also on our flight and they said they were relieved
to see our car in the car park. To all our
relief, we took off on time. It was a
wet and windy take off too but we wouldn’t be stranded until the fog
cleared. Tonight we are in Stavangar,
Norway. The sun is shining and finally,
we have changed into short sleeves.
https://picasaweb.google.com/irenewheatley/2012FaroesEsturoyIsland?authuser=0&feat=directlink
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