RTTI: 9 - Goðafoss and Hólar

Hólar’s church, if I’m not wrong

I’ve been procrastinating a lot with this post. Although it may not look like this from the pictures (or even the text), this was one of the worse days in our trip. Uneventful, visiting not-so-interesting places and with a lousy guest house at the end of the day. Let’s see if you find if interesting! If not, the next post will be, don’t worry.

The day started in Husavík, with a wonderful breakfast: toasts and marinated herring. I just love marinated herring since I was in Germany… But the best comes from Denmark, mind you. After a shower and shave we went for some local shopping. We bought jam for our friends in Barcelona. After this chores, we wanted to visit the Phallological Museum in Husavík. We couldn’t… as usual in Iceland, most museums and shops start working at 10 or 11… The museum started at 12. D’oh!

Yes, it’s for real!

It should have been an interesting sight: it holds 272 specimens of embalmed or dried penises.. trying to get a specimen from every mammal in Iceland. When we were there, human was lacking but 12th April 2011, an Icelander donor died and completed this.

To Akureyri and Goðafoss

From Husavík we headed to Akureyri, the capital of the North of Iceland. We missed the turn to the city… and just went straight to Goðafoss, the God’s waterfall. A very nice waterfall indeed.

They were named Goðafoss around AD1100, when the Alþing (the Icelandic gathering of leaders and chieftains) decided to convert Iceland into a Christian nation. The lawmaker at the time decided to convert, but allowing current pagan worshippers to keep doing so in the privacy of their houses. Upon returning to his home after the gathering, he picked his pagan idols and threw them down the falls, hence God’s waterfalls.

Goðafoss, an amazing name

After seeing this wonderful view, we went to the city. Bought some things in a bookshop and had lunch. We also stole some free wifi from Café Akureyri to check our mails and twitter accounts. An interesting sight: Akureyri’s traffic lights were shaped like hearts, while we were there.

The rest of the day

Uneventful… We drove along our marked route. The most interesting part… we drove over a long-beeked bird beside an hydroelectric station. This kind of birds nest by the sides of the road, and have a tendency of starting to fly just when you pass them. You’ll likely run over one or two.

Tunnel from Dalvík to Ólafsfjörður, 3400m!

Headed to Hófsos, where an array of Scandinavian style houses sit… but it was too foggy, after stopping for a few minutes we kept on driving to our next landmark, Hólar. Hólar is a religious centre, with a “big” church. I must confess we didn’t find it so impressive, and would not have bothered if we knew beforehand.

Hólar’s church

Next stop was Nybær, a turf farm along the road. Kept on driving until we reached Sauðarkrókur, where we ate at Ólafshús. Good supper! We recommend the place. Our final stop for the day was Glaumbær, another restored turf farm. It wasn’t that great, and it was pretty late already.

Nýbær, if I’m not mistaken… Didn’t tag my pictures this time. May be
Glaumbær

Our final stop, guest house at Flugumýri. The hosts were hosting (no pun intended) their daughter’s birthday. We were to sleep in what looked like the servants room (there were none, mind you), beside the garage and close to the stable. All our bed lining was old, we did not have window blinds… Not a very welcoming place, the worse guest house of our trip.

Let’s see what tomorrow has to offer…

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