We took a side trip to Sudureyi as per the local guidebook’s recommendation to feed the “friendly codfish the greet the town’s visitors”, but weren’t able to locate the pond that they were living in (the only pond we found was really shallow and appear to be in somebody’s back yard). Oh well, scenic drive. The route to this town involved a trip through a 9km long (and in parts one-way!) tunnel with a fork in it to choose which town you wanted to go to. Talk about crazy, but there were plenty of pullouts. Guess it made more sense to go through the mountain, rather than build precarious, avalanche-prone roads around them.
We returned to Isafjordur to let Autumn run around a bit on yet another “world’s most scenic playground” to burn off some energy before lunch. We went to Tjorhaus, built in 1781; we had stopped in the night before to check out their dinner buffet, but Autumn was not having it, so we decided to come back from lunch. We arrived when they opened at noon and were informed that the chef was still at the fish market picking out today’s catch, so we’d have to wait. Talk about fresh fish; we were super excited. The meal began with fresh bread and Icelandic butter (so good), fish soup, and then pan-fried Plaice fish with potatoes and a salad. The fish was so tender it melted on your fork (before even making it to your mouth). The meal concluded with coffee and chocolate. We considered this to be our 5th wedding anniversary celebration dinner – well worth it and likely the best fish we ever have and ever will eat in our life.
Next stop was a gravel ride over the mountain pass to make it down to the south side of the West Fjiords and catch the ferry later in the day. Along the way was beautiful Dyjandi waterfall, which we enjoyed hiking up to the cascades. This was our favorite waterfall thus far.
We took the 7pm Baldur ferry from Brjanslaekur to Stykkisholmur. After having been on the Coho Ferry from Port Angeles, WA to Victoria, BC, which is about 3-4x larger, we found the Baldur to be quaint, but amazing. The ferry was relatively empty, so we had plenty of room to roam around on deck. We especially enjoyed the brief stopover at Flatey Island and the views of the Snaefellsness Peninsula. Autumn had a blast playing in the kids’ area aboard the ship, watching 101 Dalmatians in Icelandic with yet another Icelandic friend that she made.
Our stay was at a seemingly isolated cabin that was so modern and beautiful (with super high speed fiber internet) that we once again didn’t want to leave. The view out the window of the endless summer sunset over the water was so fantastic that once again we found it difficult to force ourselves to go to sleep until well past midnight.
