Day 3 Don’t Mention The War

Today will hopefully be the only day this trip that involves an alarm clock. One of the few things we planned in advance was attending a knitting festival, including a workshop that starts at 9 AM and in a town an hour away. We made it out the door, and thwarted Maps attempt to reroute us through a $50 toll tunnel to save us all of 8 minutes. Also, there was heavy rain and traffic - glad I am not driving. 

We found the festival registration and picked up armbands and maps. The workshops are in individual homes all over the town of Fuglafirði, so I still had a bit of an uphill hike to make it to my binding workshop. I've never actually done a workshop before and it turned out to be the first one the instructor was teaching. It also turned out that the other two people who registered didn't show up. So I got 3 hours of one-on-one instruction on i-cord bind off, double knit, and a few other skills that will greatly help with a sweater I'm already making. 

She was surprised I hadn't done a workshop before since I have been to other knitting festivals. After hitting the rest of the festival, I understand that. I'm used to Maryland Sheep and Wool, which has tons of demonstrations, exhibits, and vendors, and a multi-day competition. Just walking around is a full day. This festival is much more about culture than commerce, if that makes sense. They had a small exhibition from 1 fiber artist, and pictures of prior festivals, but the only vending was a local yarn shop that had seating set up to knit and chat with other attendees and a hand crafted place that also had a loft available for sitting to knit. 

They had a full day of lectures programmed in addition to a few workshops, guided walking tours of the town, and an included lunch. As the lectures weren't in English, they were inaccessible for us. Bill did one of the walking tours while I was at the workshop, and the guide spoke both Faroes and English. 

From the instructor, I did get to learn a bit about the changing landscape of Faroes knitting. She showed me a website where they are now trying to capture clothing patterns which have traditionally been passed down generations orally instead of in writing. That was consistent with the knitter I spoke with a couple days ago, who had a book she called the Faroes knitting bible that shows pictures of the traditional colorwork patters, but just as single panels - she said they didn't ever work from "recipes" because the knitters just know how to make the garments. Back to the workshop, we also talked about carding and spinning, which are becoming more wide spread in the Faroe Islands as a means of reducing waste and producing yarn more sustainably. A lot of commercial Faroes yarn uses the local wool, but ships it to other countries for manufacturing. The hat I got yesterday is one of the businesses working with local wool production. It seems like an exciting time for the whole set of crafts that gets from a sheep to a finished piece. 

After the festival, we headed to Gjogv, a town recommended by the rental car agent. It was indeed quite picturesque, both the drive up a series of hairpin turns on a single lane road, and the village and old harbor. Oddly, the only people we saw were other tourists so it had a bit of an abandoned feel. 

A natural harbor, no longer in use.

Coastline at the edge of the town.

Gjogv

We then headed across the island to take a brief view of a sea stack and a lake before heading back. 

If you look very close you will see the sea stack.

A lake

We tried out expresso at a coffee roaster recommended at the festival, and ran into the Argentinian winery folks again. 

We decided on a Scandinavian restaurant for dinner, which had a rhubarb G&T on the menu and a dessert with a chocolate avocado mousse - good food all around. The table next to us had a large, loud party mostly German and the only English we heard was the titular reference to Fawlty Towers. 

Tomorrow looks like more rain, so we may once again put off visiting that other island. We will see. For now, I am thrilled to not need an alarm clock.

Knitting It All Together (Day 3)

We had an early start today because today is the knitting workshop that Dawn is attending in Fuglafjordur. The plan it to get there around 8:30. It's at least a 45 minute drive. We made it, but the drive was harrowing. The entire way there it was raining and there was thick fog limiting visibility. Add to that Faroese drivers on their morning commute that are immune to the islands temperamental weather - and you have a recipe for whizzing around curvy roads that drop into the ocean with little to no guardrails with extremely limited visibility at 80 kph. If this were a video game, I would assume the render distance was set to low. Everything was rain and gray. My hands were literally sore from gripping the steering wheel for that long that hard. The amount of concentration that early in the morning to make sure we arrive in one piece was literally, and figuratively, exhausting. 

Once their, I was a plus one. The Faroese National Knitting conference lasts for three days. We are only attending for the first day. Dawn gets us registered and I don a wristband. Her workshop lasts from 9:00 to 12:00 and I'm on my own for the morning. At 10:00 there is a walking tour of the town that I join. I immediately am self conscious because everyone is speaking Faroese, but when I announce that I speak English that makes everyone feel compelled to include me and speak English. The tour-guide is an town elder who has family dating back generations in Fuglafjordur. He walks us around the town tells us the stories about how the village has acquired its many sculptures and art installations. In a couple of the cases he is the patron that attracted the artist to the town. 

 The entire time we are walking around in light rain, but the Faroese don't seem to register light rain. That is the background noise to their existence. After a bit over an hour, I am sodden but educated on this village. As the tour breaks up the tour guide shakes my hand and wants an evaluation on his English. He tells me that he has studied many languages, but never English. The entire time he was riffing and I honestly couldn't tell. We should all be so lucky to be so fluent in a language we don't speak. After we grade his English he dives directly into my opinion on President Trump... 

I spent the next hour walking around this village. I don't think the photos do this village justice in terms of how terraced it is and how steep the roads are. I observe many people climbing streets like mountain goats. I spend more than a little of my walk contemplating what it must be like to live here. 

The knitting conference includes lunch. After Dawn's workshop concludes she returns to the village's cultural center and we tuck into some lunch. The buffet is an intriguing mix of egg salad, a quiche?, some kind of sesame lo mien salad, tomato crostini, and curry seafood soup. I can honestly say I enjoyed this snapshot of a Faroese conference lunch offering. 

Since the afternoon panels were delivered in Faroese we left after lunch. We took the opportunity to visit the northern part of the Eysturoy island. Our first stop was Gjogv. This village was a bit of a conundrum. It is obviously inhabited. However, we never saw a single soul who lived there. The only people we saw were fellow tourist there to gawk at it. And it's easy to see why. The town is named after a gorge that forms a natural harbor. There is a steam that cuts through the town. This looks more like a movie set than a place people live. 

Did I mention the road that leads to this town? A single lane road with multiple switch backs that had me questioning my mortality. If people commute to and from the town on the regular they are made of sterner stuff than I am. From Gjogv we decided to head west to Eioi which kept us on mountainous single lane roads. The view was breathtaking, but as the driver, I felt the full weight of not getting us killed during the transit. Again, I doff my cap at Faroese divers who travel these roads on the daily. 

On our way to Eioi we get to see two famous sea stacks, the giant and the witch.

After Eioi we drove back to Torshavn for coffee and dinner. We decided to go to Katrina Christiansen for a seven course Scandinavian dinner. The food was good, but tough to compare to last night's increditable experience. My take aways are: mayo is good and used to delicious ends in Scandinavian cuisine. The table of 10 next to us was very loud, but some German's making a Falty Tower's reference to not mentioning the war, help mitigate the annoyance. 

Also, alcohol is expensive in the Faroes Islands. Just now, the law are relaxing, but until fairly recently it was difficult to buy and is still expensive. This means that dinners with wine pairing are still expensive, but as a consequence of this, servers are very generous with their pours. A quarter of a glass appears to be a taste of the wine. A pour is half the glass. They aren't shy about refilling a glass if you shown enthusiasm for the wine. I also adore any culture that assumes you'd like to end a meal with a coffee and then a nightcap. How very civilized.

Day 2 Shopping in the Rain

We had loose plans to head to another island via an undersea tunnel today, but as the weather had turned to heavy rain before we got out, decided maybe this was the day to hit all the shops we'd been eyeing in town instead of navigating single lane roads on the edges of cliffs without guardrails. 

We hit a lovely bookshop with lots of cute puffin merch first. Followed by a yarn shop, a menswear store with some hats, an art shop, and a small mall that had both a grocery store and a boutique that happily carried multiple home goods with FUCK printed on them on all sorts. Somehow the sum total of purchases for the morning were a box of tissues. Some of the art was quite nice, though. 

After lunch at a cafe we hadn't tried yet, we revisited the cafe we went on the first day to better peruse the tea selection. I then decided I wanted to see the rest of the harbor. We've walked the side where the ferries dock quite a bit, but not the more industrial portion. 

On the way around to that side, we found another gallery, with a print shop, and Østrøm, a store that was part sporting goods and part hand crafted Faroes goods. They had a few pieces by the same artist who made the distillery tables. They also had quite a selection of fish leather bags from Fosaa. I got a fishleather purse and gloves when we were in Iceland, and they are still in excellent shape. Didn't add anything today, but will have to keep an eye on their website for potential future treats. I did get a fun hat from Vesturgarður handknit, made with Faroes wool. 

The walk along the harbor was cold and wet, but we got to see some boats in dry dock and see someone Bill called "crazier than us" who was fishing in this weather. 

Still beautiful in spite of the weather

After changing into some dry clothes, we headed to dinner at Ræst, a restaurant specializing in fermentation and dedicated to showcasing local Faroes ingredients. In addition to a wine pairing, they do a non alcoholic drink pairing that includes house made kombuchas, fermented juices, and NA cocktails and getting it was a great decision on my part. I feel certain Bill will extensively cover the menu and wine pairings, so I'll keep to briefer notes. 

When we were in Copenhagen, we went to Kadeau for one of the best dining experiences ever. This felt similar in a lot of ways, the service was outstanding, the entire staff engaged and attentive, and the food was challenging, thoughtful, and ambitious in ways that succeeded and exceeded expectations. They are very different experiences - this one in a historic building with a tiny kitchen where they cannot make updates to layout, wiring, plumbing did not include details from the thoroughly controlled setting of Kadeau's modern facility, for example. But both hit the same sense of wonder, hospitality, and just fucking fantastic food. This place far exceeded the offerings at multiple Michelin star restaurants I can walk to. I don't understand why they don't have one, I wouldn't be surprised to hear they earned 2. 

Some notes on the actual menu: I hadn't had sea buckthorn before, but I'll be sure to order it if I ever see it on a menu. I don't know how to smoke gooseberry juice, but this seems like a great experiment for the future. Pickled kale stems are such a great use for the part normally discarded. We do not make sufficient use of rhubarb in food or drinks. This was also a 4 hour long meal, so I went straight to bed sans nightcap. Tomorrow is going to be an early start.

Raest! (Day 2)

I just had a meal that I will remember for years to come! Years. The original plan for today was to drive to Sandoy in the morning and explore Torshavn in the afternoon followed by an early (6:00?) dinner reservation at Raest. Things did not go according to plan. 

My stomach was feeling uncooperative this morning and the weather forecast for the day was not good. We woke up to howling wind. It sounded like the wind was trying to break into the apartment. By late morning it was also raining and we decided to scrap our plan to drive to Sandoy. Instead we decided to explore Torshavn on foot, in the rain. 

During weekdays there are number of shops that are only open from 9:00, or 11:00, or 1:00 until 5:30. The entire town seems to shutdown at 5:30, except for the restaurants, which open at 6:00. Today was a day to explore the shops that we've missed the last two days because we were doing stuff in the middle of the day. 

We got plenty wet walking around town, but it honestly wasn't as bad as listening to the howling wind would lead you to believe. Without a doubt the highlight of the day was dinner. We had reservations at a restaurant called Raest which specializes in Faroese fermentation. 

I suspected we were in for a good time when we approached the restaurant and they identified us by name. It turns out we were only one of two couples dining this evening and dinner took us approximately four hours across 11 courses. I don't know if I can say enough good things about this meal. It was exquisite. 

The meal was rooted in the Faroe Islands celebrating the Faroese food ways, but it wasn't constrained by this idea. One of the chefs was from Mexico and worked in references to Mexican cuisine into the larger meal that were very successful. 

Every dish contained food that was fermented. This often included botanicals from the Faroe Islands that had been pickled or fermented. It also included blue muscle garum, and the undisputed star of the Faroese fermenting scene, fermented Faroese lamb leg. The temperatures are cool enough on the Faroes, and the wind salty and constant enough that if you hand a leg of lamb out the island will auto-ferment and jerky it for you. This time-honored method of food preservation is so engrained that our hosts provided us with a booklet of Faroese terms used to describe fermented food... the vocabulary is robust.  It's so common that we've seen it in the local grocery stores.

I got the wine paring and Dawn got the non-alcoholic pairing. Both were excellent. One could argue that the non-alcoholic paring was more impressive because it showcased the fermentation work of the restaurant more. However, the wine paring is one of the best I've had in some time, so no complaints here. 

The undisputed high point was an mid-meal plus up offering. Normally I despise offering diners truffles or some prestige ingredient in the middle of an already expensive tasting menu. In this case, they offered us a Saunterns to pair with a langoustine dish. The Saunterns was a rare vintage and the hook was they were one of a few "Lighthouse" restaurants charged with pairing the sweet wine with a savory dish. I ordered the wine because I've been infatuated with Saunterns since starting my WSET education. 

Oh man! I don't know how to describe this wine. The nose is intoxicating. The wine fills the mouth and the finish goes on and on and on. Dawn tried it and was equally impressed. I save a portion of the pour for the rest of the meal and we kept returning to it just to nose it. I have a feeling that I will be disappointed by Saunterns for the foreseeable future. 

One of the surprises of the evening was Sea Buckthorn. This shrub was described as "Nordic Passionfruit" and if I wasn't told otherwise, I would have thought it was passionfruit. I need more Sea Buckthorn in my life. Besides the lamb, seafood and buckthorn, which were incredible by the way, the stand out tonight was seaweed. The dishes showcased seaweed used in innovative ways and they were unanimously successful. 

Pulling a thread from the discussion we had with the tour guide at the Faer Isles Distillery yesterday was that the Faroe Islands have yet to develop their own cocktail culture. But the ingredients are all here. Like many places (e.g. the American south) unfortunate law have stunted the growth of unique drinking culture. But change is happening! They are staring to make Faroese spirits that I think hold great promise. The local botanicals of the islands hold are waiting to be incorporated into cocktails. I want to have a seaweed focused martini. The Sea Buckthorn yearns to be converted into a Sea Buckthorn Martini. Do I need to retire and move here to help make this happen? 

The potential and future trajectory are clear. Someone needs to open up a speakeasy or a Japanese inspired listening lounge and help bring about Faroese cocktail culture. Also, tonight's meals has reenforced the conviction which I already hold. I need to be fermenting more things all of the time. Ferments are good!

Day 1 - Vacation Cheat Code

Today was a lazy morning, catching up on the sleep we didn't get over the last (two) day(s), and sipping coffee while watching boats tool around in the harbor. Got some quite good bread at the grocerys store, and some massive capers that are fantastic to eat whole. We hadn't made any plans for the day, but Bill had found 2 distilleries. One, about 45 minutes away, had a tour available in the early afternoon, so we made that the plan. In our younger travel days of trying to do as much as possibly every day, we would also have booked a boat tour, but this is going to be a slower, less structured trip. 

Before heading out, we hit the Navia almost next door to our apartment. This Faroes based knitwear and yarn brand has multiple locations and is sold in several stores. The yarn selection includes Faroes wools, blends of Faroes, Shetland, and Australian wools, alpaca, and a few other fibers. I tried on a few pairs of pants, made friends with another tourist who wanted to know a bunch about the pants without having to try them on, and looked at the wool options. The sales rack was largely pastels I know better than to think I'll use, so I passed. 

We also stopped by EINSTAKT, a local brand whose designer started in Copenhagen before returning here. Most of the knitwear, including the wonderful sculpted mohair sweater I got, are hand made on the Faroe Islands. 

 After that, we headed out to the distillery, with a brief stop to enjoy the view over Kvivik: 

We got to Vestmanna a bit early, so we hit a local gift shop and visited this handsomely bearded statue of a local hero credited with bringing telephones and banks to the area:

Standbeeld Ólavur á Heygum

He was also passionate about hydroelectric power, but couldn't get the backing for it during his lifetime. 

The distillery tour was just us and one other couple - the ones I met at Navia that morning. They own a small winery in Argentina and are getting into distilling. She's a retired teacher who was working in DC, really not a bad retirement plan. The tour was excellent, starting with some history and pours of 4 spirits. At the other woman's suggestion, they brought out bottles of botanicals used in the spirits so we could smell them while tasting. The offerings included a vodka with a super interesting mouth feel (I'm assuming Bill is writing all about the water source) and one that uses an "ocean truffle" seaweed, which I immediately wanted to mix with the brine from this morning's capers. Angelia grows wild here and they add it to most of thier products - roots and stems. The roots are used pretty commonly in gins, but I am not familiar with using the stems. Apparently the flowers are edible and prior to candy being redily available, children on the islands would pick them, dip them in sugar, and eat them. We then took a turn through the warehouse housing the stills. The vodka and botanical based spirits are all from a combined still with a short but reasonably efficient column. The whiskeys are heavily inspired by Scotch, including the double distillation through separate stills. 

These are Brynhild and Gudron, named after two women in a Faroese ballad from around 1200 who fought for the favor of a dragon slayer. Back in the tasting room, we also sampled a couple of the still in development whiskeys - these are going to be awesome when they are eventually released, and picked up a small bottle of a barrel aged akvavit to help write these blog posts in the evenings. 

I almost forgot to mention the furniture. The tables in the tasting room are made by an American artist who immigrated to the islands and opened a studio in an abandoned NATO base. We aren't going to make it there - hours are by appointment only and we are not exactly looking to acquire furniture. But I'll be keeping an eye out for other Joel Cole work as we travel around. Nice balance of natural materials, industrial edge, function and form. 

After the distillery, we headed into Kvivik to get a look at the coastline up close. There was a small archeological site and a knitting shop called Kvivknit (how could we not stop with that name). In addition to traditional knits that Bill found far more comfortable that our prior stops, the owner also hand dyes Faroes yarns and sells a selection of undyed yarn from the local sheep. The shop had a ton of wonderful things, but we got out with just a sweater and two skeins of yarn, somehow. 

Next up was the tallest waterfall on the island, along with some sheep gawking. The car rental staff had warned us that sheep will just wander into the street. They will run from people, but show no fear of cars. Bill followed me up a muddy slope to get a bit closer to the falls. What fun! 

After that, we headed back to the apartment to drop off our purchases before hitting a local steakhouse for dinner. This is one of the closest restaurants, but wasn't on our radar as the islands aren't exactly known for cattle. The distillery tour guide had recommended we go there to try cocktails (not much of a cocktail scene here...yet) and suggested we get appetizers instead of mains. Solid recommendation - lots of local fish and a charcuterie board that included air dried Faroes lamb. 

 We ended the day with another quick walk to the lighthouse, which we had entirely to ourselves, and a stroll through the section of town where parliament and several government buildings sit. Bill also noted that visiting distilleries and wineries was like a cheat code for vacations as it's a thing we always enjoy, even when we don't end up loving the products. 

 Ending the day typing this up with a glass of Akvavit while looking over the harbor - I could get used to this.

The Truffle Epiphany (Day 1)

The day started with sleeping in, which was well deserved after the travel marathon yesterday. The first order of business was working out how to make coffee. The apartment came with a French press, blade grinder, and a water kettle. Yesterday we stopped by a grocery store and bought some beans. It's been awhile since I've made a French press, and oddly enough, I've never done it with a blade grinder. While I was digging around in the kitchen looking for something to scoop the beans with I also found a kitchen scale. Hot dog, I'm in business now. After weighing the beans and the water I was able to produce a passable pot of coffee to start our day. We paired that with some rye bread, butter, and avocados that we also bought at the grocery store. Additionally, I opened a jar of the largest caper berries I'd ever seen... which were sublime. We washed that down with a second pot of coffee and made a plan for the day. 

Dawn booked us a distillery tour at 1:00 in Vestmanna which I'm super excited about.  The distillery is a 45 minute drive away. That gives us enough time to take a quick stroll around Torshavn and visit some clothing shops before we hit the road. 

The Faer Isles Distillery was a bit of a gamble. I learned about this distiller a few weeks before the trip, and was very enthusiastic about the fact that the Faroe Islands made their own aquavit.  Dawn's research said that they only do tours if enough people book a tour for a given day. When we got there we learned that they only open the distillery to the public if they our doing tours. Fortunately four people was enough for them to do a tour. I grew even more excited when they said the tour was going to be at least 75 minutes long. I've done a lot of distillery tours and a motivated tour guide can usually explain the process and give you a tasting in less than 45 minutes. This tour was unique being that they started with the tasting and talking us through the genesis of each of their four base spirits and what made them special. 

They had two aquavits, a gin, and a vodka. Every single spirit was exceptional. Unsurprisingly, one of their hallmarks is using botanicals from the Faroe Islands in their spirits. Specifically, all of their spirits include some kind of seaweed. Both the gin and the aquavit were excellent on their own, and I suspect would be great mixed into cocktails. I'm not usually impressed by a vodka... and the tour guide started out saying that neither were they. Initially, they weren't interested in making a vodka. In fact, they have intentionally avoided it even that that's the obvious thing to make when starting a distillery, because they couldn't figure out why anyone would need yet another vodka. 

 However, that changed when a new under sea tunnel was being drilled between Streymoy and Sandoy. In the process of building the tunnel, the excavation team encountered an undersea reservoir of fresh water. They actually contacted the distillery and asked them if there was anything interesting they could do with it... and they decided making vodka with crazy sub-ocean water that happen to have crazy high minerality might be an argument for a vodka. The spirit truly celebrates the unique water supply. It has a definite mouth feel, a lot of salinity, and significant minerality. In fact, they apparently had to dilute the spirit down with normal water to qualify as a vodka because their initially offering was too distinctive to be categorized as a vodka. 

The last of their four base spirits was the Ocean Truffle Aquavit. When Dawn and I independently looked at their website, we both commented on how unfortunate a thing adding truffles to an aquavit was. What we didn't appreciate, until we took the tour, was that Ocean Truffle is actually a kind of seaweed. This is a umami forward aquavit that we both really dug. The plan is to buy a couple of bottles as we leave the islands at the airport. What a unique spirit that is truly of the place that it is distilled. 

The tour guide also told us that the vision of the distillery was actually whiskey, but that would take time. The founders started the distillery after learning about the factors that made Scotland such a good place to age whiskey: stable temperature, humidity, and salinity. It turns out that the Faroe Island has all of those things as well.  Some may argue that they perhaps have and even better environment, but until recently, it was lacking a legal way to distill spirits. That changed a few years ago, and now they are trying to prove that the Faroes can age an amazing whiskey. 

We got to try a sample of a two year old whiskey, and I'm a believer. It tasted more integrated and more mature than many 3-5 year old spirits I've tasted. I can't wait to see what this island is able to produce over the next ten years. I plan to follow their progress with interest. 

After spending 2-3 hours at the distillery talking to the staff and having a great time we decided to explore more of Streymoy. We started by stopping at the town of Kvivik. We spied this town on our way to Vesmanna because there is a scenic overlook above the town. We drove down into the town and took some photos. We were about to leave, but Dawn discovered that the town also had a knitwear and yarn shop, so we hopped out of the car and decided to find it. A two minute walk later and we were there.

This was a cute little shop run by a woman who was proud that all of their products were hand-knitted by women in the Faroes. She also died her own yarn and apologized for not spinning it herself. It was a truly charming shop. I was so impressed with their sweaters that I decided to buy one. Even to my uneducated eye, their hand-knit mens sweaters were obviously better than what we had seen earlier in the day in Torshavn. 

After Kvikik, we decided to go north and drive up to the Fossa waterfall. I can't understate how beautiful the island is and how distracting the scenery can be from the act of driving. As we got closer to the waterfall this was compounded by the road becoming a single lane road and having to negotiate two-way traffic by pulling off the road to allow on coming traffic to pass. We had the waterfall to ourselves with only some sheep looking on. We scaled the hill side as much as we dared. On the way down I made a poor choice in foot placement and submerged the better part of my left shoe in some kind of muddy (I hope) sludge. 

Once back in Torshavn, we struck out for dinner. Our distillery tour guide told us that The Tarv in Torshavn was using their Ocean Truffle Aquavit to make a martini, and they were doing some of the best cocktails in the islands. He warned us off the expensive mains and told us that their seafood starters were what we wanted. The Tarv was a short walk from our apartment and we had no trouble getting a table. The seafood starters were indeed delicious. We also got their chartuterie plate which included a Faroese speciality, wind dried lamb. Dawn really enjoyed this shaved meet. I didn't know you could dial the gaminess of lamb up to 11... or maybe even 12. I understand why she was enjoying it, but I am certain that paticular speciality is not for me.

Day 0 - What Day Is It?

We got up bright and early on Sunday to head to the Dupont Circle farmer's market for pastries, and by the end of dinner, it was past 9PM on Monday. 

Our First View of the Faroe Islands

We're in the Faroe Islands, finally taking the trip we were supposed to do in 2020, but something came up. 

We got here the shorter way, via Iceland, but it was still a long day. I did get a bit of a nap on the first flight, which is likely the only reason I was even up for dinner. Here are some photos from the first bit of driving:

 For this first bit, we're staying in Torshavn, the capitol city, with an apartment overlooking the harbor. Once we figured out check in, found the correct parking, pulled in our luggage, and stopped in a local cafe for a small snack, it was close to the end of the day for most of the retail. Bill scanned the recommendations listed in the apartment's extensive directory and found a restaurant for dinner. We then walked around a bit to get oriented and hit a grocery store. And then I asked how far a walk it was to the lighthouse we could see. 

 The lighthouse turned out to be reasonably close and walkable. It's part of an old fort that has been around for at least 400 years, with the newest armaments dating back to WWII. In addition to being fun to walk around, it also provided a great view back into the Torshavn harbor. 

 Next up: Dinner at Áarstova. I got salmon tartar with crisp toasted nuts, tons of herbs, and sesame oil: Roasted lamb shoulder with a crisp skin and a wonderful sauce: A shared cheese course: And a lovely lemon mouse.  Bill's rhubarb dessert was one of the best rhubarb dishes I have ever had. I paired my dessert with an 8 year old Kilchoman - when we visited, the distillery hadn't been open long enough to have anything legally considered Scotch. After dinner, the waiter took us on a tour of the house, including the room they serve visiting VIPs in, and the wine attic (killer staircase). He also showed us that the street just outside had a river underneath when the house was built. 

 All in all, a great start to the trip. Can recommend: lounge access at Dulles - far more civilized than any other way to wait for a flight. Cannot recommend: wandering between parking lots while dragging luggage to discover you walked up a completely unnecessary hill.