Day 8 The Northern Islands

I was up entirely too early today, and just spent some time watching the calm water from the apartment before Bill got up. 

There is a bakery that opens at 7 here, so as soon as he was moving, we headed out to try their pastries. Mine was all the components of a Boston cream, but in a danish. Also, ever table had a pair of lit candles on it and we were the only diners. They were doing a brisk to go business, though. Note that the sea view here is entirely different from the apartment view as this is on the other coast. Why not have two coastlines in the same town? 

Before heading out, we read up on postage and Bill paid online for two postcards that we could supposedly drop at a gas station. I managed to successfully send one of the two after many failed attempts and with assistance from an employee, but the second just would not work. I guess we'll figure that out later. There is a post office, but it's only open a few hours a week, and we're out of town for those hours. 

We hopped back in the car and headed to the northernmost town you can reach without a ferry ride. The lady at the visitor center actually suggested that if we wanted to see the two islands northeast of here, we get on the ferry and just don't get off as we'll get all the good views with no chance of being stranded. I think I have a limited number of boat trips with Bill, so I will instead use them tomorrow to get to an island that is only a 20 minute ride from Klaksvik. But for today, we got to see some great views: 

The two islands we will not be taking a ferry to.

Coastline in Viðareiði

That's no sheep.

We also found this strange sanctuary on the scenic road that is mostly bird and rabbit housing plus some wooden figures and a miniature village.

All the animals, sheep included, seemed to expect us to have food, which we did not. Got to get super close to them, though, which was fun. 

And I did not get bitten. 

 Next up, we headed to a ghost town that was also the home of a famous sorcerer buried in the last town we visited. According to the plaque, his magic included mental health services for priests. 

Stopped at a waterfall on the way up. The road was in bad shape, but not as terrifying as some prior roads as it was wider than the car. 

 I got Bill to do a bit of hiking here, mostly because I had on the wrong shoes so he thought it would limit how far I would go. From this side we could also easily see the church we had been to earlier in the day. 

Next up was a small town on another island accessible via a paved causeway, which was effectively a single lane winding road at the same level as the water. 

This was followed by a single lane tunnel without lights. At this point, Bill is a pro driver. Also on the way back we got behind a tour group in a van, which was very useful in the tunnel for giving us a heads up when there was going to be oncoming traffic. 

From there, we headed back through Klaksvic to a small town further along the coast visible from the bakery. This ended in what was effectively a junkyard, but I still got out and tried to get some good pictures. 

By then, it was well past lunch time, so we hit the local liquor store for a few minis of the local product, and slightly larger bottles of some of their lower ABV spirits. Next up was finally lunch, at the cafe next to the tourist information counter. Surprisingly good food, even if it took a long time (they somehow lost our order - but we got free drinks to make up for it). I also got a fantastic carrot cake slice! 

After that, we hit 3 of the 4 yarn shops in town (not counting the yarn selection at the grocery stores) and a few other shops. Bill found a fun shirt that he's still thinking about. I found yarn from a spinnery that was closed when we were in the area. The local hand crafted place had a few alpaca sweaters in addition to the traditional wool ones, which was interesting, but none of them was quite for me. I checked the socks, but they were all wool. 

I booked our ferry rides tomorrow - longer day than originally expected as the return trip we wanted is already full. I called the Thai restaurant on the island (only restaurant open off season) to confirm they are open, so we at least have someplace to get inside for part of the day. We picked up a pizza for dinner and while we were waiting, walked around a bit and found the local spinnery, which turns out to have recurrent Thursday evening classes. That overlaps with when the local pub is open, so I think we may each have a plan for Thursday night. I also tried the rhubarb spirit from the local distillery - decent, but not so good that I feel the need to find room in my luggage. So maybe just the ocean truffle for me.