Stykkishólmur




Elfa drove Luis and I up to Stykkishólmur, which is about two hours north of Reykjavík.  The plan was to head up there, stay at the summer home of one of Elfa's friends, and then visit an island the next day.  On the way, we got a small sampling of Iceland's majesty.



Weather is supposedly very unpredictable in Iceland, but in terms of precipitation, we were golden.



Rippled mountains stretched across the earth like a slumbering zebra.



I think the horizontal stripes makes this mountain look fatter.



Here's a shot of the summer home we stayed in for two nights.  We had our own rooms with cozy beds.  If you couchsurf outside of the major cities, you very well can end up in something spacious and comfortable.



Stykkishólmur is a colorful, scenic, rimy little town on the sea.  Quite peaceful.  The houses in Iceland seem simpler and even minimalist compared to what I'm used to in the US.



A cheap way for young 'uns (un is a good Scrabble word) to get around is at youth hostels.  You'll find them everywhere, including this obscure city.



Here's the first good picture of our darling Elfa, holding a frozen sheep's head at a "Bónus" grocery store.  Yes, you can see the eye in this picture.



Dining room in the summer home.  Here is where we planned out the rest of our trip.



Atop a hill there was a queer-looking museum.  It was even queerer as I actually visited it, but you'll see what I mean in later pictures.  According to Elfa, it's a water museum.  What exactly that meant I had no idea.



More simple buildings.



Boats docked at Stykkishólmur.  Mountains in easy view in the distance.



This is a very iconic picture of Stykkishólmur.  The boat sculpture represents the rugged sea-farers.  Also, there's a very recognizable rock in the background that is in half the Stykkishólmur postcards.



Stitched together some pictures off Stykkishólmur's coast.  That's Elfa to the left.



You can see this bird's bright orange feet.  Too cute.



Elfa stares toward Polaris, in a state of serenity.



Some of the cargo that gets loaded onto the boats in the marina.



We visited the water museum at the top of the hill.  Very unique idea thought up by an American artist who now lives out here.  Each of the columns here are filled with water from a different glacier in Iceland.  Each column of water had its own character, some a little cloudier than others.  When the arctic melts, the glaciers of Iceland will be preserved.



Words on the ground in both English and Icelandic describe Iceland's weather.



This word means "merciless".



Here's an overview of Stykkishólmur.   This church on the right is not just a work of art that looks a little like a Sphinx...



It's also a feat of aerospace engineering.



Here's a stitched together panoramic from inside the museum.  That's why there are two Elfas.  That shadowy face on the right is the artist responsible for this place.



We stopped in an Icelandic bakery.  I asked Elfa what was traditional Icelandic and she pointed me to these.  They were good.  Not dry, not too sweet, not too sticky.  Just a good snack to hold us over till we could cook something, because all the restaurants were closed in Stykkishólmur in late March.



We stopped back at the water museum at night and peeked in for a picture.  The columns looked ethereal.  I'd say the visit was worth it.



Here's a view of the pier at night.



From this viewing platform, there was one of those charts that show what direction and how far, in kilometers, various locations around Iceland are.



We did manage to sneak into a little cafe for a cup of coffee.  However, given the opportunity, I'll often opt for a fancy cup of hot chocolate.



We arranged our island trip.  Elfa's family actually owns an island in this area, but it would have meant a multi-day visit and we felt only up for a day trip.  We secured passage on a ferry that stops at an island named "Flatey".  We heard we'd get to try a homemade meal of European shag, which all of us agreed would be a unique experience.  Elfa thought the name "shag" was funny, so we descended into a fury of Austin Powers quotes.



Luis is quite a photographer.  He actually took a photography course.  I should one day.  Anyway, while I carried around my Canon pocket camera, he was dragging around his high-end SLR hardware, snapping pictures with a trigger finger quicker than a toad's tongue.



As we were preparing to depart to Flatey, we had plenty of an opportunity to take pictures.  This was the best of my 10 pictures.  Luis took probably five times more.



We could take pictures of the workers shuffling across the dock.



Rocky walls are laid in place to protect boats from the choppy waters.



A pointy orange triangle, my last view of the Icelandic mainland as I was ferried off to Flatey.



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