Mountaineers in Iceland: May 17, 2016: Vik and Skoga

We at breakfast in the common kitchen at the hostel. We were up and driving by 9:30 today. Our first stop was Dyrhólaey, a large rock formation of the southern tip off Iceland.

It is home to a large bird colony including puffins, eider ducks, gulls and arctic terns.

Lundi, or Puffins floating in the ocean

A puffin landing near its' burrow.

Kassia chose to wear shorts today, when it was only 3 degrees Celsius and very windy. Other tourists looked at her when she was walking around Dyrhólaey.

Reynisdrangar in distance

Once we got back on the Ring Road, we headed toward Vik. Between Dyrhólaey and Vik are two steep hills. The grade is 10% and 12% and we couldn’t believe how many cars were going 55 mph and passing others on this steep, two-lane road with curves. We headed to the Icewear factory shop in Vik for some quick shopping. After that we tried to eat at a nice café in the center of Vik but it was not open so we ate at the grill associated with the N1 gas station. They were serving Plokkfiskur, a traditional Icelandic Fish Stew. Half of us got Plokkfiskur and the others got fish or chicken burgers.

We headed to the black sand beach in Vik. Again, lots of birds and lots of wind. At the beach we could get a better look at Reynisdrangar. These pillars are almost 66 meters tall and are made of tuff ridge (volcanic formation that has now been eroded away).

The legend about these pillars says that two trolls tried to draw a three-mast ship ashore but the dawn overtook the trolls and before they could reach the mountain, the trolls and the ship turned to stone.

We wanted to go to Vik’s hot springs but it didn’t open until 3pm so we grabbed a few snacks from the grocery store in Vik and returned to Skoga.

There is a famous folk museum in Skoga which has thousands of everyday objects collected by Thordur Tomasson. It also has the Museum of Technology and Transportation and thirteen houses/buildings to showcase how the Icelandic people used to live.

Iceland’s net cutter used during their Cod Wars against the UK fishing fleet.

In the Folk Museum, we met a guide and asked for a tour which he gave willingly to us. The only problem was he was expecting another school tour a short while later and assumed it was us.

These pieces of wood hold the mark of various local farm. Driftwood was so valuable that it is written into Icelandic law that whatever lands on your shore you can keep. A farmer would mark the wood so if it floated to some other location before it could be moved it would still be identified as his driftwood.

In 1584, the first Icelandic Bible was translated and printed, Guđbrandsbiblia. There was a total of 500 copies printed, of which 30 have survived. This translation allowed church services in Iceland to be conducted in Icelandic and is thought to have helped preserve the language. All Icelanders were required to attend weekly church services.

The askur, it a lidded eating bowl made of driftwood and was the usual vessel for food until the late 19^th century. Soups and porridge were eaten from the bowl and the lid was used for bread and meats. People sat on their beds to eat from the askur using a spoon made of horn and a pocket knife. Each person had their own askur and horn spoon. There were not many large tables in Icelandic homes because the houses got smaller in the 12^th century because of a little Ice Age and the Icelanders of prior centuries had burnt all of the wood.