Day 10 (June 30)
Morning came early for me, albeit briefly, when I closed the drapes of one window at 3:45 a.m. as the sun was warming up the room too much. We were on the road after a slow start to Seyðisfjorður, a fjord to the east of Egilsstaðir.
It is a short and scenic drive over snowbound passes to the village of 800 or so souls. 
This is where the first submarine cable for telephone arrived, as well as more recently, a fiber optic link. There
was an odd steel "phone booth" embedded in the rock on the south side
of the fjord. It does make an odd sight to passers by, including me (self portrait on right) in the door of the phone booth.
It also is the terminus for the ferry service between Denmark and Iceland via the Faroe Islands (Danish). Lunch at the Hotel Aldan on the harbor. Grilled cod on a nice spring salad. The oldest part of the town was built in 19th century Norwegian-style architecture, which makes Seyðisfjörður architecturally unique among fishing villages in Iceland. Many are well preserved. 
After a photo tour of the north side fjord, mostly old buildings and turf houses (in ruins), and a photo along the fjord's waterfront
(yes, clear and cold) we headed west again to try to a northerly fjord.
Along the way, Steve had the great idea to cut the day short, it was already 4:30 p.m., to go back to the hotel to catch up on computer work and perhaps take a nap. So we stopped in the middle of the road beside the Dyrfjöll Peaks ("Gates Mountains") and snapped our closest photos we were going to get on this trip to the 1136 m. tops.
We were anticipating taking photos at midnight with the sun and full moon. It was during this afternoon respite that we discovered that, yes, the moon was full, but would be 1.5 deg. below the horizon for Iceland!! It would not return until July 2nd!.
Leave a comment