Seyðisfjörður

Positioned in East Iceland ,Seyðisfjörður, is considered to be historically and architecturally interesting. You can practice saying the name: sey-d-is-fjor-dur or say -this-fjuther. I will need lots of practice especially rolling the r sound. The town itself is not big having only 700 people. It is a central place though because you can take a ferry from here to the Faroe Islands( to check out the new tunnels) or to Denmark and then the rest of Europe.
Seyðisfjörður was settled in 1848 by Norwegians. They liked their own style of housing so imported houses as flat packs and constructed them. The result is an authentic Norwegian historical village in Iceland ,who would have guessed. The colourful houses are backed by slopes leading to Mount Bjólfur and Strandartindur and no I am not planning to drag you up them…..but maybe a walk for a few kilometres.

The town is famous for its church,known as the Blue Church.  Once painted white, then dark blue and finally pale blue and in picturesque surroundings,it got quite a name with tourists . Consequently it has stayed pale blue.

Iceland was badly affected by the global crash. Each area tried to make their citizens feel hopeful. In Akureyri, the stop lights became heart shaped and here they painted the street in bright colours. It seems appropriate as they have an art festival here every year,

Beside the church is a piece of rock that has holes weathered into it. These are dwarf homes. The story has it that when the vicarage was moved to its present situation, the dwarfs were not happy so they decided to come too.Their main home is on the other side of the fjord and this is perhaps their holiday home.The vicarage has the official name of Dvergasteinn – rock of the dwarfs.

Walking through the village,there are many references to its art links.

    
 You and I had discussed going up to Tvisöngur or the Sound Sculpture. I know that mountain looks formidable but there are some lovely waterfalls on route. You will love the view from the top.Let’s give it a go. 

Tvisöngur is made of concrete and is 5 interconnected domes. Each of the domes corresponds to an Icelandic 5 tone harmony. When you make a sound in each dome it amplifies that tone in your voice. Each dome sounds slightly different.

Those  mountains look quite stable but with erosion and weathering, rocks build up. This has resulted in two devastating landslides. The first in 1958 swept houses away and a family was killed. A second landslide occurred in December 2020 just before Christmas. There was no loss of life thankfully but the area was evacuated and the people spent Xmas in an evacuation centre. New Year saw them back and the community gathering at the lake with candles to celebrate .  They have shown resilience but heavy rain still causes a lingering nervous feeling. Their Technical Museum with its working machinery was partially destroyed.

Time to return to the ship and  perhaps you should rest up for tomorrow.