Voyage of the Vikings – Day 8 – Isafjord, Iceland  – Pics Part 1!

Thurs July 4, 2024

Hi All! Happy 4th of July!! It sure is weird being overseas on July 4th. No fireworks, no American flags and no one wishing you a happy 4th. But lots of hot dogs and hamburgers on the ship!

We had another amazing day in Iceland but it was a wee bit chilly. Try a high of 41 degrees with a “feels like” temp of 33! And it’s going to snow here tonight. Yikes! But we got lucky because there was no rain all day even though they were calling for it and the sun and blue skies broke out for awhile. 

Today we were in Isafjord, which is in the heart of all the fjords on the upper western side of Iceland. That’s why they call this area the “Westfjords” of Iceland. We did another all day excursion and today Sue and Stuart joined us. There were only about 12 of us in a nice Mercedes van cruising all around Isafjord. 

Our first stop was to Dynjandi Waterfalls. In English it’s called “The Thunderer”. It’s a series of five waterfalls with the tallest one being about 400 feet tall. It’s very impressive and sits at the end of this beautiful fjord. Our next stop was to the Hrafnseyri Farmstead which has been a farm since the year 1,000!

Hrafn Sveinbjarnason was a Viking leader who travelled to England, France and Italy, studying to become a physician in Salerno. He returned to become a popular leader in the West Fjords, only to be assassinated by one he had helped. He lived on the farm, to which he gave his name. Six centuries later, from this little farm, came a young man, the son of a pastor, who was to change the destiny of Iceland. Hrafnseyri has become synonymous with Jón Sigurðsson, the man who, without a shot being fired or a man being killed, brought Iceland from servitude to the Danish crown to internal self-rule with a rekindled self-respect. As you can see there was lots of cool history at this farm and the setting amongst the fjords was just breath taking. 

After we got back to the ship we played trivia with our friends from Albany. We got 9 right and the winners got 13 so not too far off. The theme was American history in honor of the 4th so you’d think we would have gotten more but the questions were hard! 

That’s all for now I’ll post an update after dinner. Hope everyone is having fun at a 4th of July picnic!