Viking Sushi
12 August, 2014
Photo by Eric.
The northwestern corner of Iceland is a remote peninsula full of beautiful fjords. In fact,
it's called the Westfjords. We didn't have time for the Westfjords. But between the Snæfellsness
Peninsula and the Westfjords is a lovely body of water called Breiðafjörður Bay. We of
course wanted to see this, and our travel agent offered something called the Viking sushi trip from
Seatours. They take you out in a boat on the bay, which is what we wanted, and then they catch a bunch of
critters and make sushi for you on the boat. Kind of gimmicky, but it also sounded kind of fun, so I booked a trip.
The tours left from a place with an extraordinary name even for a town in Iceland: Stykkishölmur.
Driving to Stykkishölmur
We got up early enough that we would have time to drive around the far west side of the Snæfellsness
Peninsula and see some sights on the north side.
As we left the hotel, just the peaks of Snæfell were sticking out through the fog.
Just a bit of the volcano sticking out.
We decided to go out to Öndverðarnes, the far northwestern tip of the Snæfellsness
Peninsula, where there were two lighthouses.
The road was terrible.
Further south lighthouse. The color is not terribly attractive, but now I wonder why all
lighthouses aren't this color.
Eric took a closer-in view.
Although the road was a miserably bouncy slab of dirt, there were natural parking spots paved with lava.
Further north lighthouse.
Eric took a picture of me using the lighthouse to shelter myself from the vicious wind.
Eric juggling bits of lava. We were remembering Mark, who encouraged Eric to take up juggling.
There was a pretty little beach.
After the lighthouses, we headed east along the north side of the peninsula toward Stykkishölmur.
Waterfalls like this poured out of the hills on the south side of the road everywhere.
We were looking out for a cool formation called Kirkufell.
Unfortunately, I don't have any information on the geology of how this feature came to look like this, but
it is cool. I am guessing water erosion, but I don't know. Those Seussian plants in the foreground reminded me of
the dryas in Alaska.
When you see Kirkufell from the side, you can tell it isn't actually shaped like the top of a swirly soft-serve cone.
Eric took my picture with Kirkufell in the background.
Viking Sushi Trip
We went out on a vessel called Særún. Fortunately, the boat was not terribly crowded.
Looking back at Stykkishölmur Harbor from the boat.
Our captain took us to several small islands, where he showed us the birds who lived there. Photo by Eric.
A fascinating island formation. It looks like columnar basalt. Photo also by Eric.
Eric took a picture looking across the bay at the Westfjords.
An urchin living in the seaweed at the foot of an island.
Nesting kittiwakes.
Eric got a good picture of a cormorant called a Shag.
An Atlantic Puffin.
Earlier in the summer, this would have been kind of a puffin cruise. But in mid-August, the puffins
start migrating south. We were in Iceland just in time to see any puffins at all, one reason I wanted to
go to Iceland before England.
A rock suspended between two vertical rock surfaces.
Various islands in the bay.
It wasn't quite like the Puget Sound or Kenai Fjords, but it was pretty.
The captain told us to go to the stern, where we saw the animals being caught.
The catch.
The crew making sushi for us, with butter knives. Eric points out that this is actually Viking
sashimi, not technically sushi.
Eric took a picture of a scallop served on its shell. We ate many of these. The females had roe, too (the
orange you see in the picture above).
Eric took a picture of two large sea stars among the critters.
He also took one of a small sea star, with a sea cucumber in the foreground.
We even ate urchins. See the inside of an urchin here.
The car ferry that goes across to the Westfjords was coming back into the harbor at the same time we were.
We had wanted to see the basalt island of Súgandisey, right in the harbor. It had a lighthouse on top.
It was so spectacularly cold and windy up there, however, that we were ready to head for Reykjavík rather than
look for a cache on the island.
Reykjavík
A tunnel between Borgarnes and Mossfellsbær. There was, of course, a toll.
We had to get up early for a tour the next day, so we only had a couple of hours to spend in Reykjavík, and
some of that time needed to be spent on dinner. We had watched a video of sights in Iceland before coming, and
the most interesting thing in Reykjavík looked like Hallgrímskirkja, a tall church with a viewing
area on top.
Hallgrímskirkja.
Hallgrímskirkja with a statute of Leif Ericson.
The inside of the church.
The church's dramatic pipe organ.
Expansive views from the top.
Eric's view.
We walked around the streets a little and had traditional Icelandic fish for dinner.
Illustration of housing density in Reykjavík.
The streets were pretty.
We spent the night at the Hotel Klettur. Photo by Eric.
This was clearly the nicest place we'd stayed in so far. The room was nearly the size of an American hotel room.
I didn't so much like the breakfast area, though, because it was subterranean and not sunny.
For once, we were able to see more than planned in a day. While this was probably our least exciting day in
Iceland, we still did some interesting things and ate some interesting food.
Inside the Volcano!
