The Troll Peninsula – where the Heck is mom

Heading west from Guesthouse Stóru-Laugar to Karuna Guesthouse I first took a swing by one of the Diamond Circle attractions, the waterfall Goðafoss [ˈkɔːðaˌfɔsː]:

Notice all the people. With every passing day there are more and more tour buses and cruise ships. I’m pleased with my timing because although I did have some spring time rain I didn’t have full on summer time crowds.

I wish you could hear the roar. That fall in the foreground is probably 4-5-6 feet deep, I don’t know but there is so much water and it is roaring over with such force. It shows a little better in the inset which is an aerial from wikipedia.

Then I chose the detour to Akureyri to avoid the tunnel hassle of paying online within 12 hours (and to remind myself of Blue Car Rental…). I heard that it’s the only toll in Iceland. The detour landscape was some of the prettiest so far. At one point I wanted to get ‘down there’ and failed trying a couple gravel roads so I stopped at a place that was open to ask directions and Lo! it was an amazing art gallery.

Click on the link to read more about Safnasafnið. It’s “The Icelandic Folk and Outsider Art Museum was founded in 1995 by Níels Hafstein and Magnhildur Sigurðardóttir. For over 30 years the museum’s founders have been passionately committed to collecting artworks by artists who have hitherto been seen as outside the cultural mainstream…”

The cats above are from the museum.

The seated woman is the owner and the woman standing is a friend of hers who showed me around in great detail and it was fabulous.

A cat on the wall. I forgot to ask the story and I’m sure it’s a good one.

She’s going to have an exhibit there next year and I got to hear so much about her thoughts and her art esthetic and world view. Now that was something. Good luck sweetie, have an excellent show!

The Troll Peninsula (Trollaskagi – The Peninsula of the Trolls). Of course like everywhere it’s hard to pull off the road so sometimes I just stop and Click. Oh, that reminds me, at some point I need to talk more about the roads…but now I just want to catch up with these pictures!

campervanreykjavik has this to say: “The Trollaskagi Peninsula is located in the north of Iceland, between the fjords of Eyjafjörður and Skagafjörður. Its landscape is very different from the other regions of the island. It currently lacks recent volcanic activity, and it has a glacial and alpine (climate). After the deglaciation, beautiful fjords, valleys, and peaks that were formed over the years came to light.”

…and cows! These are the first cows I’ve seen! I’ve been looking for cows because of SKYR and where were all the cows you need to make all the Skyr?! They make cheese too, and very delicious butter. I just asked google where are the dairy farms and she answered with a map – mostly in the West so I should be seeing more of them. Oh yes, the church.

A couple more pictures from the Troll Peninsula.

See that tunnel entrance in the middle on the left? It came in several parts, entrances and exits, and it was long. I think it’s this one: “**Strákagöng** [ˈstrauːkaˌkœiŋk]) ..along Route 76. It has a length of 800 m (2,625 ft) and was opened in 1967. It is the second tunnel ever built in Iceland, only preceded by a minor tunnel of 30 meters between Ísafjörður and Súðavík. Prior to the tunnel the only road connection the town of Siglufjörður had was a very difficult mountain road built in ’46, that was closed about 5 months a year due to snow.”

Reaching the charming town of Siglufjörður I strolled around a little, got some gas and food, and found a liquor store. I bought myself some beer (you can only buy liquor in a liquor store and they are not obvious at all and this is my first. But now that I know what they look like I see them easily.)

This is a window, not a picture, in the dining room at Karuna Guesthouse. It’s the first time I’ve cooked in a guesthouse kitchen. It was sociable and fun. I’ve met mostly people from Belgium and Scandinavia. Also there are a lot of workers here for the summer from Central Europe. It was a pretty long drive and I arrived late, cooked and visited, and went to bed!