Holar and Hofsos

This post is on a myriad of things as they happened.  On Friday night we went to the restaurant next door to Kristin and Sigga's...it is the blue building in the photo at the very top of the page 'Olafshus'.  It was a sort of farewell dinner for Olga and Ross who are returning to London for the time being. The restaurant sells a mixture of food some quite traditional.  Everyone but Sigga and I ordered Foal which was beautifully tender...melted in your mouth. Seeing that I already have had foal I went for the Arctic Char which is closely related to salmon and trout and is farmed in Iceland, the flesh was a salmon pink...very tasty....Sigga went for a good old fashioned burger.

Olga´s amma Kristin (she adores Ross and Ross adores her)

Olga and Sigga

Butter here of course is a staple and I noticed that the little packets of butter served in restaurants are about three times the size you would get in Aust....much thicker than a box of matches.

The next morning we farewelled Ross and Olga at the bus station in Varmahlið which is about a 20min drive from Sauðárkrókur they will spend a couple of days in Reykjavik before flying to London on Monday afternoon, I will catch up with them before I return to Australia in 2-3weeks.

On the Sunday we went for a drive to Holar and Hofsos.  Holar is an Agricultural college for the local area and offers studies in Acquaculture, Tourism and is the International Centre for Icelandic Horses.

Holar College...a very picturesque location and a favourite image for local painters...I have seen many paintings of Holar in Icelandic homes.

While still at Holar we saw these traditional Turf Houses and most are now heritage listed, when I was here last summer I went to the Glaumbær museum which allows you to walk though the interconecting turf house structure, it is amazing and well preserved....take a look at the link.

Apparently at Holar there has been a settlement since around the year 1100, and today there are archaological digs current around the site that continue to provide a wealth of historical information.

One of the digs happening on the Holar site!

From Holar we visited Hofsos which is one of the oldest trading ports in Iceland, mainly because of its natural harbour.

 

 

These black houses in Hofsos belonged to the Icelandic mormons.

Along the shore at Hofsos are these amazing basaltic rock formations in some areas they appear as tall columns.