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Icelandic Relatives Lunch - May 19, 2017

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We had a lunch at the Hofnin in Reykjavik’s harbour on Thursday, May 19, 2017. There were a dozen descendants of Steinn Torfason Steinsen present from three of his sons, Torfi, Halldor and Moritz. Torfi was my great-grandfather. His son Bjorn (Barney) had one son, Donald Bjorn who had many children including me Eric, and I brought my wife Jane and my son Dusty. Steinn’s son Halldor was married twice. His first wife gave him a son named Vilhelm. Vilhelm had sons named Gardar and Orn. Orn came to the lunch. Gardar did not come because he wasn't feeling well, but thank goodness his wonderful wife Asthildur came with their son Vilhelm and Vilhelm’s daughter Una. Asthildur had met Bill Steinson (Torfi’s grandson) 40 years ago when he visited Iceland and she thought I might be Bill’s son Eric. My wife Jane and I visited with that Eric last summer in Atlanta Georgia. Once remarried, Halldor had another son who he named Halldor. I found the younger Halldor’s  family by using ...
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Reykjavik

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We had some coffee and shopped at Borgarnes before heading to Reykjavik because they had the best store/restaurant we had seen so far in Iceland. We found the Reykjavik campsite easily and empty. We asked about a bus tour of the city and found out the stop for the Hop On Hop Off bus was right in front of the campsite. We had a good one hour tour of the city and took along some beer. Later we took a drive toward Keflavik to go to the Blue Lagoon. It was incredible. There were lots of people and it was fun. We stayed in the water until closing and met people from Texas and Surinam and a couple from Toronto. We also had a silica mud mask. And some more beer.
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Hvammur

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Tuesday morning we woke up at the campsite at the Flokalunder Hotel. Dusty found a way to get a free shower and Jane went into the restaurant and negotiated a price for three toasts and coffees. We headed for Hvammur. The remaining coastline of the West Fjords continued to be amazing. We often stopped on the road to take pictures. When we arrived in Hvammur near Budardalar, even though the church is well off the road and behind trees there is a sign at the head of the driveway with an old picture of the church and the house. In the historical notes on the sign it says only 15 priests held the position at this church from the Reformation to 1944. Steinn Torfas Steinsen is listed as the 13 th from 1870-1881. Dusty took a picture of the scroll on the wall inside the locked church. We only found one Steinsson headstone in the graveyard. It was a person named GESTUR from the mid-1800’s. We left Hvammur and headed for Grundarfjordur to see the mountain Kirkjufell and the Kirkjuf...
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Puffins

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Monday started with brilliant sunshine. We used the kitchen house at the campsite to cook up our bacon and eggs. We got some more groceries in Pingeyri and then headed to the western-most point of Iceland called Latrabarg. We got there about 4:00 pm and had to wait until 7:00 for the puffins to return from feeding. No worries though because we were entertained for some time by a young arctic fox who came over to the gravel pile next to our van to bury whatever prize he had. We threw him a wiener and took some pictures of him. There were many expensive telephoto lenses meant for puffins pointing at this fellow, but he was right beside us. The puffins returned on schedule and they were amazing too!
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Arnes

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Sunday, May 15, 2017 We got up in Holmavik and headed for Arnes where Torfi lived before emigrating to Canada. It is a magical place. We visited Kort which is a museum of the area. We saw a picture of Torfi’s dad and they told us the church he preached at was still there and unlocked. It was amazing with the date 1850 on the front. We ran low on fuel and had to convince some people that didn't speak English to open for us. They did. Through a translator they told us about Steinn. They said he was a forward thinking priest and asked for an organ. It didn't come until well after his death, but they give him some credit for being first to ask. Dusty made a Facebook friend there and priced out a nice looking sheep farm. It was a nice day and we enjoyed the scenic trip up to Arnes and back.
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Akureyi to Holmavik

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Akureyi is a fair sized town. It has a town square. Nearby is a breakfast restaurant named “Berlin”. We saw it the night before and thought it would be good to have some bacon and eggs in the morning. It was, but when we stopped for lunch in Hofsos we bought bacon and eggs to cook the next day ourselves. They have a beautiful swimming pool built into the bank on the shore. Amazing! After Hofsos we went through a 7 km tunnel, followed by a 4 km tunnel. Akureyi to Holmavik was a good drive with lots of awesome scenery across Northern Iceland.
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The Eastern Fjords

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Got up and cleaned up the house and loaded the van. Albert drove up and warned us that winds would be strong along the coast this morning. We thanked him for everything and headed east for the fjords.  The first place we stopped was Djupivogur where Dusty got diesel. The woman at the till was Albert’s and our cousin. She was William’s grandson Gunnar’s grand-daughter. We got some bacon and eggs and headed out.  We visited the port Torfi landed at in 1914 ( I took a picture) and the next port where he met his sister Jane for the last time.  We turned off the ring road to head north to Vopnafjordur but some girls stopped us and told us the road was closed. We returned to the ring road.  We headed for a campsite at Akureyi.  When it is really raining and blowing during the Icelandic Summer animals huddle together. The sheep and the horses do. We only saw the cows out when the weather was good.
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