July 21/14

Headed away from the Westfjords via the southern route. The northern route is supposed to have "jaw-dropping" views, according to the Lonely Planet guide, but it's a much longer drive, and would have included unpaved sections, as well as the potholed road to the falls that we gave up on a couple of days ago. The southern road also had some unpaved sections as well as some construction, but it was a much shorter route. The scenery was pretty, but not amazing for the most part.

Upon arriving in Holmavík we saw the Museum of Witchcraft and Sorcery. During the 1600's there was a lot of witchcraft practiced in the Westfjords, especially by men, and quite a few were burned at the stake for very little reason. For instance, when one woman was sick, it was thought that her illness was caused by practicing witches, and two people were burned. Then when she fell ill again, it was decided that two others were responsible, and those two were burned. Of course, those who admitted to a connection with the Devil were burned.

Like all the other small communities we've stayed at in the west, Holmavík is situated along the water. Although we drove for several hours, we only saw the occasional house and church, and only a couple of places to get food or drinks. We didn't see any place to get gas, but perhaps there would have been some if we'd turned off the main road.

Although I wouldn't want to live in such small communities, our B&B host from last night told us an interesting story about how the whole town of 180 people gathers together at Christmas to cook putrified skate. Apparently it really smells bad while it is being cooked, but they enjoy eating it when it is done on December 24th, which is when they celebrate Christmas. I have to say I liked the idea of the whole town coming together in that way, as no one is left alone for the holiday.

For dinner we tried Icelandic smoked lamb and puffin, Michael had salt cod, and I had skyr cake, which is like cheesecake in a bowl, but with skyr (yogurt) instead of cream cheese. It had a graham crumb crust in the bottom, and blueberry sauce with a small piece of chocolate cake dipped inside. All of the above Icelandic dishes were very good, although I have to admit I felt bad eating puffin after seeing such cute ones yesterday. However there is no shortage of puffins around here. Whale was also on the menu, but we can't bring ourselves to try that, as most species are endangered.