Traveling west...

J

This morning we took a slight detour to visit Glaumboer, a farm built of mostly of turf and driftwood like most Icelandic farms were before the 1900s. If you look closely between the buildings you can see how the turf was cut and laid up. It was great insulation as well as protecting the buildings from the wind. Almost all the buildings at this farm were connected by a dark central hallway. Can you imagine what the winter must have been like? Dark to begin with this far north and then add lots of snow which covered some of the windows. If that wasn't bad enough, they weren't backed up to a mountain for water so had to walk to the river to get water. Next photo...

I took this standing in the front door, and yes, that's the river way way down there. It froze over in the winter so they had to take along an axe to break through. I'm trusting the horses weren't helpless in the winter and could at least pull the cart!

These guys were at the turn for the Seal Capital of Iceland. Have no idea what they were supposed to represent but we saw them in a couple of other places as well. Did we see seals? Nope. It was cold & windy so can't blame them for wanting to hang out elsewhere.

And, last but not least, a friendly sheep along the gravel road we drove on half the afternoon. Sheep continue to be everywhere and this one seemed more than willing to hitch a ride with us. By the way, Iceland is full of young hitchhikers. Reminds us of the 60s.