The Faroe Islands

I only had to trudge through a mountain of Europe posts to get to what I really wanted to share...

Misty Mountains ✓ (the entire country is misty mountains)

Waterfalls ✓ (land of 10,000)

Sheep ✓ (over 80,000 (officially))

I had heard only a little of the Faroe Islands but knew they were supposed to be ridiculously beautiful. We only had to do a quick google search to be convinced that this was somewhere we had to visit. Although -- there is some controversy surrounding the traditional whaling practice which involves herding a pod into a bay and slaughtering them until the bay turns red. I imagine that could be disturbing to see and traumatic for the animals but supposedly the government has implemented rules to make it more humane. Whether that is true or not I don't know -- but who are we to judge a subsistence practice that has fed the island for five hundred years?

Some facts about the Faroes...

The Faroe Islands are a 70 mile by 47 mile archipelago consisting of 18 islets, and are volcanic in origin. It has been 54 million years since the last flows erupted... and during the intervening time the islands have slowly migrated from the active volcanic region and have mostly sunk beneath the sea. Glacial and interglacial periods then sculpted the islands to what we see today.

The first visitors were 6th century Irish monks who noted abundant birds and sheep. Føroyar (Faroe Islands in Faroese), in fact, means sheep islands! After visiting the islands we agree that the name is accurate. The referenced sheep were numerous, friendly, and very cute. Vitali spent quite a bit of time baa-ing from the car window to get them to walk off of the road.

The next visitors were Vikings in the 9th century arriving from Norway. They settled the island, and went on to establish the oldest parliament in the world, in the capital Tórshavn (Thor's Harbor), now mostly referred to as Havn by the locals.

Historically, Norwegian kings long aspired to gain control over the islands, but for many years the Faroese managed to fight them off. By the latter half of the 12th century however the Faroe Islands had become firmly attached to the Kingdom of Norway.

The Faroe Islands joined Norway into the dual monarchy with Denmark in the late 14th century although when this union was succeeded by a Norwegian-Swedish union in 1814. the former Norwegian territory of the Faroe Islands remained under the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark. Among other factors, the geographical remoteness from both Norway and Denmark have allowed the Faroe Islands to maintain a special jurisdiction. They are outside of the Schengen Zone (despite what certain border patrol agents might say) but enjoy border-free travel between certain Nordic countries.

The island's primary export is fish, and we saw countless open water fisheries in the fjords and straits between islands. We ate some local salmon and it was delicious.

Despite being a nation of only 49,000 people, the islands were perfectly modern by all standards complete with universal healthcare and education. In addition -- I read a pretty convincing editorial that their tax system is one of the best and most efficient in the world. Wonderful.

Our plan was to spend 12 days touring the islands by car.

- - -

Back in Amsterdam...

We walked over to the bus stop that would take us to the airport in the pre-dawn darkness. The bus was packed full and we could tell that the people had not wasted any time sleeping before their departure that morning. In fact, it looked like half of the occupants had come straight from the bars...

Once we got to the airport everyone unloaded and we headed for the terminal -- but not before some guy stumbled off the bus right in front of us and started puking! At least he made it off the bus first...

Inside, the airport was total chaos. It was extraordinarily busy and there were signs posted throughout stating that "The congestion of the airport is not due to airport staffing". What a weird thing to print on a sign -- especially when a quick google told us that that wasn't true at all and that they were experiencing a security labor shortage resulting in long lines. We headed to the lounge to wait.

Our first flight to Copenhagen was uneventful and once there we headed to a lounge and then to our gate which had a freestanding storefront enclosure that was open and unsecured. There were a handful of people there already waiting for our flight, most of them young, and sporting backpacks like us. When it was time to board we scanned our boarding pass and headed for the plane -- no ID check. We had travelled across four countries by plane (Hungary, Germany, Netherlands, and Denmark) without a single person checking our ID. Amazing.

The flight from Copenhagen to Vágar was 2 hours and also uneventful. The sky was socked in but during the final approach we dipped below the clouds and had a few seconds of seeing several spectacular waterfalls free-falling from impossibly high cliffs. Wow!

We landed and exited the plane onto the tarmac, immediately noticing the cold and strong wind. We were prepared though, at least physically -- as we had picked up some thermal layers in Amsterdam. In fact, the Faroes have 300 days of rain a year! We felt the clouds only added to the mystique of the place.

We grabbed our bags and walked outside (no customs or immigration!) and headed for the car rental counters. The guy at the counter was super friendly and very pleased we would be visiting for a whole 12 days. We walked out into the tiny parking lot and searched for our car, trying to ignore the nagging cold wind. We eventually found it, a Hyundai Bayon (complete with glorious heated seats), climbed in, and headed for immediate sightseeing on the same island as the airport before heading to Tórshavn where we would be staying for the next week.

Less than 10 minutes later we were pulling up to the first spot on our list -- Múlafossur, an oft photographed waterfall of great beauty. We had passed through our first tunnel (there are 19 total throughout the islands!) to reach the hamlet of Gasadalur on the other side of the mountains.

The first sheep we saw.

We found the trailhead to the waterfall on the side of the road but continued on to find a place to park. It looked like the farmers here were gathering hay for the winter.

We parked in a small parking lot seemingly built for tourists at the edge of the village and found only two other cars there.

We headed for the waterfall overlook, passing by turf-roofed homes facing the sea. Turf buildings are part of the Norse tradition and especially on the islands of Iceland and the Faroes due to the lack of timber available on either island. The Faroes are almost completely inhospitable to trees due to the strong westerly winds; almost all of the wood used historically on the island is from the sea. To save on materials the roofs were covered in birch bark and then sod instead of tiles or shingles.

There was contemporary architecture too, mostly done in the hallmark minimal Scandinavian style.

As we headed towards the overlook we met a dog who wanted us to play fetch with him with a rock, because as I just mentioned, there are no trees and therefore no sticks!

We made it to the overlook, took some photos and left. But then the sun came out, so we went back and took some more!

It was beautiful. The color of the sea was an intense blue-green and the tumultuous power of the north atlantic was on display at the base of the rocky cliffs.

We headed back towards the car but found another track that took us up to an overlook of the bay and nearby islands.

The views were unbelievable and we were pretty quickly transported to a meditative state of tranquility. The two groups that were parked in the lot with us comprised the totality of tourists in the village. After two months in European capitals we were overstimulated and tired of people. This was the respite we needed.

The views out to sea were phenomenal -- other islands in the archipelago dotted the horizon, beckoning exploration, if one had a seaworthy ship.

Having gulped in enough fresh sea air we headed back to our car and began working our way towards the capital city.

We stopped a few hundred meters away to try and see a second sea-cliff-waterfall, Skarðsáfossur, but couldn't find the trailhead.

We continued on, stopping at another tourist parking lot in the village of Bøur. Every parking lot we'd encounter had a nice sign in English with a map, trails, and points of interest.

We could see the famous sea arch Drangarnir, although from the side. The hike to it was on our list but we waited the whole 12 days for good weather/timing but in the end decided to skip it, mostly because it would cost us $160 for the required guide (the son of the landowner!) I was also worried about how expensive the hiking here would be -- several of the most popular hikes have startling high fees.

You can just see the side of the arch below.

We wandered out onto the beach where some locals waved at us. We saw a pier going out into the water with ladder access...

We packed up and headed towards our airbnb, passing through a sub-sea tunnel, which was very cool. At the lowest point there was an artistic light installation. The toll was about $15.

On the other side -- our eyes boggled at the dramatic misty green landscapes and at the colorful towns, each with their own tiny church.

We rolled into town, which was covered in low-level clouds and rain, contemporary architecture, and brightly painted buildings. We also noticed that there appeared to be a herd of Ford Fiestas on the island.

We stopped at the grocery store, Bonus, which we read was the most affordable grocer on the island. It was still expensive.

We found the Bonus logo amusing. The pig looks like it either has a black eye or is a little intoxicated...

We found our airbnb -- a studio over someone's garage, and met the host, who was very kind to us. She even did a load of our laundry for free! The week rental included a bottle of wine and access to their hot tub (for a very steep fee though). All the locals we interacted with seemed deeply welcoming but also slightly bemused that we were there to sightsee their tiny country.

The airbnb was small but comfortable, and it had a nice view over town. The bathroom had a heated floor! I don't know if it was coincidence or the vernacular -- but both airbnbs we stayed at were finished with rubber sheeting on the walls and floors of the bathrooms, for a seamless cleanable surface.

In the morning we set out on a sightseeing drive, stopping by a small waterfall first, merely labeled as "waterfall" in Faroese on google maps. We would quickly come to find that waterfalls were a dime a dozen here.

We were headed for the village of Tjørnuvík, with a population of 71 people. Sheep farmers use the sea stacks nearby for grazing, accessible only by cable car!

Of course, the scenery along the drive was spectacular and I quickly generated hundreds of gigabytes of photographic data...

Above, the final approach to the village. A majority of the roads connecting the major highways (major highway being a two lane road!) to the villages were single lane with pullouts periodically. There were hardly any cars, anywhere, so it wasn't an issue.

In Tjørnuvík we found another parking lot for visitors and accompanied sign. There were a few cars parked.

From the bay we could see the sea stacks of Risin og Kellingin, a giant and a witch. Faroese legend tells a story of how the giants of Iceland were envious and wanted to steal the Faroe Islands. So the giant and the witch were sent down to retrieve them.

They reached the point in the photo first. The giant stayed in the sea while the witch climbed up the mountain with a rope to tie the islands together so that they could be transported on the giant's back. However, when she attached the rope to the mountain and pulled, part of the mountain split. Further attempts were also unsuccessful, and they struggled through the night. They lost track of time and were turned to stone by the first rays of sunlight.

We would later hike up to the top of the mountain to see them from above. Below, a view looking up to the head of the valley, filled with flowing water and grazing fields. Agriculture consists almost entirely of sheep production, probably because the weather isn't suited to grow much else. Sheep are grazed on common land throughout the summer. Apparently fermented lamb is a local delicacy! It's hung up in a drying shed through autumn and winter before enjoying.

Speaking of sheep -- in 2016 a woman strapped cameras to five of her sheep and uploaded the images to google street view, while petitioning google to map the Faroe Islands, christening the project Sheep View. Google took notice and lent equipment and sent training to the islands. A year later, with the help of tourists and locals alike with cameras strapped to any means of locomotion available (sheep, foot, kayak, wheelbarrow), the project was complete!

Above, a historic Viking grave. Yes, the grass was that green.

The fjord was gorgeous but the weather was kind of gray.

We walked around the village for a bit (check the drying fish!) and then headed up behind the village on a trail that connects this village to another on the other side of the mountain.

On the way up we passed a trail runner with a racing number on his shirt, and watched as he swiftly managed the slippery downhill.

As we ascended the sky cleared! We would come to find that the clouds moved so fast that the weather would often change in the span of minutes.

We climbed about halfway up the hill and sat for awhile to enjoy the view.

We frolicked in the mountainside meadow and then headed back down. At the bottom we noticed a few tables set up with provisions, two people, and an ambulance. It turns out there was a race happening! I wonder how many entrants there were.

A dream.

We left the fjord and stopped at the next village down the coast, Haldarsvík. I had found a short hike to a waterfall behind town.

It was moderately steep.

It was just us on the trail and before long we reached the fall, another enclave of stunning beauty with nobody but us.

Vitali posted the below picture to one of our favorite subreddits -- r/hydrohomies (dedicated to the love of water) -- to much kerfuffle.

The subreddit rules do not allow unsafe drinking water practices. Half of the comments were people arguing that this was condoning dangerous water consumption and the other half arguing that the sign literally says drinking water. It's a supply for the village and the source is likely above where sheep graze, so it probably was in fact safe to drink. Vitali consumed some and suffered no ill effects.

There were also many impressed comments about the size of his calves...

Below, the views on the way back. This village also has the only octagonal church on the islands.

We headed back to Havn, but not before noticing colorful house numbers, which seemed to be common. Probably better visibility in misty low-light conditions.

The next day, we drove down to the center of the city and went on a walking tour.

What was weird was there were hardly any people on the streets. The weather was fair (for here at least). We passed some interesting contemporary architecture.

We made it down to the waterfront and saw an actual karve, a type of nordic longship. I have been playing a lot of Valheim (a delightfully punishing survivalcraft co-op game created by a Swedish group and done in the world of norse mythology) over the last year and was excited to see the boat in the game in real life.

There were a lot of small pleasurecraft as well as large commercial fishing vessels.

Perched along the edge of the bay is Tinganes, the historic location of the seat of government, and a charming red turf-roofed building. The name means Parliament point in Faroese.

We wandered in and found no one.

We continued our walking tour and found Skansin, a historic hilltop fortification built in 1580 to protect the city from raids, as well as a lovely light house. We got to see the detailing of the sod roofs up close!

We then headed away from the water and walked through a residential area to Kongaminnið, a basalt obelisk erected in 1882 to commemorate a Danish kings visit to the Faroe Islands in 1874.

There was a nice view over town and we were surprised to even find sheep here in the heart of the city!

We continued north, noticing that the mothers of Tórshavn will walk their babes in strollers no matter the weather -- high wind and rain or not!

We headed for Vioarlundin Park, a strip of green in the middle of the capital, complete with trees. We saw several well-sited houses whose backyards abutted the park. A lot of the houses featured extensive glazing which I assume is to make the most of what little natural light there is, not having to deal with temperature extremes.

There were a lot of sculptures in the park as well as an art museum.

We headed back home for lunch and then headed northwest to catch a boat tour of the Vestmanna sea cliffs. The forecast was meant to be fair so we kept our fingers crossed. Along with the quick cloud passage we also noticed the weather varied depending on where you were in the islands, at least in our experience -- the southeast had different weather than the northwest, this west facing valley was different than the east on the other side of the tunnel, etc., etc.

Below, Kaldbak church.

We stopped by a pretty waterfall, Týggjará, along the way.

We made it to Vestmanna a little early and headed up the hill to see a dam. Miraculously, the skies had cleared!

The view of Vestmanna from the dam.

We picked up our tickets and then shortly after boarded the small vessel. This tour is apparently very popular for seeing the enigmatic Puffin. Unfortunately we were about two weeks too late to see any, but the cliffs were still meant to be spectacular.

Fortunately the water was calm as we pulled out of the bay, past the open water fisheries, and towards the western coast of the island. We could see sheep grazing on the impossibly steep slopes, which were verdantly green from all the bird and sheep shit.

The scale of the cliffs were amazing -- some towering over 2,000' above sea level, and there were probably tens of thousands of birds, if not more, circling the looming walls.

I would have loved to see puffins but the landscapes more than made up for it.

We got up close to some sea stacks and caves.

And before long we were headed back to the bay, my camera covered in a fine mist of sea spray.

Look at these adorable boat houses.

Early the next morning we awoke before sunrise to drive to another well-known spot -- Trælanípa (Slave Cliffs, where Viking age slaves were supposedly pushed to their deaths), Leitisvatn/Sørvágsvatn (an overlook) and the Bøsdalafossur waterfall.

The sunrise was promising on the way but quickly faded after we arrived.

The ticket booth was empty but we figured someone would show up by the time we came back.

The blowing wind was substantial, probably a 40mph gale with higher gusts as we crossed the trail towards the viewpoint.

We walked up to the overlook, had terribly high winds and clouds but took some photos anyway, walked back down, saw some light come out, and then walked back up for better photos. Vitali had to hold on to me so I could take photos in the high wind.

Here are before and after photos.

This hike is popular due to an optical illusion of the largest lake in the Faroes floating high above the ocean even though the elevation isn't much different. I didn't want to chance getting close to the edge when a gust could blow me over.

In the other direction though -- I felt the view was much more compelling. There was an absolutely mind-blowing view of another waterfall tumbling over the edge of a cliff -- Bøsdalafossur. We climbed around on some broken down lava and found wonderful views. The wind made shooting a long exposure challenging.

Having taken in as much natural splendor as we could, we headed back to the trailhead.

The guy in the ticket booth was there now that it was later and we paid the 400dkk ($60!!!) fee. It was supposed to include a coffee but he didn't offer any.

We headed towards our final stop for the day, Trøllkonufingur, which means the witch’s finger or troll woman’s finger, a 1000' sea-stack on the south-east side of the village Sandavágur.

On the way we passed a white pony seemingly admiring the view and living his best life. All of the animals we saw looked very happy. We drove up a single lane dirt road to high above the water and then walked the rest of the way. There was no one here.

According to Faroese legend -- which seems to involve quite a bit of rivalry with Iceland -- that Trøllkonufingur is the finger of a witch that came to throw the Faroe Islands to Iceland. When she came to the sea south of Vágar, she was caught off guard by the sun, turned to stone and sunk into the ocean.

She was so large however, that when she reached the bottom of the sea, the back of her head and her finger were still above the surface. The back of her head is the island of Koltur, and the finger is Trøllkonufingur.

Below is Koltur in the distance.

And here is the finger.

We headed back to Havn, eyes glued on the scenery out the window.

We spent the afternoon planning and booking accommodations for our Iceland itinerary, which was a heck of a trip-planning challenge.

The next day, we took a drive on the Oyggjarvegur, a scenic route along a ridge. It took driving it three times before we actually saw any views, as it was always shrouded in low-level clouds.

We were headed for Saksun, another village in a picturesque bay.

Once again, there was nobody here! The weather was definitely not as good today with overcast skies, blowing mist, and drizzling rain. We parked and started hiking up the same trail which we hiked part way up in Tjørnuvík.

There are no public lands in the Faroes and all of the trails we hiked were either village to village connectors or trails on private land.

From the trail we had a spectacular view over the bay and out to the sea.

There was a paid trail down on the sandbar but we figured the view from above would be better.

We stopped to meditate and then headed back down.

We wandered around admiring the turf houses and scenery before departing.

On the road back we saw some ponies on the side of the road and stopped to say hi. They came over and investigated our car and the car of the tourists behind us!

Here are some glamor shots. Notice the perfectly salt-sprayed har.

Some other waterfall along the side of the road.

The next morning, for the first time, we had some sun in Tórshavn, and a spectacular sunrise. I wondered if the original village was located here because it would almost always be hidden in mist and thus hard to find. Conjecture.

We headed up the Oyggjarvegur again and had slightly better views than last time.

Sometimes you just get lucky.

Today we were headed for Gjogv, a village on Eysturoy with a natural harbor. As you can see, our daily routine had become scenic driving to some far-flung village and all the sights along the way.

Above is the first bridge to connect two of the islands together! We passed a lot more sheep. The owner of the sheep below actually showed up while I was taking pictures of his flock admiring the view. I could only smile at him sheepishly.

Despite the landscapes being very similar throughout the islands I never got sick of looking out the window.

Eventually we made it to Gjogv, where we parked and walked into the village.

Which looked similar to all the other villages we had seen.

But along the edge of the village is a natural harbor, and a beautiful slice of ocean.

Below, one of the only 'railways' on the islands!

We hiked up the trail a ways to get a better view.

Vitali modeled the latest in wearing-the-same-outfit-for-2-years fashion. We were headed for the stairs in the background but we found the trail cost a few dollars and we didn't have the right change. We could have sent the money online but we didn't feel like climbing...

We headed back down, explored where the land met the sea for a bit and then left Gjogv and headed for another stop.

We found the Gongutúrur / Hvithamar trailhead along the side of the road and we followed the stakes towards the overlook, although we briefly lost them.

This area has the highest mountains on the islands (just under 3,000') and the views were great in all directions. Once we reached the edge of the cliffs however....

What a view! We admired the scenery and fine weather and headed for our final stop, the highest point in the Faroes -- Slættaratindur.

Unfortunately, my tendon started to hurt about halfway up and Vitali was cross, so we turned around and went back.

The view was still nice from halfway up.

We left and headed back to Havn via another route, passing by the Risig og Kellingin sea stacks from yet another angle. You can see where the mountain was split here.

The next day was rainy in the morning so I worked on the blog as rock detonation was occurring nearby.

In the afternoon it stopped raining as hard so we headed for Fuglafjørður, noticing that the rainfall had swelled all the waterfalls.

On the way we passed three poor souls cycle touring. We considered seeing the Faroes this way but once we read about the regular weather conditions we said no thank you. People even come here and walk the entirety of the islands -- we passed at least one guy with a huge backpack who we guessed was doing just that.

We arrived in Fuglafjørður, which was larger than the other villages we had visited, but didn't have much of note besides a beached ship.

Then we headed to Oyndarfjørður, which had some stones that rock with the ebb of the ocean. Legend tells of an old sorceress who cursed two pirate ships that were menacing the village -- turning them to stone and condemning them to an eternity of restless rocking, tantalizingly close to water they'd never sail.

The drive there was particularly scenic, traveling over a low pass at one point instead of the usual tunnel.

Here are the rocking stones. I suppose the tide was too low and/or the stones weren't rocking, it was hard to tell. There was no one around to ask, only the pervasive smell of fish wafting from the processing plant at the head of the fjord.

There were some neat birds with big red beaks and everywhere these giant black slugs.

Below, sheep, waterfalls, a fjord, and in the first photo -- the smelly processing plant.

We often wondered -- do sheep ever stop eating? Every sheep we saw appeared to be either quite busy with munching on the grass, recovering from the morning's munching exertions, or preparing to move to a new spot of grass to munch some more.

We packed up and headed towards Elduvík, another village at the head of a bay.

There was hardly anyone here. We parked and walked through the village towards a trailhead along the water.

The sky was gray and it was drizzling lightly.

The last image above tells the legend of Marmennil. Marmennil has the appearance of a small human with long fingers who lives at the bottom of the sea. He likes to trick fisherman by eating their bait then burying the hooks into the sea floor. One day however, Marmenil was accidentally caught. The fiserhman hauled him up, made the sign of the cross and took Marmennil home. They would take him fishing often as he had could sense where the fish were. One day the seas were so rough that the fishermen forgot to make the sign of the cross and Marmennil was able to sneak overboard, never to be seen again.

Along the trail was another natural bay and we could spy a few colorful jellyfish casually floating in the area.

Nobody here. We packed up and headed back to town.

One of our final visits in the Havn area was to the historic village of Kirkjubøur, just to the south of the capital.

The village is the Faroes' most important historical site, with several notable ruins -- the Magnus Cathedral from 1300, the largest medieval buildings in the Faroes; a church from the 12th century, and one of the oldest (possibly the oldest) still inhabitated wooden homes in the world. The same family has lived in it since the 11th century! The house has a blue and red door in the below photos.

The walls of the cathedral are capped with clay and sod to preserve the structure.

As usual, there were a cadre of friendly animals wandering about.

The next day we drove to yet another village, Eiði. From there we would hike to the Risin og Kellingin sea stacks.

We made it to town and drove all the way up the highest road behind the village -- where there was a parking lot and trailhead. The weather was gloriously sunny, mild, and only the lightest of breezes disturbed our ponytails.

The view from the parking lot was already great! We shared a pack of gluten-free cookies before heading out. They have this brand in northern Europe and probably elsewhere called Semper that had excellent gluten-free food and snacks, although in some products they used gluten-removed wheat flour which I stayed away from.

The walk was uphill all the way, steep during the first half but must gentler towards the top. The views only improved with every step.

The turf was so soft that where people had walked it had been deformed into grassy steps.

There were ruins of a lighthouse at the top and a mystery box which had an unused but open tampon inside?

The view from the top was epic. To the north, nothing except sea. To the west, we could see in the fjord of Tjørnuvík and the island of Streymoy. It was cool to visit both places and look to where we had been.

I had to wait for the sun to progress enough to photograph the sea stacks, although the sun ended up being too harsh anyway.

The last image above is the view on the way back down. Stunning!

We stopped at another waterfall on the way back and unfortunately I don't know it's name or where it was.

In the morning we packed up our bags to head to a new airbnb in the town of Klaksvík, with access to the northern islands. There was a direct sub-sea tunnel (the newest one) that would have saved us 45 minutes to get there but it also cost $25. We took the long way.

Before long though we rolled into town -- I had found a boathouse on airbnb that was reasonably priced because it was new. It was adorable and perfect! The bathroom was totally covered in the rubber sheeting and would flood after every shower.

It had a great view right on the water and the owner even left us two boxes of cookies!

The next day we drove out to the north tip of Borðoy to Múli. We walked out to the end of a trail (once again, alone) and saw another natural harbor. We learned that this village is basically seasonal for sheep grazing and empty the rest of the year. We came to find the northern isles much less populated.

The last photo above appeared to be hay drying. There was supposed to be a waterfall along the water somewhere nearby but we couldn't find the trailhead. We walked back to our car and drove south, passing by more sheep and waterfalls.

We stopped to watch some clouds and interview some sheep.

Here's a photo of what the standard tunnel looked like. Some of the tunnels in the northern isles were single lane with pullouts!

The next day we drove out to Vidareidi on the northernmost island of Viðoy. We wanted to do a hike that takes you up to the summit of the below mountain but when we got there we felt lazy and didn't.

We parked in the village, admired the church, and went down to the water. Across the strait you could see where we were the day before, Múli, and the little natural harbor near the tip.

We crawled all over the sea rocks and found a quiet pair of waterfalls around the corner.

We headed back towards Klaksvík, stopping to admire even more sheep and the view towards the easternmost island of Fugloy.

That is a nice island.

We had had another glorious day of fine weather.

The next day was overcast, rainy and cold all day.

When the weather cleared the day after that we drove up a dirt road that ascended above town to a trail that was meant to have incredible views.

The sun was shining which was great! We could see the clear summit of Klakkur, where we were headed.

As we ascended though we noticed that the cloud level seemed to be lowering... and the summit was quickly being cloaked in mist.

The views tantalized on the way up... but once we made it to the top, we only found some sheep, some air plants, and no view.

Disappointed that we had missed the view by only minutes, we headed back down, passing one other couple and more sheep.

Of course, back below the cloud level the views were great.

In the afternoon we drove to the island of Kunoy, inhabited by less than 200 people. There were 3 villages on this island before a fishing accident on christmas eve of 1913 which claimed the lives of all the adult men in one of the villages. The women then elected to move to another village, abandoning the first.

Our destination was Kunoy Park, a stand of trees planted in the 1800s, above the largest of the two villages on the island. We spent a little bit of time trying to figure out how to drive up there because some of the roads were labeled as agricultural use only. We eventually parked at the bottom and walked up.

The interior of the park was magical.

On the other side of the park were two more ponies who were mildly interested in what we were doing.

We headed home after that.

It looked like when someone needed to put a building up they simply scooped away the mountainside!

One of the last things on our to see list was the island of Kalsoy. There is a ferry crossing that we intended to take with our car -- so we got up early the next morning and went to get in line.

What's a boom bag? Rapid oil-spill response!

We parked and waited but didn't see any boats large enough for vehicles, although we did watch as a smaller boat came up to the pier and parked. I went to ask if this was the ferry we were looking for and the boat staff told me that the ferry service had been disrupted and this was the replacement service -- but it was serving pedestrian traffic only. So we quickly decided if we wanted to still go, parked the car, and hopped on board.

The ferry was plush inside, apparently free, and the ride was short. I quickly noticed however that we seemed to be among a group of photographers -- nearly every other person on board had a backpack with a tripod sticking out! It must have been a club or group tour.

Once we arrived on the island the bus service was already at the pier and we all loaded on for a few dollars fare. We would ride all the way to the northern tip of the island to the village of Trøllanes and to hike to the famous lighthouse.

Of course, we were off the bus and first up the trail as everyone else dawdled in the parking lot. There was one earlier boat ride but we figured 7am was early enough to beat the crowds.

The trail climbed up out of town and then traversed a grazing field before disappearing from view.

We had some wonderful morning light happening.

We met some ducks and impossibly stacked duck poop?

Walking through the fields towards the end consisted of stepping at about a 40 degree angle through mushy straw...

There were some folks up at the lighthouse already from the earlier boat. Below, the trail led down a saddle from the lighthouse and out to a little spit of land for a viewpoint back.

Here's the view looking back.

I see why all the photographers were here.

Yep more spectacular scenery.

We spent quite a bit of time wandering around the network of trails that criss-crossed the edge of the earth here. Below you can see Gjogv in the center valley.

There were a lot of sheep around, probably basking in all the attention.

The scenery was great -- both near --

And far --

Looking west --

Looking southeast --

And up near the edge of the cliff -- was James Bond's gravestone -- where he died in the latest movie -- built by a local farmer who hosted film crews on the island.

Pondering the inscription on the gravestone, we sat and chilled with the sheep for awhile.

We headed back towards the trailhead.

Not before one last look at the lighthouse -- now swarmed with photographers.

It had started to get crowded -- the most tourists we had seen in a single place since we got here.

Look at this happy sheep.

I love the Faroe Islands.

We had several hours before the ferry ride back so we elected to walk to the next point of interest down the island, about 6 miles away. There were two options -- hike the trail between villages which had significant elevation loss and gain, or the road, which passed through a tunnel.

We found a trail map at the parking lot and then went in search of the trailhead. We walked to the edge of a cliff on an apparent trail and looked around. We looked up an impossibly steep hill, bordering on cliff, and saw a few orange tipped poles near the top, and the faint markings of a footpath. We couldn't find how to even get up there though, even with gps and a map (downloading the entirety of the small archipelago was a trivial amount of megabytes!).

Looking closer at this picture below I can see the trail now, cutting at a diagonal from the left to right behind the village. It was definitely not well trafficked.

So we gave up. We headed up the valley behind town to check out if there were any pedestrian restrictions at the tunnel. Since people traditionally walked between villages here we guessed it would be acceptable.

Did you see the cheese drying? At least it looked like cheese to me. Also, we saw a sheep that had a wire on it's horns to keep from getting hooked on stuff!

We approached the tunnel and found no signs barring us from the 2.25km walk in the darkness. About halfway was an emergency exit which we walked down and found an outlet overlooking an empty bay.

Great exercise for those with a death wish.

We passed two vehicles during the time we were in there and the light at the end of the tunnel very slowly grew from a pinpoint to an opening large enough for us to walk through.

Phew! It was drizzling lightly.

We followed the road that descended to the water and the village of Mikladalur.

Right after we arrived in the village center we saw the blue bus service come down and drop off a load of tourists. Apparently there was a pick-up in Trøllanes at a certain time that wasn't clear from their online schedule...

Below, the Marjunar hav (lifting stone). The legend goes a housemaid in the 16th century got pregnant out of wedlock -- the punishment for which was the death penalty. One day while out working in the fields she stopped and lifted this stone from the ground, stating "I know what lies in store for me: I’d rather lose my life. Therefore, this hav will be my only legacy”.

Then we headed down to the water to see the famous statue of the seal woman.

Here she is!

You can read the legend in the image below.

Interestingly, we found a similar legend in a village in Iceland.

We wandered around the sea rocks for a bit before heading back up to wait for the bus to take us to the pier.

We were with a huge group of people now and we heard talk of only one bus and too many people. We positioned ourselves in the line and hoped for the best.

When the bus came, it became clear that not everyone would fit. Fortunately, some enterprising Faroese man pulled up in his sprinter van behind the bus -- but he was charging 50dkk ($21) per person to ride!!! We paid, having had one too many lessons on the value of paying extra when it will make a difference.

In the morning we packed up and said goodbye to the Faroes, driving all the way back to the airport, stopping by one more waterfall -- Svartidalurfoss -- and the Nix, a horse statue on a lake.

Goodbye sweet land! May we return again.

We sat down in a crowded area after checking in -- the airport had only two gates -- and awaited the next adventure. We were flying Atlantic Airways, the Faroe Islands' national carrier. We learned that their whole fleet consists of four planes!

We did a little browsing of the souvenirs in the airport and found a beautiful Faroese wool blanket. I chatted with a girl who was trying to decide on the same blanket from several colors and she was even more indecisive than me! Not only is it a great thing to bring home but it was also insurance against the 20 degree bags we had rented for the first 10 days in Iceland....

Visiting the Faroe Islands was a wonderfully meditative exploration and a return to nature. We loved the experience but looked forward to what awaited in Iceland. Would it be similar, the same?

We boarded the plane and would soon find out.