August 14, 2023 Djúpivogur, Iceland

Zuiderdam arrived at Djúpivogur, Iceland, just after 7 a.m. this morning. The sun was shining, the only clouds were a line of white clouds at the horizon. There was a light north wind. The temperature was a cool 9° C. She glided to a halt at mouth of Hamarsfjörður to float in place using the GPS and azipod technology outside of Djúpivogur’s harbour. It took about 30 minutes for the tenders to be lowered and the shore side tent to be erected. Most of the morning excursions were leaving between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. People had to take a tender for the 10 minute cruise over to the Djúpivogur pier then meet their tour guide for walking tours or bus tours to glaciers and waterfalls.

We did not book an excursion here and elected to explore the village on our own. Remembering the insects in Greenland, we decided to wear our insect repellant shirts and pants, which are also lined. Just right for a cool day. The dining room on Deck 2 opened for breakfast at 7:30 a.m. so we were able to have breakfast there as the excursions were leaving, then we climbed to Deck 10 to get a long range photo of Djúpivogur. We returned to our stateroom for our jackets and gloves (which we did not need) then got our tender tickets. We waited less than 15 minutes until our number was called. Our tender was unloading guests at the Djúpivogur pier by 9:45 a.m.

Djúpivogur is a tiny fishing village with a population of about 500. It is located on the Búlandsnes peninsula. Bulandstindur in the 1000 meter high pyramid shaped mountain visible from the village. Djúpivogur is the only Cittaslow movement village in Iceland. The Cittaslow movement emphasizes local production, protecting natural and cultural heritage, an easy and calm lifestyle which increases a person’s quality of life while using the latest technology for the benefit of society. German merchants began a trading post here in 1590. Over the centuries there were several buildings including a manager’s dwelling and a warehouse/slaughterhouse. Today the red Langabúd in the recreation of the 1790 combination store, warehouse and slaughterhouse. It contains a restaurant and museum. Near it is the rebuilt black 1848 Faktorshús, which was the manager’s dwelling. Overlooking the harbour was a monument titled “Liberty” in honour of Hans Jonathon, an enslaved African-Caribbean who unshackled himself and became a respected merchant in Djúpivogur in the early 1800s.

We started with a one kilometre waterfront walk to the Old Harbour. Along the edge of its waterfront there are 34 granite bird eggs, to scale but many times larger than life, representing the birds that nest in the area. Each is set on its own plinth, the largest represents the egg of the red-throated diver, Djúpivogur’s official bird. Icelandic Artist Sigurdur Gudmundsson created this outdoor artwork titled ”Eggin í Gledivik” (The Eggs of Merry Bay) which was installed on August 14, 2019. There is a rocky meadow on the nearby mountain side with faint trails, one of which leads to a point of land with two 1.5 meter tall chunky rock posts overlooking the water at the mouth of Hamarsfjörður. Back to the centre of the village we saw the Hótel Framtid, a wooden house built in 1906 which is currently a hotel. It is on the opposite side of the small harbour from the Langabúd and Faktorshús. At the top of the small harbour is a park with a sculpture Siavarminni erected in 1999.

Our exploring done we went for coffee at Vid Voginn which was full of cruise passengers. There were even some people on the patio enjoying lunch. We walked back toward the pier and stopped to have a look inside Langabúd. It is a restaurant in the front and a museum further back and on the second floor. There were many household items from 100 years ago which were very similar to Canadian pioneers and homes of the era, such as pedal sewing machines, hand held meat grinders, washing machines and manual typewriters then radios from the 1930s and televisions from the 1960s. We walked about 4.5 km.

We were back to the ship before 1 p.m. and had lunch in Lido Market. There is now staff at the two entrances to the Lido Market to ensure the passengers wash their hands at the wash stations before going in to eat. The afternoon stayed sunny with a few more wispy streaks of cloud. Around 4 p.m. Zuiderdam had started the 370 nautical mile voyage to Reykjavik. The captain mentioned that the journey will be at top cruising speed of 21 knots in order to arrive in Reykjavik by late morning tomorrow.

We joined Cee Kaye and Brad for dinner in the Dining Room. They had a great excursion in 4 X 4 vehicles driven by local residents. There were about 100 people on the excursion. The vehicles ranged from carrying three to six passengers. They were taken to two waterfalls on their journey through the mountains and valleys. They had a refreshment stop at a farm. Returning, their driver took them to The Eggs of Merry Bay before returning them to tender area.

This evening’s show was a BBC Earth film with music soundtrack augmented by Zuiderdam musicians. We went to Lido Market after for some Orange and Spice tea and strawberry pavlova. We are both close to finishing our third book of the cruise. We stopped at the Deck 3 library to pick a new book each – The Windsor Knot, SJ Bennett and Empire of Pain The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe.

Total steps 15,141