We spent today exploring Ísafjörður, a city of 2600 in northwestern Iceland. It is cold here with frequent rainfall. The sky is often cloudy yet for our evening hike it cleared to a beautiful blue. The temperature still didn’t rise past 11°C. I understand there is a heatwave back at home. I’d sure like to experience some summer heat. It’s July in Iceland and freezing. On the way over here we took the ferry from Stykkishólmur to Brjánslækur, which had a brief stop at tiny Flatey Island. The island’s lighthouse seems bright enough as it is, even without needing to shine a light:

After the two-and-a-half-hour ferry trip we took a detour to visit Dynjandi waterfall. In Iceland one has the frequent opportunity to climb the falls and stand next to the cascading water:

Mark and his sister Patsy next to Dynjandi

The houses in the old part of Ísafjörður look run-down, with their metallic siding rusting and porches and windows broken. Many houses have small gardens blooming with pansies.

We visited the public library which also houses a culture house and museum on the upper two floors:

The library used to be the town’s hospital. I marvelled at the book collection, which is classified by Dewey Decimal so it made things very easy to find. Patsy and I even enjoyed a free coffee in the small magazine lounge.

It was clearing in the early evening to take advantage of a hike up Naustahvilft, a volcanic bowl overlooking the small airport and Ísafjörður on the other side of the fjord:

While we were resting at the top we were lucky enough to see a small plane come in to land:

Pointing to where we are on a giant map inside Netto market​​, where we ate a delicious buffet dinner at Thai Koon restaurant:

Hmmm…would you drink this?