Iceland Day 7: Isfjordur

 The sun actually came out in patches today. The first we had seen it since we arrived. Come to think of it, I don’t think I ever actually saw the sun, but I did see patches of blue and a bright spot through the clouds that must have been the sun.

Steve and I had no scheduled outings today although John and Tammy were supposed to go kayaking. That got changed to a another waterfall hike because of strong winds. (Have I mentioned how many gorgeous waterfalls there are here?) Because of the winds, the captain decided to anchor in the outer harbor rather than dock, so we took the tender into town after lunch and just walked around. 

That's our small ship out there in the bay.

I had ideas of climbing the Troll’s Throne on my own rather than taking a tour, but we discovered that although it hung over the town, all this water came in between. It would have been quite a walk just to get there. 

So much for that plan, but the information booth people told me where to find a contour path with nice views like the one above and this one of the Troll's Throne. According to the legend, a troll sat on the mountain and squashed it.

They have built a system of avalanche barriers like earthworks between the town and the mountain so that rock slides would fall into a ditch rather than on the houses, and there are paths both along the top and by the stream in the ditch. 

A couple small “forests” also seem to be planted where they would slow down falling rock—a delightful place to take pictures.