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Visiting the Faroe Islands
Like last year's trip to La Reunion, this year's trip was to a pleasant but somewhat obscure (for Americans, at least) destination: The Faroe Islands.
At this point, most people usually ask me one or both of these questions: 1. Where exactly are the Faroes? 2. Good God, Rich, why?! Hopefully my travelogue will give you some idea on the latter. First, a bit about the Faroe Islands: 1. The Faroes are a series of 18 islands in the North Atlantic, formed approximately 60 million years ago by the same volcanic plume that has since moved on and formed Iceland. So essentially, they are a smaller, much older version of Iceland. 2. The Faroes are part of the Danish Monarchy, but, like Greenland, are a semi-autonomous country. Just on our way traveling there, we found that just asking "What country owns the Faroes?" is a bit of a hot-button issue (in general, Danish people claim it's part of Denmark, while the Faroes claim they are their own independent country. The truth is someplace in between). 3. What do they speak there? Faroese. Like Danish and Icelandic, it derives from Old Norse, but over the centuries it's had it's own evolution. It's most similar to Icelandic (in fact, very similar in writing), but pronounced almost completely differently. 4. How big are the Faroes? 45,000 people living on 540 square miles. The fjord nature of the islands means the furthest you can get from the ocean is 3 miles. 5. What do people do there? Mostly it's fish and sheep, with much of the former being aquaculture. Sheep are a decreasing part of the economy, but an important cultural cornerstone: every single inch of the Faroes has been granted as grazing rights to someone (including the cliffs and mountaintops), and wool, lamb, and mutton are important subsistence products. Tourism still hasn't really caught on there. 6. How do you get there? Two ways: flying into Vagar airport from Reykjavik, Edinburgh, Bergen, or Copenhagen, or taking the ferry from Copenhagen. Unless you really like rough North Atlantic waves, I don't recommend the latter. I ended up doing the former, mostly since I enjoy Iceland and it made for a nice, direct route. So, why did I go there? 1. It's one of the least-visited Nordic areas, especially for English speakers, but I've been somewhat intrigued by it ever since Iceland, since it's much like Iceland but less touristy. 2. Faroese wool and knitting have been the rage for several years in the fiber arts community. 3. Hiking and scenery. As you'll see from my photos, the Faroes are a hiking wonderland of high cliffs, blue seas, and wonderful scenery as long as you aren't too attached to trees (You know how people say Iceland doesn't have trees (a fact which isn't true, btw)? That's much more true for the Faroes, which don't seem to have a single tree that's not in a town or in someone's garden) 4. Birds. The only thing that the Faroes has more than sheep is birds. Millions upon millions of them, especially Puffins and Oyster Catchers. 5. Culture. While it too has had its shifts, the Faroe Islands has done a generally good job of maintaining a good balance of modernism and traditional culture. In short, it's like a different take on the same ingredients as Iceland (subarctic island, Nordic culture, ...), but smaller and more intense, without any of the volcanic stuff (the only thing left from the Faroe's volcanic history is some very steep cliffs of basalt and some rather rich soil). |
Our travel to the Faroe Islands had us experiencing both a new airline (Atlantic Airways) and a new airport (Reykjavik Domestic).
The vast majority of air travel from "Reykjavik" is really from Keflavik International Airport (KEF, 45 miles away), and indeed, that's where we arrived. But our outgoing flight was from RKV, which is actually right in downtown Reykjavik (it's just south of the Tjörnin lake). It's an interesting airport, since: (a) You have to explain to everyone several times that yes, you do indeed mean RKV instead of KEF. (b) It's actually easy to walk to instead of public transportation (c) It oddly has two completely separate terminals (East and West) with no apparent way between them (d) It was actually surprisingly difficult to figure out where Atlantic Airways flew out of (I almost went to the other termina) (e) You wonder if you are in the wrong place, since unless the Atlantic Airways flight is actually parked on the tarmac, there's no evidence of them being there (f) It's a small airport. Really small. Like "smaller than LEB". (g) Fully half of the airport is Duty Free shopping for the flights to/from Greenland and the Faroes. (h) The runway is rather short (5100') which is one reason it's not used often, although to my surprise our flight was a A319, which is an awfully large airplane for a 5100' runway https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8357/2...bb73c896_z.jpg https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8451/2...301064ac_z.jpg https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8781/2...199bdaa2_z.jpg Somewhat to my surprise, despite the 5100' takeoff runway at RKV, and the 6000' landing runway at FOE, our flight was an A319 (only about half full; not sure they can do that flight on a full load): https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7664/2...8393cfbc_z.jpg And this photo doesn't do justice to the splendor, but the approach to Vagar Airport (FOE) is easily one of the most impressive and beautiful approaches I've ever done, with the plane descended between high cliffs as it flies down the fjord: https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8851/2...74f03595_z.jpg |
When you arrive at FOE, you are on Vágar island, but the capital Torshavn (and most amenities) are over on Streymoy, the next island over.
Until 2002, that involved driving to the north side of Vágar and taking a ferry to Vestmanna, and backtracking up the fjord and across the high peaks of Streymoy on Oyggjarvegur (the "Island Road"), but a second wave of civil engineering investment in the Faroes now have turned most of that route into tunnels (one long undersea tunnel to Streymoy, and two short tunnels connecting the fjords). Leaving the airport, you are immediately in typical Faroe Island scenery: deep blue water (here it's actually freshwater, the large Leitisvatn lake) and deep green hillsides with steep cliffs. https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8786/2...03dee8a2_z.jpg Typical Faroese landscape: a mix of soft rolling grass-covered hills with no trees, and some relatively high peaks and the occasional steep cliff. This is similar to the Eastern Fjords of Iceland, although the Faroes are about 60m years older: https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7700/2...edb64a7c_z.jpg Looking over Leitisvatn: https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8702/2...778e49dd_z.jpg Sandavagur, one of the three villages on Vagar island. This is the first real settlement you come to, and actually fairly large by Faroese standards: https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8828/2...dcdb27a6_z.jpg A good overall image of some of the notable parts of the Faroes: 1. The two islands Koltur (no longer inhabited) and Hestur (sparsely inhabited) with steep cliffs (1000' cliffs are 'normal' in the Faroes, with steep ones almost half a mile high not uncommon). 2. Aquaculture rings: the round rings in the foreground are aquaculture pens. https://c3.staticflickr.com/8/7683/2...fc5d66f7_z.jpg |
Once you get to the top ridge of Vagar, looking north towards Streymoy, the view is quite good. While I had done a lot of prep and seen a lot of other people's photos, in the end, I had kind of picked the Faroes pretty blindly off a map, and you never know if a place is as beautiful as the pictures make you think. This view, combined with the phenomenal scenery coming in at the airport, where what finally made me realize I had picked a great place for a vacation:
https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8614/2...acf06cb5_z.jpg Common scenes of Faroese Driving: A tunnel. https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8630/2...026e3e7f_z.jpg Historically, much of the settlement in the Faroe Islands was linked by boat. But with two stretches of intensive civil engineering (1970s-80s, and '90s-'00), much of that has been replaced by road tunnels. In this case, the impressive Vágatunnilin completed in 2002, which connects Vágar and Streymoy in a tunnel that's not only 5 km long, but drops 0.5 km from its entrance to the bottom since it goes underneath the deep sound separating the islands You see a lot of this (this tunnel, and all the newer ones, are two-lane, many of the older ones are single lane with periodic passing chambers): https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8817/2...63ec57ec_z.jpg About a km after you emerge from the first tunnel, you then plunge back into Leynartunnilin, the tunnel between Leynar and the valley Kollfjarðardalur: https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8740/2...28750c1d_z.jpg And then a bit later you enter Kollfjarðartunnilin between Kollafjørður and Kaldbaksbotnur! https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8037/2...5709b923_z.jpg |
Sheep outnumber Faroese people almost 2:1, and are mostly free-ranging. This means that having sheep on the road is common enough that you have to remain vigilant, especially since they often fall asleep on the road.
This guy at least woke up and moved aside before I could get a picture of him napping. https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8343/2...fa3f6322_z.jpg Looking up at Kopsenni, the highest point on Streymoy. Like a few other steep islands I've been on (like Reunion) the high peaks tend to make their own cloud patterns (hot moist air traveling up the slopes hits cool upper air and condenses): https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8417/2...81234dea_z.jpg Arriving at 10pm in Torshavn, we got a surprisingly nice view of the city from our hotel. But had to rush to find dinner before everything closed for the night (despite the lack of proper "nighttime" during the summer, most things in the Faroes close fairly early): https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8536/2...2e47b7c3_z.jpg The Faroe Islands are still a relatively obscure tourism destination (picking up a bit after 10,000 people showed up to see last year's solar eclipse, overwhelming the local economy), so there's not that much in hotel accomodations, and much of those are expensive (like the nearby Hotel Foroyer luxury hotel). So we split our time between the Hostel Kerjalon and an Airbnb. I'll have to say, for a hostel, this was pretty nice, and had a really nice view, although the other hostel clients had a tendency to stay up late and wake up early: https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8437/2...10a69b48_z.jpg |
The timing of our flight from Reykjavik to Vagar was pretty lousy: by the time we got our luggage, got our rental car, and drove the tunnels and fjords to get to Torshavn, it was 9:55 pm, and pretty much all the dining options in Torsshavn on a Monday night were closed. Except for the restaurant in the adjacent 4 star hotel, Gras, which was nice enough to let two slightly disheveled travelers eat at the dinner buffet that had technically closed at 9:30.
It was actually a really great meal. Here's some roasted lamb with vegetables (a fairly standard "modern" Faroese meal): https://c3.staticflickr.com/8/7584/2...b3027db0_z.jpg With one of the mainstays of modern Faroese cuisine: fresh farmed salmon https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8655/2...1e9357e3_z.jpg A little buried under the garnish, but these were some awesome langoustines (almost as good as the ones in Hofn, Iceland): https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8726/2...46b93e37_z.jpg Some nice minute steaks (there was a Danish name for these that I don't remember): https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8754/2...24e80ec7_z.jpg I got to try Okkara Rinku-Steinur, from Okkara, the younger of the Islands' two breweries: https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8805/2...52386186_z.jpg |
After dinner, due to the ever-present twilight, we went on an 11 pm walk along the hills above Torshavn. Here's a nice view of Torshavn and Nólsoy Island off in the distance:
https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8846/2...d1d8bae3_z.jpg Looking back at the Hostel, and the nearby Hotel Foroyer where we had dinner: https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8089/2...7e888a69_z.jpg The rare picture of both myself and Carol: https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8649/2...366833ac_z.jpg Zooming in on central Torshavn, with the fairly prominent Vesturkirkjan with its angular patinated copper roof. https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8606/2...451d2cac_z.jpg |
The next morning we got up pretty early (well, it never really got dark... I never did get past waking up at 5am, seeing the bright sun, and thinking "I must have overslept!"), and went down to explore Torshavn and work out some SIM cards[1].
One of the reasons that Torshavn is the major city is that, in a set of islands with steep fjords and cliffs, it's one of the few places where they could make a modern harbor. It's quite nice, especially since there were more boats than normal due to a regatta. https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8573/2...db14b1b4_z.jpg https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8773/2...b068a419_z.jpg https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8083/2...b3622a35_z.jpg https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7578/2...2eb43e1b_z.jpg https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8794/2...809dcbe1_z.jpg [1] Vodafone.fo has possibly the best SIM package on the planet, BTW. Our SIM cards cost us $9 each. Each had 5GB of excellent 4G coverage everywhere in the Islands, including the tunnels and the remote villages. Plus, the SIM had 4GB of roaming coverage in Europe, the UK, and Island. So yeah, pretty much all the internet both of us could consume for $18. |
After procuring the magical SIMs, our next stop was Skansin, a natural hill that overlooks the harbor of Torshavn. This little overlook has been strategic for a long time, and has has been the site of several important historical locations:
1. An 18th century fort built to protect against the Barbary Pirates 2. A WWII gun emplacement to protect Torshavn's harbor 3. A modern lighthouse https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8674/2...d288dc73_z.jpg https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8637/2...61a9853f_z.jpg Back in the 1700s, these cannons were installed to defend Torshavn from the Barbary Pirates, who had ransacked the Orkneys and even nearby Sandoy island: https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8878/2...a5771d74_z.jpg In WWII, the British controlled the Islands, and there are still some remnants of that (friendly) occupation, like these 5.5 cm guns: https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8855/2...f3a81a10_z.jpg |
The next stop was a little park that commemorates the first monarch to actually visit the Faroes, King Christian IX who visited in the late 19th century with much fanfare:
https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8734/2...5566d4df_z.jpg It's probably one of the best places to really get a nice view of the colorful buildings of Torshavn: https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8057/2...2fe399c3_z.jpg |
The next little stop in Torshvan was Tinganes.
The Faroes easily win an award for "smallest and cutest government center in the world", since this is the center of the government[1]. This is pretty much the entire executive government of the Islands. [1] Not the Parliament, which meets up the hill. https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8370/2...1d62052d_z.jpg https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8593/2...668f2713_z.jpg https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8680/2...b9bcb8fe_z.jpg https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8617/2...d6aa71a6_z.jpg And hey, it's not every day that you can yell at a kid to get off the Prime Minister's roof. Since yes, that's the Prime Minister's residence: https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8643/2...ec44ce7c_z.jpg |
Overall, Tinganes was pretty neat:
https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8804/2...de29f1aa_z.jpg And there's something I just like about the relatively simple Faroese flag (as you'll see in some historical places, Danish and Norwegian flags are common as well): https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8718/2...44f9fdaa_z.jpg But there's a hidden detail at Tinganes: if you look carefully at the rocks in front of it, you can see that they've been using that peninsula for a long time: there's actually a Viking-era sundial carved in the rocks: https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8620/2...e722dbf9_z.jpg |
And nestled into the hill right between Tinganes and the harbor is this surprisingly small church:
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8565/2...610a6342_z.jpg https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8779/2...5029b2bb_z.jpg About the size of a typical Congregational Church in small town New England, this little church is actually the Torshavn Cathedral, and the head church of the Faroese Church. It's size belies how ornate it is inside: https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8780/2...d9de2f38_z.jpg https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8421/2...3e00f76b_z.jpg And I'll admit, there's something I just love about the look of a good church organ: https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8773/2...851eb7ab_z.jpg |
But the thing I liked about the Cathedral, and most of the little town churches around the Faroes, is that most of them have Votive Ships, little ship models given to the church by ships' crews:
https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8875/2...0eefa579_z.jpg https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8588/2...8d787d51_z.jpg https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8797/2...13dfa5be_z.jpg |
entral Kirkjubøur, with St Olav's Church (Ólavskirkjan) at the right:
https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8711/2...a1d4f047_z.jpg This church dates from the 12th century, with occasional updates: https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8771/2...5de75172_z.jpg This is pretty much what the interior of most village Faroese churches look like: https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8653/2...0a6e837c_z.jpg A cool stained glass gate to Ólavskirkjan: https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8746/2...8a1bee7f_z.jpg This building is partly a museum now, but it's been a residence since the 1100s, and continuously occupied by generations of the same family since 1550. Originally an episcopal residence for the nearby church and (unfinished) cathedral, this is also the location where, in 1298, the future Haakon IV of Norway set forth the "Sheep Letter" which governs the raising and slaughter of sheep on the Islands to this very day: https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8573/2...514e67e5_z.jpg |
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