Posted by We drive up along the east coast of Streymoy. We have done the first part of the road several times before – but every time we have turned off across Atlanterhavsbroen to go the neighbor island of Eysturoy. This time around we will actually continue on the road up the east coast to see what is up here.
As we drive along the road we pass on of the biggest waterfalls on the islands called Fossa. The road here is pretty small but they did make a turnout so we could stop and have a closer look at the waterfall. I think we actually saw it a couple of days ago when we were driving around Eysturoy just across the water.
We continue up along the road till we reach Tjørnuvik this is the final stop on the road and the last village to the north of the island. Tjørnuvik is one of the oldest settlements on the Faroe Islands and there supposedly are some Viking graves somewhere outside the village proving the area here was among the first places to be settled when the Vikings left from Norway to find new land in the North Atlantic.
The village is located at a bay – but there isn’t much shelter so the village hasn’t got a good harbor which must have made the place very isolated before the road was built.
Across the water we can see two cliffs Risin and Kellingin which we saw a couple of days ago. Risin and Kellingin is supposed to be a giant and a witch who came from Iceland. They tried to pull the Faroe Islands back to Iceland – but they had to do it in the dark. They got started but didn’t finish before the sun rose and they were turned into the stones we can see today.
In the outskirts of the city is an old sawbuck. The Faroe Islands have very few trees so the main source of timber was drift wood which might accidently role up on the beaches from Norway or other places far far away. The sawbuck here is a recreation of an old sawbuck which was in used to cut up driftwood in Tjørnuvik all the way up until 1969.
The village is small so the sightseeing in the village is quickly done. And it is about time for lunch – we haven’t seen anything looking like a restaurant since we left Torshavn so we guess this little village might be the best chance we will have to find food unless we want to drive all the way back to Torshavn. There isn’t much around the city – and there is nothing which really qualifies as a restaurant.
Finally we find sign claiming they sell waffles and coffee. We go inside – and it turns out it is an old man who make waffles in his kitchen and serve them at the kitchen table. The waffles are mediocre, small and overprices so we don’t enjoy this meal. But he is an old man who has lived in the town back when he was a child so he could tell a bit of how difficult it was to get around back then. There was no road so if he wanted to go to Torshavn he would have to walk over the mountain to a small village with a better harbor from where he could catch a boat to Eysturoy. It was before they had built Atlanterhavsbroen – so he would have to catch another boat which would take him to Torshavn – if he was lucky he might be able to do it in a day but sometimes it took two days to do the trip which can be done in an hour today.
FrejaTravels 