We drive up a little road in the far north of Iceland to reach the small town of Holar. The city is small but it used to be an important settlement of the north. The northern bishop of Iceland used to live in this city until the bishopric was abolished. There is a replica of the home of the bishop from the 14th century.
Across from the old building is still a fairly big church considering the small town. The biggest building in the town is a university – I guess most of the people up here must have a relation to the university as a student or a teacher. It is actually surprising to see such a big institution of learning so far from any major settlement.
Behind the church is an old turf house. It isn’t as interesting as the museum at Glaumbær nearby – but it is free so we look inside. If you never seen a turf house before it is still fun to have a quick look at this one.
There is also a museum of some sort in the city but we decide to skip it and after this really short visit to the city we drive back down from the hill to the coastal road.
Inside the turf house Inside the turf house Turf houses behind the church
In the prairies turf houses were called sod houses. That university is large considering the size of the town!
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I did realize they used this building style on the prairies. I thought they had access to enough timber to built houses of wood.
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You found some interesting buildings, Mickey! My daughter and son-in-law went to Iceland in June. They loved it.
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We actually went in June as well. I am just behandling ☺it is very nice in Iceland this time of the year.
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Iceland is a popular place to travel. Many family and friends talk about it.
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It is certainly getting more popular in recent years. And easy ti reach for us just a 3hour plane ride.
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It took them 6 hours to get there. They chose that location because of the short flight. I watched my granddaughter all by myself. They wanted to go somewhere not taking 12 hours flight in case I need them.
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That’s good. There is directory flight from where you live?
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Yes, we live on west coast of the US.
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Ok I thought it would be longer from the west Coast.
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It is shorter if it goes from north, even when we fly to Asia.
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I know when i fly to USA we always go over greenland
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Yes, I don’t know why it’s shorter verses go along the equator.
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You can get an idea if you look at a globe instead of a map. The paralellels are much close the further north you go. So if you go north you save a lot of distance.
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I think I did and that’s why some flights take 12 hours going north to Hong Kong, and our last flight was 17 hours via Japan.
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At least party. I guess you had at least a short layover on the ground in Tokyo.
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It is worth to go. It is easy to drive yourself and Explorer the island.
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That’s what I heard. My son-in-law rent a camper to drive around.
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So he choose a place only six hour flight away. But from the northern part of the island it is at least 8 hours drive back to the airport 😁
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