October 4th: We started with breakfast in the pizzeria. It was still rainy but the view was great.
Our table for breakfast (and dinner the previous night). Lake Como in the background.
We couldn’t leave town without paying our respects at the temple to Allesandro Volta., founder of electrochemistry, inventor of the electric battery (“voltaic pile”), and discoverer of methane.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t go inside because it was closed for renovation. The museum houses some of Volta’s original devices.
Our next target was a gastronomic one: Salumificio Rossi, one of Italy’s top producers of prosciutto.
The retail store. Each of those hanging lumps is a prosciutto-cured ham.The meat sampler for two included several prosciuttos and salamis.Parmigiano Reggiano is also produced in this region. This is a sampler plate of different ages.The cheese came with fig, apricot, and cherry jams. And Italian basil leaves.Did I mention that they made prosciutto?
Then a lot of driving in the rain. Easy to blog because nothing much to say. We stopped for the night in Fontanella, and had dinner at a simple pizzeria.
Carol got a calzone; I ordered a smoked salmon pizza.
September 21st: We scored some nice raspberries and strawberries at a grocery store, so I cobbled together a fruit-and-granola breakfast with low-fat milk. Both kinds of berries in Europe tended to be smaller, darker, and more intensely flavored than their American counterparts.
We were thinking about biking around the lake, but the bike I got had rather sudden braking, and I fell while trying it out. So I stayed home while Carol biked.
On the way to dinner, we stopped and got someone to take a picture of us.
We ate at the Hotel Tripič. Carol got fried local trout filets in Bohinj corn flour with sour cream and buckwheat porridge with mushrooms, and I got the rumpsteak filled with smoked ham and Bohinj cheese, in pepper sauce, with Krapi (buckwheat ravioli).
The Westman Islands were created about 45 thousand years ago by a large undersea eruption. They were enlarged by further eruptions 10-14 thousand years ago, and most recently in 1973 when Eldfell was formed in an eruption that destroyed half the town and threatened to block the harbor. Heroic efforts stopped the lava flow by spraying seawater on it, and in the end the harbor actually improved. Only one man died; everyone else was evacuated by fishing boats, which were all in port due to bad weather.
Our campsite Glamping & Camping was in the bottom of an ancient volcanic caldera called Herjólfsdalur. One side had eroded away, but the rest was shielded by crater walls up to two hundred meters high. It was easily the most spectacular campsite of our trip, AND had excellent facilities open 24/7, including 4 WCs, 4 showers, and a spacious kitchen.
We grabbed breakfast at a bakery before heading out to circumnavigate the island counterclockwise.
I had a ham & cheese sandwich.Carol had a cinnamon scone.
There are many other small islands in the archipelago, all volcanic, none permanently inhabited.
Our first stop was the hill at the southern tip of the island, which features a weather station and a bird sanctuary. Around 5 million puffins nest in this area each summer. Unfortunately for us, they had all left a week or two earlier.
The closest I got to a bird was in the parking lot for the bird sanctuary.The closest animals to the viewing station were sheep.The island on the left features “the world’s loneliest house” (actually a hunting lodge); you have to take an inflatable boat there and then climb those cliffs to reach it.The weather station at the summit near the sanctuaryThe bright red band looked like paint, but was actually a red seaweed.
Next, we climbed Eldfell, the volcano that destroyed half the town in 1973. The red and black tephra and lava is on top of hundreds of buildings that were buried.
The mountain in the left background is the volcanic shield wall that surrounds our campsite.
After that we went horseback riding. Most Icelandic horses are small, almost pony-size, with a max load of 90 kg. But Lyngfell Stables had strong full-size horses. I told her my weight, afraid it might be too much. “Have you seen my husband?”, she replied. 🙂
The bird sanctuary / weather station spit in the backgroundWhy am I still wearing a mask?No reason, so I took it off.
After that, we visited the Eldheimar eruption museum, which was built around a complete house excavated from under the volcanic ash.
Then we went swimming/soaking at the public pool. Carol thought this was the best pool of our trip, but I liked the water at Stykkishólmur and the view at Hofsós better.
Finally, dinner and a well-deserved sleep after a very long activity-packed day.
Energy and Time 