It’s a Friday in August and I’m flying to Copenhagen to meet my Texas Girls for a very special birthday holiday. We all celebrate our birthdays in August and this year two out of three of ours are particularly special ones 😉
It’s just under 2 hours of a flight, landing at 4pm. The girls have already given me the low-down on the train situation so there’s no messing. It’s a super efficient airport, easy to navigate so I get a train ticket which is only €4 and it’s all of 12 minutes to central station. I’m dying to see these ladies!
We start the big catch up over a glass of wine in the courtyard of our hotel, then move it upstairs and have a glass of rosè… there’s a lot to catch up on!
Eventually we leave the hotel and decide we’re gonna stay local for dinner. We stop for a cocktail on the way.
We go to a restaurant called Holly and have their 7 course sharing menu. It’s delicious. The staff are keen to celebrate with us and give us champagne and before we leave a shot of what seems to be a Bloody Mary!!
new danish potatoes, salad with edible flowers and an amazing chicken dish are some, but not all of what we eat!
We go for more drinks and I try a local cider (Nórrebro). The girl behind the bar (our new best friend) tells us that one of her parents is Irish, when I ask where from she says Ballyfermot!!!
We are hurting next morning and I’m too hungover to do the Copenhagen parkrun – it’s also a little too tight for time with our flight so we drag ourselves out of bed and visit the tower of Our Saviours Church.
The tower is 90m high and there are 400 steps to the top. The tower is also known as the “heavenly ladder” as Christ is at the top with the victory banner. On the climb up we see a number of decapitated cherubs that look like they’re floating around – they are quite bizarre….
It’s a lovely morning and the views from the top are worth the climb.
We’re delighted with ourselves that we’ve made this tower climb happen but we need to get back pretty sharpish to the hotel and get to the airport for our flight to Vágar on Atlantic Air.
There are a total of 18 islands and it’s cool to see them below, as we approach Vágar. We see the coast line we will explore, the fjords and villages we’ll visit and the roads we will drive.
We can even see the large circular rings on the water that are the salmon “farms”, common all over the Faroes.
When we arrive at the tiny airport there’s an opportunity to pick up some duty free booze and then it’s time to pick up a car and start our islands adventure.
Vágar island is the third largest island in the Faroe Islands. It lies between Mykines island to the west (we won’t have time to go there) and Streymoy island to the east (we’ll be heading there later today)
Our top priority is to do a hike to the “floating lake” so we don’t hang about.
From up here you get an iconic view of the cliffs that defines the Faroe Islands.
There are beautiful views every way you turn.
We’re delighted with ourselves and spend quite a bit of time enjoying our remote surroundings.
We also see the Bosdalafossur fall which flows from the lake into the sea.
What a beautiful place and a great start to our holiday.
We do a bit more exploring on Vagar, the scenery is stunning and the houses dotted around are very picturesque.
We visit Múlafossur waterfall where we’re told there are puffins. We do see some but they are very much at a distance, requiring concentration to actually see – definitely not close enough for a photo!
It’s a short walk to view the waterfall and a mist has come over the mountain. It is just lovely.
There are literally no restaurants or dining options outside of the capital and a couple of larger towns so we stop at the grocery store (called Bonus) and stock up so we have food for tonight. Theres no booze in the supermarket and we haven’t seen a liquor store so it’s just as well we visited the duty free shop at the airport!
Stocked up with our food purchases we cross to the island of Streymoy and head north to Tjørnuvík. There are waterfalls everywhere you look on this island!
This is the one way drive into our tiny “village” where we’re staying for 2 nights.
Tjørnuvík is one of the more remote places to visit and we are staying at the cutest Airbnb. This is is our beautiful tiny home for a couple of nights.
It doesn’t take long to suss out our village – it is tiny but so picturesque.
A few steps (literally) and we are at the beach. We open up a bottle of red and sit by the sea enjoying the view.
Cheers!
It’s fairly late so we through on the pizza we picked up, have some salad, finish our wine and are very happy to get to bed a little earlier than last night.
Our tiny house has a tiny upstairs with 3 beds… this is gonna be fun!
Next morning it’s time to celebrate Renee’s birthday. We have tea and coffee while reminiscing over some photos.
We then make a start to the day with a short walk to the ocean for a “polar dip”.
It really is freezing but it’s so invigorating.
Back at the house it’s brekkie time and Jennifer whips up some delicious eggs with local smoked salmon. It’s lashing rain outside so we are happy to chill over our brekkie and we have the funniest time as tourists outside look in at us and take photos of our house!!
There’s actually a funny story here as there’s a waffle stand at our house and people think we are the waffle makers and that we are running some sort of cafe. I’m sitting at the window and I have to assure quite a few paasersby that we do not have waffles for them and we don’t know where the waffle man is!
This particular man who was from outside of Copenhagen, (actually from the city where the kings are buried which we learned about from one of our new Copenhagen friends!) was very chatty and we had such a laugh chatting to him while the rain dripped off his face!
And then would you believe we see the waffle man, who appears to be coming back from church (it is Sunday after all) and even though the rain has stopped he clearly has no intention of opening up the waffle stand, in fact he doesn’t even give us a look… and we know it’s him because we googled him!!
The waffles are just not gonna happen so after the most craic I think we’ve ever had over breakfast, we decide to get our raincoats and head off to explore more of the islands. There’s a bit of traffic on the road!
And guess what we see – more waterfalls!! This one is allegedly the most famous. It’s called Fossá and is 140 meters high (460 ft) and cascades down multiple levels. No hiking needed to see this, we pass it on the road.
We head to the town of Saksun, population 11!! There’s a beautiful lagoon that’s just a 3km round trip hike. It’s a beautiful walk.
Another beautiful waterfall across the lagoon to admire… there are so many of them on the island.
So remote but someone lives out here…
After our walk we head into the “town” of Saksun… blink and you’ll miss it. It’s a sprinkling of a few old houses ……
… and a church looking out to the lagoon we just hiked.
When we cross to the island of Eysturoy we get a much better view of Fossá waterfall which we saw from the road earlier… but from a distance you can see its multi layers. Although the view isn’t great with the weather it’s still very impressive.
The town at the edge of this island is a lot bigger than our little village – it has quite a few houses and a marina but literally nothing else!!!
We’ve read that there’s a cafe along the road though so we’re very excited to stop for a nibble or a coffee. It’s called Roses and it gets great reviews. Not from us mind you!! Rose is less than welcoming when we peep our heads in and although there are lots of empty seats and we’re just looking for a snack, she asks if we have a reservation and when we say no she essentially ignores us until we leave. F you Rose!
These salmon farms are everywhere and the fish jumping is quite impressive!
We head back to Tjørnuvík, we really are lucky to stay in this beautiful village….
…. and have a glass of rosè (Rose Montrose) looking out at the water and back toward our beautiful village
…..while we continue to admire the view.
Jennifer has organised a hot tub experience at the Surf shack which is a few minutes walk from our house so before we indulge we take another dip in the sea…
Then it’s time to relax and enjoy some champagne from the hot tub.
Now the nice bit….
We stay for a couple of hours jumping in and out of the tub to plunge into an ice bath and to have another polar dip to wash off a scrub we’ve been given. It’s really lovely and we’re delighted to be fed some delicious homemade soup and chat to our host to finish off the experience.
Back at the house we finish the evening with birthday cake. What a great today.
Next day we leave our tiny house and head toward the capital with a few stops along the way. First stop is to see the Merman. We cross another bridge heading to Eysturoy island which is the “next one over” to the east. In the north of this one is the town of Elduvik. This is where the merman is.
This little village is another picturesque seaside village with a sprinkling of traditional houses.
It’s crazy windy here this morning.
As we walk around the beautiful tiny little village it starts to bucket down rain but the General comes to our rescue and picks us up before we are totally drenched…
Onwards to the town of Fuglafjordur where there is an historical building from 1887 that houses the local crafts shop “Ribarhús”. We all buy some local stuff and are delighted with our purchases.
We are still sheltering from the weather so have some tea and cakes!
The very chatty lady who runs the tourist information office (inside the shop) tells us there’s a sculpture close by worth checking out. It was erected last year in memory of all the Faroese women who died in childbirth.
The tunnels of the Faroe islands are famous. There are a total of 20 even though there’s only 18 islands and a number of them are underwater. One of the tunnels we go through has a roundabout and most have very pretty lights and paintings on the ceiling.
We continue on to Klaksvík on Bordoy island, another island further over to the east and linked by a tunnel. It’s one of the bigger towns on the islands and it seems peculiar and boring in comparison to the beautiful remote villages we’ve gotten used to. It does have the islands main brewery though – Föroya Bjór – we check it out and the merch is pretty good… someone might be getting a little something 😉.
We happily leave this town and explore another piece of coastline where we see some leftover artillery from the British, who occupied the Faroe islands during WW2.
We continue to the capital Tórshavn and are delighted with our beautiful big apartment right on the harbour. Once we’re settled and have sussed out our surroundings we head out for dinner and have the most delicious meal of lamb and monkfish at Tarv Grillhouse, overlooking the harbour.
After dinner we take a walk around town but we’re a bit tired so we’ll save most of the exploring for tomorrow.
Next morning we go to Panamé cafe for a traditional breakfast of a bread role with a slice of cheese and some jam!! The cafe has a beautiful bookshop which also has lots of cool souvenirs and “stuff”!!
After brekkie, we decide to take advantage of some good weather and we drive to the southernmost village on Streymoy island -Kirkjubøur. More cool looking homes….
It is also home to St Magnus Cathedral which was constructed around 1300. The ruins are the largest medieval building in the Faroe Islands
The countryside continues to impress us and the sheep and goats make us hungry!!!
We visit Kvivik which is one of the oldest settlements in the Faroes dating back to the time of the Vikings.
We were hoping to visit the Faer isles Distillery and taste some gin but they seem to be building a new home so we’ll have to settle for getting some in town or as it turns out buying some in the duty free to bring home!!
We visit Vestmanna where we’ve read has nothing much to see unless you’re taking a boat trip to get closer to the puffins and the advice was right – we thought we might find somewhere for a lunch snack but there’s essentially nothing!
We head back to our Casa and have a quick lunch (using up our groceries) before Renee leads us on a walking tour of town.
We start by walking through Tórshavn’s old town of Reyn. It is a small neighbourhood of black-tarred houses with white-framed windows and turf roofs. Remarkably, people still live and make their home in these 14th-century houses.
We visit the government buildings….
…. and with the help of our very knowledgeable guide, avoid the few other tourists around (who happen to be loud Americans 😱) and walk to the Tinganes side.
Climbing upward, we visit Kongaminni, a basalt obelisk erected in 1882 to commemorate the visit of the Danish king Christian IX’s visit to the Faroe Islands
There are some nice views from here…
Last on our list is the graveyard but I’ll have to let the guidebook describe this: “Set inside a rectangle of sturdy old stone walls, Torshavn’s old graveyard is a wonderfully atmospheric place. The grassy muddle of ancient moss-covered headstones and gnarled trees twisted into curious shapes by the ferocious winds lend an otherworldly air to the cemetery and, although burials now take place in the much larger churchyard in the southwestern reaches of the town, it’s this smaller affair, straight out of a Scooby-Doo episode, that is the more visually attractive and photogenic.”
We finish our walking tour and have just enough time for a little rest and freshen up before dinner.
Tonight we are continuing our birthday treats and eating at Roks.
This sister to Ræst is set in an ancient, turf-roofed building and has a rustic inner, a laid-back ambience and chatty staff. The set menus reflect the bounty from the surrounding waters, from local sea-urchins to langoustines and Greenlandic snow crab. All these dishes are cooked with great precision to unlock their natural flavours.
The food is amazing and we really enjoy our evening.
We have an 8am flight to Oslo next morning so we are up at the crack of dawn for the 45 minute drive to the airport. The colours are beautiful as the sun is rising and we get some final views of these beautiful islands.
We have loved our time here and are sad to say goodbye but hope to get back one day.
odohertyelaine 