Vanishing bookshops

Docking today, rather than having to deal with tenders, it was an easy walk through the port area toward town. Unlike many areas where there are a lot of fences, stern warnings and hand holding – there were a couple of arrows, a sign or two and some white foot prints painted on the pavement across the parking lot to indicate a general direction. I think the assumption was that buses, trucks, and fort lifts should be easy enough to identify and avoid.  Plus, people should able to be accountable for themselves. Who knew? What a concept, right?

Anyway, we docked at Isafjörður  around 1000. Wiki link included there. And note the proper ASCI ð, with no clue as to whether or not cutting and pasting into an email will maintain it. Heading off the ship into this town of around 2600, we found that the “I Punkt” had been relocated to the local museum. Fine, it is always fun to see what is important locally to a town that was established as a northern most fishing and trading post (9th century and forward).  The museum itself is a several story red building. Entering on the ground floor, the exhibits are all about the local settlement, fishing, and life along the fjord. The next two floors are devoted to home life during various eras. Except for a small section which featured an Accordion Museum. Not going there….

All of the exhibits, from shop tools,  to a kitchen, to spinning wheel, through children’s toys felt real. Not heavily curated like too many museums but very reflective of how the average person there actually lived. It reminded me the most of the local museum in Esperance, Western Australia which I visited 11 Nov 2013 while on the Radiance of the Sea’s circumnavigation cruise. It was where I was lucky enough to meet the indomitable Glenda (actually from Queensland) and here about the area from someone familiar with its history due to family.

I promise I will get pix downloaded from the camera and onto the blog.

From there, we walked into town. Not surprising giving the distance north and lack of trees, a huge amount of the construction is corrugated iron siding. I keep wondering what one has to do for insulation given the cold weather…. Bright colors can make you happy, but I don’t think that they keep you warm….

Oh – book stores… there were two listed on the map but we were unable to find either. Man at the Museum said, oh – they are not in this town. But they are on the map because the company that prints the maps owns the bookstores…. We did find a wonderful combination of souvenirs, kids toys, and shelves and shelves of books on one of the corners on our walk back. I found one on Norse Gods (printed in Stockholm) that was amazing. I have the ISBN. As much as I love supporting local businesses, I am not interesting in hauling a heavy book home.

Back on the ship in early afternoon (after George made a stop at the local brewery which is one of the mainstay industries in the town) we spent the rest of the day quietly with an early dinner and skipping (once again), the evening entertainment. George had gone to the Port talk for tomorrow. An hour after supper we were all told that there was yet another storm with high winds headed in. As a result, we would be headed back to Reykjavik overnight and skipping the next port as it wasn’t safe.

Ok, we have done rock & roll before….