Flag of the Faroe Islands - the 18 islands that make up the Faroe Islands are independent but are under the Danish Kingdom
Hi everyone.
Anne and I left Detroit on Labor Day, spent an overnight in Copenhagen, then flew to the Faroe Islands, where we've rented an apartment in Torshavn, the capitol, on the island of Streymoy, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Our flight was delayed due to fog, which is extremely common here. The islands reminded us of New Zealand as we flew in. Beautiful big scenery, mountains everywhere. The Faroes are believed to be 60 million years old. We're in the middle of the North Atlantic. Temperatures have been between 48 and 52 Fahrenheit since we've been here; there have been sprinkles, rain, fog each day. Yesterday was a mostly sunny day, and we enjoyed it. Anne is posting pictures to the blog. jinkski.blogspot.com or jinkski@blogspot.com
There are 18 islands in the Faroes. We've been touring with Karl Marius Dahl of Tora Tourist, a family business. The Faroese alphabet has 29 letters; no C, Q, W. X, Z. The islands were settled by Irish monks @ 800 AD and Vikings @ 900 AD. Lutheran is the national religion. Families average 2.6 kids. Children learn Faroese, Danish, English and German. There is a 25% tax on most everything, which covers health insurance and other benefits. There are 5 traffic lights in all the Faroes; 4 are in Torshavn. They drive on the right side of the road.
During WWII they had a friendly occupation by the British. Luckily the Bris arrived just days before the Germans expected to. The soldiers built the airport, participated in food processing and helped increase the local population. 🤣 Now the Faroes are considered a part of Denmark, but they still maintain some independence. They use the Danish kronur, but they also have their own coin. Denmark belongs to the European Union, but the Faroes do not. When we toured with Karl's grandfather Samal, he told us they don't want to be under EU laws regarding fishing, etc. Even though they have sheep, lamb, salmon (and more), they can't trade with EU members. Most of their wool is discarded. They do have a fishing agreement with Russia. They grow a lot of potatoes, some carrots, turnips, rhubarb. They raise sheep, some cows and chickens and maybe a few pigs, but we haven't seen any. There are no fruit trees. There is more money to be made fishing than farming, so they fish. We see many salmon farms and huge fishing boats. There's been recent outrage outside the Faroes about whale killing. It looks awful. But we're reminded that whale killing isn't part of their culture, it's their way of life. Only licensed individuals can participate. When whales are sighted, boats encourage them toward a bay. Because the whales use a sounding system to determine the direction to swim and to avoid the boats, the whales can be encouraged to beach themselves. When they do, they are quickly slaughtered. Meat is divided between participants and shared with others in the village. We've been told you can't buy whale in the grocery stores, then we heard you might be able to. The point is they love to eat whale, the blubber is enjoyed.
We've driven or ferried to several of the islands. Anne's pictures will tell you what we've seen. There is one bridge over the Atlantic, which we've often traveled. And there are subsea tunnels between the islands with more on the way.
We met a woman visiting from Denmark. She is Austrian but looks a bit Japanese. She spoke Polish with Anne, and Anne said it was flawless. She works for the Austrian embassy and spends years in locations to smooth and encourage trade. She speaks about 6 languages. Sounds like a great life to me.
Licorice is generally salty here; tough to find some that isn't. Very hard to find dark chocolate, which makes Anne very sad. We did buy some Akavitt, which we didn't try yet. We did taste their beer.
On a walking tour of Old Town, we walked right past the prime minister. No body guard. We didn't who he was until after we had passed him.
We hope everyone is doing well. We're hearing about a possible hurricane brewing in the gulf; take care, Sue and Ron. We're leaving tomorrow to spend a couple nights in Copenhagen, then we move on to the UK. Pausing to reflect on this sad anniversary.
Anne and Maddy
Torshavn on the island of Streymoy is the capital of the Faroe Islands where we stayed for 6 days.
Our first tourist stop, Vagar, after arriving in Streymoy - lots of fog, weather changes from one part of the island to another part very quickly
Village where boats are waiting for whales to come in to be tagged. One of the areas on the island of Streymoy where the locals do their whaling. Contrary to news media, the locals use whale meat for local consumption and cannot sell the meat.
Traditional houses with grass roofs provide insulation
In all the villages churches are built near the ocean to pray for safe journeys
The only bridge over the Atlantic Ocean is here in the Faroe Islands linking the islands of Streymoy and Eysturoy
Village of Toftanes in Eysturoy where Viking tools were found
Klaksvik on the island of Bordoy
Sheep every where on the islands - major source of food for the Faroese people. It is not exported or used for their wool
Picturesque village of Gjogv of the northern island of Eysturoy
Faroese believe this was once a fjord until a tsunami hit in the 1600’s
Beautiful village of Funning in a valley on the island of Eysturoy
Beautiful scenery with great hiking
We took a 30 minute ferry ride from Streymoy to the island of Sandoy where we visited the village of Dalur and saw fishing houses and land mines recovered from WWII
Temperature of the Atlantic is a constant 7 degrees Celsius (about 46 degrees)
Oldest village in Faroe Islands - Kirkjube on the island of Streymoy
We stayed across the street from the hotel on the left in Torshavn. It was located very close to the old town section if Torshavn across from the Atlantic. Our apartment is on the right in the red building
Our Air B&B lower level
View from our apartment looking in the opposite direction
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