A Church and Ice Cream
We had somewhat big plans for Tuesday, but since Monday became a bigger deal than we’d realized beforehand, we opted for a low-energy day instead. We therefore hung out for most of the day, but ventured north a bit in the afternoon to visit a fancy looking church and try some straight-from-the-farm ice-cream.
The kids’ favorite car-reading material became this multi-page ad-paper from Playmobil (acquired at Toy’R’Us).
Bjarki finally agreeing to disembark the car.
The reason for our visit: This fancy church, Grundarkirkja, now somewhat overrun with trees.
The ever helpful information signage informed us the the church had been completed in 1905, by the farmer-in-charge himself. It is one of the prettier churches of Iceland, and the largest built (as in ‘paid for’) by an individual.
The kids were shocked, shocked, I say when they found rice all over the ground in front of the church, and went about kicking it away.
Looking up.
The doors turned out to be locked, so we walked around the church instead and took a few peeks in through the windows. It looked pretty plain-ish on the inside.
One of the houses next to the church.
Heading over to check out the cemetery.
Adda doing her best to read the fuzzy inscription on the stone. The kids were pretty bewildered by the cemetery, and this notion that there were dead people in the ground. It raised all sorts of questions, and I realized that we hadn’t taken the kids to a cemetery in a long time, if ever.
Finnur and Bjarki by another old tombstone.
A little reminder that life tends to thrive in the weirdest of places and in the weirdest of forms.
One of the oldest looking stones there. I couldn’t spot a date, but the skull and crossbones were curious. I haven’t seen those around cemeteries much.
Our next stop was a bit further up north, at the farm Holtsel. The farmers there sell home-made ice-cream and other products in a ‘straight-from-the-farm‘ manner.
We parked in slightly the wrong place, and had to walk up a hill to get to the store/cafe.
This is the view that greeted us (those white things contain dried hay).
The entrance to the store/cafe.
There were cows ambling nearby.
Adda and Halli trying to decide what to get.
The kids eating ice-cream from their special plastic-figurine cups.
A plaque on the wall congratulating the farmers for taking initiative in increasing the value of their production.
Heading back down again. In through the door on the left…
… there were cows, munching on hay. How very farm-ish. 🙂
After this, our car headed on back to home-base, while the others made an emergency trip all the way to Akureyri to get gas. Much to their relief, they found that the ‘kilometers-left-before-the-car-runs-out-of-gas’ indicator lies and they made it to the gas station. 🙂