Seydisfjordur, Iceland | The Escapades of Pookie and Allan

The village of Seydisfjordur is nestled between the mountains at the end of a fjord. It was settled In the early days by Norwegian fishermen and many stores were built and the merchants eventually made a living selling their goods. The town began to develop into a trading center when the townspeople found their wealth in “the silver of the sea” – herring.

In the late afternoon, we took a guided walking tour around the village. It was raining quite heavily but undaunted, we persevered, and I’m so glad we did.

The town has about 648 residents. We walked the Rainbow Street to the iconic blue church. The Rainbow Street was painted in support of the local LGBTQ community. It started when a resident couldn’t make the Gay Pride parade in Reykjavik, and so with the local authorities support, the people in the village now celebrate the day with their own parade. Every year, the rainbow path gets painted anew.

After the tour, we entered the community center where we were welcomed with a glass of champagne. We sat down to listen to a singer and guitarist as they played and sang some Icelandic songs.

While we listened, we dined on canapés of egg salad, salmon, and reindeer and finished off the repast with cream puffs and chocolate cake.

They also told more of the story I mentioned yesterday, about the Yule Lads. Apparently there are 13 mischievous pranksters and one comes to each home every night in the 13 days before Christmas. There is the ‘door slammer’ who slams doors at night till everyone in the house is awake. There is the ‘candle stealer’ who steals all the candles in the house. There’s the ‘sausage stealer’ who eats all the sausages. These pranksters leave a small gift in the shoes of the children, unless the children have been bad, and then they get a rotten potato in their shoe.

And if all of that isn’t scary enough, instead of Santa Claus, Gryla, a giantess with an appetite for flesh, comes around with a huge sack…not filled with toys, but filled with misbehaving children and she takes the sack back to her cave and eats them.

And it isn’t over. There is a Yule Cat who hangs around the countryside and eats people who have not received new clothes to wear before Christmas Eve. Whaaa?????

I wonder how many Icelandic kids are in therapy!!!!

Anyway, it is all in good fun (I hope), and we had an enjoyable afternoon listening to the music and the folk lore.

We had dinner tonight at the chef’s table. Dinner is served and each course is paired with wine. We enjoyed a sweet potato chip with apple, rosemary, and crème fraiche. Then we had crab cake with avocado, orange, fennel, and blood orange. A granita was next with vodka, ginger beer and lime juice. The main course was seared halibut with cauliflower and for dessert , ojai mandarin parfait with candied ginger.

We went to the show afterwards where Don Bryan performed his ventriloquist act. He was hilarious.

It was a wonderful day!