Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Ósvör Maritime Museum
Aðalstræti 21 • June-Aug daily 10am-5pm • 900kr, or 1300kr with the Natural History Museum •
W
osvor.is
At the entrance to town, just before the bridge, the open-air
Ósvör Maritime Museum
is
well worth the twenty-minute trip from Ísafjörður. The tiny, turf-roofed huts here, with
their thick stone lower walls, are reconstructions of structures that were once used to
house fishing-boat crews, a salting house and a rack for drying fish, and give a good
idea of how cramped conditions were in the early twentieth century. The museum also
has a six-oared rowing boat from the 1940s, built to a traditional local design, on
display. The landing stage, beyond the huts, was used when the weather conditions
were too severe for boats to land in more exposed Bolungarvík itself.
Natural History Museum
Vitastígur 3 • Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, plus mid-June to mid-Aug Sat & Sun 1-5pm • 900kr, or 1300kr with Ósvör Maritime Museum •
W
nabo.is
A ten-minute walk from the Maritime Museum, the town's only other attraction is the
Natural History Museum
down by the harbour; to get here, follow the main road into
town, Þuríðarbraut, across the Hólsá river, and head straight on into the main street,
Aðalstræti, then right into Vitastígur. Inside there's an excellent collection of stuffed
seals, arctic fox and various birds - everything from a widgeon to a pink flamingo,
which oddly turned up out of the blue in eastern Iceland - you name it, they've got it
stuffed. The prize exhibit, though. is the 3-year-old male polar bear (minus penis,
which was claimed by the Phallological Museum in Reykjavík; see p.67) found floating
on spring pack ice off Hornstrandir a few years ago. The bear was snared by local
fishermen who spotted him drifting, exhausted, on the ice, and the fact that its death
was most likely caused by dragging the animal to shore, half-hanging over the side of a
fishing boat, came in for much public criticism.
4
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE
BOLUNGARVÍK
By bus
The year-round Ísafjörður-Bolungarvík bus
runs twice daily from Ísafjörður, and three times daily
from Bolungarvík, terminating at the post office on
Aðalstræti.
ACCOMMODATION, EATING AND DRINKING
Campsite
Höfðastígur 1
T
456 7381.
Next to the
swimming pool and the Hólsá river, where Route 61 from
Ísafjörður enters town, the campsite has rudimentary
facilities in
cluding
hot water and toilets. Closed
Oct-March.
1000kr
Einarshús
Hafnargata 41
T
456 7901,
W
einarshusid
.is.
Located
down by the harbour
in an atmospheric old
timber building from 1904, which once served as the
village store, there are five snug rooms here, each with a
washbasin, but otherwise sharing facilities. Breakfast is an
extra 1600kr.
The delightful restaurant serves fresh fish
from 3250kr; there's also a bar in the basement which
opens every evening.
Mon-Re
staurant Fri 11am-11pm,
Sat & Sun 1-11pm.
16,500kr
Mánafell
Stigahlíð 2-4
T
863 3879,
W
orkudisa
.com.
This ugly modern block certainly wins no prizes for
aesthetics, and the flats inside wouldn't have looked out
of place in the Soviet Union - however, they are hard to
beat in t
erms o
f price and have kitchens. Sleeping-bag
doubles
1800kr
Around Ísajarðardjúp
The largest and most breathtaking of all the West Fjords, the 75km-long
Ísajarðardjúp
stretches all the way from the mountains around Bolungarvík at its mouth to the
shores of Ísafjörður fjord, the most easterly of the nine smaller fjords that make up the
southern coastline of this extended arm of the Denmark Strait. Approaching from the
southeast, descending from the Steingrímsfjarðarheiði plateau on Route 61, the views
of Ísafjarðardjúp are spectacular: remote, uninhabited, forbidding fjordlands as far as
the eye can see. In fact, from the head of Ísafjörður fjord to the regional capital there's
