Erpsstadir dairy farm, NW Iceland, a nite in the farmhouse with hottb, endless tubs of homeade ice cream & full moon. Recipe for laughs & fun. A perfect time together!!!
It's our last week, so went on a road trip to NW Iceland up to the West Fjords, a most wild and rugged landscape. The main purpose was to stay a night at our favourite dairy farm, Erpsstadir, and eat all the fresh homeade ice cream we could. It's about a 3 hr drive NW of Reykjavik. The further north we went, the more snow. We rented out the farmhouse at Erpstaddir which had a nice comfy homey feel, a hot tub on the deck and cows, sticks, rocks and hills for Niall to climb on. The couple leavin the farmhouse that we stayed in, had hunted and caught 7 ptarmigan birds before sunset, for their family christmas feast (pic in gallery). In Iceland, there's no turkeys, it's a tradition to find ptarmigan for christmas. We each had our own tub of homeade ice cream made fresh, chocolate mint, caramel, licorice, vanilla, dark chocolate & more.. Sitting in the hot tub under the full moon eating ice cream must've given us the giggles because we laughed and talked for what felt like hrs :) The days are short, sunrise 11am and sunset 4pm. When we left Erpsstadir, the family that owns it (the father) invited Niall to return in three years when he was 12 yrs old to work on their dairy farm, he was serious and I know Niall would love it. We stopped at another farm with a natural hotpot to soak in with more ice cream about two hrs north - we noticed steam coming out of the ground and knew there'd be a farmer that'd have a pool to soak in. Returning to Reykjavik, the sun set on one side while the moon rose on the other side. So magnificent the scenery, I sometimes am speechless in awe as it all feel soooo close. On Nov 26th, we went to a Star Wars symphony at the Harpa Concert Hall, which is one of the best in the world and of unique design of glass on the ocean downtown Reykjavik. The children brought friends from school and it was a spectacular symphony of music with the Icelandic symphony. Pictures with the Star Trek characters after! It is bittersweet, these final days. The week before, we went to Harpa to watch four sax players do a concert. Nice culture! We also visited the Viking Maritime Museum, stayed for hrs it was very good, especially going on a real ship that's docked and learning how Icelandic fisherman have lived for hundreds of years since the Vikings. Packing up the apt wasn't so difficult, kept the apt as there's a chance to continue studies next term, too. Now home to Canada to study & complete final exams at my home university (UBCO). Just before leaving for the airport Dec 1st, we went for a last walk downtown Reykjavik to the farmer's market for baked goods, our fav bags of licorice, handmade wool mittens for Lex, a hot dog (of course!) and to sit in our fav coffee house to feel its vibe once more. G'bye, Iceland, for now, you are a most special place on this planet!! Thank you to my children for sharing and trusting me in this adventure, for friends & family that've kept in touch and new Icelandic friends and places, we are connected forever.