Awake this morning at 5:30 - Something different, we are in calm waters and it is snowing! We coast into port at the Faroe Islands, the capital city of Torshavn, holding about 50% of the 49,000 population of this Danish protectorate. As we enter the port, the town is spread across the hillside, multiple colored houses, mostly of wooden construction, and some with traditional sod roofs.
As we dock, the light snow stops falling, and the entire area is blanketed with white. Already, it is beginning to melt, but temperatures are hovering around 2C. We disembark at 9:00 and join our coach for a tour of the island of Streymoy. Once away from the town, we are over and around and through the hills and mountains along a winding highway - some moderate traffic but having to stop occasionally for the common sheep in the road. There are approximately twice as many sheep as people in the Faroe Islands - big business. We are told that the name Faroes means "sheep islands."
As we journey over the hills, the scenery is stunning, never more than a few miles from the ocean and nary a tree in site. Sheep clinging improbably to these high, steep hillsides. After an hour, we arrive in the village of Vestmanna for our tour of the Vestmanna Sea Cliffs. We board a large boat holding our 22 passengers, plus a few individual tourists and head out to visit the cliffs. We pass salmon farms, the largest industry in the Faroes, and eventually arrive at the steep cliffs and grottos along this coast. Lots of seabirds nesting on these cliffs, including guillemots, fulmars, razorbills and kittiwakes. Unfortunately too early for the puffin population. The birds are here to breed, otherwise spending their lives on the sea - the land is for nesting only. Some of these cliffs reach to 2,000 feet and are spectacular.
We return to the Vestmanna village and onto our coach for a return to the ship, arriving around 1:30. We grab a quick lunch and then repair to our cabin for rest and reading.
We depart the Faroe Islands at 2:00 and back out into the North Atlantic, headed for Iceland, our destination tomorrow. Seas are again predicted to be rough and it snows occasionally during the afternoon. We dine this evening on Ling Cod or chicken and fettuccine. After a night cap in the Sinatra Lounge. (Piano but no singing.) We are into bed by 11:00. However a note on our bed indicates that we set clocks back in the night by an hour as we are arriving into a different time zone the next morning.
