Here in Torshavn, capital of the Faroe Islands, we were glad to be moored alongside and to be able to simply walk off the ship and go into town. Well, it was nearly that simple, except we weren’t permitted to walk in the dock area, so had to take a five minute shuttle bus ride to the gate. Much easier than a tender though.

It was less than a five minute walk around the harbour to reach the old town and as we walked we appreciated the bright colours and the clear, fresh air.

Thursday morning, so we expected a few people about, though it was fairly early and perhaps the town was just waking up?

Helpfully, there was a map on the corner of the harbour so we could get our bearings and work out a rough route to keep in our heads as we looked around. We’d carry on down to the Tinganes point, follow the red route up into town and return along the blue route.

Here on the point, we spent a little time trying to spot some of the carved marks on the rocks that we’d read about.

Just when I was about to give up, I spotted one (which I had probably been standing upon!)

and shortly afterwards, found another. Fascinating - and the first of many things I listed as “to look up later”! One of those was thing , because we heard the word used in a different context and wanted to find out more.

We wandered about this beautiful collection of old, turf-roofed buildings, loving the colour and admiring the way this higgledy piggeldy street looked.

I took so many photographs of the details, appreciating the quirky charm.

On one wall, we found a house name, though so far we thought these “houses” were actually parliamentary offices. I’ll admit to peering through the windows of one of them and it was clearly a meeting room, closed up for now with the chairs stacked on the tables. We wondered what this sign meant but of course had no idea…

until we read the same word on the glass window of the door nearby. Now, I’d not have guessed that one!

Another observation and item for my list: look up Faroese and how it’s spoken.

Looking at those turf roofs, I considered the maintenance and thought I needed to find out about those too.

We were gradually working our way through the old town now, heading towards the route on the map we’d identified as an interesting possibility.

Here were some residential properties, each one with what can best be described as “personality”. this one in particular caught my eye and I hoped the family wouldn’t mind me taking a photo of their distinctive style.

Other, simpler homes appeared older and more traditionally adorned. I wondered about the maintenance of such old, wooden houses and yes, how long does a turf roof last?

Further along the street we came to the Cathedral the interior of which reminded us of some of the old stave churches we visited in Norway, although this was far brighter and more modern.

I noticed the three church ships, a traditional feature of Nordic churches and noticed the altar cloth too, which looked pretty special (even if the artist’s website gives me the creeps with all of those birds!)

I loved the sight of the three ships set against the beautiful blue “sky”.

We continued our walk around the city centre, dropping into the tourist office to pick up a map or two. It was here that we first became aware of the fact there were two cruise ships in town today, for until now it really did feel as though we had the place to ourselves.

We were keeping an eye on the time, for we had a scheduled tour for this afternoon and really mustn’t be late back, so rather than stop and listen to the saga connected with the statue on the grassy patch right there, I took the advice and took a picture so we could listen later. I was glad I did, for not only was I able to listen in English, I also could listen to the magical sound of a Faroese speaker too - not that I could understand a word of it, of course!

With time pressing, we carried on, back towards the dock gate and the shuttle bus stop.

Through the narrowest and possibly the smelliest street in town too. Heaven knows what was going on in that corner but we didn’t linger!

We did stop to admire the water feature which ran alongside the main street, admiring the clever waterfalls which were artfully designed to hardly create a ripple in the water.

For some reason, I also wanted a photograph of a blue post box. I have no idea why!

Soon, we were on the shuttle, returning to the ship in time for a bite to eat before turning around and joining our afternoon group to discover some of the island landscape. As we passed by the Norge, we learned that it was the Queen of Norway who had stayed here a couple of nights whilst in the city. She had flown in, had her yacht there as her “hotel” and had flown home earlier this morning we were told. Hmmm. I wondered how that squared with Norway’s commitment to energy efficiency?

Tomorrow, I’ll be back with a post about our afternoon, but meanwhile I’ve found out about things Who knew?!