BORGARFJORDUR EYSTRI – an Icelandic village portrait    The
village feels temporary, like a mining camp where people come to
work for a short time before moving to somewhere more congenial.
The galvanised iron buildings add to this impression, and few
residents have bothered making gardens. The winter would kill
the plants anyway.  Why bother with gardening when the lupins
bloom like this?  The village church - not all the other
buildings are quite so attractive.  The altarpiece of the church
was painted in 1914 by Iceland's most popular artist Johannes
Kjarval, who grew up in the village. He's depicted the sermon on
the (local) mount. Recognise the mountains in the shots above
and below?  The owners of this traditional turf house come here
in the summer. In the winter they live somewhere more
comfortable.  I assume these things used to do something useful,
but now they're just decorating the waterfront.  The war
memorial. In 1942 a mine like this washed up in Borgarfjordur
and exploded. According to the pla