Tórshavn, Faroe Islands, Denmark

Tórshavn is the capital city of the Faroe Islands, a province of Denmark in the middle of the North Atlantic. The cruise port is ideally located near the old part of the town, with twisting, interesting streets and shops, unless you are unfortunate enough to come ashore on a Sunday (as we were) when the primary activity seems to be going to church. Most of the houses have either metal or sod roofs, a testament to the weather, which can be quite fierce. On the day we arrived it was foggy with a slight drizzly rain, which made visibility on some of the Princess tours a bit difficult.


Since we knew the shops would be mostly closed, we opted to rent a car. We made no plans in advance, since the weather is always iffy, and simply walked to the nearest car rental place, Avis (Staravegur 1, tel 313510, J9 on the map). Hertz (Hoydalsvegur 17, tel 340000, H10 on the map) is also close by, and both are about a 1/2 mile up the hill from the port. We knew the car rental place at the airport (on the island of Vágar, Tórshavn is located on Streymoy) was open from 10am, so it was possible to rent there, but we thought it best to try locally first. And did we get lucky! The Avis place was just about to close, and this was at 9:30am, when we arrived. But we were able to get a car, and our first destination was Kirkjubøur, where we hoped to see the ruins of medieval cathedral.

Kirkjubøur is almost directly south of Tórshavn, and you could probably walk there on a nice day, if you had a lot of time and good walking shoes. There weren't a lot of fences on any of the islands, which meant you had to watch out for sheep on the roads!

The cathedral was not much to look at, roofless and supported by modern structures to keep it from falling over, but was interesting nonetheless. There was a cute little church right next to it, and an interesting but not very old graveyard, along with the old farmhouses, which I guess you can tour later in the day.











Other than Kirkjubøur we didn't have any other must-see destinations, especially when seeing was so difficult anyway! So we decide to drive to Vágar -- we knew there was a long tunnel which connected Vágar with Streymoy -- and just sightsee along the way. Most of the Princess tours were along the lines of "explore quaint little villages along the coast" for about $50-60pp. Well, that is what we did. The red roofed church was in a little town on Vágar, as are the waterfalls and such. The rocks shrouded in fog were off the coast of Bøur on Vágar.




On the way back, we passed through the tunnel system again -- one short and one very long one -- and a sign said we were to pay for this privilege at the next service station. So we stopped. Indeed, this is the law, and we were charged about $24 and given a receipt. I asked if most people stopped to pay, and the cashier said yes, she thought they did, but most people had some kind of pass. So maybe we should have gone in a different direction, although Vágar was quite pretty, etc. at least what we saw of it through the fog.

We drove back and had lunch in Tórshavn, the only place that really had anything open, and it was OK. The Faroe Islands are not known for their cuisine.





The port area is pretty, and I think most folks who didn't take a tour just walked around, hoping something would open. It's a shame we had to be here on a Sunday. You can see the ships currently in the harbor through this webcam.


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More Tórshavn Pictures (mostly of interest to family and friends)