I'm here in the land of the midnight sun. Ever since we left Scotland, the days have gotten longer and longer and the nights now are only about 3 hours long. Even then, it never really gets dark and it seems strange to look outside at 2 or 3 in the morning and it's still light enough to see out. It's also hard to sleep unless the curtains are shut tight. We've had heavy fog the last couple of nights with the eerie sound of foghorns going off throughout the night, but in our next port of Isafjordur (pronounced EEE-sah-fee-order), it was beautiful weather. Clear blue skies and temps in the upper 50s to low 60s. Isafjordur was first settled in the 10th century by the Vikings. The Danish set up a trading post in 1602, but the town wasn't granted municipal status until 1786. Since then, the town has been a major trading center and was the center of the dried fish industry and Icelandic shrimp industry. The town grew and prospered until the 1980's when the fishing industry declined. The small fishing boats were replaced by large trawlers and the city has acquired hi-tech processing plants. The port is busy with tourist ships and container vessels. Even with all this, Isafjordur is small, by our standards, with a population of 3,000 and only 9,600 people living in the whole Westfjords area around Isafjordur. It's a beautiful place in the summer months, but a very harsh environment in the winter. I think you would have to be very strong and self sufficient to live here. My tour here took me out into the countryside, first to a little town called Flateyri where we visited the local church and a young lady in native dress played and sang several Icelandic songs for us. She had a beautiful voice. I took pictures of the stained glass windows in the church - made by a supposedly famous Icelandic artist. We were also given a sample of local pastries made by local ladies and served in a little restaurant on the one street in town. Then, we drove to the local botanical garden created and maintained by local ladies. It is quite small but nicely kept and the flowers were beautiful, especially a blue poppy which I had never seen before. Photos.