Lögberg-Heimskringla - 01.03.2002, Blaðsíða 10

page 10 » Lögberg-Heimskringla • Friday 1 March 2002
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Bed Breakfast
TRAVEL GUIDE 2002
Iceland House
Loving care has been taken over
ten years to restore the house in
keeping with its history, while at
the same time updating to modem
standards.
It's a large house with five
upstairs guest rooms: two single
Jceíand Jfouse rooms’ three double’ and two
bathrooms to share. Guests may
939 6th Street, enjoy the use of the kitchen.
New Westminster, BC Located New Westminsterj BC,
(604) 519-1224 Askfor Kicki . _
beautifulbc@mostlysunny.com 11 ,s Home away from Home-
Guesthouse Sunna
Guesthouse Sunna
Þórsgata 26
101 Reykjavík,
lceland
Tel: 511 5570/896
5070 Fax: 551 2832
•Modem, family mn guesthouse, open all
year around
•Situated in the charming old city center
•Across the street from Hallgrímskirkja
•Non smoking guesthouse
•Generous buffet breakfast
•Kitchen facilities
•Intemet access available
•Please visit our web site, www.sunna.is
for prices and further information.
E-mail: sunna@sunna.is
web-site: www.sunna.is
Solmundson Gesta Hús
Hecla Provincial Park
(204) 279-2088
holtz@mb. sympatico. ca
• Enjoy luxurious European-style hos-
pitality in a completely modemized
Icelandic home
• Rooms fumished with brass beds and
colourful duvets.
• Verandah and gazebo overlooking
Lake Winnipeg
• Tranquil and peaceful atmosphere
• Evening meals available: specialty is
fresh fish and garden fresh vegetables.
• Full breakfast and evening coffee
included
• Pets in house
• VISA and M/C accepted.
Kirkjubæ Hús
•Located on the West shore of
Lake Winnipeg in the
vicinity of Hnausa
•Home built in 1906 by the
original Icelandic homesteader
•Civil marriages performed by
Provincially appointed
marriage commissioner
•Guests may experience the
varied and rewarding sight and
stories of Icelandic heritage
Phone: (204) 378-2754 or (204) 378-2088
Fax: (204) 378-2088
Address:
Box 1131
Arborg, Manitoba
R0C 0A0
Red House By The Sea
Red House by the Sea
Cathy Josephson,
Hámundarstaðir I, 690
Vopnafjörður, Iceland.
354-473-1562
Red House: 2 beds per room, one
room has private bath & patio.
Breakfast included. Guests are
welcome to use the kitchen. Cathy
also has an interest in genealogy.
Send her a short family history
and she will arrange day trips to
visit to the places your relatives
came from.
Open year round,
even Christmas!
The Quills, Fishing Lake, Foam Lake Marsh -
A Combination of History and Relaxation
With the new development of
the Quill Lakes/Foam Lake
portion of the Saskatchewan
Birding Trail, the Vatnabyggð has
become a bird watcher's delight.
The Quill Lakes marsh system has
been identified as a RAMSAR
site, a wetland area of internation-
al importance. It has been declared
a Westem Hemisphere Shorebird
Reserve Network Site. The mud
flats that form the shores of the
alkaline Quills and the surround-
ing marshes are a haven for shore-
birds, including the endangered
piping plover, sandpipers and
great blue herons. There are
whooping cranes in season and
white pelicans at the Quills and
cormorants and pelicans in
Fishing Lake. Wadena has a bird-
ing tower overlooking the quills.
Foam Lake has a tower at the
So What Can You Do When
You’ve Finished Being Icelandic?
Joan Eyolfson Cadham
Foam Lake, SK
Vatnabyggð was developed in
large part by Icelanders, and
they have left a strong, quiet influ-
ence in the area. However, thére
are lots of activities that are not
specifically Icelandic to do in the
area.
Leslie Beach, Fishing Lake
has a shoreline, lots of sand, and a
shallow slope to make it a safe
place for children. Autumn is the
time for fowl suppers — every
community has one, and while the
menu is more or less standard,
each community and each ethnic
group provides specific treats and
surprises. The prices are right —
usually $6.00 for all you can eat,
and the food is excellent. There
was a time when prairie restau-
rants served up rations of hot
dogs, hamburgers, over-cooked
meat and over-boiled vegetables.
Not any longer.
The Elfros Café, the place to
go after you see Vatnabyggð
Pioneer Memorial Statue, offers
up the best Chinese food this side
of Montreal. Paul Kwok spent ten
years in Hong Kong leaming to do
Peking Duck. His Chinese curries
are first class. All ingredients are
fresh and Paul never cooks ahead.
He likes customers who are
adventuresome. "All they want is
chicken ball and rice," Paul wailed
one day. Both Paul and Alice are
Foam Lake marsh where large
numbers of migratory waterfowl
congregate in spring and fall.
The Vatnabyggð area is a
major migration flyway. Countless
thousands of Canada geese, show
geese and sandhills cranes pass
through every spring and fall.
Fishing Lake is a magic site for
song birds — the list is almost
endless. Even along the highways,
there are birds — hawks on fence
posts, owls in trees, ducks and
geese in every slough, pot hole
and wet ditch. Cheeky. magpies
brighten the winter landscape.
more than willing to help with
menu selections. The Café has a
long history — it was once the
Hava Java Café, a popular coffee
shop and after-movie stop. The
original high-backed wooden
booths and tin-topped tables are
still in place along one wall.
Each community has its best
place to eat. Ask the locals. They'll
tell you the truth. Bring your cam-
era and lots of film. There are
photo ops everywhere — old
buildings, little country churches
with silver domes, gold canola
against a background of blue flax,
forty-mile sunsets, ducks in the
slough, a sweeping sense of space.
Postcard From Iceland
Kent Bjornsson
ICELAND
The days might be short but I still
get out to explore when I can. I
headed east with my cousin Atli,
he was going home for the week-
end and I asked if I could tag
along. He lives in Vík, but I got
off in Skógar. I had promised
Þórður Tómasson, the museum
curator that I would visit. The
weather was getting a bit crazy on
the way, windy but at least it was-
n't cold and icy. We arrived in
Skógar at 18:30 or so, and well
received by Þórður, his sister and
her husband. We sat down for a
traditionally Icelandic supper of
lifrapylsa and blóðmör, liver and
blood sausage. It was excellent
and I enjoyed it very much. We sat
and visited for a while.
Þórður is a remarkable man.
Anyone that knows him probably
knows him from the museum. He
is the same at home, just going all
the time. How one person can
know so much and always be on
the go, reading and absorbing
more all the time. He is even writ-
ing, on a small portable type-
writer, verses that he is coming up
with on the fly. After watching the
news we headed off to the muse-
um. There is a guest room there
and that is where I spent the night.
Of course we had to go exploring
in the museum first. We took a
quick tour and I got more of a his-
tory lesson than normal. We also
checked out the archives. The
papers and books in the archives
are awesome. There is also a lot
for North America, but most is
from the area. There are personal
manuscripts and diaries that have
not been touched for many years
but they are preserved and will be
catalogued and researched some
time in the future. I was beginning
to think he wasn't going to let me
go to sleep at all. He made sure I
was comfortable and handed me
two books to read before I went to
bed. Well, he probably read two
books but I was barely able to
open one book and flip through it
a bit.
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