Town Hall – Dave and Kay's Travel Adventures

Sunday, August 18th, 2024

We tendered from our boat for our walking tour of Heimaey Island. The tender docked in the marina. Fishing was the main occupation and much of Iceland’s fish exports came from here!

Heimaey was part of the Westman Islands and was the only island inhabited. It had one town, Vestmannaeyjar, with approximately 4,500 residents. It was a gorgeous day but windy!

Our guide’s family moved here when she was four years old and she has stayed.

She shared with us a puffling, a baby puffin. The adults nest in the mountains and this time of year they fly off and the pufflings need to get to the ocean.

The people in the town rescue the pufflings that get confused by the town lights and thinking it’s the ocean and end up in town. The children in town helped search for the pufflings and if they located one, they would they take it to the sea.

Our guide discussed as we walked all about the last volcanic eruption in 1973. Luckily for the town when the eruption occurred the weather was bad so all of the fishing boats were in the harbour and all but possibly one resident made it safely to the mainland of Iceland.

Dormant Helgafell, last erupted 6,000 years ago

We walked up the hardened rocky hill that was 50 years old that buried homes, streets, the swimming pool and more! It was solidified molten river that was 50 feet deep!

The hardened lava and the town in the background

As we climbed up the hill we could see where the lava flow stopped in the backyard of a home!

Lava flow stopped right at the backyard of this home.

The old water tower was partly destroyed by the 1973 eruption. The pictures below show the tower and the where the lava flow stopped.

The town added street signs along the rocky hill of lava where the streets were once located!

One of the street signs of the location of the former street.

Our walking tour ended at the Eldheimar Volcano museum. This was a self-guided tour with an audio guide. The museum was built around the remains of one home that archaeologists uncovered. The home was buried in lava and ash during the eruption. The family escaped unharmed. It was a very moving exhibit of the power of nature and the destruction it caused.

Artifacts that had been uncovered were on display. Below was a table setting.

Below was a group of pictures in the museum from the eruption!

After touring the museum we walked around town and it was very quiet. We passed the town hall. It was originally built as a hospital in 1927 and in 1977 it was transformed into the town hall. In the picture below on the left side of the building is an ash pole that showed how high the ash had accumulated after the 1973 eruption.

Across the lawn from the town hall was a statue called “the Big Giantess” (Tröllskessan) by the sculptor Asmundur Sveinsson in 1975.

It was a joy to see the children playing in the park on such a clear day with not a cloud in the sky!

The preschool/kindergarten building was opened in 2007 for the children on the island.

Heimaey Island was always windy so you won’t find many trees or any that are very tall. We saw their only “forest” on the island.

Landlyst was the oldest residence on the island and was moved to its current location in 2000. It was the former home of Iceland’s first maternity hospital. It’s a medical museum today. Below Landlyst was a wooden church that was donated by Norway in 2000. It marked the millennium of Christianity in Iceland.

The church was on the left and on the right was the Landlyst Medical Museum.

Below is a slideshow of additional pictures from Heimaey Island.

Along the cliffs were many birds but we also saw puffins from a distance.

**View of Heimaey Island from the ship.**

As the ship sailed from Heimaey Island we saw some beautiful islands.

We also could see the snow covered mountains of Iceland.

It was such a nice day that we sat on our balcony as the ship sailed toward our next stop. We saw some whales too!

Today was a day full of exploring and learning all about the island and the volcanic eruption in 1973 that reshaped the landscape drastically!

Thursday, October 5th, 2023

Over night we arrived at Conflans-Sainte-Honorine which was located 27 miles on the right bank from Paris. This village originally was called Conflans because it was located at the confluence of the Seine and Oise rivers. Sainte-Honorine was added to its name in the 13th century after the female Saint Honorina.

We woke up early and the sun was rising and outside the river looked ominous!

Once the sun was up the river mist cleared and the river and sky looked beautiful.

This morning was a walking tour “Tracing Vincent Van Gogh’s Footsteps” in Auvers-sur-Oise and Auberge Ravoux.

As we were walking into town we were excited to see the Horse Chestnut trees with many of the nuts falling on the ground. To those of us from Ohio we all picked up what we called a Buckeye! They were very similar!

Van Gogh lived here from May 20th, 1890 until July 29th, 1890 when he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was very productive in the few months he lived here. Some of his best works were painted from this area.

During the time that Van Gogh lived in Auvers-sur-Oise he painted almost 80 works in 70 days. One of his paintings was of the Notre Dame d’ Auvers church. The church was begun in the 11th century from local stone and was added onto in 1170. We visited this church which had a copy of his painting hanging in the sanctuary. This church became infamous thanks to Van Gogh’s painting!

We walked by the stairway that was in Van Gogh’s painting, “Stairway at Auvers”!

Another building that Vincent Van Gogh made famous because he painted it was the Town Hall. What he painted was his view of the Town Hall when he left the Auberge Ravoux which was where he stayed.

We also visited the Auberge Ravoux and the room where Vincent Van Gogh lived and died. He arrived here on May 20th, 1890.

L’ Auberge Ravoux Inn and Restaurant since 1876.

Dave sat at the table in front of the Auberge Ravoux and inside Vincent Van Gogh’s table was near the back of the dining room.

He paid 1 franc a day for room #5 which was a little over 75 square feet and was lit by a sky light. He paid 2.50 francs per day for his meals. We walked up the staircase and saw his little room but no pictures were allowed. Vincent Van Gogh tried to end his life by shooting himself in the chest but made it back to his room and two days later died in his attic room.

Vincent Van Gogh was buried in Auvers Cemetery. Six months later his brother Theo died in the Netherlands at the age of 33. In 1914 his wife had his remains moved so that the two close brothers could be reunited after death! We walked to the Auvers Cemetery and visited their graves.

The brothers graves were covered in ivy and sunflowers interspersed.

Emile Boggio was another impressionist painter that died at the age of 63 in Auvers-sur-Oise and was buried here.

We walked back into the center of town we passed a statue dedicated to Charles Francois Daubigny. He died in 1878 at the age of 61 and was a French painter. He was known for his landscape paintings and was considered to be an important precursor of impressionism.

We really enjoyed our walk around the town and in Vincent Van Gogh’s footsteps! Back to the boat we went for lunch and our afternoon was free.

This afternoon we explored the town of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine. We walked up toward the old upper historic center of town.

We stopped at the Saint Maclou Church. It was built between the 10th and 12th centuries and enlarged in the 15th, 17th, and 19th centuries. It had a Romanesque-style bell tower that was topped by a stone spire.

The relics of Saint Honorina were kept in the Saint Maclou Church. She was the oldest revered virgin martyr of Normandy. It was said that her body was thrown into the Seine near the town of Le Havre and drifted to the site of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine and the town reportedly collected her remains and they buried by the Christian community. Her bones are kept in the church.

We walked along the narrow street, Rue de la Tour, and a class of school children on a field trip passed us. Many said hello in English.

Rue de la Tour gave us great views of the rooftops and the Seine River. We also saw the forest of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. This forest had many 100 year old trees and it also was part of the ancient forest of Yveline where many kings of France hunted.

Back down near the river we walked passed City Hall that was finished in 1896.

We looked back up the hill and we could see the Monjoie Tower in ruins. It was part of the medieval castle of Conflans. It was built in the 11th century on the site of a fort that was made of wood.