Torshavn; Thursday, 29 July, 2010

I had a final breakfast, packed and checked out of the hotel, leaving my bag behind the counter, for a final few hours in Tórshavn.

I had intended on taking in the couple of museums that were in the city, but they were closed, as was the tourist information centre. In fact the only things that were open were the park (which is very nice and I had a long wander around) and a couple of cafe’s (so I stopped and had a couple of cups of coffee.)

Whilst I was doing this the great and good of Faroese life were in the Cathedral celebrating a national day service and preparing for their precession to the parliament building (all 100 yards or so between the two buildings!). I finished my coffee and was able to catch both the end of the procession and the opening of parliament.

Whilst I can’t understand a word of Faroese, I was very impressed by the choir that were singing (unaccompanied) several traditional songs ending with what I assumed was either the national anthem or another major national song as most of the crowd were joining in.

Then the bulk of the national day celebrations were over, as was my time on the Faroes. I had a little bit of time to wander back round the harbours before returning to the hotel to collect my bags, then back to the bus station and the bus out to the airport...