If you’re into trains (or your kids are) this museum is a ferroequinologist’s (a person who studies trains) paradise. This museum houses over 100 steam and diesel locomotives, passenger cars, and cabooses as well as a G-scale model railroad in its 15-acre rail yard. There is also a restoration facility and working round table that will wow curious minds and train fans.
Left: Heimablídni host Harriet Olafsdóttir av Gørðum feeds the chickens on her farm, Hanusarstova, in the community of Æðuvík. Right: The view from Noche’s Airbnb in Klaksvík, the second-largest city in the archipelago. “After a morning of driving around, we came back to rest and have snacks before setting out for dinner later in the evening,” she says. “I couldn’t believe our luck with the weather— earlier that morning the fjord was clouded in fog.”
Photographs by Celeste Noche
Roasted potatoes and breaded fish with caramelized onions are one of several Faroese dishes Harriet and her husband, John Petursson av Gørðum, might serve to guests at their heimablídni dinners.
Photograph by Celeste Noche
Left: The Faroese goose—raised for its meat and feathers—is indigenous to the islands and considered to be the oldest type of goose in Europe. Right: Lena and Jákup Hansen, who live in a home built in 1868, are credited with being the first to host heimablídni dinners in the Faroe Islands.
Photographs by Celeste Noche
Seafood and root vegetables feature heavily in the Faroese diet, so a heimablídni dinner might include eggs, potatoes, and roasted fish drizzled with browned butter.
Photograph by Celeste Noche
Lena and Jákup Hansen’s home was built in 1868 and overlooks the village of Søldarfjørður.
Photograph by Celeste Noche
At another heimablídni dinner, this one hosted by a couple who live on a ninth-generation farm in the village of Velbastaðu, Noche joined 16 other guests for a multi-course Faroese meal.
Photographs by Celeste Noche
The village of Velbastaðu on the island of Streymoy is considered one of the oldest settlements in the archipelago. Photographer Celeste Noche passed through on her way to visit some local sheep, of which there are many on Streymoy island.
Photograph by Celeste Noche
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On the Railroad
If you’re into trains (or your kids are) this museum is a ferroequinologist’s (a person who studies trains) paradise. This museum houses over 100 steam and diesel locomotives, passenger cars, and cabooses as well as a G-scale model railroad in its 15-acre rail yard. There is also a restoration facility and working round table that will wow curious minds and train fans.
Colorado Railway Museum
Just outside of Golden, CO, this museum is a good time whether you’re a ferroequinologist (read: iron horse enthusiast) or not. The strength of the collection is in the fine antique engines, from flashy yellow Art Deco passenger engines to early steam engines to a tiny cog railway engine to massive Diesel engines to the (frankly sort of alarming) red snow-blower engine to the (utterly bizarre) truck-like creations known as the “galloping geese” for the way they waddle down the track. The interior of the museum isn’t much to see, and some of their non-engine cars need additional restoration work, but the exterior grounds -- including a huge, working roundhouse -- more than make it worth the trip. Plus, I learned what kinds of cocktails they served in the post-prohibition dining car and the origin of the phrase “putting the squeeze on.” (It comes from using water, not steam, in a locomotive boiler in order to check for leaks.)
