(For the View From Your Window contest, the results below exceed the content limit for Substack’s email service, so to ensure that you see the full results, click the headline above.)
Wow, I never thought I would join the ranks of the Dish sleuths ... let alone win. I would be very happy to have the VFYW book, since I’m happy to keep supporting you guys with a subscription and keep the Dish strong.
Let me also add my condolences on the recent death of your stepfather, and to Andrew on the death of his mother. You’re both in my prayers.
A sincere thanks to everyone who sent condolences. Giuseppe, our super-champ in Rome, was jonesing during our summer Dishcation:
Three weeks without the contest can be a little hard to bear. So, when a former high-school classmate posted a photo of her vacation in our class chat, and another asked, “What place is this?”, I did a five-minute Google search and answered for her.
And when a friend of mine sent me a bunch of photos and wrote that she was vacationing in a villa “somewhere between Santa Marinella and the Argentario,” I sent her back the street address of the house. She knows me well and didn’t find it creepy at all.
Here’s a dissent over the VFYW contest:
It’s really become TLDR, and on most occasions, I just scroll to the bottom to see what the location is. The length and these stories don’t make it any more interesting to me. I like the brevity of the long-ago Dish 1.0 contest much better.
The Dish 2.0 contest has much longer emails than the Daily Dish’s, and I struggle every week to find a balance between brevity and detail among the many entries. I nearly always edit down each entry we feature, but they can still get long (especially yours, Berkeley — but I know you have countless fans of your rich detail and commentary). Here’s a concise entry from the super-sleuth in Eagle Rock:
Welcome back! Man, that was a long three weeks with no contest to look forward to. This week I will be one of dozens of sleuths who were charmed to find the answer to the contest on a site called Accidentally Wes Anderson, which “explores the unique, the symmetrical, the atypical, the distinctive design and amazing architecture that inspires us all.”
Another sleuth: “The town at the center of this week’s contest has a lighthouse featured on the AWA site.”
I think finding “accidentally Wes Anderson” elements in the contest photo should become a regular feature, if possible.
Great idea. Another good candidate would be our contest from Chatou, France that featured the scene of Renoir’s famous painting, “Luncheon of the Boating Party”:
Our view of Florence from a few years ago was also kinda Wes Anderson-y. This week the UWS super-sleuth invokes that Florence view:
I just got back from Italy, but without a new window for you. But in the spirit of honoring the VFYW, I did make an attempt to replicate the view from contest #311 while I was in Florence:
L: the view for contest #311 / R: the UWS sleuth’s photo
Unfortunately, I didn’t stand back far enough to capture the bars on the window, and the angle is off a bit. But my heart was in the right place!
On to the details of this week’s view, a sleuth writes:
After a long dry spell after winning the contest last December, I finally managed to locate another view. (I’m starting to think it’s more luck than skill for me.) The church and the mountains in the view immediately remind me of Puerto Varas, Chile, which was founded by German immigrants. However, it’s not the right church, and not the right mountains. Fortunately the blue pedestrian crossing sign gave me a foothold:
He got to the right place, as did this sleuth in Christchurch:
It’s a second-time entry for me. My experience with VFYW has mostly been scouring the wrong continent for hours before giving up in frustration. There was also the time I saw the view from Dunedin, New Zealandwhile travelling to Dunedin, and thought “Gosh that looks like Dunedin” — before closing my laptop and moving on.
But the two times I’ve successfully found the window, I’ve done so in under five minutes. The giveaway, this time, was the crossing sign.
The super-sleuth on Park Avenue names the right continent:
This one was intriguing, as my initial thoughts went to the area of Alaska around Juneau where some of those little fishing towns have similar-looking churches. But nowhere near enough pick-up trucks, so it has to be Europe.
A non-subscriber joins the hunt: “I guess Lausanne, Switzerland, on the north shore of Lac Leman.” The super-sleuth in Brookline names the right region of Europe:
I saw the snow-capped mountains in the distance and initially thought this might be a late-winter shot from the Southern Hemisphere, but the church looked too Northern European, so I shifted gears to Scandinavia.
From a previous winner:
I think I got the pedestrian street sign right this week, hence Norway. But I couldn’t get any closer, so I’m picking the obvious guess in Norway: Oslo.
By the way, thanks again for picking my Vilnius photo for last week’s contest. Glad it resonated with a lot of sleuths. I want to recommend the movie The Other Dream Team, about the 1992 Lithuanian Olympic basketball team:
Another quick followup on the Vilnius contest:
I’ll note the coincidence of this article published last week: “If one city could be said to be the home of Yiddish, the traditional language of Ashkenazi Jewry, it would not be New York or Jerusalem, in many minds, but Vilnius, the capital of modern-day Lithuania.”
A previous winner on the search this week:
The church said Norway to me, as did the snow. Maybe the multiple Japanese cars is a caveat, but I’m going with Norway. Choosing a port with low mountains: Bodø?
Nope, it’s not Norway. Here’s the view from Chini:
From one of our favorite married teams:
This place reminds me of home here in Minnesota last January: cold, but no snow. While Deb was searching and finding that church on the left side, I was identifying the pedestrian street sign as being from ... Sweden.
It’s not Sweden, but they eventually got to the right place. As did this sleuth:
The competition on these contests is intense, so normally I’ll just take a glance at the week’s photo then pass on, but the picture this week really caught my eye because initially it looked like home, British Columbia. However, on closer inspection it couldn’t be BC. Illy coffee — whose logo we see in the view — isn’t so big in Canada that there would be a flag advertising it flying anywhere. Then the pedestrian crossing sign caught my attention. That’s not the look of the signs in BC. Ok, so it’s not BC, then where could it be?
I doubt Illy coffee is that popular in New Zealand either — another place that can look like BC. Illy was a tip-off to Europe, and the ped crossing sign looked vaguely European too. My first guess after BC was Norway, but when I checked Norway’s ped crossing signs, the colors were off. Norway’s signs are just blue and white with no yellow.
The Illy flag served as inspiration for San Mateo’s “VFYW Reimagined”:
Looking at the VFYW, we have clouds (but let’s make them larger and more defined); we have snow-covered mountains (but let’s make them taller and more snowy); we have a bay (but let’s make it bigger), we have a famous church (but let’s make it stand out); we have trees; and we have a street. And let’s not forget the Illy Caffè logo (but let’s spread it around). So here we are:
And then I thought, wait a second. What about the Northern Lights? This country is famous for it. So, here’s an alternative Reimagined:
This post isn’t sponsored by Illy, I promise. From the super-sleuth in Ridgewood:
It’s polar. It’s remote. It’s European-looking. And there’s an iconic-looking church. Is that Björk I see frolicking in the mountains in the distance? (That’s what I picture her doing all day.)
The super-sleuth in San Francisco names the right country — Björk’s homeland:
What a stunning, remote location this week! We are clearly on a fjord, but that blue-and-yellow pedestrian sign is strange, and not something I have seen before. I have been to Norway, so that means we are probably in Iceland. Indeed a quick Google search confirms that Iceland appears to be the only country using this sign:
The super-sleuth in Baltimore sent in “this cool map from Reddit that helped me locate the country.”
Iceland doesn’t have that many towns on fjords, so this should be easy! In the end, the weather frustrated my search, since most of the Google photos from this town were taken when it was completely socked in, so I missed it the first time around because the dramatic background wasn’t visible on my initial quick scan.
Another points out, “Iceland is fond of triangular warning signs with yellow backgrounds — to warn drivers of the ever-present, free-roaming sheep; and at Silfra Fissure (a snorkeling site in southwest Iceland), you can find a diver crossing variant”:
From the eagle-eyed Berkeley champ:
If the yellow pedestrian crossing signs hadn’t given the game away, then the barely discernible yellow smudge in the center of the nearest blurred license plate would have done equally well. Icelandic license plates are the only European plates that have an inspection sticker planted dead center.
From San Mateo again:
The flag for Illy Caffè is a clever red herring:
It’s a red herring because Illy is an Italian — not an Icelandic — company. Actually it’s a double red herring, because the Illy logo is itself red. Or perhaps it’s a triple red herring, because Illy doesn’t even have a corporate footprint in Iceland:
From the UWS sleuth again:
So glad to have you back! I’m pleased to get back into the VFYW Friday/Saturday ritual. And thank you for a simple search this time. We’re in the Fosshotel, at Þórunnartún 1, 105 Reykjavík, Iceland. Someone (not me) will figure out the room.
Right hotel name, wrong town. But here’s a Reykjavík hotel I photographed from:
This next sleuth has a strong gut feeling — a correct one:
Having spent six months in Iceland a few years ago, I think I have a decent memory of the unique churches in each town. I’m reasonably sure this is Húsavík. It’s definitely in Iceland. The familiarity is intense.
Húsavík it is. On the north coast:
From a previous winner:
The lucky duck who sent this picture got to spend some time in magical Iceland. Two decades ago I spent what is probably the single most memorable week of my life just touring around the country solo. I was tethered to the air base at Keflavik, so I could only make day trips, but the terrain is forevermore seared into my memory. Who needs the moon when you can hike around Iceland?
I, in fact, am the lucky duck who took this week’s photo from Húsavík, during our Dishcation last month. I flew to Iceland with my girlfriend, Rae, and we spent eight days traveling around country. Incredible trip. A sleuth in NYC names the hotel we stayed in:
I was hoping for a quick solve this week, as we’ve been getting ready for the birth of our second daughter. Well, the View Muse (Vuse?) smiled on me, and I cracked this week’s contest on Friday inside 10 minutes — a personal best.
Now that we’re at the hospital, I should probably submit my entry! We’re at the Fosshotel Húsavík. Please forgive the lack of a longer submission given the circumstances, but seems like there’s a lot of whaling history around here. Shame, as I love a good dive into this subject.
He follows up, “Update: baby was born and the family is all recovering, happy and healthy :)” Big congrats! And a future sleuth in the making.
Here’s the wine geek in SF, who reveals the church in full:
At first glance I thought we were in Alaska, but the cars didn’t look right and it seemed unlikely that there would be a cafe in Alaska serving Illy coffee. So I gravitated to Europe and for a long time thought we were somewhere on a fjord in Norway. Getting nowhere, I then thought maybe we were on a fjord in Iceland. Sure enough, searching for wooden churches on fjords in Iceland eventually brought me to the incredibly beautiful church in Húsavík. It is picture perfect:
“The average super-sleuth in NYC” recognizes the type of church:
Last November, while checking out the sights of Norway for contest #398, I came across Wooden Stave Churches, which is a type I wasn’t familiar with. (When I finally make it to Norway, I intend to visit a few.) If Norwegian Stave Churches are the Death Stars of wooden churches, then Icelandic Wood Churches are the Star Ships. They tend to be small, simple, and functional with brightly painted exteriors, so they stand out against the stark Icelandic landscape. The wood interiors contribute to a warm inviting atmosphere, in contrast to the often harsh climate. The Husavikurkirkja Church is the one in our view.
More details from Berkeley:
A website called Guide to Iceland has an article entitled “21 Most Beautiful Churches in Iceland,” which includes the one in our photo, at #11. Husavikurkirkja (which apparently translates to Húsavik Wooden Church) is a Swiss-chalet-style church that was designed by an Icelandic architect and built in Norway in 1907 as prefab pieces, which were then transported to Iceland and assembled in the northern hamlet of Húsavik.
We’re in Húsavik on Skjálfandi Bay, which is known for the huge variety of whales that frequent it. Twenty-three species have been spotted, which has turned Húsavik into the whale watching capital of Iceland.
More on the whales from the Alaskan globetrotter:
So sorry to hear about your stepdad. There are no words for this stuff, which comes to us all at some point — sometimes many times — but it’s always tough. I lost my wife over three years ago (and had lots of warning), but it is only in recent months that I finally feel like somewhat normal again. Meeting Valya, in part due to the View contest, has been the biggest help. Best thoughts for your mom, who will have some navigating to do over the next few years.
I’m traveling, so this entry will be short. After a bit of pining for the Norwegian fjords, I skipped over to Iceland and got lucky with my second street-view search. Mountains and ports and steeples — sheesh, I’m not sure we need all three of those clues.
My sister and husband have been to Húsavík and went whale watching, so that will be my ecotourism recommendation for the week. They loved it. I’d like to go to this place, which looks a lot like Alaska, but with much better-looking people and architecture.
I still have reservations about chasing wildlife for our own entertainment, and I’ve written about the problems with increasing commercialization of marine-mammal watching when we were in Tonga a few months back. Too many boats chasing too few critters can be a real problem, especially in under-managed settings or for sensitive species (e.g. Resident orcas in the Salish Sea).
But from an admittedly cursory review, whale watching in Iceland seems to be done pretty well. There are relatively few companies running tours, the boats seem appropriately sized, and they encourage the tourists to help police the guides — teaching how boats should approach indirectly, go slow or turn off their engines when they get really close, and limit their time around the whales. I hope they also turn off their depth sounders … the electronic pinging apparently pisses the whales off:
And I certainly understand the awesomeness of wanting to see a humpback breaching in such gorgeous surroundings:
Húsavík looks a lot like Seward or Juneau in my state — two places I’ve had the good fortune to see these critters doing their thing, occasionally from small private boats. Being alone in a 24-foot C-Dory next to these guys can really help you appreciate their size and your insignificance.
If you want some more information on how to arrange a trip in Iceland, here’s a nice rundown. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t point out that you should be watching whales, not eating them. As this website notes, very few Icelanders eat whale anymore, and it’s the tourists who have allowed that archaic industry to persist.
That “rundown” webpage features the whale-watching company I used in Húsavík: Gentle Giants. The CEO of Gentle Giants, Stefán, is a friend of a good friend of mine, and before my trip, he was the only person I knew of who lives in Iceland. Stefán and his wonderful wife, Johanna, met us for dinner, and we had a long fascinating talk about Iceland, their families, and the politics of our respective countries.
Stefán grew up in Húsavík and comes from a long line of Húsavík fishermen stretching back 160 years. (He and our mutual friend became friends when he came to the US as an exchange student during high school.) Stefán and Johanna also own a fantastic fish-and-chips place next to Mývatn Lake, about 40 minutes south of Húsavík. Rae and I ate there right after enjoying the Mývatn Nature Baths just down the street. The famous Blue Lagoon near Reykjavik doesn’t compare to these geothermal baths — much less crowded, and much more scenic:
The whale-watching tour in Húsavík we went on — complete with puffins! — was actually the first time I’ve been whale watching, which is surprising to me, given that I’ve been going to Provincetown every year since 2008 and still haven’t gone whale-watching there. I should amend that soon, since our Húsavík experience has me hooked. I had a modest camera with me, and rain was pouring down on our bobbing boat, but I managed to capture a few great moments of breaching:
Our Gentle Giants boat kept a respectful distant from the humpback whales, and our captain kept off the depth sounders, so the Alaskan globetrotter would be proud. Here’s one of the puffins I captured in flight:
The internet has a much better camera than mine, of course, so here are some spectacular shots of the same area:
Back to the window hunt, the Brookline sleuth provides a stunning view from our hotel:
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