Wrapping up.

Hello All,

We made it home.  We only had three things on our agenda for our last day.  Go to the Blue Lagoon, return the car and get on the plane.  As we packed, we were greeted by the departure committee.  It was very sweet.




I feel like the first thing I heard about Iceland was the Blue lagoon.  I have to say, it didn't disappoint.  You can see steam in the distance but it exists next to a power plant in the middle of a lava field and like so many things in Iceland, you would have no idea it was there if you didn't follow the one sign telling you it was there.



It can be frustrating finding things in Iceland because there are no billboards and street signs are at the street which means you're constantly passing your turn off and having to either back up on the highway or find a turn around which can mean having to go miles and back track.  Having said that, in a place as beautiful as that, it's nice not to see branding everywhere.

The Blue Lagoon is much bigger than the geothermal bath we went to in Myvatn and their big selling point is that the water has silica and algae in it which are supposed to have healing properties.  There is a hut in it where you wade up and get hand fulls of silica to make a face mask which you wear and let dry for 10 minutes before you wash off.  Then you do the same thing with the algae.  It's fun.  There is also a swim up bar which seems very un-Icelandic until you realize there is a 3 drink limit.  The package we bought included a free drink so we floated around with a glass of Prosecco.  It was a spectacular day.  It was about 55 degrees and not a cloud was in the sky.  Except for getting sunburned, it's a fantastic thing to do before getting on an international flight.













And that's the trip.  I have to say, it was the trip of a lifetime.  What a magnificent place to see.  It was odd in a lot of ways.  First of all, usually when you travel you have goals.  You're getting somewhere. On this trip, the point was usually not to get to our stopping point but to enjoy the journey and see things along the way.  I'm a goal oriented driver so that was a big mental switch.  Another odd thing was just how much driving there was.  Ultimately, I drove 1,700 miles in 9 days.  There were only a couple days which seemed like long driving days.  Usually we had enough sight seeing to do to break up the trip.  But it was a lot of driving.  Surprisingly, we learned very little about Icelandic culture or it's people.  We dealt with the people who worked at the hotels or sold us our meals but otherwise, I don't think we had a meaningful conversation with any local.  As someone who has studied and been fascinated by languages, I didn't attempt one "hello" or "thank you" or "please" or anything.  We went in one church but we didn't go in any museums or really read any history.  We just enjoyed the physical beauty and strangeness of the country.  In going back over the trip, there are very few things we would change.  Even on the days that didn't completely blow us away, it's only because there were days the bar was set so high from previous days that there was no way to to sustain things.  In truth however, I don't think there was a moment when I wasn't fascinated to see what was around the corner and the least interesting thing we saw would have been the most interesting thing I had seen on a lot of trips.  It really is a country of wonder.

I'd like to give a shout out to Oboz hiking boots, Aveeno sun screen and Advil.  I couldn't have survived without them.  And, of course, Rebecca Daws who is an adventurous, beautiful and hilarious travel partner!

Day 9

We were rudely awaken on our penultimate morning at 5:45 AM by a young lamb greeting the day. That would have been adorable had it not been 5:45 in the morning.  But, such is life on the farm.  We picked a good place for our last two nights mostly because it provided the best breakfast yet. Coddled eggs and bacon, french toast,  and homemade blueberry and banana skyre.  Another thing we haven't seen anywhere else was a pitcher of sour milk which you're meant to add brown sugar to and some granola.  It was funky and tasty. 

We had but one thing on our itinerary which was to drive to and around the Snaelfessnes Peninsula. We knew it was going to be a long day and didn't know exactly what to expect.  It was the usual gorgeous drive and soon turned to lava fields and moonscapes.  We saw this in the distance.

And then we saw...wait for it...a waterfall.  As we had been driving for a bit over an hour and it was a stunningly beautiful day, we decided to climb up it.  It was a good challenging hike and as always, everything about it was worth it.  The bottom picture is the view away from the waterfall.  You can sort of make out our little white Kia.

 

We took this picture because there are no native trees to Iceland so it was interesting to see a small grove of trees on the trail.  

There was really only one other thing I was dying to do and I didn't know exactly where it was.  I was afraid we would somehow miss it.  But there it was.

It looks like it's just a cliff but the fracture you see in it can be gotten into by walking on rocks in a stream around a corner.  The thing is, once inside, you can still see the sky.  It turns out, my favorite thing is going inside of stuff where you can still see the sky.

We could have gone further along than we did but ultimately there was a rope used to climb and we would have gotten soaked.  At some point I was afraid even if I could climb farther I couldn't get back.  

At this point I needed a cuppa and a snack.  Fortunately, we found a little town with a little cafe.

We fueled up and drove a little while longer until we found this.

We stayed quite a while because the water was so blue and the birds were fun to watch.  I was hoping against hope to see puffins though I don't think I did.

We had a few more stops but ultimately we drove exhausted back to our hotel.  My legs are done. We spent some time resting and getting caught up on the news and then took one more walk up the hill behind our hotel.  The views were lovely.  

We had a long last soak in the hot tub and were joined by a french Canadian who has worked as a singer on cruise ships for the last 17 years.  It was nice to talk to someone else about what we had seen and it was nice to see how he lit up when we told him we were going to Ireland in August. 

At some point today I think Rebecca and I both realized that it's enough already and we're ready to come home.  After we walked in the 3rd or 4th shop today and the workers spoke to us in Icelandic we realized that after 9 days we and our clothes are dirty and unkempt enough to be taken for locals.  It's time!

Day 8

Hello All,

It's hard to believe we have only one full day left.  Our cabin last night was so lovely we decided to allow ourselves a sleep in and enjoyed a good, warm, home cooked, simple meal and had one more soak before we took off at noon.











There was no agenda but to get to our final hotel a couple hours north of Reykjavik.  It was an overcast day and so the vistas weren't vast but we did take some time to visit a bunch of horses all facing the same direction.  We've seen this all week and finally realized, they face away from the wind when it's blowing particularly hard.







Soon after it was time for a quick hot dog at the gas station.  This one is wrapped in bacon and has both fried and raw onions on the bottom.




Rebecca says, if you're ever at the N1 in Staðarskáli she highly recommends a pop in.



Our last hotel is quite nice. The room isn't as big as last night's but the bathroom is very spacious.  The hotel is right on the ring road and sits amidst a farm with sheep, cows, horses and pigs.  Interestingly we haven't seen pigs yet - or chickens for that matter.

After we dropped off our stuff we went to find a few things to walk around.  The first was a waterfall on a golf course.





We've seen a couple of golf courses here.  It's hard to imagine playing golf here because the ground, when it isn't rocky is very squishy.  These falls were very beautiful and relaxing with a fish run up the side.  I can imagine a river full of salmon jumping up stream to spawn.

I had a couple of waterfalls I had researched and I knew which roads to take but didn't have an idea of how far away they were. After driving for about half an hour I pulled over to see if I had missed the turn off.  We saw smoke in the distance and found this.

This river is 208 degrees.  It's astounding.  All through the valley are beautiful buildings shaped like wooden sails which, I assume, harness this heat and send it somewhere to be converted into energy.

Eventually we found the falls.  These were some of the most beautiful we've seen.  The water comes out in the lava.  Who knows where the source is.  There aren't glaciers around and everything above is dry.

The water was a beautiful blue.



By the way, I've always been told that the continent of Africa fits into the space between N. and S. America and that there used to be a super continent.  It's not that I haven't believed this but it's always seemed a bit too fantastic.  But here you see this sort of thing all over the place.  This picture is of a common phenomenon all over this island.  It's as if a bubble of lave started to cool and harden and one more gas bubble rose up and shattered them.  It's like plate tectonics.



We had a drive after to a town which we had read was "happening" but we certainly couldn't find anything going on.  It's was a beautiful drive and the town was cute enough but, as usual, there didn't seem to be bars or restaurants.  Instead of stopping I decided to give the mighty Kia cee'd a bath.  This is what 1000 miles of midges looks like.



Tomorrow will be a long but hopefully astonishing day on the Snaelfessnes Peninsula.  But first, a soak and a sleep.