Living the Dream, Day 3

DAY 3

I slept well, but Greg did not.... Something about a rooster making a lot of noise. Oh, yeah....Welcome to the farm. We ate a quiet breakfast (insert breakfast protocol fare), all too aware that our hosts seemed pissed off at our late arrival the night before. The same woman who showed us to our room seemed to be having a better morning, and greeted us cheerfully. After we ate, we walked around the farm, getting pictures of scenery and animals before heading on our way.

It's hard out there for a dog.

I just wanna cuddle this little one!

The farm that appreciates people who observe the check-in hours. I suppose that's a fair request.

We stopped back in Vik i Myrdal, where we had eaten dinner last night. This was a southern coastal town, and there were some beautiful places to check out the ocean. One of those places was conveniently located near our N1 station stop. It was called "Troll Rocks," and I am certain there is a legend involving trolls, faeries, or gnomes that goes along with it. Troll Rocks had the advantage of being on a beautiful beach shore. Greg had read that it was apparently rated as one of the Top 10 beaches at some point, even though it was tiny and secluded and not a warm beach destination by any stretch. Amidst all of this tranquility, in a lot next to the beach, there was some sort of track meet going on, with a PA system blaring. I got a record-breaking two (!) cups of coffee from the N1 station; I had lost my good-sleep momentum.

Troll Rocks

More scenes of Vik i Myrdal. A close-up front door view of this church is the cover of the Frommer's edition for Iceland.

Greg pulled over at one point to find an area of land he had been reading about, Hjörleifshöfði. It was a nondescript entrance, in spite of being the home of one of two of the first settlers on the whole darn island. We couldn't believer that the historic site did not even have a t-shirt shack, because from where we hail, someone would fervently be trying to capitalize on such history. Plus, the area of land and cliffs on the land overlooking the ocean were allegedly haunted! Where was the ghost tour or the hiking tour? Imagine the "I survived Hjörleifshöfði !" t-shirt possibilities!

Hjörleifshöfði. Say that five times fast! Or say it accurately just once.

Waterfall at Hjörleifshöfði.

Anyway, while there, we drove through dark, ash-colored gravel to the shore, off-roading it in our little VW. We saw three other people, apparently from the other car that was also parked there. These folks were leaning over a box, but we couldn't see for sure what they were doing. Greg proposed that maybe they were either geocaching or scattering someone's ashes. I liked the first theory, myself. I voted him family spokesperson, and he asked them what they were doing. Sadly, it was nothing nearly as exciting as what we had conjured up; they were trying to start the grill to cook food for a picnic. How boring and tame...
Our drive today included fewer official places to stop and get out for walks. We drove through areas that had been flooded out during volcanic eruptions in recent history; dried up lava fields. Kind of a wasteland, kind of monotonous, but still quite interesting. Different from what we are accustomed, for sure. There was overall a lack of trees in Iceland, it appears, so trees were something that we weren't seeing along our drive. We also saw the rise of mountains increase around us on our left or to the west as we headed north. We had seen glaciers the day before, but we were now passing through a greater region of glaciers, which were amazing once I got over the fact that yeah, they just sit there, those glaciers! Kinda beautiful in their simplicity. They peeked out from between mountains like the frozen ooze that they are.

More glacier views.

We made a couple of stops along the way. One was to admire gnarled bridge remnants from a bridge that was once flooded out from a volcanic eruption. Then we stopped at a park station to make our lunch and take a break. We checked out the 10-minute video there of the 1996 eruption and its effects. In the video, we could actually see lightning in the fire, the power of the eruption was so forceful! Take that, CGI!




Volcanic-eruption-mangled bridge remnants, plus Greg.


Today would be different: We were determined to make it to our lodging earlier after feeling scorned upon our late arrival on the previous night. On the way there, we got to admire the icebergs that had broken from the glacier. These icebergs got a cameo in part of the opening scenes of a James Bond movie - or so I was told, since I am not a huge Bond watcher. Parts of the bergs are black from the ashes of erupted volcanoes these days, though. Not shockingly, there was an incredibly cold breeze coming off of those bergs. We could have taken an amphibious boat ride tour of the glaciers, but after standing around in the frigid breeze, we had no desire to be even colder from the wind shear of the boat ride. We put our camera tripod to good use and played photographers.

Ashen icebergs. Fire and ice.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Ice, ice baby. (Couldn't resist.)

Indeed, we made it to the farm lodging much earlier on this day. Our weather for the past two days as quite bipolar: sometimes sunny and lovely, sometimes hail, rain, and wind. This could change in a matter of seconds. It did allow me to get a great picture of a rainbow, though sometimes photographs can't do reality justice.

Rainbow! Knowing Iceland, I bet a troll put it there.

Our farm was quaint, and the grandfatherly gentleman who sat at Reception was sweet. Our room was small but had a sink this time (bonus)! We were still sharing a bathroom, and I gathered this wasn't likely to change. So I just pretended to be cool and European as I waited my turn for the WC and listened to others tinkle through our shared, thin wall. Isn't sharing a joy? On the other hand, the little farm in the middle of nowhere had wifi (really a sad commentary on my addiction to the interweb), and this offset having to share a bathroom.

The goat that greeted us at the farm's entrance.

Horses outside of our bedroom window. Makes it hard to miss a street view!

We ate dinner in Hofn, at a log cabin restaurant that also displayed and sold local art. Love that!...Greg and I had burgers "glacier-style," and we are still scratching our heads as to what that actually means. Greg thinks it is the onion fries on the burgers, and my guess is the mayo that came on it, much to my great disgust. There's a great way to ruin a perfectly good burger. Otherwise, not too shabby a meal.