Fun and More Fun! What a Country!!!

Hi, All,

Wow!  Each day gets better and better!  By the way, I know all my Facebook friends have heard what we are doing through Kathryn’s posts (and my being tagged).  I’m happy that you can see some of the same and some different pictures, but most of all, she has great videos.  I may have to further upgrade my WordPress account so I can post video!

In any event, Monday was a super-filled day.  We put two “extras” into one day so that we didn’t have to backtrack.  After all, we are driving almost 1,000 miles in eight days — and seeing all sorts of sights!  So no time to drive somewhere twice!!!

We started the day with an ATV Tour.  I still didn’t drive, but I was not at all scared.  We had our own private tour and Daniel, our guide, was terrific.  Suiting up for the event was now familiar.  We drove over a fairly bumpy terrain down to a black sand beach……formed from the lava.  Daniel told us that all of this area was covered in lava and ash in the eruption of the volcano in Iceland in 2010.  Remember when all the air traffic in Europe was cancelled because of the huge amount of ash in the air? Well that was from this area.

 

There was an old abandoned US military plane that had to crash land on the beach.  Apparently, we retrieved the engine, tail and wings, but left the carcass……and that was okay with Iceland.

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Pops just had to stand on the wing.  The graffiti is not original — I hate that!

 

We stopped in front of a skeleton of a whale who died about ten years ago.  Kathryn had fun inspecting it…

And then we moved on to the soft sand of the beach.  Kathryn and I got off the ATV’s and let John and Michael “hot dog” for a little while on the beach sand!  Then we were off again.  Kathryn and Michael had to drink the water again.  You don’t know, but the water in Jourdanton in AWFUL so they really like good, pure water….

And we were off again.  We spotted some beautiful running water/small waterfall just on the side of the road and we stopped to admire it.

We ended the afternoon with a rib boat (zodiac) ride into a glacial lagoon. It was sunny and beautiful and we loved it. We had planned to do this the next day, but realized we would have to double back for it…..so squished them both into one day! We had a great ride and took lots of pictures (surprise).

 

Tuesday was a day with no planned activities, just some sights along the way. However, we came upon a few horses standing at the fence line waiting for tourists to feed them…..and we happily obliged. The Icelandic horses are cute – they are small like ponies, but Icelanders are offended if we call them ponies; they’re not – they are grown horses!

We came upon a lovely view site – the North Atlantic Ocean from pretty, rocky cliffs.

Next we stopped in a very small town, Djupivigor, deciding to eat sweets instead of lunch. The town boasted a very cool sculpture of 32 large marble eggs by a reputedly world-renown artist (of whom I had never heard), Rikarour Jonssen. Also famous for its orange lighthouse:)

We drove some more – then stopped at another waterfall…..and posed, of course! We arrived fairly early at our next hotel, Hotel Hallomsstaour; it was in a really beautiful forest in a valley, but I failed to take any pictures. except out our window….but I did take pics of the room. There was a nice balcony, but I thought perhaps too cold and windy to sit outside……although I found out later that Kathryn sat outside and read for awhile. We went back about 25 kilometers to Café Nielsen for a lovely dinner in a cute old house. There was a fabulous, large reindeer rack by our table.  I asked Michael to stand under it to give you some perspective.

Guess what they had for sale there? Items from Stonewall Kitchens – jellies and relishes – just like we easily get at home!!!!

I think that’s enough for now.  But there is lots more to come!!!

Love,

Beth