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We woke and I had to snap a few pictures of the cabin and around the cabin. Whoever owns this cabin has a funny sense of humor because the decorations are all eccentric inside and outside the cabin. Even the windows to the cabin are funny. The windows are from a ship recycled for the cabin. We got up and jammed everything in our bags yet again. Each person hauled their bags outside and walked back to Skalakot as they finished. We all left our bags sitting by the fence. On our way back, we saw the van headed over to the cabin to get our bags.
A nice quick walk, a stop to say good morning to the horses and wallah, we are at the farm. Just in time for another nice simple breakfast of toast, cukes, and apples. This is just what I need to start this morning. Maybe it's the air but I eat less here in Iceland and I like it!
On the road again; I’m starting to sound like a broken record or Willy Nelson….without the pot. We get to Gulfoss soon enough. Gulfoss is a massive waterfall and they claim that its wildness and shear fury outdoes Niagara Falls back in the US. Not having visited Niagara Falls ever, I couldn’t compare. I can, however, tell you this is one massive thundering waterfall. This thing has some serious power behind it. I read they will be tapping it somehow in the near future to generate cheap electricity. At least that’s the plan. Many of us made a beeline to the water closet (see I’m already getting a little European – hidden joke in here) instead of the falls. Well, Icelanders being smart folk, made sure to put a gift shop and small café right in our way to distract us. It worked because we spent too much time in there enjoying some delicious hot chocolate. We even bought our son, Anthony, a tuk here. I call it a beanie but Tim and Dar said it was a tuk. The wind was something else at this place. It was so strong; Tammy and I did not make it to the very end of the trail where the water comes down. All those folks were getting wet from the spray and we needed to get back to the van. We made it part of the way where we could get a good look at the falls and they are spectacular. I can’t wait to see Niagara Falls someday to see if they are telling the truth about this comparison. Being American and all, I don’t like someone telling me theirs is bigger or better than mine after all! From the picture of Tammy at the falls, you can get an idea of what the wind was like. She even had to put Anthony’s tuk on, sorry kid but she had to try it out!
We set off again and this time we stopped at Geysir, which is really cool. The geyser goes off about every eight minutes and you can get pretty darn close to it as you wait. At first, I was a little uncomfortable with how close we got. After all, this is essentially a water volcano with boiling hot water shooting up. I notice the wind was still pretty strong and at our backs so I knew that whatever came out was going to get blown the opposite way. Some idiot was standing exactly opposite where we were and I knew that once this thing blew, it was going his way. Sure enough, the geyser erupted and the guy got wet. He was pretty heavily clothed so other than getting wet, he was OK. Tammy tried getting a video of the eruption but her timing was off so I made a go at it. Of course, I started the video way too early but I got it! I am trimming the video down and then it should appear on this blog or youtube on my channel https://www.youtube.com/user/chavarriaz . I also got a few pictures during the eruption. Hey, all this way, and no pictures or video, not my style! In talking to Arnold, we found out there used to be more than one geyser spouting here but it got ruined. I guess that if you pour some soap in the geyser, you can get it to erupt more often. They did that one too many times on one of the other geysers here and it quit erupting. That’s commercialization for you. I was pleased to find out we did not corner the market on idiots as well here in the states. Someone was recently arrested at the Geyser for a pulling a stupid prank of pouring coloring into the geyser to get it to erupt in color.
Time for lunch! Off to a local diner we go, the One Stop Restaurant. More of a gas station but they had pretty good food. Tammy and I opted to split a pepperoni and mushroom pizza. I have never seen such a thin crust but it sure was good. Some of our group were sitting at the table behind us and on a lark, pooled their Icelandic coins together for a shot of what had to be the blackest looking shot of some liqueur. I was told it was licorice tasting and horrible. That’s not much of an endorsement so no thanks! They all had a taste and I think everyone hated it! We finally managed to get a shot of our driver for the day, Paulie. He is driving us for today because we are on our way to Reykjavik where he will turn back with the van and we are on our own till we head to the airport. Paulie is Icelandic and a serious worker. He fishes on a long line fishing boat which is incredibly dangerous here and then works at the farm as well.
Back to our tour with our next stop at the open tectonic plates. On the one side is the European plate and on the other, the North American plate. They say the plates separate an average of one to two inches a year. Since we plan on walking between them, let’s hope it isn’t today that they shake and move because this place is covered with loose rocks. There are pools of water everywhere here and people use them as wishing wells; there are coins all over the place in them. The water is crystal clear and you can see all the way to the bottom as if you are looking through glass. This is one big crack in the ground! While walking around we found some geese with little …… geeslings? I have no idea what you call baby geese, OK! We even found a couple of gravestones that were really old right off the path. One was for a guy named Bud. You can walk for quite a distance through here. We chose to take a shorter walk and saw a nice small waterfall nearby. The scenery here never ceases to amaze me with the level of beauty and this is coming from a guy who lives in Alaska. I think Alaska is one of the most beautiful places ever created but Iceland definitely gives it a run for the money! We got to where we thought the van was going to meet us to find Monica had already arrived ahead of us so we signaled her over. We took a quick look at the parking lot and decided there was no way the van would be able to turn around here with the trailer attached. Lee suggested we just walk down to the next parking lot, which had much more room available, so we did and the van got there just as we arrived.
Well, back in Reykjavik, finally. The touring has been fun but a little tiring. We checked in at the Reykjavik Downtown Apartment Hotel. Make note of this name because it plays into a funny story later. We got two apartments for the ten of us and Paulie got ready to head back to Skalakot. Although we have been driving all day, Skalakot is only about an hour and a half away if you go straight there. Poor Paulie went to start the van and nothing, not a crank, nothing! He had to pay a cab driver six thousand krona, which is about forty-five bucks US for a boost! Luckily that worked and he was off.
We hauled our luggage into the two apartments with Arnold, Tim, Dar, Tammy, and I taking one apartment and Nancy, Geri, Monica, Elaine, and Lee in the other. These are really nice apartments, which are two bedrooms each, and a pullout couch in the living room. The two couples took the bedrooms in our apartment and Arnold took the couch. He was so tired, he didn’t bother to pull the couch out and just slept on it that way. We even have a nice little patio overlooking the street that I have to say is the quietest downtown street I have ever seen/heard. Seriously, don’t the people here lose their cool ever? No road rage, no yelling, and definitely no cars honking the horn. I swear, not once did I hear someone honk their horn, even when traffic backed up!
We had some time to burn so we walked about for a while. No hurry since we know we have all morning tomorrow to shop since we don’t leave for home till the afternoon. We all piled into two cabs at dinnertime and headed to the waterfront to have dinner at this real fancy urban chic restaurant called Nautholl, or something like that. We got there; they did not have a table for us and said it would be an hour before they could seat us so we wandered down to the shore and small beach. We are just relaxing and looking around when we spot someone in the water swimming toward us. Mind you, this is water you typically can be in for five to ten minutes before hyperthermia sets in and you are a goner! The closer the swimmer gets, we realize it is a woman and the water doesn’t seem to bother her at all. As a matter of fact, she gets close to shore and turns back to swim out again. Someone said her husband was on shore and that she was training to swim the English Channel so she had several more hours of training to go here. No way, no how would you get me in that water! I walked about a bit and finally found a field of flowers I have been trying to get a good picture of. Everywhere I see them in abundance, they are in fields out the window of the van but here I found a small patch. They are really pretty purple flowers called lupine.
A few of us got tired of wandering about and decide to go back to the restaurant and ask if we could get a table outside since it is a pleasant evening. The head waitress balks when she finds out we are a group of ten and can’t believe someone has promised us a table at all since they are crowded and tells us they won’t be able to seat us at all. So, we all turn around and head back to the rest of the group to let them know this restaurant will be a bust when we hear someone yelling for us as we walk down the path. It’s the head waitress and she tells us that a big table just opened up and she can seat us right now! We grab the rest of our group and sit for dinner.
Of course, we decided to have a much-deserved beverage of our choice. Problem is I have no idea what the beers here taste like since they have seen fit not to import my favorite, Alaskan Amber! The waitress brings us taste samples of the beer on tap and we chose the pale ale. This is serious cod fishing territory so Tammy and I opted for fish and chips. A wise decision indeed. The fish is placed on what I would describe as oversized Melba toast and lettuce; then layered with Cole slaw and pickles. This was a great tasting meal! I ate all of it, except for the Cole slaw, not a fan. Dinner was delicious and so was the beer.
Ok, here is the funny story about the hotel we stayed at, and yes it was at my expense! Since we are a large group, we do not fit in one taxi so two showed up. I guess the two taxis were from different companies this time and do not communicate via radio. The first cab loaded up and left with the ladies, Arnold and Lee. Remember that Arnold and Lee are our chief guides? Our cab, which showed up a minute later, got Tim, Dar, Tammy, and I in. The driver takes off and asks where we are going. We all look at each other for an answer and then at the driver with a blank look. Tim steps in and tells the driver to just follow the other cab and the guy looks at us like he just heard rocks rattling in our heads. He is from a different company and has no idea where the other cab was going. Grant you; I have said that everybody in Iceland is friendly and very accommodating. I think we found the one grumpy person in Iceland! This guy is not pleased and is mumbling something in Icelandic. I figure I’ll give it a try and tell the guy the hotel is somewhere in downtown Reykjavivk, it’s an apartment and a hotel, it is a white building and has glass doors. This of course gets everybody but the driver laughing hysterically in the van and repeating yeah, it’s white and has glass doors. I can’t help but laugh at myself as well. Notice that the name of the hotel is in my description but did not help since we didn’t know the name of the hotel!
The driver stops the cab right in the middle of a roundabout and pulls out his phone to call the other driver. All this while still mumbling something in Icelandic. He gets his address book out and finds the number, calls the guy, and says he knows where we are going. We are all still laughing at me and I finally see the driver crack a smile and chuckle at the situation. It turns out our destination really isn’t that far! Arnold is waiting at the curb for us. The whole confusion and delay was minimal but gave us a good laugh.
We get in our apartment and handle the exploding suitcase one last time. I literally dumped mine out because I am going to pack it one last time for the trip home and I need to be able to close it properly. That done, time for showers and bed. The bathroom arrangements here have been strange all along and this apartment is no different. It has one room that has a regular looking bathroom with a toilet and sink in it but the other bathroom is the strangest I have seen so far. It has a shower with a urinal practically in the shower! It also has a small sink. The control for the shower is pretty cool. On the left side you control the water pressure. The right has a strange k*** with a locking position that you can turn to regulate how hot the water comes out. Remember, all their hot water pretty much comes out of the ground and this place is no exception. The hot water here smells of sulfur like everywhere else, a smell not easy to get used to! Dang, that hot water feels good though! Off to bed for the night and up in the morning for our last hours in Iceland.
Details on the photos:
Pic 1 - In a Glass House
Morning in the quaint little cabin they put us up in for the night. The living room is all glass. The whole cabin is about 4 rooms and all tiny and equally quirky!
Pic 2 - Around the Cabin
Funny decorations everywhere you look at this cabin.
Pic 3 - Around the Cabin
Stick men!
Pic 4 - Around the Cabin
All homes here seem to have an awesome view.
Pic 5 - Breakfast
We may not be riding anymore but the simple breakfast stuck with me. Just coffee, toast, cukes, and apples.
Pic 6 - Gulfoss Waterfall
They say this rivals our Niagara Falls!
Pic 7 - Gulfoss Waterfall
Tammy hanging on against the wind!
Pic 8 - Geysir
A cool little video we too of the geyser eruption at Geysir.
Pic 9 - Geysir
Pic 10 - Geysir
Pic 11 - Geysir
Pic 12 - Lunch
Funny little gas station, restaurant, bar, pizza place, etc.
Pic 13 - Super Thin Crust Pizza
I've never seen a thinner crust but darn good!
Pic 14 - Easy Over
This is what you get when you as for an egg on your burger!
Pic 15 - Paulie
That's Paulie on the left, our driver for today. Arnold enjoying a cup of coffee with him.
Pic 16 - The Tectonic Plates
Sightseeing at the place where the European Plate and the Norh American plates meet.
Pic 17 - Rocks
Interesting rock formation at the plates.
Pic 18 - Wishing Well
Super clean pools of water people use as wishing wells.
Pic 19 - Wishing Well
Pic 20 - Walking Between the Plates
Tammy and Dar ahead of me on the path between the plates.
Pic 21 - One Big Crack
Pic 22 - Tammy Walking Between the Plates
Pic 23 - The Plates
I read they move apart about an inch or two every year.
Pic 24 - Camo Geese
Some baby gees in tow but hard to see.
Pic 25 - Bub
A really old gravestone we found just off the path.
Pic 26 - Waterfall
Even the small waterfalls look cool!
Pic 27 - Flag
A nice clear shot of the Icelandic flag.
Pic 28 - Downtown Reykjavik Apartment Hotel
Welcome to room 200. Our room for the night!
Pic 29 - Downtown Reykjavik Apartment Hotel
Our nice big room!
Pic 30 - From the Balcony
Looking left and listening for noise.
Pic 31 - From the Balcony
Looking right and still no noise. Downtown is unbelievably quiet!
Pic 32 - Haspenna
No clue what this means. Heck no clue what anything means here!
Pic 33 - Downtown Streets
They close some of the streets to traffic so we get to go anywhere we want.
Pic 34 - Trolls
Look out for the huge trolls. I think we were the only tourists who did not pose with the trolls!
Pic 35 - Nautholl
Dinner and the chic swank Nautholl restaurant!
Pic 36 - Crazy Swimmer
That's a lady in the water training to swim the English Channel. That water is cold!
Pic 37 - Lupine
Finally, a close up of this very pretty little flower called Lupine.
Pic 38 - Fish and Chips
This concoction was delicious!
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