Scenic views

We were out of Myvatn at 9:05 this morning. Packed, breakfast, car loaded, and wheels rolling. As we drove away from the Hotel Laxa, we heard the tap-tap-tap of insects smashing into our windshield. I would say we were both happy to leave. The strange thing is that Myvatn is a big outdoors destination for both Icelanders and foreign visitors. The area is loaded with hiking trails, nature walks, and other outdoor activities. Many of the people we saw in our hotel and in town were dressed for hiking and carrying packs. I just don't get how you deal with the midges.

Our first stop was the last of the "name" waterfalls, Godafoss (God's Waterfall). It's not extremely high, but is quite broad and throws a lot of water. It's also handicapped accessible for viewing, as it's only a few steps from the car.

Godafoss, Sally & Bassman, June 2016

We had another 2 1/2 or 3 hours of driving ahead, and no major sights to see. Or, I should say, 2 1/2 or 3 hours of spectacular scenery as we drove around Trollaskagi, the peninsula of the Trolls. Spoiler alert: we saw no trolls.

The beginning of the penninsular circumnavigation was Akureyi, which is the largest town in the country outside of the Reykjavik region. Population 18,191. We expected to walk around, look at shops, maybe eat lunch. As it turns out, today is National Day and most of the shops except the tacky souvineer ones were closed. So we walked around a bit, got some ice cream and kept going.

Akureyi is mostly closed today, June 2016

Our next target as we swept up the east side of Troll-land was Silglufjordur, which was the herring capital of Iceland back in the day. We drove through town (which took about a minute), then circled back to find a lunch spot. We ate in a cute little shack right on the harbor. What we got was not what we expected, but was okay. The beers were very good. We started to talk to a character sitting and having a coffee, until he started telling us that we had to vote for Trump to save our country. Then we walked away.

Pretty harbor, pretty lady, and a weird duck, June 2016

As I mentioned in an earlier post, capturing the majesty of the landscape is really hard. There's no place to safely stop on the road; when you can stop your viewpoint is limited; and it takes a lot of time to make these pictures work. So here's just a tease.

Scenes from the fjords, June 2016

We finally found the Hofsstader Guesthouse, our accommodation for the night, after going 15 minutes too far and using Google maps to reorient ourselves. It's really a motel; you drive up to your simple room. But it's clean, functional, has enough room to open both of our suitcases at the same time, and two chairs. And no midges to speak of.

After we unloaded I went out for a little walk before dinner and found the Hofsstadakirkja, yet another cute church in a spectacular setting.

Hofsstadakirkja, June 2016

We had a unique driving experience today. I mentioned earlier that most of the small river crossings on the Ring Road (and other roads) are single lane, and it hasn't been a problem with traffic. Today we went through a 3 mile tunnel under a mountain that was single lane! There are cut-outs on one side, and you pull in when you see headlights coming at you. We had to pull over twice. Quite an experience, and I have no pictures for the obvious reasons.

 

 

Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans