South to north

We left our king-sized suite at the Fosshotel Vatnajokull this morning for a trip around the Eastern Fjords of Iceland and over the mountains into the north. We're staying in Myvatn for two nights. The room is not king-sized. In fact, it is by far the smallest and simplest room we've stayed in on this trip. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We left with an overcast sky, and it soon turned to a light rain as we headed east and turned north along the coast. Fortunately the rain stopped shortly. The first town we came to - any town at all - was Djupivogur, a small fishing town about 70 miles away. For us, it was distinguished by having a clean and no-charge WC. While standing in line there, we struck up a conversation with another couple.

Eastern Iceland harbor, June 2016

Us: Where you from?
Them: Manhattan
Us: Manhattan, NY?
Them: Yes. Well, actually New Jersey.
Us: Oh really, where in New Jersey? We're from Bergen County.
Them: What? We're from Mahwah! (maybe 8 miles from us)
Us: Saddle River!

By the time we were finished, they knew what street we lived on. We'll almost certainly never see them again.

Refreshed, we continued on to our likely lunch destination, the town of Stöðvarfjörður (say that three times fast), where we found Petra's Stone Collection. Seems like this woman developed an affection for stones, and collected them from 1946 until shortly before she died in 2012 at 89. As the collection grew, it developed a reputation and is now one of the most popular attractions in East Iceland. I should add that there are not many attractions in East Iceland, other than the scenery.

Petra's Rock Garden, June 2016

Sally really liked it. I was impressed by the scope of the garden and the thousands of rocks in her collection. Our lunch consisted of a thin slice of ham or chicken and a similar slice of cheese on a roll, and a cookie. But a worthy break in the long ride.

The fjords are impressive. It's very hard to capture them in a photo, especially with the overcast sky and my position being limited to the parking areas on the side of the road. But here's a weak effort.

Weak fjordal views, June 2016

We finally turned away from the coast and headed inland towards North Iceland. We made no stops here; in fact, we passed pretty much no towns. What we did go through was usually great, and occasionally stunning, scenery. One of the things that struck me were the waterfalls, with no names, in some farmer's backyard. In this one, you can see the fence bordering his property. I pulled off the road into a little cutout he had to park his truck while working in this part of his land.

Backyard waterfall, June 2016

This one, a little later on, is massive.The upper section is 100 yards away from me. I don't show the property fence, but it's also on private land. There is a real parking area by this one, which is prudent as there were at least five cars and a bus stopped with us.

Big backyard waterfall, June 2016

One of fun facts about the Ring Road is that it's pretty narrow and has no shoulder anywhere. The shot above has a very rare guardrail, but you're usually just riding along a roadbed raised above the land on either side. Fortunately, there's really not much traffic. Most of the river crossings - of which there are many - are a single lane, and we've only had to wait for opposing traffic a couple of times.

We finally arrived at the Hotel Laxa here on the shore of Lake Myvatn and found out that the name "Myvatn" is completely justified. The word means "lake of midges". They swarm around you as soon as you get out of your car. Fortunately, we're told they don't bite, they're just "annoying"(1).

As I mentioned above, the rooms at the Laxa are small. Very small. Even with my widest lens, I couldn't get the whole room in. And there's absolutely no place we can leave our suitcases open, unless we're willing to give up the floor and climb across the bed. And you can see the generous closet and drawer space in the upper half of the picture. We are here for two nights.

On the plus side, we got here early enough to get happy hour pricing on a pair of drinks. On the negative side, dinner in the restaurant was mediocre (Sally's better than mine). And the same high price that we've paid across Iceland: my small portion of overlooked lamb and some kind of square potato thing was $43.

Sally can't wait to leave.

 

--------

(1) "Annoying" like the cat that peed in my car when I was in college. The car never quite recovered.

 

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