Iceland - Day 5 - North Coast

Breakfast is at 7:30 so we are up and moving quite early.  We walk up to the main house for breakfast and are seated in their dining room.  Once again, there is enough food here for an army.  The lady of the house stops in and so we engage her in conversation (not an easy feat with these Icelanders).  She is 82 years old and learning English.  Oh my -- I am sooo certain that I will not be able to do the same thing at that age.  Learning a new language now scares me to death.  She tells us about her childhood and all the changes that have occurred in Iceland during her life.  It is enough to make us pause and appreciate the many luxuries that we have had all our lives and taken for granted.  Things like electricity and indoor plumbing.  She did not have those things until the 50's, after she had already married.  We have to laugh at some of the things she says as it is opposite from our perspective.  For example, we have noticed the absolute lack of trees in this country but comment that south of there we had gone through their largest forest on the way here.  Her reaction is swift and emphatic - "Damn trees!  They keep planting them and they are ruining the view."  Funny, but made us think.

It is time to leave Egilsstathir and start our journey across the north coast of the island.  We had a great time here but are saddened that we did not take pictures last night when we arrived as everything was coated with fresh snow and this morning it has all been blown from the trees and bushes.  Live and learn.  It is going to be a snowy day according to the forecast, but the roads should be open all the way to Lake Myvatn so away we go.  As we drive along, the wind is blowing very hard and has formed large drifts on the road everywhere we go.  Many times we have to drive on the other side on several occasions we are fortunate enough to follow a snow plow. as the road is completely covered.  As we drive along, we spot several places where the river is showing through the ice and you can see the water bubbling up through the opening as it travels along.  The snow pack around this spot is at least 6' deep as we are high above it on the road.

As we get near to Myvatn (pronounced me-vot), we come to an overlook and then cross a bridge that takes us near a geothermal plant and we notice the milky aquamarine color of the water.  It is steaming in the crisp air and there are signs around signaling that this is not a swimming area.

We spot a sign for the Jarthbothin Nature Baths and drive up the road to see them.  It is a wonderful building at the top of a hill, but is absolutely empty with the exception of a wonderful young lady that works there.  We visited with her for awhile and learned that the place is packed in the summer, but even on a winter evening will have between 50 and 100 people each day.  We have arrived early in the afternoon and most people do not come up until after work.  It looks wonderful, but we have decided to save our water event for the Blue Lagoon on the last day and so after a delightful visit we head down into Myvatn.  We are early and so have decided to see if it is possible to change our reservation for the evening to a farmhouse in Akureyri so that we can drive a little further and not have such a long haul the next day.

We stop in at a little gift shop and I look around while Mister makes the call.  They tell us it will be an hour or so before we will know and so we go off to a pizza place that the sales lady recommends.  We tell her we will be back to shop in a little while and we hunt down the pizza place.  It is called Daddi's Pizza and it is fantastic.  The place is a cozy little local hangout and has a family inside enjoying a fun lunch.  One of the little girls comes up to me and points at my coat and repeats herself several times.  I ask the father what she is saying and he tells me that she is saying, "It is pretty."  Mister and I have commented several times on how few articles of clothing here have any bright colors in them.  Most people wear black or brown.  My coat is a light blue and she liked it which was fun for me.  We visit with the owner for awhile and she is a sheer delight and tells us more about the area.  We get our phone call and we are not able to change the reservation and so head off to our farmhouse for the evening.


It is around the lake on the western shore and so as we go that direction, we pass a very large cinder cone that we have been told is the remnant of a volcano that erupted for over 5 years continuously.  Seriously?

As we are driving along, we see a sign for Dimmuborgir and the name looked familiar to me so I asked Mister to stop.  As we have said before, there are not many signs in Iceland and the ones that they do have are very small so you really have to be alert.  I had read about Dimmuborgir before we left and that is the only reason I recognized it.  We back up and drive up the road.  We come into a parking lot that actually has quite a few cars in it and a visitor center that appears to be full of people.  This is the first time we have actually seen other tourist (or even locals out and about) since Gullfoss.  We do not have a lot of light left so we wander down the paths among some of the strangest lava formations ever.  It is eerie down inside and yet very cool.  As we meander deeper down the trails, Mister runs up to stand in front of one of the weird contorted formations so that I can snap a picture.  There are fire pits along the path to warm up with and I take a moment to warm my hands.  I cannot believe how deep the snow is -- the entrance shows it to be at least 5 feet deep.

The view is astounding from this vantage point.  I want to always remember that those are not bushes sticking out of the snow, but the birch trees that they have.  It is really deep snow.

We get in our car and continue on  to find our farmhouse for the evening and after one attempt by Mister at the wrong house, we soon are checking into our room.  It is the upstairs portion of the family home, but still very  nice and separate from them.  We decide to drive back into town so that we can go to the gift shop before it closes at 5:30 and so off we go.  We make it in time and are able to pick up quite a few Iceland made gifts (lava jewelry) and a souvenir for our home (a handmade wooden bowl like what was used in Viking times).  Oh, check out the window of the neighbors house.  We saw these electric candles in EVERY homes windows while we were there.

Leaving our car at the guesthouse, we walked to the hotel next door and into their restaurant for dinner. We were the only people in a restaurant that probably holds several hundred people at a time in the summer but the food was excellent as always.  I had a trout dish that was far superior to any trout dish I have ever eaten and believe me when I say I have eaten one heck of a lot of trout in my lifetime.

As we were served our entrees, the waiter commented offhandedly that the lights were out if we were interested.  What???? Of course I was interested and so I went running outside to see the most incredible white formation ever.  It was going everywhere and moving rapidly so I signaled to Mister to quick come and look. Incredible.  We returned to our dinner and conversation and then walked back to the guesthouse and decided to drive out of town and see if we could spot some of the lights since there were not any outside the hotel when we were done eating.  We didn't really have any luck and so went back to the hotel.  I really felt that they would be back that night and so Mister went to sleep and I kept watch.  After an hour or so, I went outside and the sky was filled with the Aurora.  Oh my.  I ran and woke up Mister and off we went back down the road.  We were mesmerized for quite awhile with active lights that gave us a beautiful show which we both watched and took only a few pictures of.  It was simply too incredible to watch and so obviously the best sights are simply in our memories.  What a treat!