We have scheduled breakfast for 7 a.m. as we have a very long drive today and wanted to get a good start. When we leave the room and head to the dining area, this is what greats us:
Oh my goodness. All this food for only two of us. Since I know that we have a long day, I pack quite a bit of it into bags for lunch and to snack on in the car. Mister has tried the smoked fish and loves it but is unable to place what wood is used to smoke it with. With the wood shortage here, we decide that it must be birch. As we pack up to leave, we stop and visit with the woman who runs the place for a few minutes. Mister asks about the fish and her response is forever etched into our brains. She said, "oh what is the nice word for it?" She thinks for a minute and then says, "sheep shit." We laugh and tell her the nice word is manure and she repeats it several times to try and remember it for future use. Way too funny.
As the guesthouse was up the west side of the lake, we have a little bit of a start on our way today and so continue up the west coast. Not long after leaving Lake Myvatn, we cross a bridge and I look off to the side and up the river to spot a waterfall and tell Mister about it. A few seconds later we see a sign for Gothafoss which triggers a memory for me again and so we backtrack and check it out. Dawn is still heavy in the sky and so our lighting is not the best, but these waterfalls are amazing. The blues, both frozen and flowing, are beautiful and we feel fortunate to have spotted this. History tells us that these falls were once used to dispose of the statues of pagan Norse gods in the year 1000 when Christianity was introduced.
Once again, endless roads in which we count the markers to see how far ahead we can see. Everything is white. We pass farms with their barns full of cows and sheep as they are not kept out in the winter. Only the horses are outside.
From here, we traveled into Aukeyri, nicknamed "the capital of the north". It is a great little city with a wonderful downtown area that I immediately fall in love with. We find Akureyrarkirkja, the huge church that overlooks everything here. It has excellent stained glass windows and incredible lines that Mister gets out to photograph. We wish that we could go inside for pics, but it is Sunday and they are in the middle of services.
We stop downtown for a cup of coffee and find that the place I was looking for is not exactly what I had in mind. As we are walking, I ask a local if he can direct me to a coffee shop using hand signs as he does not speak English. He points across the circle and so we take off in that direction and find Kaffi Ilmur - a cool little shop that has used all the history of the building in it's remodel. I enjoy a Swiss Mocha -- something I have truly come to love in Iceland. So delicious.
Leaving Akureyi and heading west, we head towards the fjords and pass over the mountain ranges in the process. At the top of one of the passes Mister spots a picnic table and stops for me to take a picture out in the snow as I have joked about these tables all over the island. I hop out and climb onto the bench for a quick shot as it is quite cold out. The sun is showing some amazing colors and we stop to truly appreciate what we are seeing each day.
I decide to take a little side trip without telling Mister where we are going. He had mentioned to me that he really wanted to see some of the old turf houses and I had read about a place where they had kept several classic ones from 1750-1879. As we reach Glaumbaer, there is a small church in front of the houses and we stop there first. As I walk through the cemetery, Mister gets some really nice pictures of the outside of the church.
He then joins me at the turf houses and we examine them and talk about how dark and damp it must have been to live in them. These houses have been fronted with imported lumber and so the family who lived here must have been fairly well to do. Mister peeks in the windows and is able to get a glimpse of life indoors as well. As we are leaving, I check the doors on the church and they are open so in I go. What a cool little church and I am sure that it was used that very day.
It is still a long way to our destination for the night and so we are soon on the road again. As we are driving along, a herd of horses are being moved on the highway and I try and get a few shots as we drive along -- very hard to do and as a result nothing really turned out well. The best part of watching them was the little border collie doing its work at keeping them in line. Awesome.
The scenery on this side of the island varies greatly and we are basking in the differences.
As we are driving we notice the sky out the window to the east and decide that we have never seen anything like it. We were able to see the ground which was covered with snow, then a brilliant blue strip of sky, followed by a strip of bright pink, and topped with white clouds. It was truly an aha moment and we had to stop and embed it in both our minds and the camera so that we could always remember this beauty.
As we drive through lava beds for what seems like hours, but is only about 30 minutes, we come to our farmhouse for the evening. It is so very nice and we have it all to ourselves again. It is a Sunday evening and so all the restaurants are closed, so after checking into the room, we go back into the small town nearby to find a small grocery store that is about to close so that we can add to our stash from this morning in order to put together some sort of dinner. As we drive through the town, we are drawn to the church where the markers in the cemetery were all lit up and it was such a peaceful scene that we stopped to reflect and revel in the quiet.
Back at the house, Mister goes watch them milk the cows and I read for awhile. He comes back with stories to share and then we get the hot tub ready for a dip under the stars in the crisp air. It is so nice and feels so good. It is a unique hot tub in that the water is constantly emptying and filling. As it drains into a hole near the top of the tub, it fills from the center at the bottom with water direct from the ground. Amazing -- and oh so warm and cozy. What a great time!
Here are a few shots of our house. Isn't it nice?
The floors are heated as well so your feet do not get cold. Oh how I wish I had that at home in Texas. Our hardwood floors can get icy cold in the winter and slippers are a must.
We make our snack dinner and sit down to enjoy it when our hostess arrives with supplies for breakfast in the morning. We have told her that we are leaving early and for her not to make a big breakfast. Cereal and toast are great and so she is dropping off fresh bread and milk (straight from the cows). She also mentions that there is a nice aurora out tonight and so we walk out onto the deck and spend our last night marveling at the wonder that is the Aurora Borealis. We have been so blessed to have had three incredible nights to witness it and wish that opportunity was there for everyone. It is a fantastic last night in Iceland and we are both sad that our time is coming to an end.
Is there truly anything more phenomenal than that? The title of a hymn comes back to me -- "I Stand All Amazed".
We spent the early afternoon at A Tuba Christmas at Thanksgiving Square in Downtown Dallas. There were over 150 musicians. The park was packed and the music was kept very spiritual. Jingle Bells was the only secular song played. It made for a very nice start to Christmas Eve and certainly set the tone for me.
Christmas morning was fun and yes, Santa had arrived. We were able to have a little fun together sharing gifts and stories.
We had our traditional Christmas dinner and Mister's prime rib was amazing as always. Didn't the table look so pretty all in red and white? I had great help from Cassie as you can tell.
The day after Christmas Jen and family came up to spend a few fun-packed days with us. Cass and Scott drove back over for the first day and we all had another Christmas with gifts, fun, and messes everywhere. It was a great time and we made a ham dinner and relaxed for the evening.
