Day 5 – Iceland

After calling it an early night yesterday (in bed and asleep by 7:30 for Emmie and Amanda and 8:30 for Brian and Noah), we still managed a late start as the kids had to be woken several times each before actually waking up. Emmie seemed to enjoy her Icelandic apple skyr, while Noah had a reboot of last night’s dinner with more Tuc crackers and handfuls of grapes.

We hopped into the car and headed for our first stop of the day, the Seljalandsfoss waterfall. The kids could see the waterfall from several kilometers away and got more and more excited as we approached the parking area. As soon as she got out, however, Emmie asked to be put back into the car due to the frigid wind.

We, of course, promptly ignored her and strapped her into the Tula to get closer to the misty action. The waterfall was very chilly, very misty, and also very pretty. We made the trek up a few flights of steps to observe from the side and, with one exceptionally large gust of wind, were soaked. Emmie was a good sport huddled under her hood in her carrier, but I took pity on her and we returned to the car while Noah and Brian walked to check out several secondary waterfalls nearby.

When they arrived at the car Noah requested to go to a 4th waterfall a ways down the road. After moving the car a little closer Noah and I made a quick inspection of Gljúfrafoss. Located behind a couple cracks in the mountain, we enjoyed our trek into the midst of the rocks, and, while I would have liked to go closer, Noah declared the riverside trail too muddy and requested a return to the warmth of the car.

Our next stop was the Skógafoss waterfall. The largest so far on our trip, Skógafoss presented us with an even better view, and a challenge: an enticing but very steep stairway leading straight to the top of the falls.

We loaded Emmie onto Brian’s back and started our ascent. Poor Noah tackled the thigh-high (for him) steps with gusto, and we managed to stop only a few times to catch our breaths and take pictures before taking in the impressive views from the top. The return to the bottom was nearly as fatiguing, but we survived and concluded our visit with some photos from the base of the falls.

 

Both the kids fell asleep en route to our next destination, so Brian and I each took a turn to briefly trample around Dyrhólaey to see the beautiful rock formations and black sand beaches located in this area. We managed to grab a passerby near the parked car to document our visit – and our crazy hair.

The small town of Vik, not part of the original itinerary, provided a bathroom and lunch stop. So impressed with his pylsur yesterday, Brian insisted that we all try the gas station hot dogs for comparison. While these hot dogs sported similar brown mustard sauce and were very good, they just couldn’t compare to the ones we wrote about yesterday. Current total for hot dog spending: 4150 krónur.

After scarfing our dogs we headed to Vik’s beautiful black sand beach. Formed from cooled lava rock, Noah fell in love with the place, exclaiming, “I LOVE this place! I never want to leave!” Initially scared of the waves and the sand that looked like rich Iowa mud, Emmie eventually warmed up to the place and had lots of fun collecting the smooth rocks and throwing handfuls of the cold, wet, black sand, and by the end told Brian she “loved the black sand” on their way back to the car.

I found an awesome, perfectly circular, hand-sized chunk of black lava rock that I felt would look perfect on our bookshelf as a free souvenir, but Brian’s reasoning that it would be a tremendous hassle to include in our luggage for the next 14 day of our trip prevailed, and we left the rock in the parking lot as we left.

Another short drive had us turning onto a rutted, rocky path to find the wreckage of a crashed DC-3 US Navy plane. A victim of severe icing, the plane was forced to crash land on a rocky, black sand beach on the southern shores of Iceland. All individuals on board survived, but it was too difficult to retrieve the wreckage so the fallen plane has remained where it landed for over 40 years.

Hearing the creak of metal as the wind whipped through the wrecked fuselage seemed an appropriate musical score for the scene and overall desolate location.

Mýrdalsjökull Glacier is located a short distance from the DC-3 wreckage site. The kids were asleep in the car on our arrival so Brian scoped the trail out and, after his return a half-hour later, we woke the kids to make the trek. After all, how often is there an opportunity to see a real, live glacier? The glacier was cool for many reasons although it was admittedly dirtier than expected. Both Noah and Emmie thought the hike was fun and they had a great time touching the huge chunks of ice under the mud!

Our final stop of the night was at Fjöruborðið restaurant in Stokkseyri, known far and wide for its magical lobster soup (and a top pick in the Lonely Planet Iceland guidebook. Upon arrival, we were concerned our lack of reservation would make it difficult to get a table in a timely fashion; fortunately we were seated and our orders had been taken within mere minutes.

Emmie had been excited about the lobster soup all day, so we ordered a starter portion for her and main course-sized soups for Brian and me. Noah was less adventurous and went with the kids meal consisting of chicken nuggets and french fries. The meal was preceded by excellent homemade bread and dipping sauces, and we can confidently say the famed lobster soup lived up to expectations.

We returned to our apartment, just a few kilometers away in Eyrarbakki, and did two loads of laundry before calling it a night. Tomorrow starts early as we drive to the ferry to visit Iceland’s Westman Islands.

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Noah’s Photo of the Day

After a one-day absence, Noah’s photo of the day returns, first with a photo of Brian in front of one of the secondary waterfalls by Seljalandsfoss; the second is an excellent snapshot he took of Brian, Emmie, and me in front of the glacier.