When I awoke in the dark night on the farm in the beautiful countryside, the idyllic sunny afternoon from yesterday had evaporated to be replaced by the all too familiar white noise of rain drops on the roof and trickling water in the gutters. Was the gorgeous afternoon yesterday, the best weather of our trip to Iceland, merely a dream?
Our plan for tomorrow dictated today's plan. Tomorrow, 90 minutes to our west, we catch a morning ferry to the Westman Islands, requiring us to leave our apartment by 0800, thereby leaving no time before the ferry to see any sights. So, today would be a backtracking day from near the Landeyjahöfn ferry dock back east to the apartment to see those sights that we will pass by quickly tomorrow.
Prior to arriving in Iceland, we had extensive plans for today including drinking coffee in Vík, viewing Seljalandsfoss and Gljúfrabúi waterfalls, walking to Skógafoss and Kvernufoss waterfalls, hiking the Dyrhólaey promontory in hopes to see puffins, and photographing the renowned Reynisfjara black sand beach just outside Vík. But as the adage goes, "Man plans; Icelandic weather gods laugh." Soon enough this morning, we would play another round of "Embrace the Suck."
Mercifully, the overnight rain let up before we backtracked the muddy gravel road off the farm to the Hringvegur where we headed west for a planned first stop for coffee. Forty-five minutes later, we pulled into an already hopping Skool Beans, a school bus converted to a coffeehouse at the edge of the Vík campground. The crowd was largely young, largely hippie, and largely campers. The coffee was decent enough and the experience was unique.
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| Decent Coffee at School Beans |
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| Definite Free Spirit Vibe |
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"If you are tall, you will feel even taller"
No Truer Words... |
To order coffee, we entered the bus through the usual door to see that the seats had been removed and replaced with narrow shelves just below the window line where customers could sit to enjoy their coffee. A queue of customers extended the length of the bus towards the counter at the rear. Customers ordered in front of the counter, while the crew was busily and efficiently churning out coffees and serving bagels behind the counter.
As an alternative to sitting inside, customers could order for outside and pick up outside at a window cut into the rear of the bus. From the outside, it appears that the people at the pick up window are in line to order. All orders are placed at the counter inside. It being chilly outside, Ann preferred to sit inside.
While she secured two seats at the window ledge, I stood in the line that stretched the length of the bus, crouched over against the roof that was a head shorter than I am tall. The last time I rode a school bus at age 15 for the hour-long trips to and from school, I do not recall the interior height of the bus being an issue!
During the 10-minute wait for our coffee, we sat at the window in the bus watching the Northern Fulmars on and around the cliffs facing us. Funny birds making clucking noises audible from a long distance, they appear to be amazing fliers just like their cousins the albatrosses. Although they resemble gulls, their stiff pointed wings, bull necks, and stubby tails give them away on the wing.
After coffee in Vík, I wanted to photograph the famous church on the hill above town. The church is referred to formally as the Vík í Myrdal church. Vík is a common name in Iceland meaning bay, and there are several towns by this name. Vík í Myrdal refers to the town in the Myrdalur valley. Likewise, the town of Höfn where we just visited is formally known as Höfn í Hornafirði, or Höfn in the Hornafjörður. Höfn is also a common name meaning harbor or port and like Vík, there is more than one town of that name. Despite its pronunciation in Icelandic as something like herp, you might recognize höfn as a cognate of the English haven and Danish havn.
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| Vík í Myrdal Church |
Although we drove up the hill to the church, I got my best shots from the parking lot of a store down below on the ring road, where a White Wagtail flitted around my feet as I shot both the church and the sea stack formations near town.
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| White Wagtail |
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| The Reynisrangar Sea Stacks at Reynisfjara Beach |
The weather brightened enough leaving Vík for us to stop for photographs of the Eyjafjöll volcano in the sunshine with its glacier, Eyjafjallajökull. Eyjafjöll last erupted in 2010 and as frequent travelers will recall, disrupted European air travel horribly for a week.
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| Eyjafjallajökull |
Between Vík and Reykjvík are two side-by-side waterfalls that are on every tourist's list and today was our day to endure the crowds to see Seljalandsfoss and Gljúfrabúi. The primary attraction is likely because people can get really close to these falls. There is a path behind Seljalandsfoss and Gljúfrabúi falls into a nearly enclosed grotto. Both are great opportunities to get wet (why?) and both are accessible from the same parking lot a short walk apart, though way fewer of the vast hordes of people actually walked beyond Seljalandsfoss to see Gljúfrabúi. Between the two main falls, a few other smaller falls also tumble down the nearly vertical cliff face.
By the time we parked and started towards the crowds and enormous lines of people waiting for the better part of an hour to walk behind Seljalandsfoss, the sky had turned an ominous shade of gray, one we recognized all too well. As we walked by the front of Seljalandsfoss, where I admit that the powerful blast of water falling into a pool is impressive, lines of people were coming out from behind absolutely drenched to the skin. By contrast, significantly fewer people were waiting at Gljúfrabúi to go into the grotto. There too, knuckleheads were getting drenched.
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| Crowds at Seljalandsfoss |
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| Water Crashing into the Pool is Impressive |
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| Another Smaller Fall |
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| Grotto Near Gljúfrabúi |
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| Gljúfrabúi Falling Into Grotto |
If I am honest, I thought to myself as we headed back to the car, I did not get a lot of value from our visit to these falls, another attraction not worth the parking fee. About this time, the gray skies opened up and started a light rain, a rain that became steady by the time that we backtracked to our next waterfall, Skógafoss.
Between Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss, as we motored down the ring road west bound earlier, we saw a fence in front of a farmhouse covered in hundreds of bras. This being the kind of thing we would stop for, we did on the way back by it eastbound. Keep it weird Iceland!
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The Bra Fence
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At Skógafoss, we planned to see that waterfall as well as the nearby Kvernufoss before getting a lunch of fish and chips at Mia's Country Van, an iconic food truck at the entry to the complex containing the falls. As we navigated the outer reaches of the vast parking lot trying to find a free space, it was raining fairly hard. Between getting suited up for the rain, the now pelting rain, and the masses of people, we decided that this visit would be a hit and run. We would walk as far necessary only to get a decent picture of the beautiful Skógafoss, then get out.
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| Skógafoss, a Beautiful Waterfall |
The area is home to a hotel, a restaurant, large public restrooms, a museum, a campsite, and several other guesthouses and hostels which goes a long way to explaining the huge crowds. Behind the restaurant is a field full of beautiful Icelandic cattle. Cattle are rare in Iceland compared to sheep and the few times we had seen them, we were always impressed with how attractive they are.
No outside cattle are allowed in Iceland and thanks to centuries-long isolation, these small cattle are distinctive and more than most breeds, highly variable in coloration and patterning. They are not the most productive milkers, but the Icelanders are proud of their heritage breed and are content with less milk production, as they rightfully should be. They are gorgeous animals. And their butter is among the best I have ever tasted.
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| Icelandic Cattle |
Our rain gear drenched from walking along the river to the falls and then back by the cattle, we were sick of the seemingly interminable rain. Striking the hike to Kvernufoss from our plans and finding ourselves undeniably hungry, we decided to go for lunch. Because the rain was now pouring by the bucketload, rather than walk, I moved the car as close to Mia's food truck as I could. While Ann stayed in the car, I stood in the pouring rain for 20 minutes to order and receive our food. I call that taking one for the team and I am glad that I did. The fish and chips is world-class and the best that I can ever remember having.
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| Mia's Country Van at Skógar: Outstanding Fish and Chips |
Ordering the single item on the menu is easy at Mia's. All you have to do is tell them how many orders and what sauces you want with your fish. Tartar sauce is not an option but there are a few others including what they call a rémoulade which is miles from the classic French sauce of the same name. Go into any grocery store and you will see that Icelanders love sauces. Sadly, their sauce game does not resonate with my palate. Sweet and creamy describes a lot of them.
You might notice the flake salt on the fish and chips in the photo above. In addition to sauces, Icelanders also love their salt and their salt game is outstanding. Many was the restaurant that offered Saltverk flake salt on the table. Other places, including Mia's, had concocted flavored salts for their food. Standing in the pouring rain, I reached under the plastic bag covering the salt containers, four or five, to get a tiny spoon of plain sea salt for our food.
After standing around in the teeming rain, I wanted no more rain today. As the rain increased throughout our post-lunch drive, we shelved any sightseeing that required more than a quick venture from the car. Like Vestrahorn, none of Kvernufoss, Dyrhólaey, or Reynisfjara would feature on this trip to Iceland. Heading back east to our apartment on the farm, we did want to photograph a couple of barns sunken into the earth that we saw earlier. Those would be quick photo ops that would not require much, if any, time in the rain.
Just as we were approaching those barns eastbound, we stumbled blindly across a similar structure that is mainly hidden when traveling westbound. The turf-roofed structure covers the entrance to Rútshellir, a man-made cave that people have inhabited for centuries. Ann went in while I stood in the pouring rain shooting a few quick exterior photos as well as some of the sheep up on the steep hillsides above the cave.
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| Rútshellir |
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| Interior of Rútshellir |
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| Carved Stile Leading to the Cave |
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| Sheep on the Hill Above the Cave |
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| Horse in the Pouring Rain Outside the Cave |
Just another minute down the road, we stopped to photograph a pair of sheep barns tucked against a cliff face, barns that we had seen on the trip out and remembered to stop at on the way back.
We needed both groceries and gas, so we planned to stop in Vík where we had coffee and photographed the church this morning. The Krónan grocery store was surprisingly wall-to-wall people. It was also the nicest and most well-stocked store we have visited in the country. By contrast, the Vinbuðin wine store across the street was likely the poorest stocked such store we visited. You would think that the Icelandic government, which runs these stores, would have the most stock and variety in a prime tourist location such as Vík.Back on the road for the final 45 minutes to the apartment, the rain which was already pouring got worse. The wind howled off the ocean blowing the rain sideways across the road, gusts rocking the car and shoving it dramatically toward the center of the road. Back at the apartment, we hurried from the car into the dry apartment where we took hot showers to warm up.
By the time I was out of the bathroom, the Icelandic weather gods decided to kick the storm up another notch. Now it was a proper deluge with shrieking wind, weather that is terrible to contemplate being out in, but extremely nice to watch in bed, under covers, out the picture window, all thoughts of sightseeing forgotten.
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| Sandwiches for Dinner |
For dinner, I made Italian cold-cut sandwiches from what we bought at the grocery store. I wanted something simple without a lot of dishes to clean up or a dishwasher to unload in the morning. Tomorrow, we have to get up and go, thanks to our ferry trip to the Westman Islands that was rescheduled for one hour earlier than originally booked. The usual ferry is in dry dock currently and its replacement is smaller, in fact, the very same ferry that we took to the Westfjords ten days ago. Baldur's smaller capacity caused the ferry company to move reservations around a bit and as a result, we need to leave not later than 0800 for the 90-minute drive.
The day ended as it began with rain splattering on the roof and trickling in the gutters. But the 25-30 mph sustained winds this evening make it seem wholly different to this morning which saw rain, but little wind. I fell asleep with the storm howling outside, not even thinking about the potential implications for tomorrow's ferry.
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