This morning we went on a little hike from behind our hotel. It leads to Skaftafelljokul I.e the local part of the glacier.
The views were so pretty. The area is covered in lupins growing wild everywhere.
We then went to near the lagoon area. It was pouring with rain there!
We went to the museum we visited yesterday for a coffee and had a chat with the manager. She told us all about the life of the author I mentioned yesterday and showed us the mountainside and explained some ways of travel and life in the late 19century before roads and cars of course.
I included this one of grandad because he jumped in front of my camera on purpose to annoy me !
The rain had eased and we went to amazing diamond beach. It is such an experience to see this. I feel so lucky…
Then we returned to the lagoon further down and then near the bridge where the ice flows into the sea.
I hope you enjoy my photos, I took nearly 150 today!
can you see the sea dragon?well maybe….
On the way back to the hotel the clouds had lifted and you could see the top of the ice glacier.
We move further west on the south coast to Vik tomorrow.
Just this moment taken from hotel window, the sunset on the top of mountain..
We felt sad to leave Vestrahorn and Hofn, we enjoyed this east coast area.
Off we set filling up petrol at Hofn and again on the A1 route.
Our first stop was at a museum coffee shop. We went there last year and this time we entered the museum with headphones explaining about life in poverty in this area at the start of 20 century. It was about the life of famous Icelandic writer/poet . 8 people slept here in 4 tiny beds!
Sooner than anticipated we were at the glacier lagoon, jokulsarlon. It was not too cold, mind you we were wrapped up with scarves hat and gloves and our backpacks kept our backs warm!
There were loads of icebergs calved off the glacier and lumps of ice from the icebergs floating at the edges. Amazing… the ice then is swept along the icy watery river into the sea at this point. Large pieces of ice wash up by the tide onto the black sands. This is diamond beach. We will return there tomorrow.
Leaving the lagoon we continued down the A1 and came across a stopping place by part of the glacier. (Fjallsjokull.) You can walk right up to the pool created by the melting glacier. Again there was floating icebergs and ice everywhere. The rain started falling but we did not care, we were having such a good time. Can you see the heart shape the glacier makes.
We passed other side roads to the glacier that we want to explore tomorrow. We are now at skaftafell
hotel. Looking at skaftafellsjokull glacier. Nearby we saw this rainbow, so pretty…
The huge glacier on top of the mountains is Vatnajokull. Each part off the glacier as it descends down valleys has different names.
We have television here so can watch a film tonight for a change., although still reading my book Alex xxx
Again a sunny dry clear sparkling day! At times not a cloud in the sky.
It is 10*c but out of the wind it feels warm.
We spent the day enjoying this beautiful East coast.
Vestrahorn and it’s sister Eystrahorn, the swans, geese, lagoons, scree on mountains that reaches the road (with dangerous looking angle of repose😵💫)
Stacks out at sea, the fulmars nesting in the cliffs all along. The wide rivers with long single track bridges, the small fishing villages. The glacier peaking from the tops of mountains and Hofn and its harbour, such memories! And now my photos…
A brilliant day today, sunshine 10*c (but a wicked icy wind) and clear views everywhere. What a contrast from yesterday!
We are actually at Vestrahorn staying in their farm guesthouse. So after breakfast in their Viking cafe we got onto the beach.
It is black sanddunes and striking cliffs. So many colours, orange green grey and topped with snow.
We are below a glacier field which is why the wind feels so icy….it is!
We spent ages exploring the beach and up to a nato radar station commanded by the Icelandic coastguard. The lighthouse is located close by.
There is a Viking village replica made for filming, but it is neglected and not up to its hype….
Otherwise here is beauty of a natural environment, seabirds and views to die for.
We back _tracked north for an hours drive this morning to see the sights that were covered by clouds yesterday. So a few of todays photos. We take hundreds!
Back in Hofn we went to the harbour and it’s surroundings of marshland and islands. You can see the glacier so well from here.
Oh and an icecream. They fill the cornet with vanilla icecream from a machine, and then you chose dark chocolate or milk chocolate, it is runny and poured or rather dipped over the entire icecream and hardens with the cold of the icecream. It is really nice, we’ll be going back there again!
Also do you like this house we passed by Louis, Otis, Xavi and Alice? It had trolls everywhere and even little houses and a church for them!
This is one of the waterfalls nearby by an electric station, the first hydro electric station introduced to Iceland. There are many walking trails in this valley and we were able to park near and walk down to the falls.
It is really Autumnal now. The Rowan trees are turning orange and red. Some thrush like birds are busy devouring the berries in the trees.
As there was little wind this morning, we saw deep reflections. The waterfall is so pretty. We were there for a while exploring the path and admiring the views.
On our return to the town we went down to the harbour and took photos of the small boats and one sinking boat.
We met a family from London Ontario, he was a photographer and we got chatting about photo competitions and judges etc.
Time for a hot chocolate to warm us up. You may have 30*c in uk and France but we are between 5*c and 8*c today, rain later!
This is our quaint hotel and next to it the blue church.
This town is quirky, hippy, alternative. I’ll let my photos show you.
We went in two gift shops but prices were too high for us. Hope you like the troll dolls I photoed!
There are murals and artistic buildings in town too.
We are resting up now as we have done a lot of travelling
We move on tomorrow to near Hofn. Hofn was the furthest we got to last year, we have seen much more this year already that we didn’t see last year.
I love skyr yoghurt and the pastries they sell at every cafe
Today we crossed over so many different environments. northern Iceland is a land of huge contrasts.
It has been sunny and warm all day but very windy at times.
This is Akureyri as we left, cruise ship in and a sunny town. We took this from the top road as we left.
Up here is a hot stream where we saw quite a few people bathing last night in the foggy rain! There are municipal thermal baths but this was free I suppose.
The first part of the journey we had done on the silver circle trail. So we left the oozing sulphur muds, the volcanic hills and scree, the lakes boulders and ash and travelled over a huge undulating plateau. Sometimes there was no vegetation just volcanic larva fields, other times grassy banks and lakes with birds and geese and swans flying over.
We stopped at a remote cafe in the middle of volcanic waste. It was still being built. It was eco friendly with grass roof, grass sods piled up around the base more like peat. And huge wooden interior. The seats were covered in horse skins and sheepskins for cushions. I wish I’d taken a photo. The owner was selling his artwork and souvenirs too. He also had a jar asking for donations towards his next holiday to Japan😀.
Our quest was to take a photo of huge basalt cliffs and the roaring river at Studlagil Canyon. You follow gravel roads for quite a few miles. At the carpark you walk down lots of steps to a viewing platform. It was so interesting. The basalt is formed as crystals as the larva cools.
(If you go to the other side there is a 5mile plus return walk to view and you get a better view)
It was so windy there. It took all our strength to walk back up the many steps that were grouped into 18 steps that i kept counting to encourage me to keep going! So pleased we did it.
Further on the a1 road we saw many waterfalls. We climbed up to see this one.
Next we began to see loads of sheep farming. The farmers are rounding up their sheep at the moment for winter and we saw this happening.
The roads on the East are easy to negotiate and no worries. We reached small towns and were getting near to our destination.
To our surprise we had to climb 3000 metre mountains with hairpin bends up and then down to the fjord, we wondered where we were going.
Seydisfjordur is the fishing town we are staying at. It is gorgeous and historic. It has lots of old traditional wooden houses and craft shops.
We are in the old bank in a cosy bedroom under the eaves, with a large double bed and tucked in an enclosed corner a single bed.
At this town the ferry comes in once a week from Denmark.. what a journey over the mountains for all the cars vans and lorries!
More tomorrow as we explore this fjord and close by.
We had rain all through the night and then all day today. It was mostly like a foggy rain and misty, then faster at times.
We decided to try the silver ring route today. We headed up the coast getting closer to the arctic circle. Iceland doesn’t quite touch the arctic circle but is close in the north.
We went to a sea town called Husavik. There was no wind and so lovely reflections in the harbour. Here is popular for whale watching tours and we saw three boatloads going off and one returning.
Instead we went to the whale museum.
There were skeletons of different whales, small minke whales to the best in the museum a blue whale! The blue whale had washed up along the coastline and had been the start of this collection.
There were documentaries about the Faroes whale culling and slaughter and their point of view about this. Interesting but very wrong!
We spent a long time in there as it was so interesting.
As it was pouring when we came out we went to a fish
restaurant/cafe/bar. We treated ourselves to fish of the day dinner. It was a fish similar to cod they said. It was oven cooked,fresh and tasty. With rice noodles asparagus jus and kale with small potatoes.
We continued on our way after walking around the harbour now looking at the wooden boats.
Along the silver trail we reached Asbyrgi. It is a huge canyon surrounded by a deep half circle arc of cliffs. This is part of the volcanic landscape and was probably created by fierce rivers. We stayed in the
information centre for a while.
I took all my images on my small camera as I didn’t want to get my big camera wet.
On the return journey we passed by Godafoss. This time we walked down the other side of the falls and got a better view of them.
Back in Akureyri it has stopped raining and although damp with low swirling fog along the mountains, it looks stunning over the sea.
Retirement Here I Come 