Monday, July 4. Visited the varied terrain of the Lake Myvarn area. VIsited the “oven” of Hverabraud, or dark homemade bread. The baker uses a steam pit adjoining a hotspring. Delicious with a spoonful of butter. The entire area is a geothermal gold mine.

Then our olfactory senses were assailed by the stink of the Namafjall mud pools. Trully awful. It’s an alien environment suitable for the movies. Incredible sight.

Walked around the black castle lava formations of Dimmuborgir. Another alien vista.

Had lunch (cod again) next to the Skutustadir pseudocrater field, then did a short walk around a few of them. Scientists can’t quite explain how pseudocraters are formed. One of only two locations on earth where they appear. (They weren’t very photogenic, hense no photos.)

Godafoss “waterfall of the gods”, so named because a famous leader threw his pagan images into the falls after converting to Christianity. Very pretty, but a tourist trap. Charges for parking, expensive shop.

Had our Home Hosted Dinner. With a fun foursome. Lots of stories swapped. 

Sunday, July 3. This was mostly a travel day, from western to Northern Iceland. (At breakfast I had an oppurtunity to eat horse meat. Hard pass.) There were several tunnels, again frustrating my desire to see mountains. Stopped at the Siglufjorour fishing village, which in its past was a boomtown for the herring fishing business. Attended a briefing (from a Greek immigrant) about the history of collecting Icelandic folk music. She demostrated some of the traditional musical instruments. We had lunch at a popular little restaurant that serves a culturally diverse buffet. Afterwards we visited the Herring Era Museum, which was created just as the last buildings from the era were about to come down. This was a very well thought out and thorough establishment.

Continued our drive to Akureyri, which uses heart-shaped red lights. Marvelous views. In winter it’s a popular ski resort town. Dinner in the hotel.

Saturday, July 2. OMG, another waterfall. This one had a bridge spanning the lower river, making photos easier. It’s different in that it cuts through flat ground. You’d not know it was there from a few hundred yards away.

Stopped by the execution site of Agnes Magnusdottir, the last person executed in Iceland (1830). Though she was certainly guilty of something, obviously in hindsight her death is now considered extreme. An Australian grad student got her PHD by studying the event, then wrote an award-winning book about it (“Burial Rites”). I’ve read it. Very sad and disturbing from a “women are treated like slaves” perspective. A movie is being considered with Jennifer Lawrence in the lead role.

The rest of the day was spent at a Horse-training farm. Four cute girls were charmingly underfoot the whole time. The trainer was a young lady who bought the business from her father. Great fun. Some people rode on a horse, but only around the paddock. Another great photo oppurtunity.

Our hotel was, for once, in the country. Very windy location under heavy clouds. Happily, they had a bar. After dinner, some companions come together on the leeward patio of my room and we had a good time chatting. I walked up to the church on the hill afterwards (10PM!) for photos. As usual, the small graveyard was well maintained.

Friday, July 1. Blog failed. Without providing the ridiculous details of why it crashed, I’ll just say it’s up and running again. So my log continues.

Received a briefing on “Immigration”, though it was more generalized than that. It could almost have been retitled “Racism in Iceland”. Detailed the challenges foreign people face in a happily homogeneous culture. Based on the young and – immigrant herself – lecturer, I’m not sure Icelanders consider themselves biased or the immigrants unIcelandic.

Visited the Haafell goat farm and had a great time. One surviving goat from Game of Thrones was present.  Iceland is home to a special breed of goat. Tried some goat milk and it was delicious. Haafell is home to the “Queen of Goat Herders”. Very nice woman.

Next stop was Hraunfossar waterfalls, under a field of lava. I’d seen the same phenomena in Japan, where the water shoots out from underground streams. It was cool then, it’s cool now.

Kleppjarnsreykir greenhouse and restaurant. Americans opened it as a startup just as the Pandemic hit. Struggled to survive. They “cleanse” their garden each year by simply flooding the grounds with extremely hot water. Kills everything. Excellent tomato, carrot and mushroom soups. As usual, the bread was especially tasty.

Viewed some geothermal vents that for once included warning signs. Icelanders expect responsible people, so warning signs are rare. In this case there were too many people dipping their hand into steam that literally exceeded the temperature of boiling water.

We returned to the same hotel. I had another hot dog. Still too messy for my taste.