Iceland - Another Rainy Day

It began sunny enough and we watched from the dining room window as one of the college students who was working at the Flokalundur Hotel for the season was raising the Icelandic flag. When she came in Bob asked if we should be standing and singing the anthem. She smiled and said yes. After two nights stay there, they were getting used to his humor. "You can teach me," she added with a big smile.

The hospitality at this hotel had been so nice, I almost hated to leave but we had two more days to get us around to Reykjavik and our flight home. We did not have that far to go this day and after a leisure walk to say goodbye to the local sheep, we were on our way again.

There were some pretty spots where we stopped and took a few pictures but soon it clouded over and the thought of me and/or the camera getting wet kept me inside the car. Could I possibly be getting tired of the road trip? Or was it just the rainy weather?

We arrived at our hotel which again was almost the middle of nowhere. It was not in a town but it did have a good sized restaurant on the premises. We pulled up in front of it knowing that it was still to soon to check in but thinking that we could have a long lunch and maybe check in early (that never happens in Iceland--at least not to us.)

The place was dark and even though the hours said it should be open, the sign said closed. Bob tried the door and it was locked but he could see someone in the back moving around. They never came to the door so we figured we'd move on and find some place else to eat.

We drove to the next little town on the map, Laugar, which was quite a ways down the road. Following the map, we turned off the road to the town which consisted of a swimming pool at some facility that had a couple of buses parked in front of it. There was no restaurant that we could see even though TripAdvisor had said there were two.

Well, there was still a lot of time before we had to check in so we headed back to the main road and down to the next little town, Budardalur. This looked a little more promising but as we drove along several of the restaurants were closed. We finally ended up at a market that had a restaurant inside and got some soup and bread.

When we were done, we decided to explore a bit more and drove down to the water where we'd seen an information sign. The information office was inside a place that housed a museum and a nice cafe, Leifsbud, with a banquet room for tour groups. I groaned. Why hadn't we driven here first?

It was still raining out so we decided to follow our soup lunch with a cup of coffee. As we struck up a conversation with the proprietor and a young waitress, he suggested a piece of cinnamon cake and said it was a favorite in Iceland. The waitress chimed in with, "His wife makes it." Now, how could you turn that down?

The cake was sort of like a tort and was not real sweet but it was very tasty. I found some recipes online and will post one later. Good coffee. Great cake. Maybe the day wasn't so bad after all. And with all the hospitality of an Islander, the man offered us a free sample of the fish stew left from the tour group he'd just had in. We declined politely. We had just had lunch.

We drove back to our hotel and it was now definitely time for check in. Pulling up in front of the restaurant/office, it  didn't look much more promising than it had before. There was still a closed sign in the window. Bob checked the door. Still locked.

Back in the car, he pulled out his phone and called the number on the reservation email. The man who answered insisted the place was open and the "girls" were there. He told Bob he'd call and have them come to the door. We waited. And waited. And waited. This was not boding well.

Finally a lady did come to the door and Bob went in and registered. She came out again with him dressed in a winter coat (did she know something we didn't?) and we followed her in the car to the wooden building next door where the rooms were.

The hotel was set up like quads with a large sitting area in the middle and four rooms surrounding it. It echoed in the large room and I could only hope the other guests wouldn't be too noisy. We spent the rest of the afternoon reading and catching up with our internet stuff. While I was off resting in the room, Bob made friends with another couple that came in. They were an interesting couple who had just gotten engaged. Later they shared their engagement video with us. A nicely produced piece that was filmed with the help of a drone.

The couple was from Holland and Estonia and were traveling the world. All they owned (minus a few things at Mom's house) was in the trunk of the rental car. Ah, young love. They were spending this night out of the rain but usually camped out. He designed apps and she was a photographer. I wished them well.

Another night spent without worrying about missing the Northern Lights. Our prediction for the next night was still holding up and getting even better.