"" Writer's Wanderings: October 2016

Monday, October 31, 2016

Celebrating 48 Years!

This year was our forty-eighth wedding anniversary. Many times we have been on the road or out at sea celebrating but this year we were between trips. My wonderful and clever husband decided to surprise me with an overnight stay at one of the nice bed and breakfasts in our area.

The Inn at Brandywine Falls is actually on Cuyahoga Valley National Park land and is a top rated B&B. The neat thing too was that about 25 years ago when they were first getting started and I was still writing for a small local newspaper, I got to interview the couple who own and operate it. I was excited to see how things were going.

Katie and George Hoy are still the quintessential hosts. The house was built in 1848 and has been renovated but kept true to its original design. An out building has also been restored and made into two suites called The Granary. We stayed in one of them for our anniversary night.

The Loft, as our suite was called was very rustic and certainly country with all of the chicken themed accessories. There were two futons in the sitting area, a table in the area that was glassed in and resembled a wall of a greenhouse that looked out into a shaded area of the yard. On the table was a bowl of fresh fruit, two homemade cookies and best of all, two homemade chocolate buckeyes. If you are a buckeye, especially an OSU buckeye, you know the delight of the peanut butter/chocolate treat.

One other unique feature was the train that ran on a track above our heads. You could turn it on with a light switch by the door. We left it off. I was afraid it would make me dizzy.

We went for a walk to the falls which were about five minutes up the bike trail from the Inn. A photography class was all set up at the lower viewing area taking pictures. The falls spread out almost like a bridal veil train. After all the waterfalls we saw in Iceland it was still special to view this one.

Back around the Inn we enjoyed watching the variety of chickens and a couple of goats that reside in the yard of the Inn before heading out to dinner at a local restaurant. It was a quiet evening when we returned.

While our evening was nice, the best part of our stay was breakfast. The Hoys and their staff put on quite a spread. There was cinnamon/apple oatmeal with toppings and fresh fruit, orange juice in a fancy stemmed glass, a sausage meatloaf with herb-seasoned scrambled eggs and George's fresh baked oatmeal bread. Add to all that a great cup of coffee with bottomless refills and you have some of what made this breakfast great.

George joined us while Katie served up the hot meal. She then joined us as well and the stories began to flow. There were historical notes about the area and tales of adventures of being a B&B host and the guests (there were ten of us around the table) joined in with their own stories. An hour and a half later we all decided we'd better get on our way or we'd be there for lunch.


It  was back to reality for us--the grocery store and home just a half hour away. Such fun and an anniversary to remember and we didn't even have to drive far to enjoy it.






Friday, October 28, 2016

Iceland - Reykjavik

Our last day on the road had us heading for Reykjavik and beyond to Keflavik where the airport is. We would spend one night there and leave the next morning for our flight to Toronto. Our last day was not going to be so nice. It was gray and rainy and windy and foretelling of the weather that would surely be changing soon to usher in the winter season.

Bob only had a couple of things on our GPS list to stop at. The first was a thermal hot spring. Not just any hot spring though. This one, the Deildartunguhver Hot Spring, the most powerful hot spring in the country. It puts out 200 l/sec of 100 C water. That equates to 53 gallons/sec of boiling (212F) water coming out of the spring. It is piped to the towns of Borganes and Akranes which are fairly large and on the outskirts of Reykjavik. Most of the water is used for central heating.

There really wasn't much to see there except for a pool of boiling water and a pumping station that channels the water to the towns. Just as well as it was rainy again.

Our other stop for the day was the Grotta Lighthouse. It sits in the middle of a nature preserve that closes during breeding season for the sea birds in the area. Grotta is an island--sort of. You reach it at low tide along a breakwall with a sandy bank.

Rain. Wind. Is this really necessary?

We bundled up and set out. The lighthouse is not anything historical. It's a lighthouse. You can't get into it. There are several other small buildings there but nothing we saw to say if they were significant. Thankfully the tide was out. We hadn't considered that. We walked along the exposed sandy shoreline that banked against the breakwall. Pictures taken quickly, we walked back buffeted by the wind that was in our faces on the return trip.

By the time we had lunch and got to Keflavik it was time to check into Hotel Berg. It was a pleasant change after the tight quarters of the night before. The hotel had a European flavor and we enjoyed the comfortable surroundings.

The rental car company had agreed to pick up the car if we left it at the hotel which wasn't that far from where we had originally started out two weeks before. We brought everything inside and I began rearranging things so they would all fit back in the suitcases. We had used the larger suitcase as our base in the back of the car and taken the clean clothes as we needed them and put them in the smaller suitcase that we took into the places we stayed. That way we only carried both suitcases in once or twice to adjust things. Our coats, jackets and rain gear had just sat on the back seat but now it all needed to go back in. Could I do it?

As I struggled with the clothes, Bob went out and made sure all the trash was out of the car and that we hadn't left any personal items anywhere in a door or seat. Both of us finished up and celebrated with a cup of coffee in the sitting area of the hotel.

It was still raining when it came time for dinner. Thankfully we didn't have far to go since we had to walk. Bob had already given the car key to the desk for the rental company to collect. We ran across the street, past a marina and up some stairs. All in all maybe 5 minutes of windy rain. The restaurant looked very nice but once inside, the smell of fish hit me and I wasn't sure I really wanted much and certainly not fish.

We ordered lamb chops and by the time they came, my stomach was adjusting. The lamb chops were more like loin chops and a little fatty but wow, did they taste good. Thankfully our last meal in Iceland turned out to be a good one.

The next morning we were driven to the airport and boarded our plane for Toronto. Leaving Iceland behind in the rain was not as nice a send off as our arrival had been but it made going home easier. Our time in this wonderful country had been very enjoyable even with some of the rainy days. There just may have to be a return trip. We saw the Northern Lights but we still didn't get to see the puffins--our only regret.





Thursday, October 27, 2016

Iceland - Northern Lights Take 2

The Aurora Bourealis prediction for this night was excellent as far as clouds went. It was to be a clear night. The only problem was that it also meant it would be a chilly night as well. The question though was how active would the lights be? It was only a number 3 on a scale of 0 to 9, a moderate forecast.


We were waiting to go outside and set up the camera when a knock came on our door. The gentleman proprietor of the guesthouse was letting everyone know that the action had begun. I think it was about 10 PM. I didn't look at the time. I just grabbed my jacket and my camera and headed out the door looking back briefly to see if Bob was behind me. He was.


We tried to set up right by the cabin but there was too much light streaming out of the cabins around us and also a large hill behind us that was obscuring part of the action. We decided to walk to the end of the drive past the cabins and set up there. It was perfect except for the occasional car that went by on the road in front of us and the moon that was almost full shining brightly behind us. Thankfully there wasn't a lot of traffic and the moon was hidden for a time behind some clouds.


I got a little more experimental with my settings but still found that the best shots seemed to be with an ISO of 400, F stop at 4.5, and shutter at 30 seconds.


Several people joined us with cameras on tripods. We stayed for about an hour and then gave up. The lights were not quite as good I thought as the first time and we were really getting cold. Still, I got a few good shots out of it and the experience of seeing them a second time.







The Big Dipper looked so much bigger in the sky over Iceland.

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Monday, October 24, 2016

Iceland - Spelunking and Trolls

The problem with a bananas and peanut butter lunch at a picnic bench by the shore has nothing to do with the gorgeous scenery, the fresh air, or the company. The problem was there was no rest room and we had a ways to go before reaching our next stop.

We were nearing another glacial area of Iceland, Snaefellsjokull, and rounding the point of land that it sits on which is all a part of the park area. No little towns in sight. No public rest rooms that we could see. Eventually we arrived at Vatnshellir, the cave that is actually a lava tube that was on our list to see. The last tour was just finishing and the next wasn't to start for another twenty minutes. I looked around the little shed that housed the equipment for the tours and to my dismay saw nothing of comfort.

I gave in and asked the attendant if there was a rest room. Oh sure, she said, just down the road a bit. We had plenty of time. She promised they wouldn't leave without us.

Down the road was a huge (by Iceland standards) information and nature center and comfortable facilities around the side of the building. Whew! Refreshed we hurried back up the road to the cave and bought our tickets.

All decked out in fashionable helmets and equipped with a flashlight, we waited for the rest of the people who were arriving just in time and being outfitted. As I looked at the cylindrical entrance and thought about descending 120 feet down into an 8.000 year old lava tube I began to wonder if I'd somehow had changed internally with this trip. Maybe I was still suffering the effects of the Mount Fuji climb but I was stretching my comfort zone so far I was afraid it was going to snap and send me flying. I'd been in a hot spring and a nature bath, I'd walked behind waterfalls, stood next to hot pots and steaming fissures, gone through one lane tunnels and now I was going to descend into who knows what. Before I could freak, the tour guide began.

Over the door she opened to the stairway we would take down there was a sign. She translated, "Underworld." Okaaay.

We walked down some steps and found ourselves in the upper section of the cave. Our guide told us that this was the inspiration for the 1864 science fiction story by Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth. The German professor has a theory that the lava tubes in the Snaefellsjokull volcano will go down to the center of the earth and eventually he not only reaches center but comes out of the Stromboli volcano in Italy. Appropriately just before descending the second set of stairs, there is a wooden arrow pointing down and labeled "Stromboli."

Unlike the other lava tubes we've been to in other places, these were entirely underground with no daylight. You could see the way the molten lava flowed through in the formations in the rocks. Of course what is a trip down to the center of the earth without turning out the lights. I've done this before I thought only the last time Bob was driving 60 MPH down a road in the middle of Australia in a pitch black moonless night. Shucks. This is nothing lady.

No one freaked in the dark and eventually we all turned our lights back on and started our way back up to fresh air and sunshine. Maybe I could make it on one of those survivor shows. Um--nope!

We turned in our spelunking tools and made our way back to the information center where we walked to a landmark of two pillars of rock that were standing all alone on the shore, Londrangar. There was no getting really close to them from our position since you had to ford a water inlet to do so. That was fine. Close up they just would have been a wall of rock. They had a lot more character from a distance. And I was sure there would be no puffins here.

Talking about character, how about these characters in the story we found as we stopped to explore the troll canyon, Raudfeldar. Here's how the story goes:

Bardur Snaefellsas was said to be half man, half troll. He lived with his voluptuous and handsome daughters near Laugabrekka at the end of the 9th century. His brother Porkell, lived in Arnarstopi with his two sons. One day when the cousins were playing, one of the boys pushed one of the girls into an iceberg and she floated off to Greenland. She was unharmed but Bardur was so angry that he killed his two nephews. He pushed the one named Raudfeldar into the canyon and the other off a nearby cliff. After this is was said that Bardur went into the glacier and was never seen again. If you are lucky they say, you might see Bardur who is still watching over the area.

We climbed the hill to the narrow hidden entry into the fissure of the rock wall. The only way you could tell there was a way into the fissure was that there was a small creek running out of it. Once up near the entry you edge your way around a rock hoping you won't meet someone coming the other way since there's only room for one of you and then you find yourself in a small grotto. You can try to climb your way up the creek but the fissure gets even smaller and though I thought I would try, I was afraid I was going to end up soaking wet if I slipped. I turned around only to find that Bob was taking pictures of his crazy wife.

Our adventure over, no trolls encountered, we continued on to Guesthouse Hof where we hoped the night would bring another glimpse of the Northern Lights. We checked into the smallest quarters we'd had the whole trip. The rooms were in cabins that had one double room and a single room. Ours was a single with a king bed. Perhaps the beds were smaller when it was first built because we just about had enough room to squeeze between the wall and the bed. The cleanliness of the bathroom was questionable as well but it was only for one night.

Down the road a ways we found a restaurant at another hotel that supposedly wasn't rated as high as our guesthouse. I wondered. We had a nice dinner sitting at a window that looked out at the sun that was getting low in the sky. I thought with the spattering of clouds there just might be a nice sunset. On the way back to our guesthouse, we pulled off onto a gravel road and stopped. We had a great view of a glorious sunset. I could only hope it meant the lights would be on in the sky after dark.





Friday, October 21, 2016

Iceland - The Horses

As it seemed to be the case, a day of rain would be followed by a day of sunshine. Thank goodness because it seemed that though he didn't have much on his to-see list the day before this one would be full again.

Breakfast was made more interesting by an Australian couple who happened to find the restaurant open and opted to buy into their morning buffet. We enjoyed our conversation but all too soon all of us were realizing we had a long day ahead. They were coming from the direction we were heading and talked of the gravel road slowing them down. Gravel road? I looked at Bob. I thought we were done with gravel roads. He just smiled.

A while later we were bouncing along another gravel road. This one was nothing like the other day though. It was almost like pavement. Or was I just getting used to them? We were about to pass a red dot town. (There had been nothing up until now.) That was pretty important. Red dots meant a population of 1,000 to 4,999 according to our map and that was just one step below a city like Reykjavik. There was bound to be a place for coffee and, well, you know.

We had to detour slightly from our main route but it was worth the trip. We found a very nice cafe that was near the wharf area of the town, Stykkisholmur. This is the place to catch a ferry to cross the large Breidafjordur and/or stop at the island of Flatey. We had opted to drive around the fjord instead of taking a five hour ferry ride. The couple at breakfast would be driving to the northern ferry dock and coming back here to their hotel later.

After coffee and on our way out of town, I had Bob stop near a field of horses that were near the road. It was a great day to photograph them and I had been waiting for the chance to get near them. The Icelandic horses are unique. They were brought to Iceland from Europe by settlers over eleven centuries ago. It is said that while the horses in Norway and Germany that they are descended from were bred with horses from other lines, the Iceandic horses were not mixed with other breeds.

At first the horses were used mainly for transportation and farm work in the early 1900s  but as industrialization took over, the horses became used more for sport and family somewhere around the 1940s and 50s. The horses are bigger than Shetand ponies but smaller than other horses and sturdy. While they may not have the elegance of show or thoroughbred racers, they are said to be ideal for riding. And certainly there are lots to ride. We passed many signs advertising riding establishments.

The horses vary in color and markings. My favorites were the chestnuts with the blonde mane. Their manes are all beautiful and long and outstanding when the wind whips through them. I kept thinking of paintings of horses running with their manes flying.

I wondered how they held up in winter since it appeared that they were outside mostly. I read that in the winter their coat doubles in thickness.

The most outstanding feature of the horse is the extra gaits. Along with the usual three, walk, trot and canter, there is also a gait called tolt, a "running walk", and a gait called skold or "flying pace". Some horses can reach almost 30 miles an hour with the latter.

Disease is almost unknown to them and the government regulates them for their own safety. No horse taken out of Iceland is allowed back in and only new horse equipment can be imported into the country so as not to introduce something to the horses that could decimate the population.

The fact that the horse is not easily spooked is attributed to the lack of predators and also said to factor into their friendliness. They all slowly tend to move toward visitors who stand by the fence to take pictures or pet them. I'm guessing a few apples passed along probably help too.

Yes, as you can see, I was quite fascinated. I will probably even do a post with just horse pictures and dedicate it to my horse-loving young friend.

We backtracked just a bit to see a church Bob had on his list of attractions programmed into our GPS. It was dubbed "the black church" because of its color. Most of the churches in Iceland are white with red roofs. This is due to the Danish influence since they were a part of Denmark for so long and the Lutheran church was an important part of that.

The farm it sits on, Bjarnarhofn, is also home to a shark museum that we passed on. There was someone who lived here long ago who was considered the most psychic Icelander ever and he was followed by a fellow who wrote a book about the botany of Iceland. The church itself was built in 1856 and was said to have an altarpiece from 1640, a cassock dating back to the 1500s, a chalice from 1286 and a pulpit from 1694. I was excited to explore but when we got there we found that we could only view the church from outside the church yard. Curtains were drawn over the windows so there was not even a chance to peek in from a distance.

The area was beautiful though and the day was sunny and we took our time just drinking it all in and breathing the fresh air. In addition to having really good water, they have really good air in Iceland.

On our way past the pasture, we stopped once more for a couple of photos of their horses before continuing on to the gas station we had passed on our way in. Bob used his gas card up that wouldn't do us any good back home. He'd purchased one the first day out just in case we got somewhere out in no man's land and had to pump at a self serve with no attendant in sight. He also gave our rental another car wash and promised me no more gravel roads. Yeah, yeah.

We were a long ways from no where when it was time to eat lunch. That and the fact that I still had two bananas and some peanut butter to use up had us stopping at a spot with a picnic bench. It was along the shore and we enjoyed the breeze and warm sunshine while lathering globs of peanut butter on a banana and eating. It's actually not a bad lunch.

Next up spelunking and visiting a troll's canyon--but I'll save that for the next post.


Thursday, October 20, 2016

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.





Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Iceland - Exploring the West

The plan was to head west from Flokalundur and circle around a peninsula that had a point with a huge cliff that was famous for lots of birds including puffins. While it wasn't a real sunny day, it was certainly a lot drier than the day before had been. There would also be a long gravel road to travel today so Bob was already planning for another car washing experience later in the day upon our return.

Our first encounter on the road would be a common road hazard, sheep. Out away from the major cities, the sheep roam free and in some areas it is hard to imagine how in the world they can manage to hang on to the steep hillsides. This morning it was obvious that sometimes they took the easy way out and used the road way to get from one place to another. We happened upon this group of sheep who couldn't get off the road to get out of our way because there was a sheer drop on the side. They ran along, their wooly backsides bouncing up and down until they found a spot where they could finally climb down. It was funny watching them run--reminded me of a Halloween wig one of my kids had that bounced on his head as he ran down the sidewalk.

I don't know where Bob got all his information about places to stop but he found some unusual ones including the oldest steel ship in Iceland that had been beached years ago. It had been built in 1912 in Norway and beached in 1981. Its original purpose was for whaling but when that became restricted, it became a fishing vessel. The steel hull was more appropriate for getting through the ice at the end or beginning of a season. When it had outlived its usefulness its owners decided that rather than scuttle it they would run it aground and now it is a favorite spot for photographers.

Eventually our road turned to gravel and not just gravel but huge pot holes. Bob weaved from one side of the road to the other trying to avoid them but there were lots of spots where they were unavoidable. It slowed us down and threatened to give us whiplash as we bounced in and out from one to the other. When we reached Hnjotur and saw a restaurant sign, we were ready for our morning coffee break.

The place was actually a cafe with a museum of collectibles that came from the owner of the farm it was built on. The owner was especially interested in aviation and an out building held other exhibits having to to with planes. In front of it were several plane carcasses including a US Navy plane. We didn't explore the museums. There was a fee and we weren't in the museum mood. The coffee was excellent though, the facilities clean and once we were done with our rest break, we continued on with the hope that our cafe hostess was right. The first part of the road was the worst.

The point of the peninsula had a lighthouse and what is said to be a 14 km long cliff called Latrabjarg, where the sea birds come to nest in the breeding season. The wind was whipping around. I couldn't tell if there was a misty rain or if it was just the sea water being carried by the winds but it did seem a little wet. I wondered what the weather was like when the men hung on the side of the cliffs collecting eggs. The practice of egg collecting only happens once in a while now. It stopped somewhere around the 1950s.

A path led up to the top of the cliff and we could see where the birds had made nests in the crevices of the rocks. Of course we had already learned that the puffins breeding season had ended in August but nothing I could find told me where they went when the season was over. When I finally had some time I discovered that scientists aren't really sure exactly where they go except out to sea. They have tried tracking them but haven't been entirely successful. They do seem to think that the winter months are spent out in the open ocean feeding on fish of course. Apparently they are very buoyant and hardy.

After our picture taking, we started back down the gravel road to return to the main asphalt road and circle around to our hotel in Flokalundur. At least on the trip back we knew a little more of what to expect and when it would end.

We found a little town where we could get some lunch. There was a bit of road construction going on and apparently this guy was the "flagger" to be sure you slowed down for the construction area.

Whenever we passed someone on the road who was pulled off we always wondered what they were taking pictures of. You had to be careful though because sometimes a guy would look like he was taking a picture of something when actually he was just relieving himself. As we came down the road at one spot we noticed a car stopped on the other side and a woman watching her companion who was down the road a ways taking a picture of something.

We slowed and asked what he was taking a picture of and she hesitated for a moment. I was afraid we'd embarrassed her but then I realized she was searching for the English words. "Arctic fox," she said and pointed. Just at that time the fox decided to scamper across the road. We pulled over and I hopped out with my camera. I tried to get a couple shots down the side of the road where he seemed to be eating something.

Quickly I yelled to Bob to grab my other lens from the glove compartment and I did one of the fastest lens changes I've ever done. I was rewarded with some great shots especially when he moved away from the pile of rocks he was in. He didn't seem intimidated by us. Maybe I should have been worried but I was too excited to think about it until later. I never did figure out what he was eating. What an amazing encounter! It was the last thing I would have expected to see out in the open like that.

We went on our way counting out all the different animals we'd seen already: the reindeer, the whale, seals, swans, and now an Arctic fox. Amazing.

Back at our hotel, it was decision time. Did I want to try out the hot spring or not? We walked over to it to see if it was crowded. There were a few couples in it but it looked like they were about to get out. We walked back, borrowed the robes and towels and changed into bathing suits. No way were we walking back though. We drove.

By the time we got there a family of three and three young men who were from India were in the hot spring. We eased our way into the warm water. It wasn't cloudy like the Myvatn Nature Bath but it was a bit algae covered so you had to be careful climbing over the rocks. The family left a little after we got there and we had a nice talk with the young men. We helped each other get pictures and then after about a half hour decided that was enough of an experience. It was time to go. I expected it to be icy cold getting out but surprisingly it wasn't too bad and the robes kept us warm all the way to the car. It was a fun experience.

After dinner we scoped out the possibilities of where we might view the Northern Lights but when a light rain started we gave up the idea of going out again. Besides, the prediction for the location where we would be on Tuesday night was looking good. Maybe I could get some more pictures.

Northern Lights rather than sugarplums were dancing in my head as I went to sleep.

 
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