Day 10: the South Coast

So, yeah. I woke up sick. Which means, because that's how I roll when I get sick, I got up and threw up a few times, and then felt ok enough to get on with the day. Later, I got the same uri stuff David had.

Once I was up and was able to keep down a slice of plain toast, we headed out to the South Coast.

The South Coast of Iceland is one of the most wonderful places. We had limited time, but wanted to at least get to the two big waterfalls. I mean, this waterfall in winter thing is fascinating!

So off we headed.

The days we were in Iceland were Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday. Iceland has its own set of holidays: Monday was Bolludagur, Bun Day, when they eat cream filled buns. ALAS we were flying in that day, so no buns for us. Icelandair did serve them on internal flights, but not international ones, sob. Tuesday, Mardi Gras for the rest of the world, is Sprengidagur which translates to Bursting Day, the last day before Lent, and people tradionally eat lentil soup and salted meat. We did not. Ash Wednesday is Öskudagur, and at this point, kids dress up in costumes and wander from store to store, sing a little song and get treats.

We stopped at a bakery in Selfoss, ate some pastries (I was hungry by then), and got to listen in a several groups of kids came in and sang! That was fun! I still wish we'd been there for Bun Day, though, LOL.

Anyhow, after our stop, we headed out to Seljalandfoss. No walking behind it, that would have been waaay too dangerous. While people did of course climb over the ropes, we didn't see anyone attempt to actually climb to get behind the waterfall, which was probably a good thing considering slippery ice.

If you like frozen waterfalls, it was certainly impressive!

We continued East towards the next waterfall on the coast, Skogafoss. This one was harder to approach, as if sprayed a lot of mist, and the area close in was pretty much a sheet of ice. I opted to stay back where there was still ice, but it was a little more roughed up. View was great. I had been thinking about walking up the steps to the top of the waterfall (we'd gone down some the day before at Gullfoss) but David wasn't keen, and I was not feeling 100%. Plus I'm always game to go up, stairs or trails, but down is never a good thing, so we skipped.

That was all we'd planned for the day, but it was still light, so we figured we'd head out to one of the more famous (and gorgeous) black sand beaches. We knew Vik would be too far, but figured we'd get to Reynisfjara around sunset and indeed we did.

This beach is dangerous. They explain it all over. Sneaker waves, bad waves etc. And yet people continue to get too close, despite the warnings, and drownings happen. The sight of young women giggling as they run away from waves as their partners films them from a safe distance always leaves me a bit puzzled.

Anyhow, we checked out the basalt columns, enjoyed the sunset and headed back to Reykjavik and the light lingered into darkness.

Some photos...

Seljalandfoss.





Yeah, nope, not heading behind the waterfall today!



Skogafoss. David should have some better photos. Have to upload to Flickr and sort...




Reynisfjara

Day 11: Yarn, Hallgrímskirkja, and home

Or day 12, since I counted our traveling day as 0. Or 13, since technically we left on Saturday... Anyhow. Doesn't matter.

Up early, did most of packing and headed the swimming pool for a last multi-temperature soak. I wasn't feeling great, but this helped.

Our first stop was to the Icelandic Handknitting Association. David had gotten a sweater there on our last trip and the elbow (like all of his sweaters) was in sorry shape, a gigantic hole. So we went and purchased the yarn he'd need to repair it, and another sweater he has, and he got some tips on how to do it best. We got grey yarn and black yarn (his sweater is grey, black, and white), and brown for the other sweater and it never occurred to me at the time to get white yarn too, so we could make a hat or something to match his sweater. Sigh. I can buy the yarn online, and probably will. I was tempted to get some yarn to make myself a hat -they even had kits!- but was afraid of jumping the gun a bit on ability vs cost, LOL.

After, we drove to Hallgrímskirkja. We missed it the previous two trips, the day we were planning on visiting, Perry was sick and not up for the walk, and I have no idea why we didn't go last time, so I was determined to get there. We didn't have a lot of time -actually, considering how early we got to the airport, we would have but eh, we weren't sure and would rather be early than stressed- so we knew we couldn't stay long or to listen to the organ music that was supposed to start in 30 minutes or go up the tower, but we were able to check out the outside, and go inside to visit a bit and gape at the organ. The interior was simple and soaring. The place is truly impressive, the architecture evocative of the basalt columns found in various places in the country. I loved the stained glass doors at the inside entrance, alas as I tried to take photos, people kept on coming in and out and I ran out of patience at time, LOL.









Then to the airport, car return, etc. Boarding and a stoke of luck.

I know I've complained before about how we always seem to have our seats changed at the last minute, to where we end up in the back row in front of the toilets? Well, this trip, on the flights we booked aisle and window on each leg. Didn't matter for the way out, of course, since we were rebooked, but the way back was different: maybe because we weren't together, neither of us was moved, and for the Oslo to Reyjavik trip, we just swapped our aisle with the dude in the middle seat. For the trip home, we figured we'd do the same, but... nobody was there, so we had an empty middle seat. Had not expected that, tbh, it was just another strategy to avoid sitting by the toilets!

Anne-Chloe picked us up in Seattle and we went home to cats!

Some meta thoughts on the trip

Working with a travel agent: it was great. Would I do it again? I don't know. It fit this trip because of some of the constraints: David working a lot over the past few months, me busy/stressed with my mom, and most importantly a winter trip in a format that was very different from our usual "get car, get out of city" pattern.

Which brings me to my next point: I prefer the flexibility of a road trip. Indeed, as soon as we got to Iceland and got a car, things felt more... comfortable. We were on our own schedule, not tied to trains, buses, or whatever, when I felt like crap, we were able to leave later in the day, something that wasn't possible on the days David felt ickiest. I think an additional thing is that because of it being winter and the amount of cold weather stuff we needed to bring, our bags ended up heavier than we'd like, so that's another thing where having a car or a campervan would have made life a bit easier.

Winter travel: would 100% do again, though, again, the problem with road tripping in the winter! But it was wonderful in many ways. I would get some YakTrax or some such. But this was also not a trip on which we were planning on doing any hiking or even much out-of-city walking, and that was something I definitely missed. BTW, I was very happy that I managed the whole trip without ending up on my ass a single time, since that was a source of concern for me! Anyhow, our gear held up to even the worse cold with one exception, and in most of the photos of me I'm wearing two coats with a rain shell on top. Total Michelin man time!

Gear exception: my cold weather boots. I tried on every single wide width pair I could find, and the pair I bought were the best of the bunch. They felt ok when I wore them inside to do some minimal breaking in, but OMG, one day of walking in Tromso and the night we were walking and standing on snow waiting for the Northern Lights made me realize that no, nope, not happening, they're going back. They fit nicely at the wide part of my foot, but the heel was waaay too big, and after some walking, my socks migrated uncomfortably. They had no give at all, I've worn leather boots before (my regular hiking boots are full leather) and these were beyond that, like flat pieces of 2x4 strapped to my feet. In addition, they weren't even warm enough. Back they go to REI. I hate returning stuff that I've used, but these were just too awful.

Last long trip we took, I was a lot heavier than this time. I was walking regularly then too but losing the weight this year made for a better trip. I cannot fathom how uncomfortable I would have been with two coats and a rain shell at my larger weight, this was bad enough.