On the road again

Iceland August -September 2012

Off to Höfn ... We got a later start than planned because of general tiredness, but it is vacation afterall.

Iceland has a multitude of waterfalls. Coming from an arid climate, we find them stunning. Stay tuned, more to come.

Seljalandsfoss, about 50km east of Vik

Seljalandsfoss, one of the tallest waterfalls in Iceland sits at the base of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, about 50km from Vik. You can walk behind it, but the rocks looked awfully slippery and we chose not to. (Vocabulary lesson: "foss" means "waterfall".)



One of my prime duties as John's wife is to act as "photographer's assistant." Sometimes that means "equipment guardian." This is a self portrait doing just that.

Making it up as we go ...

We have taken to applying English words or phrases to long Icelandic sites. This seems to work quite well for us. As an example, when I said, "Take the road to Dumbledore," John turned at the sign to Drumboddsstadir. From time to time, after using the correct word at least once, I will probably do the same in this blog. I am confident you'll know exactly where I'm referring.

Those crazy Americans, taking pictures of sheep ...

Sheep are plentiful; the most common livestock by far. We find them fascinating for some strange reason. Apparently, they cause as much traffic nuisance as deer in Austin.

Laugh all you want, but one ewe came within 2 feet of being a Hertz warning.

On the other hand, these sheep, followed the rules of the road and walked single file on the right side.

One observation we've made is they tend to travel in multiples of three, though quite often just three. And, if there are black sheep, they generally are in the ratio of 1 black to 2 white. Neither of us know much about animal husbandry and perhaps someone can explain this.

The largest glacier in Europe, Vatnajökull, is in the southeastern section of the island. Although, we could see only a few small fingers from the highway, they were awe inspiring. We can't wait to experience them up close. (Vocabulary lesson #2: "kull" means "glacier".)

Some of the effects of our late start, combined with a check-in no later than 8:00 pm at our Höfn hotel:

1. Tourette style outbursts of, "No! We do not have time to stop and take pictures."
2. Eating pre-packaged sandwiches from a gas station. The meat was recognizable (roast beef in one, smoked lamb in the other), but the spread was not. They were tasty, we were hungry, and neither of us got sick.

Goodnight from Höfn and happy gas isn't $8.03/gal in Austin.

Höfn Harbour, across from our guesthouse