Kirkjubaejarklaustur to Westmann Island, September 9, 2019

We were so beat last night that we went to bed at 8:30!!  And slept in a bit this morning, too!  Breakfast had fresh waffles as an addition to the classic Icelandic offerings.  The wifi passcode is ilovewaffles!!  After breakfast we chatted with our hostess, whose name is spelled Diana, although out is pronounced differently.  She and her husband just bought the guest house two years ago and are gradually remodeling it.  He is also a house painter and they moved from Reyjkevik.  She actually lived in a small town outside the city that has Viking roots and suggested that we might find it interesting!  They have four kids from six to twenty!  And the whole family is going to Orlando on vacation.

To warm/dry your shoes!

When we ask about the puffins in Westmann, Diana tells us that when the baby birds get confused about where to fly, the locals gather them up, but them in a box over night, and throw them into the ocean in the morning!  Kind of like our sea turtles!

Diana also tells us a story about Kirkjubaejarklauster.  It seems there was a monastery and a nunnery there, and one of the sisters was “involved” with one of the monks.  They thought it was one of two sisters, and when they both proclaimed their innocence, they were both killed.  They buried them in the same place and it is said that grass grows green above the innocent one and stays brown above the guilty one.  There is a statue there now.  Of course nothing happened to the monk.  (We have to see the statue for ourselves!)

We pack up and drive the five and a half kilometers back to the Ring Road (Road Number One) and head for our first stop.  It’s a hike along the rim of the Fjadrarglijufur Canyon.  That’s something we haven’t done yet!  It’s awe-inspiring!  We see a bride and groom getting their wedding photos done and meet a girl with a Siesta Key t-shirt.  She’s not American!  There are tons of Japanese tourists and a guy with a drone.  Marilyn tells him that in the US you have to have a license to fly those.  Another man comments that you need a license for a drone but not for an AK-47.

The hiking paths with this grating are so much nicer to walk on, with a little traction!

The rental camper-vans are all fun!

Further down the road is the town of Vik, one of the population centers, with 300 residents!  There is a wool factory and we’re interested in the factory tour.  Turns out that it’s just the discounted part of the huge store!  But there is a cafe and we need fuel for us, having already fueled the car!

Vik also has a little church with a grand view of the shore and the “dragon’s teeth” sea stacks.  The church is locked but you can peer through the stained glass windows on one side and see those on the other side.  Of course the glass is textured, so you get kind of an “artistic” shot of them.

We’re working against a deadline, because our ferry to the Westmann Islands leaves at 6:15 and we have to be thirty minutes early.  Right after Vik there is a turn off for Reynisfjara and we must the crashing waves and the black sand.  We’ve been warned not to turn out back on the ocean because there are “sneaker” waves that will emerge suddenly and sweep away the unsuspecting tourist!  And the waves are pretty scary!  There is also a kind of grotto with basalt columns very like the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland!

Do you like your photos with or without people?

There are more waterfalls on Gunnar’s agenda;  but we’ve got to get moving and we have seen one or two already!  

Glacier tongue, from the moving car

And another one!  There are lots!

This is Skogafoss, one of the ones we were supposed to stop for.  It's probably even
more glorious up close, but, oh well.  This will do!

I take lots of grab shots (sorry so many are for my geologist’s soul) and we get to see more sheeps being rounded up for the winter!

More turf houses

Everyone wears a helmet when they ride.

We had a blue sky for a little while!

More road construction;  they don't use flagmen.  I guess they are more trusting than we are!

The horses are often used in the round ups, in addition to the four-wheelers.

You don't see much cultivated pasture.

We are just a few minutes ahead of schedule and are second in line to board the ferry.  First we have to figure out why we have three pieces of paper that appear to be our tickets!  Turns out there is one for the car and one for each of us!  And of course the bottom half of each one will get us back off the island tomorrow!

We find Eldey Guest House with not much trouble, considering all the street signs are in Icelandic, when they exist at all!  The apartment is just that!  The bedroom has a mini-fridge and toaster and such, and there’s an ensuite.  Quite luxurious considering this is the one place that Gunnar didn’t book for us and Marilyn says it was cheap!!

We just bring in some things and head off to find dinner.  We wind up at the Gott Restaurant and order the goat cheese salad with chicken and tons of pecans, also apples, pears, and croutons, all with pecan dressing.  It’s so delicious that we recommend it to the German kids to sit down at the table next to us.

When we go to pay the check, our waitress gets a map and recommends some activities for tomorrow.  She had also tried to find the birch liqueur that I’ve been searching for.

Time for bed!!  Tomorrow we’ll see if there are any puffins left on the island!