Varmahid to Laugar, September 2, 2019

There is a houseful getting breakfast to day!  When I get to the table there is a spread but I’m not sure who belongs to what, so I just fix a bowl of strawberry yogurt with granola and have a banana.  The kids from Austria are so good about cleaning up!  We are not planning to leave until ten, since our whale watch isn’t scheduled until one o’clock, so we’re the last ones out.

See that wind?  That's shy we're not whale watching today!

It’s a pleasant drive (any day without fog or rain is a good one!) and we arrive in Dalvik in PLENTY of time to check in.  Turns out it doesn’t matter, since they’ve canceled the afternoon run due to wind conditions.  Well.  At least we’ve gained four hours in today’s schedule.  

Tricky Ricky’s handy book talks about Iceland’s first microbrewery and it’s right on our way! They have a brewpub and it has a beer spa!  Of course we have to stop and see if they serve flights!  They do!  Six beers in a flight and it equals two, yes two, glasses of beer.  The young man manning the taps says Americans are always surprised by the size of the glasses!  My favorites are Kaldi Dark which is a dunker, like the one I loved in Germany and it 5.0% alcohol.  The other one I really like is called Kaldi Tripel.  It’s described as a specialty beer the was first brewed in 2017 and it won Beer of the Year at the Icelandic Beer Festival that year!  It’s alcohol content is 9%. They also have Kaldi Blonde, a pilsner;  Summer Kaldi, 4.5%;  Kaldi IPA 6% (yuck!) And Stinnings Kald which is an amber ale with Angelica, an herb that grows on an adjacent island!  It’s 4.6% and Marilyn’s favorite!

Yes, that's the beer spa!

Since breakfast was kind of light, we decide to drown our disappoint over our canceled whaling adventure by having lunch out!  It helps that we can’t drink all this beer on an empty stomach!  We order two different items and share them, and I’m really glad because I would have hated to miss either one!  One is called a Bad Bun and is BBQ pork and vegetables.  It is so sweet and flavorful and the bun is quite unusual!  The other is called Carpaccio and is described as having parmesan, goat cheese, salad, and pine nuts.  When it arrives there are no pine nuts - but the bottom layer is very thinly sliced beef!  YUM!  And the rest of the beer all disappears, except the IPA which neither of us like.

Well, that was marvelous!  The only other thing we want to do today is see the waterfall called Godafoss, which means Falls of the Gods.  The story goes that a village elder was forced to choose between keeping the pagan faith or converting to Christianity, which was strongly supported by the Norwegian government.  He chose to convert and threw his pagan statue into the falls to demonstrate his determination.

We were advised not to take the new tunnel along Road One, and instead to take the cut off.  Looked easier on the map.  Even with Google maps we had to create our own route - but we did it and came out the other side completely intact!  From there it was an easy jaunt to the waterfall and it was quite beautiful and worth the trip.  Of course, it helped that it was directly on our way to our next guest house!  And that it didn’t require a major hike to get to the viewpoints!  We opted to stay one one side instead of doing both sides, because the wind was really kicking up and we didn’t want to drown our cameras!

From here it isn’t very far to Laugar, where we’ll be spending two nights.  We take the correct turn off but don’t see the place.  Could it be down that dirt road?  Why yes, it could!  No one answers the bell in reception, so we call the number that’s listed and another charming Icelander arrives to check us in.  He gives us directions to a restaurant nearby, which he promises is both good and cheap!  (Nothing in Iceland is cheap!)  Then he prepares to show us our room.  It’s in another building, so Marilyn drives the car but I opt to walk, and the man takes my hand and shows me the way (!). He points out the source of the hot water for the not tub, and the tub itself.  He has me put my hand in the water to demonstrate the temperature, and tells me we can visit the horses nearby at any time!

Marilyn arrives with the car and he leaves.  Unfortunately we can’t get the key to fit in the lock, and he must see us standing around feeling stupid because he zooms back up in his truck.  Turns out the front door is open and this is the key to our individual room.  It’s got one bed and we ask to change to one with two beds.  He’s fine with that but it’s upstairs.  Which is more important?  We opt for the two beds.  We won’t have easy access to the hot tub;  but that’s okay!

We get settled in and drive to the Dalakofinn Restaurant for fish and chips with a side salad.  Real food - twice in one day!  The gods are smiling on my tummy!

Back in our room we see two couples who are walking to the hot tub in boots and the bathrobes provided by the guest house!  More power to them!  It’s really cold out there!

We choose instead to have hot coffee (Marilyn) and tea (me) in our room and play a little catchup with our plans and our photos.  Gunnar will try to make reservations for us on another whale watching boat for Wednesday morning in Husavik.

In the meantime Stu assures me that the hurricane scare is about over!  And the biggest news —OLE’S FOUND A HOUSE!!  I’ll sleep well tonight!

Ps. Here are a couple of shots that didn’t make it into yesterday’s blog…

Comparing notes on the road conditions while they feed the horses.

Yesterday with had spicy peas with our PBJs!