Lisa
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Museums on Route 1
Thorbergssetur at the Hali farm in Sudursveit was a guide book recommendation for supper after visiting Diamond Beach. There was a recorded voice playing from a rock near the parking lot. Inside is a restaurant, gift shop and museum dedicated to the author Thorbergur Thordarson, the voice coming from the rock. We ordered supper, then…
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Museums in Reykjavik
On June 29th, our first day in Iceland, after eating lunch at the Cat Cafe, we walked up the rainbow road to the Hallgrimskirkja, the tallest church in Iceland, but it was closed for services. We then meandered through neighborhoods to the Pjodminjasafn Islands National Museum. We noticed metal roofs and transome windows everywhere. Tipping…
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Geothermal areas
The Blue Lagoon was our first geothermal encounter, and that national treasure gets its own page. After supper on that first day with the car, we ventured back out to the Hveradalir Geothermal Area which is a small spot near Hveragerdi with bubbling hot springs and sulfur in the air. We were the only ones…
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Glaciers (jokull) and Icebergs
On July 3rd, Solheimojokull was our first visit to a glacier with pieces of it floating in the water and heading out to sea. It was raining pretty good when we arrived, so we walked the path up to observe the glacier and took some pictures. There were kayakers in the water with the small…
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River Canyons (jugur)
The Fjadrarglijufur River Canyon is a nice stop between Vik and Hofn with a lower and upper parking lot. We parked in the lower one, then hiked along the rim to see this one-kilometer long narrow canyon that is 100 meters deep and quite beautiful. The river has that blue-glacier color. We stopped at a…
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Lava (hraun) Fields
Our first close-up view of lava fields was on our first dirt-road drive to find the Votaberg Tectonic Cliff, which was just a five-minute drive up the road from the lava tunnel cave we toured. The road got worse and worse as we drove in, so we finally just stopped and got out and walked…
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Lava Tunnel Caves (hellir)
Raufarholshellir caves were fun but safe to walk through. We were required to wear our lighted helmets at all times, and our guide even had to stop everything and tell one woman to put hers back on or she would have to leave the tunnel. They have rock stairs, and walkways and strategic lighting to…
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Lighthouses (Viti):
Typical Icelandic lighthouses are square-shaped with colors being white, orange or yellow. They have over one hundred; we didn’t see them all. Dyrholaey Lighthouse is where we saw our first puffins. They were on the cliff to the east of this lighthouse and relatively close to us. Skarsviti is on Vatnsnes peninsula where we watched…
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Waterfalls, East and North
After eating pizza in Egilsstadir, we decided nothing would be better on a full stomach than a waterfall hike before checking into our hotel. Fardagafoss is east of town and has a small parking lot. We had only two other groups there as we hiked. The views of the river valley were fantastic. Supposedly there…
