Iceland - Day 10 Again

In my enthusiasm for the lava beach I completely forgot to mention a few other interesting spots yesterday. I'll blame it on exhaustion after a very long day.

When we were hit by those unbelievable winds about midmorning they did more than create havoc with our car and picture-taking. That stretch of the trip we had the ocean to our left and frequent small lakes to our right. The wind was causing rough waves in both, but in the mist rising from the lakes rainbows appeared to skip across the water pushed by the wind. It happened repeatedly so I finally checked to make sure I wasn't the only one seeing this strange sight.

One stop (after the wind) was to a little sod-covered building that must be a restaurant and picnic area during tourist season (May - September). There was a hole in the ground and a large sign stating that it was where the journey to the center of the earth began. None of us wanted to try it. But I had read that the Brendan Fraiser movie was filmed in parts of Iceland. Now we will have to watch it again to see if we recognize anything.

We also missed a turn off the highway we had been following since leaving Borgarnes onto a gravel road that would keep us on the coast. We realized this rather quickly as the road headed straight up the Snæfellnes mountain range that fills the center of the peninsula. The road was narrow so we had to climb for a bit before William could find a spot wide enough to turn around. But we had been warned that this was the high mountain pass going up to the glacier, Snæfell-jokull, and we should probably stay off of it. After seeing how much snow, ice and slick road we encountered on the LOW pass on our return, I am very glad that we came back down when we did. Besides, we would have completely missed that spectacular lava beach.

We got back to Reykjavìk in time for supper at a restaurant our landlord recommended, Pöturinn ög Panninn (Pots and Pans). It was our first time at anything more than a sandwich shop. I had monkfish - something I had never heard of but read that it was popular here - while Jimmie had a steak that he was not sure was beef. But both were delicious.

- Linda