Day 2: There are no cities!

Monday, June 13, Iceland

lupines

Today I have had a good night's sleep and my blog post will hopefully be better than yesterday's!

This morning, we awoke early enough to shower and eat our meusli breakfast at our hostel in Vik.   Your know, everytime we said Vik, we remembered the subtitled opening credits of Monty Python and the Holy Grail ("Wik, also Wik, also also Wik"--sorry, we're weird!) Then on the road.  We didn't have any specific sights to see today on our way, we would just stop when the mood struck us.  First were the chickens and roosters at our hostel!  Very cute and quirky.  The rooster did his thing around 7:00 this morning (there was no sunrise for him to cockle at).  

Today's landscape was a study in contrasts.  We started with flat, black, rocky soil and no vegetation stretching out as far as the eye could see in both directions, then moved to mountains, then hills and fields of lupines, many beautiful farms,  glaciers, volcanic rock covered with weird vegetation, and a glacier lagoon.  Also, we were dressed in our warmest clothes, it's chilly!  Mostly in the 40s.

First, we were driving and saw nothing but black, rocky barren soil spreading out on both sides.  Eventually, it changed to a light green.  It was like rocks, but covered with what looked like a green blanket.  It reminded me of the troll home in Frozen.  We got out to investigate and when we stepped on the green, it gave.  Like moss, but way squishier than moss.  I hoped that I wasn't killing the plants (and threatening the ecosystem of the biome).   There were a few flowers growing there as well.  Joshua accidentally kicked some of the what we figured was lichen.  It was spongy, but dry, and several inches thick.  Underneath was what looked like rocks full of holes.  We figured out that the rock was volcanic rock (even thought we didn't see a volcano anywhere--just a few pointy mountains).  And Joshua remembered that volcanic rock has a lot of nutrients in it which would support plant growth.  So that must be what it was.  Very weird looking--and where's the volcano?

little flowers

A piece of the stuff that is on the rocks.

The volcanic rock

Next up, a pretty little stream.

Shelby

Then, we saw a structure.  It was the steel remains of an old bridge that had been washed away in a flood caused by a nearby volcanic eruption.  Across the road, was a huge glacier.  Randy said that it is probably equal to the size of Rhode Island.  In fact, some of it's edges have other glacier names.  One of the glaciers that we saw was sitting in the crater of an active volcano that hasn't erupted since the 1800s (but it is still active).  Cool!

Shelby in front of the glaciers.

Joshua on top of the steel from the destroyed bridge.

The glacier on top of the volcanic crater.

Then were fields and fields, and hills and hills covered with purple lupines!  They were even climbing up some of the mountains.  This time I did see a few pink ones mixed in.

hills and fields of lupines

Joshua leaned out of the window to get one!

By now the road was following the ocean on one side and the glacier and mountains on the other. Then, on the non-ocean side, we saw icebergs floating in water.  It was a lagoon filled with icebergs that had broken off the glacier.  They were floating out to the ocean.  The icebergs were that beautiful blue color of glaciers and many had puffins on them!  Puffins begin to nest in Iceland in June and July.  Also, some cool black and white ducks.  It was beautiful.

The water in the lagoon flows under the bridge into the ocean.

family selfie!

Next were more snowy mountains.  I was trying to match towns that showed up on the map with real towns, but the ones on the map did not appear in real life!  There were many farms but no cities.  And there were no crossroads, because it is the only main road.  Most of the farm houses and buildings are white with  red trim and roofs, although we saw one painted black with white trim--it looked great.  All of the farms and outbuildings are neat and clean--all of the farms look very prosperous.

yet another glacier!

Eventually, we found our hostel on a fjord (after we had driven most of the way around it!).  It is an old farm, with brand new buildings, very neat and clean.  And, like the other hostel, they ask you to take your shoes off at the door.  Since we do that at home, and we've gotten used to that in other countries (though not at hostels before), it wasn't a big deal.  We checked in, but this being in the middle of nowhere,  there were no grocery stores near, so we purchased (for a lot of money), the dinner and breakfast.  The hostel is not staffed by 20-somethings like most are.  An older gentleman and woman take care of it.  After we unpacked and relaxed, went over for dinner.  He had set a table specifically for us with a beautiful view of the water.  He and the woman brought the food--cod, orange mashed potatoes, green leaf lettuce salad, and quinoa.  All of it was delicious!  Even our picky eaters ate all of it!  The cod was not breaded, but had a small amount of sauce that tasted like gravy; the potatoes tasted like white potatoes but were orange and had lumps just like I like them!; the quinoa was tasty and the lettuce had a very light, but tasty oil dressing.   Then homemade carrotcake for dessert.  After dinner, we returned to our building (there are six) and played Hearts until we realized that it was getting late and we were all tired.  Plus, Randy and I had to write our blogs!