Iceland, Day 9: What would Iceland be without more waterfalls?

Happy first day of summer!!  I looked at the clean clothes left in my backpack this morning and realized that I underestimated the number of warm days we would have and miscounted my underwear!  Ooops!  I could've sworn I counted them several times.  We have three more days.

Finally got a smile from Joshua!

Today it rained off and on all day.  We managed to stay dry, though.  Today we needed to drive from the north of the Snærfellsness peninsula (Grundarfjordur hostel) to Akranes, which is near Reykjavik.  Along the way, we saw some sights, some planned, some not.

First, we were driving and saw a beautiful, pastoral view of an iconic white church, surrounded by fields of lupines, with mountains in the back ground.  Had to stop for the photo, despite gale force winds and rain.

Then the rain cleared as we saw a strange stone monument.  So, we stopped.  It was a stone "statue" of Baldur Snælsfellsas, the deity and guardian spirit of Mt. Snæfell.  There is a saga of him descending from giants and men.  We just thought the giant sculpture was pretty cool.  We took some photos of the seacoast behind him.

Joshua

Shelby

Next, we found the Borganes Settlement Center, a museum about the settling of Iceland by the Vikings.  Very interesting.  It was divided into two parts, both with audio guides.  The first was about the physical settlment, the second about the adventures and tales behind Egil's saga.  It is somewhat interactive, and very interesting.  It would be a great place to start a visit to Iceland to give some context to what you would see.  We had a great conversation in the car afterward of what we had seen.  I found a great wool, handmade hat I almost bought, but couldn't see spending about $50 on a wool hat that I might lose (like the one I lost in New York over spring break).

A map that had buttons to light up each family's settlement as they shared their story.

A mask of a deity.

Another deity.

A shapeshifter

The Queen of Norway was also an enchantress

a serpent weaves it's way throughout the exhibit.

He caught his own tail

Then on to Hruanfossar, a series of waterfalls coming out of an ancient lava flow.  Evidence of the lava is all around, though the volcano itself wasn't evident.  Nearby is the Barnafoss, or Children's Waterfall.  There evidently used to be a rock arch there, but two children were on it and swept off to their deaths.  That is how the waterfall got it's name.

Hruanfossar

The water is all flowing out of ancient lava

The Children's Waterfall

I told them to pretend that they were having fun!

I think this may be the crater, but then again, I'm not a geologist
and don't know anything about it!

ancient lava flow

I guess too many people were making cairn-like structures with the rocks!

lava flow

lava

Tomorrow we head to Reykjavik.  We will spend tomorrow outside of Reykjavik and the next full day in the city.  We will stay at the same hostel we stayed in 8 years ago when we were here for a few days.  The third day, we have an early morning flight (returning the rental car at 6:45).  We will arrive in Minneapolis around 10:00 am.  We normally try to stay up to begin to reset our body clocks,  but we'll probably take long naps before resuming our lives.  We'll wait a day to begin resetting our body clocks.