The Long and Winding Road - Day 7

Our first stop today was Krafla Volcano which is in the Mývatn region.  We went searching for Leirhnjúkur, but since we are here during to "off season" the trails were closed.  We opted not to go searching for it since we had read about how dangerous the ground was.  There were many unmarked hot spots on and around the volcano. Also, the visitors centre was closed, so there was no one to ask for help!

We followed a well-marked trail to the rim of the volcano and admired the crater.  One man who was much more adventurous than any of us, was cross country skiing and made his way inside the crater...you can see the tiny speck of of a man in the picture below.  

On the other side of the crater were boiling mud pots and steam vents.

Logan enjoyed the walk, but mostly had fun eating the snow!

Our next stop was the Goðafoss Waterfall.  It was pretty spectacular, and it was super cool that we could actually walk almost right to the edge of it!  Logan wasn't thrilled with this walk, so Angus and I took turns wth him. 

One of the neatest parts of this waterfall is the story behind it's name.  There was a man who made christianity the official religion in Iceland after throwing his statues of the Norse gods into the waterfall. (hence "god"-afoss)

After our picnic lunch beside the waterfall, we took a beautifully scenic drive to Akureyri.

Once we checked into our hostel, we went to Kjarnaskógur woods to play in a cool playground. 

Logan was fearless climbing up the stairs and going down the slides!

This slide in particular was super cool looking, and he was having a blast playing with another little girl.  

After spending time sliding in the park, we found wobbly bridge to cross!

Logan felt that he needed to cross it a few times!

On the other side was a track and some sort of work-out structure.  We thought this looked more like a toddler adventure structure...so Logan spent quite a bit of time balancing and walking across this!

He may have been thirsty from all of the playing, but also, this fountain was a really fun challenge for him to drink from! It was hard to pull him away from this!

One of the maintenance workers in the park told us that his family owned a horse farm down the road.  We had been admiring the Icelandic Horses from the road side, and were thrilled when he suggested that we go and see these ones.  While we were admiring them, he drove by and showed us to pick the new green grass for them to eat.

...Logan was very excited by the horses!

Our next stop was the Arctic Botanical Gardens.  The fountains weren't running, and may plants were not in bloom yet.  But we had fun walking around this garden area.  The gazebo was also a fun "house" for Logan to play in.

After our adventurous day we decided to grab some ice cream from Brynja.  It is known for being some of the best ice cream in Iceland...it was delish!

On our way back to the hostel, we did a quick stop at the Akureyrarkirkja...which reminded us of the church in Reykjavik (because it's designed by the same person)!

Tomorrow we're going to try whale watching again!!!

The Long and Winding Road - Day 6

Today was a bit of a stressful day, and didn't go the way we had planned, but it all worked out in the end! We left Egilstardir as early as we could, because we knew we had a scheduled to meet today.  We had a reservation for Whale Watching in Húsavík for 1:30pm.  


On our drive we encountered a pretty brutal snow storm! Driving in the mountains, we had to be careful not to end up in a ditch.  We had no internet signal up there, and the cliffs were pretty extreme.  We did see one car who appeared to have driven off the road unfortunately!

Our first stop was meant to be Dettifoss Waterfall, but the road we had driven to was closed! So we had to detour through the blizzard to find it.  Once we got to the location, there was a small hike to the falls.  We had approximately 15 minutes to see the falls and be back on the road.  The snow was difficult to walk in and Logan kept yelling "WINDY!" so we gave up, got back in the car and decided to head to Húsavík.

On our way, we drove past a number of sights in Mývatn that we knew we would be returning to.  Steaming hot mountains, and lakes.

We made it to Húsavík without much time to spare.  Logan was very impressed with the schooner (this was the boat we were meant to ride on for our whale watching tour).  Unfortunately, due to the weather, the captain asked that we not do the tour - they were strongly recommending that no children go out today.  So we were a bit disappointed, and Logan was super excited to see the whales, so we went to the whale museum instead!

Once we were in the museum, he was mostly interested in finding other kids to play with and stacking blocks!

He also fell in love with this Puffin "hockey hat".  (You will see that this hat has nothing to do with hockey - but all ball caps to him are hockey hats).

When we finished up at the museum, we made our way back to Mývatn.  Our first site was Grjótagjá - a natural thermal spring inside a cave.  This location was also used in the show Game of Thrones!

We passed by this sulphur lake on our way to our next stop! the turquoise colour was gorgeous!  ...this lake was far too hot for bathing with scolding temperatures. 

Our next stop was the Namafjall geothermal field.  This field was full of boiling hot water springs, boiling mud pots and steam vents. Logan was yelling "stinky" the whole time we walked around!

After all of that, we made our way to the Mývatn Nature Baths. This is a natural hot bath which we all enjoyed.  Logan wore water wings, and loved being in the water! My hair did not love being in the water, and is still recovering from the sulphur! 

Logan fell asleep almost as soon as we got in the car, but Angus and I decided to make one last stop! We headed over to Dimmuborgir which is a huge eerie area of lava formations.  Even though it's quite common for people to leave their babies unattended here...(We have walked past many cafes where babies are sleeping soundly in their prams around the corner in the ally)....I wasn't comfortable leaving him out of my sight.  So after a quick peak, I went back to the car while Angus went on to explore for a bit.  

Tomorrow we make our way to Akureyri.

The Long and Winding Road - Day 5

The majority of today was spent covering some ground as we traveled through the East Fjords.  These were beautiful large inlets along the east that had us weaving in and out along the coast.  The views were phenomenal! Also..the pictures do not do any justice as far as capturing the cliffs that the road is situated on!

We took a little car break in a cute little town called Djúpivogur.  Logan was again impressed by the boats!

There was a perfect little field beside the harbour that Logan played soccer in as we stretched our legs for a bit!

Back on the road, we continued to travel beside the sea, between and through the mountains.

As we got higher into the mountains, we started to encounter snow...

...as well as lots of cloudy fog!

On our travels we encountered a beautiful waterfall (Gufufoss) and decided to get out and stretch our legs again.  

Logan took this as another opportunity to throw rocks into the water!

Down the road a little way, we came to a gorgeous little arts village called Seydisfjordur where we took a stroll around. 

We checked into our hotel in Egilstardir and decided to go back out for a bit.  We drove to Borgarfjörður Eystri  to see the Puffins!  This trip was a challenging drive through the mountains....and on pretty sheer cliffs!

As we drove along this dirt cliffside road, we found a plaque explaining that this road is haunted by a monster! ...but there have not been any recent attacks ;)

Most of the Puffins had gone to bed for the night, but there were thousands of little puffin houses in the hills here.  A few came out to say "hello"!

Logan was equally impressed by the seagulls...he perfected his seagull squawk! 

This little area is also home to the Lindarbakki hairy house which we stopped to snap a picture of. 

We made our way back to the hotel for the night...and Angus was super excited to travel on the same road back!