Alright, we have learned a very important piece of information…. Doing laundry in Iceland is difficult and expensive. I am an early riser and wanted to do a little something for the family while everyone else was sleeping peacefully. So, I gathered up all the laundry and headed down to the only place in town for the public to do laundry in Egilsstadir, at the local campground. I arrived about 6:30am and loaded all four of their washing machines. We didn’t have a ton of laundry, the machines are just apartment sized units. While the machines turned away, I did some work and waited. An hour later I loaded the dryers and prepared to wait some more. 2 hours later, the clothes were still not completely dry, but I needed to go back and meet the family for breakfast and head out for the next leg of our trip. I paid my 10,000 ISK, about 72 US dollars (I told you it was expensive) and went back to the hotel. On a side note, if anyone is interested in a nice business, proper laundry mats and vending machines would be a great investment in Iceland.
The big adventure for the day was a trip to Bakkagerdi, better known as Borgarfjordur eyestri. The nearby Hafnarholmi Hill is home to lots of puffins, kittiwakes, fulmars, and eiders. Along the way we saw one of the only remaining inhabited turf roof houses, and I bought some Cool American Doritoes. Spoiler, they are just Cool Ranch flavored. I guess ranch dressing is a unique thing. Bakkegerdi is also where Alfaborg is located, which happens to be the home of the Icelandic elf-queen. Not far away there is a cross monument with the Latin inscription that translates to ‘Bow down and revere this effigy of Christ, You who pass by. Anno MCCCVI (1306)’. The cross marks the location where a strong man from Borganfjordur cast a half animal / half human monster (called Naddi) who was killing travelers after dark, into the ocean, finally ending the reign of terror. The cross is there to ‘get Gods protection’ and was last renewed in 2015.
The pivot point of the drive was mostly what sent us in this direction in the first place, the puffins on Hafnarholmi Hill. We were hoping to see a few puffins since we pretty much missed them in Ireland and have only seen a few in Iceland. We were not disappointed. There were tons of puffins and other birds. We stay over an hour just watching these funny little birds take off and land. Ryan did see where a puffin came back with it’s meal in its beak just to have one of the bigger birds snatch the meal and push the puffin off the cliff. Luckily puffins are not like chickens and can actually fly. I am sure the puffin is just fine, if a little hungry. It does explain why they hustle into their burrows as soon as the land. Elizabeth also spotted a seal leisurely floating in the water waiting for a puffin to be pushed off the cliff. After the puffins, we backtracked across the snow covered mountains, where I still couldn’t find a place to pull over for Melissa to touch the snow, and drove to Seydisfjordur for dinner.
On the way, across more snow covered mountains, we stopped and looked at another waterfall. Gufufoss on the Fjardara river translates to ‘steam waterfall’. It is another st
waterfall in a country full of waterfalls. I also discovered Gillian is making it her mission to climb up on rocks.
Seydisfjordur is home to a large number of preserved wooden buildings, including a lovely blue church. For dinner, Melissa picked one of the restaurants in town and we sat down for a very enjoyable and enlighting meal. Our host was a super friendly local who was open to questions about local etiquette and was extremely helpful. Oh, dinner was very good as well. For dessert we had a piece of apple pie and a slice of lemon tart. Both were delicious. The lemon tart was very lemony, but the crust was very dense and crisp. When I went in to get one little last bite, I must have applied too much force and the fork penetrated the crust and it shot off the plate at near hypersonic speed towards the family at the next table. We were only saved from creating an international incident by Melissa’s lightning fast reflexes, knocking the projectile from the air just in time. At least we hoped she blocked it all. No tourists at the next table appeared to have an eye injury.
The only thing that remained was a lovely drive back across the mountains, then a peaceful night’s sleep.
I love every entry♥️