Iceland, Captains Log Day 10

Day 10:

Tonight's late because we had a FULL last day with the car. It started early (though less early than we'd planned, at Kirkjufell. Actually we ended up camping around it last night, and wound up with such spectacular views we had to give you a peek at the camper van life. Anyways, Kirkjufell is the most photographed mountain in Iceland, famous for this shot that captures an old bridge, a waterfall, and of course, the mountain. We got that shot, although ours was hampered by fellow nosey tourists who read the same blogs we did. Didn't matter. It's special anyways. From that special angle, it looks very conical (I say lonely mountain, Audrey argues for a sorting hat shape) but this is where research can be deceiving. 

All the photos I have seen of the mountain have been from this special vantage point so I was scouring the skyline for the tell-tale pointy silhouette but seeing long loaf-like mountains instead. Imagine my surprise when, while ogling a particularly beautiful specimen, Google maps unexpectedly announced our arrival! We tooled around a little last night before settling in but left the real sightseeing to this morning. It started with the waterfall, which should be a stop in its own right. Two tiers of graceful liquid plunging into mossy outcrops and nestled amongst green burls (it feels like the appropriate word). Across the road stands a mountain of several layers, looking deceivingly pointy even though we know it's true form. It's still lovely and we nab the pic, then we wander the rest of the path (where I become MORE invested in the beautiful wall of opposing mountain) and then make our way back to the van. Next stop snuafu...snuf..snæfelus....Snæfellsnes, home of the library of water.

It's not too far away but when we got there, we immediately knew something was up. There were Danish flags and red and white balloons everywhere which is weird, you know, considering we were in Iceland. We followed directions to the tippy top of the one hill in the city, to the end of a residential Street where an unassuming yellow building overlooked the bay. This yellow building had frosted glass on the door confirming it was the library of water, and it was decidedly closed, despite our arriving during open hours. A sign saif to reference the volcano museum in the town below with questions, so back down we went. Long story short, today was one of the Danish Days (DD) where Icelanders celebrate their close ties with the Danes who were the original settlers  It's still unclear how this relates to the swarms of small children in costumes, but it did wind up feeling very festive. 

Because of DD both museums were free so we checked out the volcano museum (which had a warhol!) Before heading back up the hill to the library of water with a door code and instructions to remove our shoes to protect the floor. Yes. Like a good friend lending you the car, we were given free, solitary reign of this small museum featuring the water of twelve Icelandic glaciers, one of which is now extinct. It sits at the precipice of a small hill and looks out over the bay and a small lighthouse with unsurpassable views. Audrey spent most of her time in here while I wandered the columns tapping, listening, hugging, and intensely scrutinizing in the vain search for differences. On a non-molecular level I have been forced to conclude that water is water. Still it's a cool idea and like any other archived material, will long outlast it's subject. This took a little less time than expected, and we felt like bulky American Intruders on the DD festivities so we quickly moved on to our next stop, another of my highlighted/starred/underlined parts of the itinerary; Hraunfossar. 

Hraunfossar is another one of those shorter/ less powerful waterfalls I immediately bonded with. It comes directly out of the side if a mountain for several hundred yards before cascading into the most deeply teal colored river I have ever seen. It shares a parking lot and hiking path with a smaller waterfall called barnafoss. We saw barnafoss first, marveling at an arch of basalt and the color of the water but we were stopped in our tracks by Hraunfossar. It's everything it looks like in pictures but amped up to an 11, and I am officially besotted. I couldn't even pose for pictures properly because it was so hard to tear my eyes away. It has so many different types of fall: from the traditional to slow and meandering streams and gushes that spread across the store surface in a glittering veil of water. After I had lingered long enough, we went back to the car with a whole half a day undecided. 

After some close inspection of the map and the selective application of various honed forms of google-foo, we decided to squeeze in another hike before giving up our loyal van and returning to the streets of Reykjavik. West Iceland's tour website helpfully suggested a four hour jaunt up to Iceland's highest waterfall, glymur, only an hour fifteen away so we grabbed out food for lunch on the road and got going. 

The drive into the valley glymur calls home is pretty stunning and we were excited about the hike and our on-the-fly resourcefulness as we pulled into a pretty popular parking lot. We geared up and started, but began to doubt the 'legitimacy' of the hike as we saw the quality of some of the returning groups. Still, we were committed and we continued in. It's quickly became more of a challenge; first there was a steep traverse through a cave and out through an arch on the other side before crossing a river with the assistance of a rope stung across the Gap and a log conveniently placed for the second half. From there we used mire helpfully strung lengths of rope to scale steep paths both up and down the sides if various ridges on order to make it to glymur on the right side of the river to see the waterfall properly. Glymur is a bit of a tease, always showing just a bit of mist of a small glimpse of it's upper reaches before disappearing behind another bend so we didn't get a proper look until pretty close to the top. What we lacked in anticipatory overlooks of the waterfall were made-up for in more sweeping vistas into the canyon and back out into the valley as we continued to climb.