Not my fault, quest for the aurora, waterfalls, and beautiful scenery

 In no particular order (since it’s already 10:00 PM here, and we woke up three times last night looking for the Northern Lights (no such luck), and I plan to do it again tonight.  

Variety of interesting camper vans and company vans.

OK, now it’s 11:30 PM.  We are in our Farm Guest house, and other than us. It’s full of German friends and family members, and they keep knocking on my door (invited) to let me know the northern lights are showing.   They aren’t very strong, but it’s windy, and a little cloudy, and they come and go a lot.  Here’s one of my pictures (fail) and a couple of pics from my newest friend Joco from India.  He knocks on my door and says, “Honey, come on out!”    I can’t keep doing this all night, but it’s pretty amazing.  Johns been out a couple of times, but he’s through now. He can only stand s much excitement.

We spent the day driving the Golden Circle, and it was magnificent. Pingvillir  (Pronounced Thingvillir) National Park, Oxarafoss, The fault line that runs all across Iceland—and is still spreading about a foot a year.   So sometimes we are in North America, and sometimes in Europe.  Also saw Strokkur Geyser, Gullfoss waterfall, Skalholt, then dinner in Sellfoss.    One thing we’ve noticed—no trash, no trash cans, no problem.  Amazing. They do recycle a lot, but I believe it is a law that they eat any trash they can’t recycle.  Or maybe not.

I don’t know who this is.  It’s at the Gullfosss waterfall.  No explanation, even in Icelandic.

Not a headstone.  Geyser .

Excavation at church at Skalholt-Important site for Episcopal Church

 Dunno

  Fault.  It’s beautiful.

 A marker in the middle of nowhere.  I have no idea what it says.  John wanted credit for taking this picture without it being blurry.

 Keri Crater

 At Skalholt

  Post box

Gullfoss  You can see tiny little people on the left toward the top of the picture

  We never know where we are.

 At Skalholt excavation.

 

 So many more snow covered mountains than I imagined.

 First drop at Geyser

 At Geyser

Skalholt

 Kerid Crater

  It was very windy

 A geothermal pool

 Flora

Our B&B just outside of Selfoss.  Where we saw the light!

 No shoes allowed

 But not the cleanest slippers for everyone.

Dinner at Selfoss, best fish and chips EVER

 Saw a state liquor store—at the exit, you can wrap your “gift”

 Dog Beer

  Yes. 

  Seems like an oxymoron to me.

  Cow beer

  Of course.  They need THOR BEER

Lunch was at a tiny little gas station/grocery store/cafe on the road to somewhere.  But the food was delicious.

  Lucky to have a GPS, but when “she” reads the street or town names, we just laugh and laugh.

 My THOR.  He’s been very good so far this trip.  He keeps complimenting me on what a good job I’m doing driving—because he doesn’t want to drive a stick and a piece of #$%# car.

Made it. Reykjavik is great

Small world.  

We called an Uber for our trip to the airport, and a nice gentlemen arrived.  John talked cars for awhile with him, until I asked him how long he’d been driving for Uber—5 years, just sometimes.  Mostly when his wife wants him to do something else.   Turns out, he’s a good friend of an old boss, and I’d heard his name for 28 years while I was working.  And no, I won’t give his name on here, since I didn’t ask him, but he kindly allowed a selfie of us so I could show one of our mutual friends.

First thing we did after landing was to get our rental car.  We thought we were saving $$ by going through a smaller company, and we did.  The afore-non-mentioned international company subcontracts through one company who apparently sublets through another company.  I think the final company in the chain is “rust buckets R us”.  Johns door has such a dent in it that every time he opens or shuts, there’s a loud bang and everyone in earshot turns to look.  Oh well, it runs.  We were supposed to have a GPS also, and the gal at the desk said “They don’t all have GPS”.  When I checked our reservation, and pointed it out, she brought us one.  

Next, we found a grocery store and purchased a few things for our car rides the next few days—I love going to foreign stores—they have some very weird things.

While we were at the store, the boat company for our whale watching tour called, and our outing was cancelled because of high winds.  And yes, they were.  Strong and cold.  But we drove around and looked at things like lighthouses, and I went to a certain museum quite unique to Iceland, while John went to a maritime museum.  We met later at their music venue—JQH on steroids.  

Drove to our Guest house, an old home  along a street with some embassy houses. It was the home of artist, performer, etc. Guomundur Thoresteisson,  known as Muggur.  His stuff is currently being shown at Iceland Museum of Art.

This is the resident dog Fram.  He loved us.

Yes, it was also a consulate’s home.

Our room

Exterior

“Lounge”

And here are a few other random pics from today:

We have our alarm set for 2 AM, hoping the clouds move out, and the aurora might move in.  It’s 8:20 and John’s been asleep for an hour already.  Jet lag bites.