After lunch, we went to a nearby farm where we rode horses. The weather was perfectly Icelandic – cold, windy, and wet! Our hosts, Stefán and Juliane, were kind and patient with the city slickers. Although I almost fell off twice, there were no major incidents, and everyone returned to the farm safe and sound, albeit a bit cold. Today was also a sad day, because we said goodbye to our friends at Menntaskólinn á Akureyri. They were generous and delightful hosts, and we learned a lot from them. After a short flight, we arrived back in Reykjavík. We had a delicious dinner at the hostel and then went for a swim – in 40 degree weather at 9:00 at night. -- Mr. Coberly
Today we went on a tour of the key sites in southwest Iceland, with our guide Þorsteinn. We visited the important historical site Þingvellir, which was the seat of Iceland´s parliament from about 930 to the present. The national “soul” of Iceland resides there. Imagine the White House, the Liberty Bell, and the Washington Monument all rolled into one. The weather was sunny, a bit above freezing, and ferociously windy. But as they say in Iceland, there is no such thing as bad weather, only wrong clothes. Then we traveled along and saw a spouting geyser, a beautiful two-step waterfall, an old crater, an 1100-year-old lava field, and a greenhouse fueled by geothermal heat. During the day, we have enjoyed food such as lamb soup, whale, haddock au gratin, and lots and lots of skyr, an Icelandic cheese that tastes something like yogurt only about a thousand times better. We had the obligatory swim at the nearby thermal pool, and are all back in the hostel writing in our journals and preparing for a day of touring Reykjavik. |
