Skagafjördur

     Spring has left Iceland and today it is stormy and cold.  Iceland has a very good road conditions web site - road.is - which has solar powered stations all over the island to measure temperature, wind speed and direction, as well as cameras to show current road conditions.  Our travel company encouraged us to look at this each day to be sure that the roads we wanted to travel were open and safe.  This storm hit the east coast the hardest and two sections of the road that we traveled a couple days ago are closed today.  We had two choices of routes to take to our guesthouse for the night.  One was very scenic and went along the northern coast through several tunnels.  The other was along a broad valley and over a pass.  We had planned to take the scenic route, but road.is said that there were 50 mph gusts and some of the road was borderline travelable.  So we decided on the road over the pass.

     A short way into our trip we came to Godafoss (Waterfall of the Gods).  Once again it is beautiful and just thundering with spring melt.  This waterfall has a mythical story (a saga) that Porgeir Ljósvetningagodi threw his pagan statues into falls and proclaimed that Iceland would convert to  Christianity in the year 1000.

     We stopped in Akureyri which is the second largest town in Iceland.  We drove through the Old Town which has many buildings from the early 1800's.  I really like the older architecture, most of the newer houses are very rectangular with steel roofs.  We stopped to stock up on some more lunch supplies and saw our very first drive-through fast food restaurant.  A Canadian woman we talked with at breakfast was complaining about the lack of quick, cheap lunch food.  I am happy that we brought a little soft side cooler for roadside picnic lunches.   In fact today we found our first real wayside rest with trees, picnic tables, and restrooms.  Unfortunately the wind and rain kept us from eating outside and the toilets were locked, but it was a pretty place to stop.

     The drive over the pass was through a snowstorm with poor visibility and snow collecting on the road.  Luckily that section was only about ten miles long and then we were back down in the valley where it's just raining.  I am thankful for all the experience we have in driving in Minnesota storms, but also all the experience we have in navigating roads in unfamiliar places.  We have learned to make the best of whatever weather we get and whatever road conditions we find.  We are a good team in these out of the way travels.  

     We got to our guesthouse early and are tucked into a big, bright, warm room looking out to the fjord.  I am playing some music on my Ipad while we drink apple cinnamon tea and listen to the wind.