We awoke to an overcast day which by noon had turned to bright sunshine again. We remain lucky with the weather so far; hopefully it will continue.

The east coast of Iceland is sparsely populated with very small fishing communities. There are a series of fjords along the coast, causing some to compare it to those of Norway. After having experienced both I can safely say those in Norway are more spectacular than those here in Iceland. Don’t get me wrong,  Iceland fjords are pretty, just not spectacular.

Highway 1 skirts the coastline and weaves in and out of the fjords. Farms are few and far between and the few villages commonly have only a few hundred people. By the way we have yet to see a Starbucks or McDonalds, which is probably a good thing. We chose to gas up each morning as we do not know when or where the next gas station might be. Some villages simply do not have any gas stations. Scott uses the opportunity to get an espresso as most stations do have a nice coffee bar inside.  Grocery stores are even hard to find and only seem to be in the larger towns.  We had a heck of a time trying to find a bag of ice to keep our lunch items cold.

Some interesting asides: Tap water is extremely cold and in some places the hot water comes from thermal springs, resulting in a bit of sulfur smell. The air smells fresh and clean.

As we worked our way up the east coast I was surprised by the lack of trees. Vegetation was mostly short grasses probably explaining why sheep are so prevalent.

Speaking of sheep I quickly noticed that they always seemed to be in either a group of 2 or a group of 3. They did not travel as large groups.. Scott reminded me that lambs usually has only one ewe, which would explain the grouping of 3. Obviously they do not kick out the youngster for a while as all three are what I would call, adult size.  The groups of two I attribute to a lack of successful pregnancy the previous year. Only rarely did I see a lone sheep- a confirmed bachelor no doubt! I asked a local if sheep had any predators. He said there are arctic foxes in Iceland that prey on very young sheep When they are still quite small. Other than that the sheep have no worries, or then getting whacked when crossing the road as we sometimes saw them do, but they are fast runners.

We stopped in Djupivogur, a village that dates back to the 16th century, to stretch our legs a bit and ended visiting the local craft shop and the shop of an eccentric road collector. Local art and crafts are priced very high. I simply did not see many people buying souvenirs.  Woolen hats are $50-80, sweaters are over $200. Small ceramic cups and dishes are often over $50. Very small ( a couple of ounces) bottles of local salt are over $10. Iceland is NOT a shopper’s dream. I wonder why they do not simply lower their prices for items tourists tend to buy to encourage more sales.

We ended up finishing our luncheon goodies eating at an abandoned homestead on the water as we wanted to push ahead to our destination of the day, Egilsstadir, so we had enough time to go visit the small village of Seydisfjordur, which guide books said was the quaintest of the fjord towns. It had the reputation of being an artist colony with colorful buildings.

The 30 minute drive took us over a high mountain pass, with a good- sized river flowing next to it for most of the way. And,of course, there were a few small waterfalls to admire along the way. Iceland certainly has a ton of waterfalls!  Well Seydisfjordur was somewhat a disappointment as there were only a few small shops offering art and crafts. Again everything was quite expensive. The buildings were colorful and we did enjoy a walk around town before retreating to a local pub for a well-earned brew before heading back to our hotel and dinner.

Another pick from good old Trip Advisor led us to a very good meal at Cafe Nielsen, located in the oldest building in town.

Even though most of the day was in a car I did manage to somehow rack up 10,033 steps! This is turning out to be a way too healthy vacation.