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Another busy day of sightseeing here in Yangon. It began with good news that Sue’s luggage arrived late last night and she is a happy camper once again!  We all had another fabulous breakfast at the hotel before being picked up at 8:15 In order to reach the local train station where we were scheduled to take a popular tourist attraction called the “circle train”.

Near the train station we parked the car and walked through the neighborhood bordering the station where we saw everyday living. Breakfast out is very popular in Myanmar and small, family owned outdoor restaurants were everywhere. Breakfast is simple-a bowl of rice or curry, not ham and eggs. It was a fascinating insight into daily living here.

 

The circle train is actually a local, inexpensive train that people use to come into the city to their jobs and other needs. The train runs hourly and completes a 25km circular route that stops at 39 different stations picking up and dropping off people. It’s route takes you past different areas of the city and countryside and offers insight into the lives of the Burmese. A  complete route takes 3 hours, but we could get off earlier if we desired and our driver would meet us. Nyi Nyi accompanied us and provide dialog along the way, describing what we were seeing. Although it is a safe trip we were glad we had a local to guide us because of language issues. We did see the poorer side of the country and insight into how people lived in the rural areas. The experience was enhanced by locals selling food on board, vendors bringing  huge bags of produce that they hope to sell in the city. It was truly a study of everyday life in Myanmar.  We did get off the train after hour two of the three hour ride as the sights started to be repetitive.

Lunch was served at the House of Memories restaurant which is located in an old home that once housed the office of General Aung San during WWII. His office equipment is still on display there. Lunch included an interesting approach to a pumpkin soup which contained shaved pumpkin in a broth. Other dishes included tempura vegetables, an eggplant salad, sautéed vegetables, pork in a bean paste and curry chicken. Dessert was mochi (sweetened rice ball with a sugared nut inside) and fresh coconut. The meal was well received by all.

With appetites satisfied our next stop was at the local market place, which turned out to almost be overwhelming in size. There are hundreds of shops selling virtually everything one might need or want. We spent about 40 minutes wandering around looking for something we needed to have. I am always looking for a travel memory to add to my collection, be it a piece of inexpensive art or some local craft that will remind me of my visit to the area. Initially  nothing clicked  but near the end of our visit a young man stopped me to show me some watercolors of local scenes that he said he and his brother produced. Everyone claims they are the artist. Sometimes they are but it is more likely not true. I do not particularly care, I simply want the memory.  A small watercolor of some monks caught my eye and even Yvonne agreed she liked it, as it reminded us both of the sights of Myanmar. As a funny aside, as we reconnected with Gerry amd Sue (we had gone separate ways while exploring the market) We both were excited to see what the other had bought. Ironically both Gerry and I both purchased similar prints from the same artist! Great minds think alike?

The last stop of the afternoon was to see one of the largest reclining Buddhas in the country. It is 216 feet long and is an important shrine for the local people.

We returned to our hotel for a few hours before being taken to a local restaurant featuring a buffet and a cultural show of Burmese entertainment. The venue is on a floating barge patterned after the royal barge of past kings. Needless to say it was elaborate. The food was varied with an emphasis on Burmese and Indian dishes. The entertainers were mostly dancers, but there were several skits featuring a famous cultural entertainment- puppets. One particularly skit involved two persons. The first was a puppeteer, controlling a stringed puppet. The second involved a real girl who imitated being a puppet. It was quite unique and realistic. We were back at the hotel by 9 PM and eager to get to sleep as we were slated for a 4:30 AM wake-up call for our flight to Bagan, the second stop on our trip.

Before I quit I do have to relate a humorous (?) story about Myanmar cars and driving. I noted that virtually all the cars being driven were right hand drive( UK style), yet they drive on the right hand side of the road (US style). I asked our local guide why was it this way. He said that originally drivers did drive on the left hand side of the road, but recently politicians changed the rules, requiring  drivers to drive on the right side. Next will come a law that forces future cars to have the steering wheel on the left. What a mess sorting all that out!

First a geography/history lesson: Myanmar ( pronounced me-en-mar) is formally called the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. Until 1989 it was known by it former name, Burma. Both names have linkage to the majority (68%) ethnic group living there, Bamar, and both names are still commonly used when referring to the country. During the British occupation (1824-1948) Burma thrived, but WWII devastated the country and its economy. It gained its independence from England in 1948.  Myanmar has a population of about 54 million people and the predominant religion is Buddhism. It’s main product is rice although it produces 90% of the world’s ruby gems.

Yangon, formerly known as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region of Myanmar. Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government relocated the capital to the purpose-built city of Naypyidaw in central Myanmar. With over 7 million people, Yangon is Myanmar’s largest city and its most important commercial center.

Yangon is an amalgamation of British, Burmese, Chinese and Indian influences, and is known for its colonial architecture and remains an almost unique example of a 19th-century British colonial capital. Yangon boasts the largest number of colonial-era buildings in Southeast Asia and has a unique colonial-era urban core that is remarkably intact but in much disrepair. The colonial-era commercial core is centered around the Sule Pagoda, which is reputed to be over 2,000 years old. The city is also home to the gilded Shwedagon Pagoda – Myanmar’s most sacred Buddhist pagoda.  End of lesson for today.

We went to breakfast around 7 AM, hoping to see my brother, Gerry, and wife, Sue, who had been scheduled to arrive late last night. They were not there, but by the time we were ready to leave they walked in and joined us. They did arrive in Yangon around midnight only to find that Sue’s luggage did not arrive with them!  Bad start to their trip, but she is an experienced traveler and will make do until it’s scheduled arrival tonight.

We met our tour guide, Nyi Nyi, at 10 AM to begin our tour of Yangon. Our first surprise of the day was the vehicle we would be riding in.  It was a “tricked out” van with posh seating, fancy sound system and mood lighting. It was quite a vehicle.

Our first tour stop in the city was a visit to a local convent and monastery to see how both females and males live as novice monks and nuns. Monasteries and convents are basically religious based schools and are havens for children from small villages to receive a free education. Children range in age from about 5 to 16. Girls live and study separately from the boys. Although the schools are religious based most of the children leave once they receive their primary and secondary education. They appear to be similar to our religious schools, but the main difference is that the children live at the school full time.

Boys at the monasteries go out daily to “receive (not beg)” gifts of food from the local population. (Note: the girls do not go out looking for food; they rely on benefactors to provide them with food).  It is considered important in the Buddhist religion that people assist the novice monks by providing them with food. People often “sponsor” these students as they receive their education at the monasteries. The young monks return in time for their main meal which occurs at 11:30 AM. The only other meal they have is breakfast very early in the morning. We were able to observe the students gathering for their meal, praying before they began and then eating in relative silence. Again, only a small percentage of the students remain as monks once their studies are completed.  We learned that there are literally hundreds of such monasteries and convent schools in the city.

After our visit there we went to the former home of Major General Aung San, considered the Father of Indepence of Burma, and a martyr as he was assassinated 6 months before the country formally gained its independence from Britain. His former home is now a museum, containing information and artifacts about his life.

Lunch was at the Padonmar restaurant that served typical Burmese food. It is somewhat famous as there were pictures of celebrities on the wall including one of John McCain who dined their in 2011 and 2012. No one offered to add our picture to the collection!

At 1:30 we had a tour of the former British parliamentary building complex which is currently under major restoration and will eventually become a national museum. It is also the site of where Aung San was assassinated and we toured the area where it all happened.

The last activity of what became a very busy day was to go to the most famous and most important Buddhist temple, the Shwedagon Pagoda at Sunset to see the reflection of the sun’s rays off the 3 tons of gold leaf on the 99 meter tall stupa, which supposedly contains relics from four former Buddhas. What appears to be a single stupa from the distance is,in fact, a major complex of various sized pagodas dedicated to Buddha. It was a “WOW” moment for sure. We spent an hour there ( barefooted as that is the custom at Buddhist temples) obeserving people praying and offering gifts of flowers, incense and candles to Buddha. There were hundreds of people at the site. A monk was continuously reciting Buddhist scripture over a loudspeaker while we were there. We were told this will occcur 24 hours a day for one week.  Tonight there was also a ceremony where 13,000 candles were being lit to honor Buddha. It was quite a sight.

We arrived back at the hotel about 7 PM and everyone said they were too tired to even consider dinner and we called it a night.

Several initial observations about Myanmar and Yangon.  People seem genuinely friendly and warm. We have been impressed with the staff at the hotel and their willingness to help.

Traffic is a nightmare in Yangon, even worse than Seattle! We were surprised at how clogged the roads were most times of the day.  However, there was no horn blowing or evidence of road rage and politeness in allowing people to change lanes or make turns was the norm.

No one seems to wear “real” shoes. Everyone is in flip flops or walking barefoot.  I even saw construction workers walking around barefoot on the job! Many men (young and old) wear their  country’s equivalent of a sarong, called a “longyi”. Women wear a female version of the clothing which is different in design and material.

Tomorrow is another’s day of sightseeing here in Yangon, then we head to Bagan, the main reason we are here in Myanmar.

We lost a day during the transit, having crossed the international date line, so it is now January 17 in Bangkok.

Although we both took a sleep aid last night we were up at 4:30 AM local time, ready to tackle the world. Luckily the breakfast buffet is open from 3- 10:30 AM.

We spent the rest of the morning reading, writing a blog entry and napping again in an attempt to have our bodies catch up to the local time zone. We left for the airport about 11:15 AM and leisurely worked our way through getting boarding passes and checking luggage, clearing security ( no TSA precheck over here) and immigration as we were flying internationally to the country of Myanmar. We even had time to grab a sandwich. Our flight to Myanmar left on time at 1:45 PM and an hour later we were landing in the capitol, Yangon.

Compared to the hustle and bustle of the Bangkok airport, the Yangon airport is much smaller and quieter. It was easy to navigate and to clear their immigration. A bit of trivia is that the Myanmar tim e zone is only 1/2 hour different than Bangkok, not the usual one hour change normally associated with time zones. Don’t ask me why that is. Obviously some wizard decided that was the best way to handle the issue when time zones were originally set up.

As promised we were met by our private tour guide, Nyi Nyi, and his driver, as we emerged from baggage claim. It was a quick 20 minute drive to our hotel for the next three days,the  Melia Yangon, part of a Spanish hotel chain. The hotel is impressive and our room is equally impressive with a view of Inya Lake, one of the major attractions here in Yangon. We know we will enjoy our stay here.

We chose to have a light dinner at the hotel and it also was equally impressive and reasonably priced.

Fellow travelers, Gerry and Sue Bishop, are due to land at 11:45 PM tonight. We told Nyi Nyi to tell them not to wake us when they arrive!

Tomorrow our formal tour of Myanmar begins.

We had an 8AM flight from Seattle to Vancouver, B.C. I always have some misgivings when a short hop is required to make a connection to a major international flight. Will something go wrong, causing us to miss that connection? We left the gate on time but sat on the runway, with engines running for almost 30 minutes. Will there be a problem? We did have 2.5 hours between flights but what if this flight got cancelled? There was no other alternative to get us to Vancouver in time. Finally the captain did announce there had been a small mechanical issue that needed resolving but it was fixed and we were on our way.

The only other “glitch” in Seattle was that Alaska Airlines could not print the boarding passes for our flights on China Southern. They assured us we could get them at the gate in Vancouver.

It was a marvelous winter day in Seattle- sun and mountains everywhere. The 30 minute flight was a sightseeing wonder and included flying near our home on Miller Bay. We were both glued to our windows as we winged our way.

We whizzed through passport control in Canada and retrieved our boarding passes at the gate as promised. The 787 flight to Guangzhou actually left 5 minutes early. A minor problem developed as the audio system in our row of seats was not working. Great, and we had a 12+ hour flight ahead of us. They flight attendants were very cordial and attempted to reboot the system but were unable to get it to perform properly. They apologized profusely and brought us personal iPads to use for the flight, which worked out fine. Actually we both ended up only watching one movie (Victoria and Abdul), which, by the way, was quite good- worth watching as it is based on a true story about Queen Victoria of England. We both spent the rest of the time reading and napping.

Our route to Guangzhou took us up the coast of Alaska and down the east coast of Russia and China. Guangzhou is in southern China, near Hong Kong, which I did not know until I got to see the flight map on the TV monitor.

The food served on our two meals was some of the best we have experienced on airlines, and the staff was very attentive to our needs. It was a very pleasant flight. China Southern did themselves proud, just as the reviews said they would.

Something new we experienced as we got off the airplane was to take a bus to the terminal. Because we were in business class they provided special, small (20 Passenger) “VIP” buses to take us to the terminal. Nice touch!

We had a three hour layover in Guangzhou before our 3 hour flight to Bangkok. We left on time and slept most of the way there as we were both good and tired by then.

The Bangkok airport is big and modern, and at 11 PM it was “hopping”. There were plenty of helpful people who assisted us getting through Immigration (no problem but we had to fill out a form we did not know we had to have). Luggage arrived safely. Whew! That is always a concern as you read horror stories of lost luggage. We had taken the suggested practice of putting a change of clothing in each other’s bag, just in case one of the bags did not make it.  The luggage also had to change three different planes.

I had chosen to spend the night at the Novotel Hotel at the airport to break up out trip and allow us to recuperate. Airport local staff all spoke English and there were booths everywhere to provide information and answer questions. We easily found the shuttle area where the hotel bus quickly took us to the nearby hotel, eliminating a necessity of walking underground to it. I had considered originally doing that but thought better of it because we both were worn out.

The Novotel hotel is big, modern and fancier than other Novotel hotels we have stayed at.  An interesting policy they have is that you have the room for 24 hours from the time you check in. No need to worry about that 11AM check out time. Again, another nice touch.

The end of a very long journey. In fact we may have set a new record for getting somewhere as it was now 7 AM body time by the time we stumbled into bed. That travel record, (we hope never to repeat) is 26 hours on 3 different planes.  Hopefully, the rest of the trip will not be as stressful.

We are following our usual pattern when we have an early morning flight, by spending the night at a hotel near the airport tonight. Our flight to Yangon begins in Seattle this time. If you recall we sometimes drive to Vancouver, B.C. because international flights are often cheaper from there because of more competition.  For this trip I found the flights beginning in Seattle were just as competitive so we are leaving from here.  We have a short hop on Alaska Airlines to Vancouver, a 2 hour layover, then flights on China Southern  Airlines to Guangzhou, China and on to Bangkok, Thailand.  Although there were several options to get to Thailand, we chose to fly China Southern as the reviews of its service have been positive , plus we will be flying business class on a new 787 which is heck of an airplane.

Yes I know we are headed to Yangon, Myanmar but bad flight timing convinced me to simply spend the night in Bangkok with a mid-morning flight the next day to our ultimate destination, Yangon, Myanmar (formerly known as Burma).  As it is we land at 11PM in Bangkok and there is a Novotel hotel at the Bangkok airport terminal. We will catch up on any lost sleep, eat a leisurely breakfast and catch our 1:45 PM flight to Yangon to begin our tour of Myanmar.

We were picked up, as promised, by the transportation company at 7 AM for transfer to the Reykjavik airport. We both had a flight departure at 10:30. Mine is a non-stop to Seattle, slated for 7.75 hours ( we fight head winds traveling westward). Unfortunately Scott has to fly to Copenhagen, then to Shanghai and finally home to Auckland. He will arrive home at 6AM Saturday morning (11PM Friday night, Seattle time). Numbers like that really give you a feeling of how big this planet of ours really is.

We grabbed a cup of coffee at the airport, said our farewells and went our separate ways, both hoping we could do another father/son trip someday.

I left on time on a plane with some empty seats- a rarity these days. I even had an empty seat next to me! Spent most the time dosing, reading the book that I had never had an opportunity to even open during the trip. I arrived home on time.

Some of my impressions of Iceland.

• Iceland is a wild country: active volcanoes, glaciers, wind. It is visually beautiful but in its own unique way. It is treeless, and simply desolate in places. I was told astronauts once trained here for their trip to the moon. It is not a place for wimpy people.
• It is a much larger land mass than I had expected. Driving 37 hours and covering 1500+ miles during the last eight days proved that to us.
• I was surprised that everyone we met spoke English. Thank goodness as the Icelandic language is not an easy one to learn. All the older people told us they learned English by watching TV. The lady at the reception desk today said she learned hers watching I Love Lucy reruns.
• Iceland is not a place for lovers of warm weather. It never gets warm here. The thermometer never got above 55 degrees during our stay. People joke that if you do not like the weather it is likely to change in 5 minutes. I can attest to that- sunny and blue sky one minute; clouds and rain showers a short time later.
• Iceland is clean. I saw no evidence of discarded trash anywhere in the city or countryside.
• The architecture of the homes and buildings is pretty bland, probably influenced by its historical link to Scandinavian countries.
• The food was excellent, albeit expensive. A dinner salad or appetizers ran $20; entrees were $40-$60; drinks were $15-$25; desserts were $15-$20. The specialties of the island are lamb and fish. For the adventuresome traveler some menus offered puffin, minke whale, horse and fermented shark- we passed on all of them. All the breads were to die for. There is even a bread called “geysir bread” which is cooked underground by geothermal heat. The Iceland version of yogurt, called “Skyr”, is excellent. It reminds me of a Greek yogurt.
• I overheard a conversation that the minimum wage in Iceland is $4500/month, which might explain the high costs of the food and goods.
• Most of the young service staff in hotels and restaurants are from European countries. We met kids from Estonia, Poland, Croatia and Romania. It is easy to get a work visa there so that is why they come. The country simply does not have enough people to fill its needs.
• Tourism is growing by leaps and bounds. They expect 1.5-2 million visitors this year. Ten years ago it was 10 percent of that. Iceland is the new “place to go” for travelers. The country does have a great system in place to deal with visitors. The self drive tour we were onworked flawlessly, from being met at and returned to the airport, to the car rental, to the one night stays at pre-arranged hotels, to the travel material available to visitors. All the brochures and attractions had descriptions in both Icelandic and English language. Likewise for displays in the museums. Roads are well-marked. Our rental car had GPS and I believe all cars do. There is free internet almost everywhere, even in the most isolated parts of the country we travelled through.

Should you go to Iceland? No, not if you are looking for warm sandy beaches to lounge on. Yes, if you love nature and the wild. It is big; it is bold. It is for those who appreciate the outdoors and what it has to offer.

After experiencing Iceland I leave you with the following quote:

“Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” – Gustave Flaubert

Normally people leave the next morning after completing the Ring Road drive. We had chosen to spend one extra day to allow us time to see the sights in Reykjavik itself and to relax(?) before heading home.

Reykjavik is certainly a walking city, the major shopping and historical center not being too large. Our first stop was at the Reykjavik Settlement Center which is located where builders uncovered the ruins of a Viking longhouse that dated back to 871AD. Part of the excavation is still visible and the city fathers have built yet another very good museum around it which describes the evolution of Iceland and its people. It is well done and certainly worth a visit by anyone going to Iceland.

From there we walked to the National Museum where we saw artifacts from the early history of Iceland. Our feet and minds wore out before we got much beyond the history up to the Reformation when Iceland moved from the Catholic religion to Lutheran. A future trip would be necessary to explore Icelandic history beyond that period. Again the museum was excellent and I enjoyed it immensely.

We went back to the hotel to rest our feet (and bodies) for a while before heading out to an early dinner (Italian tonight) as Scott had purchased tickets to the evening performance of “Icelandic Sagas-The Greatest Hits- in 75 Minutes”, a two actor comedy presented in Reykjavik’s lovely modern concert hall, Harpa. It was a hoot.

Back to the hotel to finish packing as we will be picked up at 7AM for transfer to the airport.

As the trip progressed Scott made it a game to push the daily “steps” with the hopes of getting at least 10,000 steps per day average. Today we completed 18,357 steps, with 9 floors of elevation gain. That made the total for the 10 day trip of 123,758 steps with 222 floors of elevation gain. Just seeing those numbers made me proud, but tired!  Goodnight!

 

 

 

 

This is our last day on the road, as we are due back in Reykjavik this evening. The goal today is to visit two of the major tourist sights on Iceland which are part of what they call the “Golden Circle” drive, a day trip that most visitors do then visiting the island.

We bid farewell to our funky farm lodging, forgoing a chance for one more ice cream before we left. Our first stop was at the “Geysir ( pronounced gay-zeer)” hot springs area, home to two of the famous geysers in Iceland. Unfortunately the “Great Geysir” is not so great anymore. It had been active for over 10,000 years, gushing water 80 meters in the air,  but it has been mostly inactive since earthquakes in 2000. It simply languishes as a hot spring now but will probably achieve its former glory some day.

Luckily its nearby little sister, “Strokker” , is very active, spouting about every 7-8 minutes. It only reaches heights of 15-30 meters but  its frequency is enough to entertain those of us who came to see it.  We stood and watched it for quite a while, wondering if there was a “trigger” that announced its impending eruption. Scott had a rapid fire camera and proceeded to catch the action on one of the eruptions. Sure enough there is a signal – a bubble of water appears prior to the eruption, and he caught it on film.

Not too far away is the most famous waterfall in Iceland- Gulfoss (Golden Falls). A double waterfall that drops 32 m before passing through a fairly narrow canyon. It is known for its rainbows, but there were none to be seen while we were there. The waters were almost lost in the 1920s when developers wanted to dam the river. The landowners refused to sell and even though the developers managed to get the government to OK the project, his daughter walked barefooted to Reykjavik and threatened to throw herself into the falls if they allowed the project to proceed. Luckily, the developers backed off and the world can still enjoy this spectacular waterfall.

I had read in a guidebook that nearby was a reconstruction of what they thought a 10th century Viking home looked like. This I wanted to see. Unfortunately the normally manned site closed for the season the prior week. Bummer!  We did get to walk around and take some pictures of what the homestead probably looked like back then.

Also nearby was another waterfall called “Haifoss”, the 2nd highest (122m) waterfall in Iceland. The bad news was it is located 6+ km up a very bad rocky road. Fearlessly we said, let’s do it. We found the turnoff and started in the direction of the falls. The road became rougher, the travel speeds dropped to a crawl, and the rocks we had to ride over became larger.

Luckily a car from the opposite direction told us that the road gets much worse and unless you had a ton of time it was not worth the trip. However, he urged us to continue up this road for about 0.5 km to see a magnificent valley called “Gjain”. We did and saw a jaw dropping valley with several waterfalls, and a beautiful small river running through it. It was an oasis set in the middle of a landscape that was moon-like in appearance. Remember the movie “The Lost Horizon”, about a place called Shangri-la?  This could have been it.  We descended into the valley floor, took lots of photos and simply absorbed the beauty of it. It was simply breathtaking and I believe it was the prettiest place I had seen while in Iceland.

The final “suggested” stop when driving the Golden Circle is at the tourist-oriented “Blue Lagoon” which is basically a high-end hot springs spa. We passed.

We retraced our steps to Reykjavik where we dropped off our luggage at the hotel and returned the car. We had driven 2484 km (1543 miles) on our 8 day journey around the island of Iceland. We spent 37 hours behind the wheel and countless hours on our feet seeing all the sights there were to see.

We celebrated our successful trip with a beer at the local pub followed by dinner at a sushi restaurant where I ate “cooked” sushi ( i.e. chicken teriyaki)!

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a local pub to watch the rest of the Iceland soccer game against Ukraine as part of the qualifying play for the next World Cup. About a dozen of the locals were watching the game;  no women were there.

Steps for the day were 14,479 with 30 floors of elevation change. Not bad for a ” late middle-aged” 76 year old!

 

We have gone as far West as the trip called for. It was now time to head south where we will visit some of the more popular and well  known Iceland sights.

The information provided by the tour company as part of the driving package includes suggested sights to see as you drive around the island. One of the highly recommended stops is at the Settlement Centre in the village of Borgarnes, which became our first stop of the day.

In two exhibitions The Settlement Centre tells the sagas of The Settlement of Iceland and Iceland´s most famous Viking and first poet, Egill Skallagrimsson. They provide you with an audio headset (available in 14 languages) to use as you walk through a series of multi-media dioramas in 30 minutes,  explaining how and when Norwegian explorers ( the Vikings) first settled Iceland. It talks about how the people established the first parliament in the world in 930 AD. It is very well done. I was impressed with the quality of the exhibit and the technology behind it.

The second exhibit covered the life of Egill Skallagrimsson(c.904-c.995). Again we were given an audio guide and walked through a series of multi-media scenes while we learned about his life and accomplishments. Egill’s Saga is one of the famous Icelandic sagas written in the 13th century.

It was lunch time by the time we finished exploring the museum and since this was the last decent sized town in the area we decided to eat at the highly rated cafe right there at the Settlement Centre. It was a good choice as they offer a soup and salad buffet( with freshly baked, warm bread) which was outstanding. The food reviewers were correct; it was worth the stop.

Continuing on we stopped at Deildartunguhver, the largest hot spring area in Europe. They collect the hot (97 degrees C) geothermal hot water, pump it up to distances of 54 km to use a heat source for homes and businesses. By the way much of Iceland’s homes and businesses are heated with geothermal energy. Nearby these hot springs are hothouses where vegetables are grown. There was a nearby roadside stand selling bags of fresh tomatoes grown in these hothouses.

We continued driving inland and stopped to see an unusual waterfall called Hraunfosser. It is a unique in that it is composed of rivulets of water seeping out of a lava field covering an area of over 900 meters along the river. It is not high; it is not massive in volume; it is simply a pretty waterfall.

We had several guide books as part of our travel gear. A reference to the Vidgelmir lava cave near where we were intrigued us. Lava flows  around 900CE created a 1.6km long cave. The roof collapsed long ago, creating an entrance to the cave. Tours that covered about 1/3 of the cave are now being offered.  Neither of us have seen or experienced such a phenomenon-walking through a cave created by the flow of lava. We agreed we should take the 1.5 hour tour. We were outfitted with hard hats and head lamps and put on warm clothes with hat/gloves as they said the temperature inside the cave was in the 30s. They have built a nice catwalk system with lighting so you do not have to scramble over rock piles, making the narrated tour easy to do. It was very interesting and worth the time/money.

Our route to that night’s lodging led us past Pingvellir National Park, the site of the parliaments held from the 10th century, where representatives met to discuss create the laws of the land. It is also the site where one can snorkel (in dry suits) in a very cold water lake and see where the actual American and European tectonic plates meet.  Scott had done this prior to my coming so we skipped it now, not that I would have been interested in diving into ice-cold water!

We had general directions ( “farm accommodation on road 36 about 8 minutes east” )to our lodging and I started to be concerned as we left the last village in the area and were headed into an unpopulated area without seeing it. Did we miss it somehow?  It was getting late and we had not had dinner. Where could we eat? We keep driving a bit further and came upon a sign pointing us up a hill to a farm. Sure enough, it was really a working farm. As we checked in we learned that the lodging had both a restaurant AND an ice cream parlor that served it own meat and dairy products. Dinner and dessert () was solved!

By now Scott had me counting steps on a regular basis. He said today was a “down” day: 7776 steps, 21 floors of elevation! Personally I was content with the numbers.