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.