Iceland 14: Of ruins and Kirkjufell and Icelandic Goats

By this time, we are heading southward towards west Iceland. We are seeing more evidence of the old settlements, some of them possibly Vikings.

Borgarvirki - the Citadel is a columnar basalt fortress and might have been used as an old Viking fortress. Nobody really knows for sure.

But it's cool to hike up to and imagine the people defending themselves.

Beautiful location.

Another troll trapped by the sea.

They fortified this one with concrete underneath so it wouldn't wash away.

It is quite a mystery how such a rock formation

 exists along a beach with no other rocks.

Next stop, Grundarfjörður, with the lovely Kirkjufell in the background.

Loved this random sculpture of an orca out in the middle of a field.

This random sculpture just hanging out.

The main sculpture of the town echoes the mountain behind it.

Apparently the most photographed island in Iceland.

I'm guessing this is the most photographed horse in Iceland.😄

Beautiful Icelandic horse.

So, I had read about Icelandic goats: (Wikipedia) The Icelandic goat, also known as the 'settlement goat', is an ancient breed of domestic goat believed to be of Norwegian origin and dating back to the settlement of Iceland over 1100 years ago. This breed of goat was on the verge of extinction during the late 19th century, but recovered prior to World War II, only to precipitously decline again. As of 2003, there were 348 goats in 48 flocks distributed throughout most parts of Iceland.

I had been looking for them, when there they were looking at us!

Of course Dave did a u-turn so I could get my photo.

But suddenly, the little baby goat got under the fence

 and over the cattle guard and headed straight for us.

The little goat enthusiastically started climbing  up on our rented car!! 

 Shoo, shoo sweet little goat!

Well, she's obviously not afraid of cars so this is not a good situation.  She will run out on the road and get hit for sure. this is Dave trying to coax her back in the pen "Come, little goat. Come back"

Ah, but the grass is always greener on the other side and our little runaway found some delicious greens in the ditch.  If we could've found the farmer, we would've alerted him.  But decided out best plan was to slip away while little fur ball wasn't watching.

If you watch Game of Thrones, you may remember this scene. These are the Icelandic goats and this clip is the reason they are thriving today.  Their fame allowed the farmer who was trying to save them hold a Go Fund Me campaign, 

which brought in enough money to assure their survival.

 At least temporarily. 

 Until the dragon takes them and eats them!!!

Iceland 13: Godafoss (Truly the Waterfall of the Gods!!), Akureyri & Wondrous Colors

 Just when we thought we wouldn't see another waterfall that could possibly impress us more than the ones we had seen,...well, we were wrong!!  Godafoss (waterfall of the gods) appeared through the fog and I just couldn't believe it!! First, we saw this fast flowing river of the most beautiful aquamarine water! (glacial water, of course).

From a distance, we were already in disbelief of such beauty.

The water thundered and roared between the rocks and was totally mesmerizing.

And then this! So beautiful. So magnificent.

"This is my favorite waterfall" I thought to myself.

A bridge allowed you to cross over and see the river and waterfall from all angles.

Lovely little flowers growing in the mist.

 As the river narrowed, the river got more intense, which much whitewater.

As with all beauty in Iceland, we never had enough time to just sit and meditate on the beauty.  Next stop Akureyri, the fourth largest municipality in Iceland.  We knew we would love the city when we saw its traffic lights!

We saw very few flowers throughout Iceland (it was October, after all). But in Akureyi, there was a botanical garden so had to stop in there. It was very small but the colors lit up the day.

Another large church with stunning architecture in the city.  Although there are 350 Lutheran churches in Iceland, there are only a handful of "large" churches.

Most are the small ones built by the farmers on farm land seating about 50 people at most.

Iceland 12: Northern Iceland- Sheep, spas, museums

We toodled about Husavik before and after our whale watching expedition.

Always enjoy the beautiful buildings 

A larger and more elaborate church than most.

These larger churches often host musical concerts.

On our way to the northern coast, I was captivated by the sheep.

Love the black and white mixtures

We skipped the famous Blue Lagoon but wanted to take a hot bath soak somewhere.

We stumbled across this brand new spa (GeoSpa) which had literally opened one week ago. It faced the inland sea and was just a wonderful experience!

Icelanders are very strict about keeping their spas clean (this is natural water and they use no chlorine),so there is a mutual area shower (men ad women are separate) where one must strip naked, swimsuits off as well. Since this was a brand new spa, there was no attendant to monitor but we heard stories that most Icelandic spas have a matron who sits there and makes sure you take everything off! Having done the Japanese ofuro, this was not a problem for us, but I did feel fortunate that I had the place to myself!!

Such a beautiful location! It was a cold day and the soak was well appreciated.

It was a cloudy, dreary day so we spent the rest of the day at local museums. One was the Herring Museum where the history of catching and preserving herring was featured.  Apparently, large numbers of women were employed to do this tedious, smelly, back breaking work. You had to lean over and push the herring into the barrels.

Very informative museum.  Learned a lot!!

They showed what the dormitories of the women looked like,

complete with undies hanging on the line!! 😂😂😂

We saw a lot of folk art on the buildings, many, many trolls.

Stopped in a very small museum and asked about "..polar bears in Iceland???". It seems that every year, one or two polar bears swim over from Greenland.  Not on purpose, mind you! In Iceland, they can't find the food they need and are usually killed to protect the people. 😓 But this little museum keeps the memory of this guy alive and well.

Iceland 11: Whale Watching

From Mytvan, we drove to the northernmost part of our trip. 

Absolutely beautiful scenery along the way.

 Inlets and islands.

 Even on a sunny day,, many mountains and glaciers are obscured by clouds

By the time we got to Husavik, the weather had deteriorated.  We were not planning to go on a whale sighting expedition (a bit pricey) but decided there was nothing else to do in this weather. Apparently whales don't care if it's raining or cold or whatever  😏. We picked the quiet, old fashioned boat. I did not like the speedboats. They race around right up to the path of the whale and it seems very intrusive to me even though your chances of getting close to the whale go up. This was our boat.

 But there were about four other boats going out as well.

We were both already wearing tshirt-shirt-sweatshirt-jacket (4 layers).  Then you climb into what is like a full body snow-suit. It is partly to keep you warm but mostly a flotation device if you fall in!!!

 To say we were toasty warm and cozy is an understatement!

 On top of that, we had to don fishermen style rain gear to keep dry. We all felt very clumsy and awkward.

So the pilot is looking for the whales by looking for "fluke prints" on the water where a whale has recently been.  Or they watch the other boats around to look for a sudden burst of movement which means someone else has spotted a whale.

Our first view of a whale

Even seeing the fluke from a distance was breath-taking and exciting!

But right at the end of our three hour ride, suddenly we were up close and personal with a whale.

There is something so beautiful about the fluke of the whale as it flips goodbye

I was so glad we took this excursion, just to see these magnificent creatures are still hanging around, doing their thing even as their environment gets more and more difficult for them.

The guide said we were extremely lucky to see this perfect show so close up.

And I did feel very lucky.