Iceland 4: Southern waterfalls-each unique and beautiful

We left Hotel Selfoss (after a huge, delicious breakfast!!) and started driving through the most beautiful scenery you can imagine.  Dave is the best about stopping for pictures, even turning around and going back if we went past something wonderful.There are literally waterfalls everywhere, but some are just amazing and we hit a few on this day.  The weather was iffy all day long but somehow managed to clear up just enough when we arrived at each waterfall.

First stop: Seljalandsfoss.   The only waterfall in Iceland you can walk behind..
We put on all of our water-proof gear (except our pants. Should've brought waterproof pants) and  joined the parade under the most amazing waterfall.

So fun to be immersed in the  sound of the power of the water. 

The sky looked beautiful for a moment but then fogged in.

 Very wet behind the waterfall. Good walking boots required

 As Andrew pointed out "Dad is smiling so big he's showing his teeth!!"

It was really neat!

A short video of the experience.

Right around the corner from Seljandsfoss was Gljúfrafoss.  The falls are partially obscured by the cliff rock, but you can follow a trail to enter the narrow canyon where the water plummets to a small pool.  But with people coming and going, it is a little treacherous and sure enough, I slipped on a rock that was not steady and in went my foot, boot underwater.  But it was worth it to get back into this beauty. 

 

My camera could not capture how cool it was.

 Where is Rich Walker when you need him?

My boot was filled with cold glacial water and obviously not going to dry up quickly.

Moved my loaf of bread to a Ziploc bag (always carry Ziploc bags on road trips) and I put my foot in the bread bag and then put on the boot: voilà! My foot was cozy and dry.

I call this picture "travelling with an engineer".  There are beautiful waterfalls everywhere but Dave is more interested in the power generator station. Ha ha.

En route to the next waterfall, we stopped here there and everywhere for glorious scenery. Experienced some more incredibly powerful winds.

Just felt like you were going to blow away.

 This sheep looked so cozy in the wind

 Over 200 man made caves found on Southern farms.

 This one pretty famous called Rútshellir.
A very interesting story can be found at:https://guidetoiceland.is/connect-with-locals/regina/rutshellir-cave-in-drangurinn-in-drangshlid

 This is the first multi-tiered waterfall we saw.  Just  random view from the car.

And then we saw so many more...

On to the next amazing waterfall: Skogafoss.

Just awesome in its size and perfect shape.

We heard there was a perpetual rainbow there,

but you do indeed need a little sunshine for that..

No rainbow :😞

A bride getting her photo done...even though it was very cold!!

 If you look in the right hand upper area of the first pic of Skogafoss. 

you'll see the observation area we climbed up to.

Had to take the pic sideways to get it all in,

 but the walk up is 400+ steps straight up.

This was really my first observation that, in order to enjoy every bit of Iceland, 

you need to be in good physical condition!

 Once at the top, a lovely walk to see the source of the waterfall,

 a beautiful river amongst rocky, mossy gorges

At this point of our trip, I realized how appropriate our rental car licence was:

OMG!!!!!  I said that many times in Iceland.

I found the attire of this Chinese tourist to be quite amusing:

 the fur hat and the silver boots

Down the road, we found the best kind of waterfall:

NO TOURISTS!

This one we had to ourselves...  finally.

Iceland 3: Selfoss and what we ate in Iceland

 Our first evening stay was in Selfoss. 

Lovely town with a beautiful church, hotel by the river.

 But our guide recommended eating in Stokkseyri  (a small town by the seashore with a population of around 445). "A lovely three course lobster meal" it was written. So, very hungry, we drove down to Stokkseyri, a 25 min drive. The town was so small, we drove through it twice without seeing any restaurant. It was just a small little place.

Fortunately, the menu was posted on the outside:

Now, just to inform you: $1.00 equals 110 Iceland Kroner.

So the recommended lobster meal was $99 a person!!!

Even a bowl of soup was $25.

Needless to say, we did not eat there.

So we wandered about the town and saw:

A lovely old church and cemetery. 

Interesting grave marker

Old mounds with small markers

An old shepherd's lodge sodhouse

Even fences and boundaries are beautiful with rock and moss

So back to Selfoss and we googled for a family restaurant, not expensive, and headed over to Surf and Turf. This was our first true understanding that there are no inexpensive restaurants in Iceland except for Subway and little eating counters run by the gas station convenience stores. Casual dining for supper around $35-$50.  And notice they are serving tenderloin of horse. The owner assured us they only slaughter old horses or when they are culling for breeding purposes. We did not choose to eat the hrossalund.

From that point on, we did what we were recommended to do in the first place.  We filled up on the wonderful, delicious, healthy breakfasts provided (for free) by the hotels we stayed at. (Pickled herring provided every morning). Then a late afternoon meal(pizza, hot dog, sandwiches), snack for supper.

Here is what breakfast looked like at each and every hotel (plus the bread table and the coffee bar).

At some point, we discovered Icelandic hot dogs were pretty darn good (and under $5). This became our go-to along with pizza when we really were hungry.

I had also followed some advice to carry a lot of food with us which turned out to be a wise idea.  All food in Iceland is at least twice as much as the US and in touristy areas, even more. Also took along an empty bottle and filled it with delicious Icelandic water every morning. Although we were never hungry, we sure did miss our regular, healthy meals that we eat here at home!

Just for shock value, I found this box of Cheerios

 in a tourist area for around $9!!!!

Iceland 2: The Golden Circle and how we traveled

So, we picked up  our rent-a-car and proceeded to try to type in the first destination but..  whaat? There are a few letters in the Icelandic alphabet that are not familiar at all. I went back in to ask the guy, and when he told me "th", I realized he had tried to tell us already but we had no idea why "th" was so important 😊😊  Þ = th

The Golden Circle is the basic first destination of all of the 2,195,271( 2017)  visitors that come to Iceland because you can see a pretty good sample of Iceland's amazing sights within a days drive of Reykjavik. However, that means there are just way too many tourists for my comfort. And so many of them want selfies, group photos, go-pro images, etc. It is more daunting when you understand the population of the island is only 350,000.

The first stop is Þingvellir (Thingvellir), a historic site and national park in Iceland, east of Reykjavík. It's known for the Alþing (Althing), the site of Iceland's parliament from the 10th to 18th centuries. The park sits in a rift valley caused by the separation of 2 tectonic plates, with rocky cliffs and fissures like the huge Almannagjá fault

It the only UNESCO World Heritage Site on the Icelandic mainland

You literally are walking between two continents.

A lovely waterfall,  Öxaráfoss, is at the end of your walk

Next stop is Geysir which is exactly that. There are two geysers there. One erupts massively but very infrequently.  The other shoots up around every 6 minutes.  Actually, there was some human intervention.  They did something to the water table to make it erupt more frequently for the tourist's sake. 😊

          
                We climbed up the hill nearby to catch a bigger picture

Finally on to something truly Spectacular: Gullfoss.

A two-tiered waterfall that just left you breathless!

Giddy with joy at this point. We're here! We're actually here!

 The 3000 year old Kerið crater was next and that's when we first experienced the incredible Icelandic winds.

Now we know why nobody uses umbrellas over there. 

They would just blow away!

Many folks have been interested in how our trip worked.  Well, we booked with Nordic Visitor.  They plan your itinerary for you, book the hotels, plot your route on a map, include a book with all of the information. They arrange your rent car which comes with GPS and a local cell phone.  You can choose your vehicle and then you choose budget/comfort/quality for your accommodations, which determines your final price. We went with comfort and a small car (diesel).  It was wonderful to not have to figure that all out. 

Just show up and it's all done for you.  Maybe not the cheapest way to go,

 but it surely worked for us this time around!

We chose the Iceland Full Circle Classic, 10 days, 9 nights around the entire island (except the western fjords).

Sending comfort and strength

I have several friends who are going through tough times.

I have found that the "big cats" convey such strength and determination.

They look at you and say "I dare you to mess with me!"

Which is why they seem a perfect choice for encouraging strength

during hard times.

If I may be so bold as to have a favorite among those I've painted, 

this is it. It hung on my refrigerator without words for months.

But when I messaged a friend encouragement and love

and discovered what a hard time she was going through,

I knew this one was for her.

Someone I know is dealing with the aftermath of her husband's hemorrhagic stroke.

Three long weeks just to wean him off of the ventilator, manage the seizures,

and move him out of ICU. It is a roller coaster of ups and downs, 

but over the stretch of time, as long as the the net result is forward..

The first etegami I sent to the same person.

I believe that people need to know you are thinking about them.

What better way than etegami in the mail?

And lastly, I needed to paint with color!

Animals are fun but my brown and black inks are almost depleted!

So for my cousins on the death of my aunt, flowers..