When Pippa would ask what she would see in Iceland, usually waterfalls topped the list. We love waterfalls. I love waterfalls. I grew up near waterfalls in central New York and visited Niagara Falls when I was a little girl. In Connecticut one of our favorite places was Kent Falls. Iceland has 8 zillion waterfalls (not an exact number) that flow from glaciers. Our American Thanksgiving Day was spent driving the southern part of the Ring Road along the coast to see a coupe of the more well-known waterfalls, Seljalandsfoss and Skogafoss, but also other small ones whose names we did not discover. We drove as far as Vík and then drove back to our guest house outside Selfoss.
Our hostess, Þorey, was going to have a seafood dinner waiting for us, so we needed to be home at a certain time. At this time of year, we were having to plan our trips around about 5 hours of daylight. And it’s not bright sunshine. The sun hangs low in the sky at this time of year. We are less than a month from the Solstice, and at that time, the sun just skims the horizon for those “daylight” hours. Even when we had daylight, it was often effected by fast-moving storms and clouds that would pass over. Or linger. Whatever it wanted to do.
Seljalandsfoss: The waterfall you can walk behind if it's not November and very cold or if you are more sure-footed than I, personally, am.
So as we spent this day driving in the Suðurland, a lot of time was spent with me saying, “Pull over! Take a picture!” Pulling off the side of the road every time there was something gorgeous and photogenic took a lot of time.
I have always felt drawn to Vík, so that was one of our musts. It has been named one of the most beautiful beaches in the world with its fine, black basalt sand. The basalt columns found here and in other places around Iceland inspired Guðjón Samúelsson, the architect who designed Hallgrímskirkja.
It was raining when we got to Vík and the winds were absolutely shocking. Needless to say, we did not take Pippa out in the wind, so we took turns. Kevin went first and came back looking like he had been through the wringer. When Corbin and I got out of the car for our turn, we found out what wringer he had been through! We almost got knocked down several times by the tremendous wind. I would walk through the sand heel first, digging one foot in front to the other. When a bigger gust came, I would just stand like that, braced in the sand. Then when the gust stopped, I could continue. Sometimes we would have to stop and turn our backs to the wind because of the sand blowing and stinging our faces. I hope I am not making this sound awful because it wasn’t. It was awesome! The power of nature is an incredible thing, and you really understand that at places like this.
The town of Vík in the mist and wind.
On our way back to the house, we stopped at the grocery store, Bonus, which is known for its logo of what appears to be a drunk pig as the "O" in its name. Yes, we did consider how we could get this huge container of Appelsín home. We are addicted.
And then it was dinner time! We had a seafood gratin, salad, bread, and cake (from Bonus) for dinner. We insisted that Þorey eat with us and enjoy the wonderful meal she made for us. A wonderful Thanksgiving!
