BREAKFAST WITH THE COWS
I was woken up promptly at 7am to the declarations that it was seven and time to go milk the cows! Ugh. Breakfast wouldn't start until 8 so I reminded the kids it was a special day (Josh's birthday) and urged everyone to attempt to dress themselves. We have the same formula for outfits each day and yet the kids can't figure it out. Long underwear + waterproof pants + fleece. Regardless, we all managed to put our clothes on, get mostly packed up and headed to the restaurant/barn. We were welcomed into the cow portion of the barn where we met the newest baby (She was born yesterday) and all the other cows. I've now been in quite a few cow barns with the kids and I couldn't believe how clean the cows are. I guess if you are going to have a viewing window from an eating establishment into your barn, you must be pretty confident in her cleanliness. We asked more ridiculous questions like "why is there a harness on that cow" or "why does that cow eat lying down like Raven"? and dropped daddy's bday card on the barn floor (sorry). Answers: her udders are too big and she'd step on them and those are obviously the smart cows. This cow craziness made Josh and I break out our new favorite knock knock joke - we looked up a LOT of jokes one day when the kids were bored.Knock Knock
Who's there?
Cow-go
Cow-go who?
No! Cow go moo!
I know we are hysterical. The kids rolled their eyes and took their tarting cups of fresh milk over to our table. Josh tried very hard to not let the kids drink fresh milk but that was a losing battle. We were happy no one puked. Our daughter - not a fan of fresh milk. Our son - will literally drink anything. Breakfast was quite the spread. With so many different kinds of fresh breads, jams, meats, pates. We filled our bellies and got on the road.
HVERIR
So it is basically a bunch of bubbly mud holes with steam venting out of the earth on big plumes. It smelled of sulphur but something about the constant,y shifting stream made the walk around the holes a bit romantic. We explained three times to the kids how important it was to stay between the ropes and not jump off the path. They wanted to know details about how hot the water really was and what it would do to them. Nothing says peaceful walk like following those questions that left me with little to no comfort that they got it. Halfway through the walk, our son started crying that his hands were falling off. It was cold. We got him back into the heated car so we could finish looking around and taking pictures. I actually had Josh drive is back later so I could get a picture I couldn't earlier. You can't get more convenient than the location right off the road.
KRAFLA
I don't have much of a report for this volcanic area. We ventured in to look for Viti which is supposed to be a green lagoon at the center of a crater. I'm sure it was pretty but we never made it. The road winded around the area for many KMs before just ending in snow. Hmmm. An empty van was in front of us. We looked up on the ridge high above us and some s line of people trekking in a lime, looking like ants. Yep. No chance we would make it up there. So that's as lose as we got. We turned around and stopped at the overlook to get a view of the entire area that main,y consisted of a massive geothermal power plant. We contemplated going into the visitors center to learn more about geothermal but thought the kids might bust.
MYVATN NATURE BATHS
After seeing how much the kids enjoyed Blue Lagoon we thought a visit here would be appreciated it. We hadn't previously planned to go but the pictures looked pretty. And it was a LOT cheaper than the more touristy Blue Lagoon. The BL was glitzy with fancy bathrooms, attendants all over, hidden caves in the pools. Kinda the Disney of natural baths. MNB felt much more local and authentic. It was $40 for all of us combined. They opened at noon so we were there waiting for them to open and were the first people in. I'd guess there were 20 people total when we left. The water felt warmed and we liked the cold pool. It was actually just warm and was nice to cool down before going back to the hot water again. I'd highly recommend a stop there. I'd also suggest putting those orange floaties on your kids even if they are a good swimmer. The steam is so thick it was the only way I could see the kids at times. I'd also recommend NOT listening to the person who works there when she says not to set your hair first - because of how cold it is. Our daughter's hair was a mess this time since we didn't load it with conditioner. I used an entire travel bottle on her afterwards to be able to brush it. It occurred to me when I was dousing her hair in an open shower, how odd we must look. We hadn't seen a single black or biracial person in Iceland. And very few kids. A few Asian families but that was it. Interesting that it took 5 days for me to realize that. I'm usually pretty aware to that.
GAMLI BAERINN
We tried a few places to find lunch. Our first attempt at Daddi's Pizza was shot down because they were closed. We've had about a 25% success rate despite what the Lonely Planet Guide or websites said. We stumbled upon the Gamli Bistro which was cozy and inviting. For the first time on the trip we had too much food. Neither my son or I could finish our soup. Maybe because we ordered some Geysir bread topped with cream cheese and smoked salmon to start. That was delicious. The kids sucked down the homemade hot chocolate with fresh cream like nobody's business. They were in a food coma and asleep before we had barely gotten out of the parking lot.
GODAFOSS
We had a short hour drive this day to get to Akureyri and had not planned to stop at the Godafoss Waterfall. Luckily the kids were asleep so we didn't have to struggle with them falling over the side. This was actually my favorite Waterfall of the trip (so far). The parking lot takes you to the top of the falls. There are no ropes or rails. You could literally wLk into the falls and go plummeting over. I was horrified to watch people scurrying up snow covered ledges to "get s better view". I actually googled "Godafoss tourist death" but nothing came up. The falls were wide and huge. Josh and I took turns looking and then finished our drive.
AKUREYRI
The largest town outside the capital. It was much larger and picturesque than either of us expected. Situated along the fjord and sprawling up the hillside. Reminded us of a mini non-medieval Florence. The timing worked out well so that we could spend Josh's birthday in a modern town. I rented a two bedroom apartment through Airbnb. The location was perfect in the center of town. ACCO apartments above Cafe Berlin. I had emailed back and forth with the owner of Cafe Berlin about having a cake made for Josh. When I checked in (an hour before they were closing) I asked about the cake. Yes, the chocolate cake! For tomorrow? No tonight. Ah, yes. Come back in an hour. An hour later I snuck out of the apartment and picked up a chocolate cake fresh out of the oven with edible snowflakes covering the top. He gave me a cake cover to keep it fresh. It was delicious and still warm when we are it later that night.
DINNER AT RUB23, NO BACKPACKERS, NO BRYGGJAN
We didn't make a dinner reservation but had read about RUB23 and planned to have dinner there. It was close by the apartment and we were quickly seated in the most modern and upscale place we had seen the whole trip. Even the kids menu was super fancy. Our daughter somehow colored the whole permanent menu while we looked for drinks. Great! We were both struggling to find what we wanted. We don't have a problem paying for a nice dinner but it was really pricey. Too pricey to keep the kids quiet, it was pretty stuffy quiet. We were seated for awhile and still no one came to get our drink orders. We made the executive decision and left. We headed over to the Backpackers Hostel that we had passed and the cafe had been busy. It was very hipster cool inside but every table was taken. Josh pulled out his phone and headed to the iheartrekjavik blog that we used for some planning. Based on her review of a quirky restaurant down at the harbour we jumped in the car and hoped third time was a charm. Bryggjan was perfect. A very old industrial building that was filled with wood and warm lighting. I agreed with the review that it felt like it would be a really expensive place, especially in the US but it was pizza, burgers and fish n chips. Our son had been begging for fish and chips all day. This was perfect. There were three or four other groups there but I think we were the only non-local people. Good birthday dinner. We spent most of dinner making a list of our favorite 38 things about Daddy for his 38th birthday. We discovered that our daughter REALLY likes his hugs. We headed back to the apartment and finished birthday festivities with singing in both English and Chinese, followed by some yummy Icelandic chocolate cake. Happy Birthday Josh!
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