We took advantage of the large apartment and had a leisurely morning sleeping in and taking showers in a normal sized bathroom. It was surprisingly quiet considering we were in the heart of the city. It has become apparent that Icelandic people don't tend to get up early. We go to bed too early to say whether they stay up late. The kids were excited to have a TV even though it only had one English Channel. The previous night they had watched a documentary about the Russian circus. This morning we found them watching an inappropriate episode of Dr. Phil. A side note: all the stoplight in the city have hearts. I LOVE that.
BLAA KANNAN CAFE
After checking out and making sure we had a parking spot for our car (free parking only until 10) we got a cake box and headed a block over to the coffee shop we saw the night before. Really cute place in a bright blue house. Grabbed a table by the window while Josh ordered some food. Setting was super chill and I could see myself sipping coffee and working there as a third place. The food was just okay. The quiche was a bit flavorless and the kids didn't like the cream cheese on their bagels. They still haven't grasped that all the dairy tastes different and that French fries don't come with all burgers.
HVAMMSTANGI
The town we were spending the night in was only about 2 hrs away. The kids took their normal nap while we drove. The only stop was to play with some horses on the side of the road. Those animals have quite the personality. I swear they were posing for pics behind their electric fence. We had contemplated driving into the Westfjords a bit to explore. However it looked like all the good places yo hit were atleast a 4 hour drive one way. Now I see why people do the Westfjords as a completely separate trip. I bet they would be great in Summer. They looked completely white in every view we got of them. Instead we stopped at the Seal Centre, labeled as Selasetur Islands. Downstairs was a space dedicated to information on the many types of seals and seal souvenirs. We got a map and were directed to all the seal beaches around the Vatnsnes Peninsula . The seals are around all year but tend to only come in at low tide. We were right at high tide. Regardless we took the challenge and started out on the 100km loop. The first beach was beautiful but completely abandoned. No seals. We stood and enjoyed the view. All of a sudden our daughter screamed "I see a seal!" Both Josh and I groaned. The whole trip our son has been screaming about flying fish sightings. They were actually just rocks causing whitecaps. But we looked. And sure enough there was a seal. His head and neck stretched out of the water checking us out. Of course we didn't bring the telephoto lens so we don't have great phototographic proof. It ended up being the only seal we would see all day. We had fun seal searching though. We also found Hvitserkur, the giant rock formation right off the shoreline. Josh scrambled down the hillside to get a good shot for us.
SJAVARBORG
The woman at the seal Centre told us to have dinner at Gauksmyri's restaurant as we finished the loop. We were hungry after all our seal searching and were ready for dinner. However, the restaurant wasn't open. Instead the told us to go to their other restaurant - above the Seal Centre. Okay. So we headed back there. According to Lonely Planet this restaurant is brand new. It hadn't opened yet when they published. Considering we were a bit in the middle of nowhere it was a surprisingly large and chic place. Glass windows overlooking the harbour. The menu was more inventive than anything we had found yet. I'm not sure where all these people came from but there were several parties by the time we finished.
HORSE BACK RIDING
I'm not sure what all these horses are doing in this country. What are they breeding them for? I should Google that or maybe read it in my book. The kids have been begging to ride. Before we set out on our seal expedition we tried to go. Josh asked the seal lady for a place and she gave us a farm down the road. We tried asking three different people. No one speaking English and pointing us somewhere else. We finally found the person running the horse rides. He was going out on a ride for an hour but told us to come back and the kids could ride in the ring. It occurred to us that we had no money and that this institution probably dung tajes cards. We promised the kids we would go back I'm warm North Carolina and went looking for seals.
HVAMMSTANGI COTTAGES
The cottages were nice enough and the location was great for jumping off the next day, but we had our worst night's sleep here. The wind was so extreme that it shook the whole cabin. We had a double bunk bed and Josh felt a little claustrophobic. They were somehow completely full though.
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