Ridin'Ard (The h is silent)

Today was whale watching tour day. We got an early start and got checked in for our 2 hr speedboat tour aboard the Amma Helga.  The seats were these pommel horses. We were instructed to stand up if the boat is bouncing hard, just like riding a horse. They were actually pretty soft and not uncomfortable.  First stop was Puffin island. There were a LOT of puffins. They will return to nest there every year.  Puffins have dense bones and can dive 60 meters, almost 200 ft. This means they are heavier than birds that have hollow bones and they have this cute awkward takeoff and also have to continuously flap their wings while flying to stay aloft. And, puffins are monogamous.  We also got to see two humpback whales. So they do actually exist.  You see, we have never gotten to see whales before. We never saw any during 3 sailing cruises in Maine and I think we missed another opportunity to see them due to fog, so we'd decided maybe whales don't exist for us. When we di...

Saturday was a travel day. We drove 5 hrs from Snaefellsness to Akureryi and took a side trip that probably added another 1.5 hrs.  We stopped for lunch and there was a grocery store nearby, so we went to check it out. There was this bag of frozen avocados.  Our side trip was Vatsnes to see seals. We kept stopping at viewpoints, but we didn't see any! I googled to see if it was a winter thing, but the internet said May-July. So it was just us.  We've seen a lot of ADV motorcycles. There are a lot of gravel roads so it seems like the way to go.  We are not sure if these pens are for sheep or horses. We saw these a couple of times.  This is a cool rock. The most photographed in northern Iceland, apparently.  We got in to Akureryi and got checked in and could not get a dinner reservation at the last minute for a Saturday night. So we ordered from the bar menu at our hotel and Julie learned how to use the Icelandic equivalent of OpenTable for our next few dinn...

Hey, you don't know until you try, amirite?  We set out this morning and met up with the guide and a family from Colorado to hike to the summit of Snæfellsjökull, the glacier over the volcano at the center of Snaefellsness peninsula. The weather was great: 52 degrees and a clear sky.  We caravanned out to the starting point and collected our harness and crampons from the guide and set out first on a gravel road. We crossed some snow and then walked on moss & rocks a little ways, and then more snow. The guide said that he was very happy with the conditions because if it was any warmer, the snow would be softer and our feet would be getting wet. Any colder and we would be slipping on the snow.  We all shed a layer when we transitioned from the gravel road to the snow. I was just in my heatgear baselayer and coldgear shirt. Jaron kept his fleece on under his gore tex shell.  After some time on the snow, Jaron & I started slowing down. It was basically like ...

That's basically what we did today. After our post-bkst nap we set out for lunch of fish & chips and then made our way down the coast looking at various rocks.  First up was Saxhóll Crater. We ascended 130 feet to get a preview of our excursion tomorrow when we will be ascending 2,500 ft. It was really windy up there!  Next was Hólahólar, which means "hole hole" and is a crater we could drive in. And do donuts in.  Next we went to the black sand beach, Djúpalónssandur.  After that we hit up Lóndrangar to see this blackest black beach.  Then back to Arnarstapi to try and find a basalt arch, which we didn't find. But we did find this pretty view.  Back to the hotel for an earlier dinner and getting ready for our big hike tomorrow.