Well, it stayed light pretty much all night long last night! Thank goodness for the black curtains in the bedrooms last night. We all slept pretty well and were much more refreshed when we started off this morning.
SO, Happy “Iceland National Day”!! Icelandic National Day (Icelandic: Þjóðhátíðardagurinn, the day of the nation's celebration) is an annual holiday in Iceland which commemorates the foundation of The Republic of Iceland on June 17, 1944. This date also marks the end of Iceland's centuries old ties with Denmark. Many of the farms and towns had their flags flying today.
We drove a couple different loop roads today to catch some of the sights and pulled off when we saw road signs that looked interesting.
Our first stop was Marteinstunga, an old farm house and church. There were Icelandic horses and sheep there, too!
From there we headed north and had Mount Hekla, Iceland’s most active volcano in view for most of the morning. Hekla is a stratovolcano in the south of Iceland with a height of 1,491 meters and usually erupts every 10 years . A stratovolcano is a tall, conical volcano composed of one layer of hardened lava, tephra, and volcanic ash. These volcanoes are characterized by a steep profile and periodic, explosive eruptions. The lava that flows from them is highly viscous, and cools and hardens before spreading very far.
During the Middle Ages, Europeans called the volcano the "Gateway to Hell". Mt. Hekla last erupted in 2000, and they say it is overdue. We hope it waits until our trip is over to make an appearance! The landscape was volcanic and reminded Wendy of the Craters of the Moon in Idaho.
We ended up on a gravel road – but not an “F” road that rental cars are not allowed to drive on – for several miles past the Burfell Hydro electric power station on the Þjórsá River. Þjórsá is Iceland's longest river at 230 kilometers. (about 143 miles) Þjórsá is a glacier river and has its source on the glacier Hofsjökull.
We had a stop at Þjóðveldisbærinn Stöng which is a reconstructed Viking-era farmstead. We didn’t go into the museum opting to only walk around the outside. It was pretty interesting to see the sod construction and turf roof. It was abandoned in 1104 because of Hekla’s eruption and restored in 1977.
We also had a stop at another waterfall before lunch.
We made it to Ryekholt and had lunch at the Friðheimar Restaurant. What an interesting idea! This is one of Iceland’s largest tomato greenhouses and it has a restaurant inside. Everything on the limited menu includes tomatoes! We all had the tomato soup with bread. Both we all you could eat – and we did!! We could walk around the greenhouse and see the plants and they had signs explaining more about their facility.
With tummies full, we headed back out to head for the Þórsmörk loop of our day. The drive through the valley toward the glaciers was amazing! We could see at least 15-20 waterfalls as we drove along. We stopped at Gluggafoss on the Merhja River on Route 261.
As we got closer to the end of Route 261 before it turned into F261 (where we can’t drive) we could see what Lonely Planet called “ brooding glaciers”! The valley was socked in with mist and fog which is common in that area. There are supposed to be fantastic hiking trails, but they were inaccessible to us without a 4WD vehicle.
There were lots of birds to see in the area, as well.
We turned around and headed to Seljandsfoss Waterfall and Gljúfrafoss waterfall. They are both located ight by Route 1 and the road that leads to Þórsmörk Road 249. The waterfall drops 60 m and is part of the Seljalands River that has its origin in the volcano glacier Eyjafjallajökull.
Gljúfrabúi is a smaller waterfall north of the larger falls of Seljalandsfoss. The falls are partially obscured by the cliff rock, but hikers can follow a trail to enter the narrow canyon where the water plummets to a small pool. We opted to just watch others go in!
After viewing these waterfalls we headed back to Hvolsvöllur to check in at our Airbnb for the night. It started to rain as we arrived so we had another good day! Tomorrow will be a busy day with lots of activities, so goodnight!
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