Day 6, In Which We Return To Urban Life

After the soggy chaos of Friday, we stuck to things somewhat more mundane for Saturday. We were still drying out, after all. Breakfast at the guesthouse was followed by taking our time laying out still-drying boots and fleece jackets around the little Skoda, and heading to Hveragerdi's "town centre" which looked largely like a big-box discount store combining a no-frills with a bi-way. It turned out actually that the same building contained the main tourist centre, a bakery-cafe, the town library, and a wonderful little handcrafts shop where we found the proprietress to also be the primary knitter of the woolen goods, so we chatted a bit about the work around the shop.

I demanded Adam head back a block or two before we left town to check out a different and less commercial bakkari (bakery- some of the words make sense!) reputed to offer "earth bread", a local bread that is in fact baked while buried in the dirt in the geothermal field. We each had a yummy but very sweet pastry and hot drink for elevenses, and then took a 1/4 block of earth bread to go for later. It's dense and heavy and baked 24 hours in the hot earth in a block that must weigh a couple kilos total.

After heading out of town, we took a long way round back down to the coast, though we stayed a) mostly in the car and b) sensibly away from anything remotely resembling a wave. Maddeningly, today would have been the PERFECT day for a coastal drive, as opposed to during yesterday's cold monsoons, but oh well. We drove through but didn't really stop at the towns of Stokkseyri and Eyrarbakki, both of which are reputed to have museums, historical attractions and good restaurants, but the access to all of those is limited in the winter. On the way we found a couple little lay-bys with information plaques again, one of which marked a historical creamery that still looks to be kept preserved for show. Across the road from that, Adam spotted a herd of the ubiquitous Icelandic horses we had been seeing in every field, but these were close to the fence and seemed curious about the car and travelers stopped at their field, so we wandered closer to say hello. These are small, shaggy horses, used to living wild in the winter, and prone to just curling up on the ground. We have been warned, however, that they are not under any circumstances to be referred to as ponies lest they be insulted - they are after all the Horses of the Vikings. They're very pretty and social, and several clustered by the fence to snuffle at us and pose for pictures.

After that southern loop, we rejoined the road out of the Hveragerdi/Selfoss area which eventually took us northwestward towards Reykjavik. The country for a spell became MUCH more hilly, snowy and windy again, but the weather was generally clear, and I realized we were again crossing the mid-Atlantic rift, just more inland than earlier in the week, and above the less ancient lava fields so it was much more mountainous. About an hour got us in to the city, and navigating to our hotel was relatively simple. We checked in, settled in, and then left again to return the rental car but on the way to search for a power cable for my Nikon camera, the waterproof one I WASN'T carrying when getting clobbered by the North Atlantic because I'd forgotten the charger cable and wanted to save what battery was left for the planned wet part of the trip. This quest took us to a Reykjavik shopping mall - which I found as disturbing an experience as I find Canadian shopping malls, but with less language comprehension. We encountered a unicyclist and stilt walker entertaining patrons in the mall, and I'm completely unclear as to whether that is a normal part of mall life here, or if it was some promotion - Adam got a few shots which will likely appear on his photo site. We were successful in finding the appropriate charging cable, so at least I'm with camera again, and a rather sturdy if lower quality one. We had an easy drive to the city airport for the car return (as our hotel clerk said- everything is small in Iceland - except the prices!) and the Hertz courtesy shuttle dropped us off at Hallgrimskjurki (Hallgrim's church), the cathedral the tower of which can be seen every where in the city centre and on most of the tourist material. From there we wandered the residential streets meandering back to our hotel, sorted ourselves out again, and went back out looking for dinner.

Dinner was found at a mid-pricey "home cooking" restaurant where we shared an Icelandic sampler and traditional "meat soup", which is basically a salty, peppery, lamb and vegetable broth. The sampler included fish stew, grilled lobsters, dried fish, something called haggis which in no way resembles the Scottish variant, and a tiny cut of Minke whale steak. Having tried all of the above, I'm satisfied that we've given Icelandic food a go... I'll stick with grilled seafood from here. The desserts were yummy, however. I guess a culture which developed a cuisine around things sometimes found washed up on beaches needed the antidote of a sweet tooth - sweet pastries are everywhere and seem to be at least considered at every meal and coffee time. A lazy meander back to the hotel down "the shopping street" with a few photos and encounters with somewhat inebriated locals followed, with a stop at the 10-11 (this country's 7-11 shops) for some butter to go with our earth bread. We had the bread for a yummy midnight snack, and I was pretty much lights out as soon as I lay down, didn't even turn on my audiobook tonight.