Apparently the fact that the sun comes up around 4am during the first part of August in Iceland does not keep you from sleeping in if you wore yourself out too much the day before. Once we woke up and realized it was 10am we got an extra pep in our step, because we had more to do to explore the Myvatn area in north Iceland.
Here you can see how clear the water is, plus the steam rise off it shows how warm it is.
Our first stop was Grjotagja, which is a small cave with hot water in it. For many, many years this was used as a bathing pool, but starting in 1975 the volcano we visited yesterday started erupting (it stopped in 1984) and the water temperature rose to 160 degrees. Now a days it sits around 110-114. It is a great place to visit, but does not take more than 10 minutes because you descend down about 10 feet and the water fills the bottom of the cave. There are rocks at either end to sit or climb on. That is about it.
Our next stop was to relax in the milky white,
Looks just as good as the Blue Lagoon
silica enriched, geo-thermal pool. This is exactly like the world famous Blue Lagoon near the airport but way,
way less crowded and cheaper. In fact, unlike the Blue Lagoon where you have to have a reservation well in advance, we just walked right in and then were told our pass was good for as long as we wanted and we could come back anytime that day. Let me get this straight…..same exact experience, but for half the price, a quarter the crowd, and when I want to go? Sign me up!!!!
I have to admit my skin felt softer.
Once we finally dragged ourselves out of the amazing feeling water we had to get our daily big waterfall quota taken care of, so we left the Myvatn area and drove to Godafoss. Yet again we were not disappointed as this horseshoe shaped gem showed off the glory of the creator.
You would expect the sand to be rough crushed volcanic rock, but is as soft as teh sand at a beach in the Virgin Islands
The thing I remember most is playing with the soft and cool black sand, which is all over the island. It gets the black color from ash due to all the volcanic eruptions over the eons.
Our last stop before we camped on the northwest coast was the Glaumbaer Turf House. This was a cultural stop and really surprised us with how much we liked it. From the front it looked like 6 small houses built next to each other with grass growing on the roofs. This did not surprise me because I saw many houses with a grass roof in Norway last year. It keeps the warmth in. What surprised us was once you entered past the mail entrance there was a long hallway with six rooms coming off of it housing food storage, a kitchen, and a guest room. At the far end was the family’s dwelling with a main room and a small room on either end. The dwelling and kitchen was built with wood frame and paneling, but the other rooms were just squares of turf (grass and dirt) stacked on top of each other. This building style was used for centuries and was so effective that the family was able to live without a heat source. I had never seen a building style like this and feel enriched for making this stop. #iceland #worldtrip #turfhouse #Myvatn #Grjotagja #geothermalpool #bluelagoon #hotspring
This is the front of the house. Half of these are a facade and are all turf behind them. The others are wood framed and panels with turf stack around it for insulation.
THis is the interior of the living area. The cover photo was the exterior.
This is the back of some of those facades.
This is the very long hallway with rooms off it. This is made entirely of turf stack on more turf.
This is the kitchen and the entire room is made from turf.
