We had glorious weather almost all the time until our return at 3ish. It did rain a couple of times while we were driving between our waypoints but every time we got off the bus the sun came out. It's not recommended to take photos from a moving bus. However, we couldn't resist. Some turned out quite well.
From one point we disembarked for a "walk". Well, OK, exercise is good. Well - what spectacular views that you would never guess from the road. Much of the scenery reminded me of the Cliffs of Moher and both the Giant's Causeway and Staffa. The walk was easy on a gravel path - actually crushed lava. The whole island is volcanic and we keep hearing that many of the volcanoes are active and some are "(over)due to erupt". As long as they wait until Sept 10, we're good.
Iceland is very protective of its environment. Littering is minimal. What was surprising to learn is that you may NOT take any rocks out of the country. The airport crew is more than happy to carefully check and issue fines of hundreds of Euros – or tens of thousands of ISK – before you leave. No excuses like "I didn't know". There is some jewellery made of a sort of lava that is acceptable and they know the difference. Fortunately, geology samples are not on my list of 'must-have' souvenirs.
Our final stop was at a Shark Museum, where we heard about fishing for Greenland Sharks, and how they are processed. It takes months to get the shark meat that is not poisonous to humans. I shudder to think of how they found this out and apparently nobody knows how they figured out how to make it edible.
So - we had "shark tasting". I did try it. Now my question is: why on earth did they bother? The taste is not totally foul, but left me queasy for about half an hour. I tried the tiniest piece I could find. The process is to dip it in schnapps (Icelandic) for a few seconds and then chew and swallow. The longer you chew the stronger the taste. I think I had three chews and a swallow. Then a tiny piece of rye bread to take away the worst of the taste. I won't bother to do that again.
Here are a few photos from today - they might come out a bit bright but I'm not doing any editing at this point. More tomorrow.
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| just caught it at the right time - raining when we went by later |
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| Reminded me of Giant's Causeway and Staffa |
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| Who doesn't love a view like this? |
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| Enjoying our packed lunch at a place that starts with B |
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| Another boring gorgeous view |
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| Shark meat drying |
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| Not sure why they need a tractor |
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