After a 10 hour sleep, we hustled to get to breakfast ( serving stopped at 10 am). Today's journey would take us a short distance, but to several places. The names of all these places are all tongue twisters, so I'll just call them by placeholder names.
But before we went too far down the road, Ray asked me to look in the car manual to find out what the warning light was that popped up on the dashboard. It turns out it's for the tpms (tire pressure monitoring system). One or more of the tires had an issue. Of course, we were miles from any place that could help by then. So I called the car rental company, and their pleasant service person told me not to worry, that happens to lots of cars in Iceland. What? She recommended we take the car to a tire shop when we could and they would check it out. Any expense would be reimbursed.
Well, we really had no alternatives, and the tires all LOOKED OK, so we just went along our way.
First stop was at Waterfall 1. We could see it from the parking lot (pay $7 for parking please). We decided against taking the walk to it.
Second stop was at a man-made cave. It was cool-looking from the outside and dug into a hillside. We parked a bit down the road and walked up to it to avoid paying the $7 parking fee.
Next up was Waterfall 2. This one was more impressive, and parking here was free. A stairway climbs up to the top (500 steps), and gives you a different perspective of the falls. We took the stairs, and enjoyed some beautiful views over the plain and out to the ocean.
Near the falls was the Skogar folk museum, an interesting look at Icelandic life. It had everything from an 1855 fishing boat, to a whale vertebra made into a bucket to beautiful embroidered tapestries. We really enjoyed this. In addition to the inside museum, there was an assemblage of buildings, some original, some recreated, including a home built entirely of driftwood. As a matter of fact, because imported lumber was so expensive, and there were no trees, Icelanders used driftwood for most wooden construction.
Heading east, we stopped at Dyrholaey, a promontory with fantastic views of the Atlantic southern coast, and north to the mountains.
Then we stopped at a black beach presided over by an enormous basalt formation--splintered columns of hexagonal volcanic rock. That reminded us of the Giant's Causeway in northern Ireland. The beach isn't really sand, but more like tiny black pebbles.
It was getting late, so we headed for our hotel. After dinner, we stopped at a gas station to add air to the tires.
Pictures are here:
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