Our drive through Northeast Iceland was the most remote drive. We had to go out of our way to make a food stop in the morning, otherwise we wouldn't have come across any restaurants during 3 hours of driving (and that doesn't include stops!).
Geirsstaðakirkja Turf Church
One of the remaining 6 turf churches in Iceland, this is a replica of the original turf church which stood in the area from 930-1262. It's in the area of Hróarstunga. The church is believed to be the home church of Hróar, for which the area is named. He was the son of one of East Iceland's settlers, Uni the Danish. There's a guestbook in the church for visitors to sign.
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| Lots of sheep hanging out around the church |
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| This church is in the middle of nowhere. |
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| One of the hundreds of waterfalls we saw on our drive. |
Möðrudalur Farm
I found a farm slightly out of our way which had a cafe and gas station. This turned out to be a really fun stop for us. The farm is really beautiful, and even though it was still around breakfast time they offered lunch. We all tried something called moss soup. They gather the moss from around the farm. It tastes like sweet warm milk and the moss sort of dissolves in your mouth.
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| Greeting the farm dog |
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| The farm church. |
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| Inside the farm church. |
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| Fjallakaffi - the cafe. |
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| Sleepy farm dog |
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| Getting gas at the cutest gas station I've ever seen. |
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| Beautiful view from the cafe. |
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| Trying the moss soup. |
Dettifoss and Selfoss
When you approach Dettifoss and Selfoss the landscape becomes rocky and barren, and it becomes hard to imagine finding any waterfalls in the area. It's a bit of a walk to both, but you park in one parking lot and can walk to either one or both. You don't need to walk all the way to Selfoss to get a view of it. We were lucky to get a rainbow display at Dettifoss, which is Europe's most powerfull waterfall.
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| Dettifoss |
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| Dettifoss |
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| Selfoss |
Lake Myvatn Area
There are several things to do around the Lake Myvatn area. We made a quick stop at a geothermal activity area, but didn't spend any time walking around.
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| The bright blue water is output from a geothermal plant. |
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| Lake Myvatn in the distance. |
Lake Myvatn means Midge Lake. We stopped at a gas station to get some water and snacks, and by the time we got back to the car, it literally looked like the flies were about to eat the car, or fly away with it. It was impossible to get back in without touching them or getting a ton in the car. We made the decision to drive around the lake and to not stop anywhere because the idea of eating flies was not one we were excited about. It seems like anyone spending time here in the summer will need a full face net to survive the flies here.
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| The Skutustadir psuedocraters |
Godafoss
Godafoss was one of my favorite waterfalls in Iceland. You can access either side of it. On the side we accessed, you can easily touch the waters at the top of the falls. The name means Waterfall of the Gods. The legend is that after Iceland's lawspeaker Thorgeir Ljósvetningagoði declared Christianity the official religion in Iceland, he threw the statues of the Norse gods into the waterfall.
Akureyri
Akureyri is the second largest city in Iceland after Reykjavik, with a population of almost 19,000. It sits on the longest fjord in the country, Eyjafjörður. The drive into Akureyri is stunning.
We thought that our guesthouse the previous night couldn't be beat, but Saeuluhus in Akureyri assigned us an amazing 3 bedroom apartment with beautiful views of the city and fjord and our own private hot tub. It was really magical.
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| Our apartment view. |
We had an amazing dinner at Brygjjan restaurant, where I had langoustine pizza.
After dinner we went to a smallish Walgreens type store that also had some groceries to buy food for breakfast. The biggest section of the store was the knitting section. There are Icelandic wool sweaters called lopapeysa that are sold everywhere.
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| Fashionable sweater patterns |
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| Eggs! We never saw any chickens in Iceland, but they must be hiding somewhere. |
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