Iceland (V): From Borgarnes to Akureyri, Part I (North)

It was the fourth day, we continued to circle the Ring Road to the north.  It was about 200 miles from Borgarnes to Akureyri, we made multiple stops at Bifröst, Blönduós, Glaumbær, Hofsós, Siglufjörður, Dalvík and finally Akureyri.

Our first stop was Grabrok Crater at Bifröst, 30 minutes north of Borgarnes.

Grabrok was a volcanic crater.  Newly built paths circled the entire crater rim, with the panoramic view of the surrounding areas.

To the north, beautifully shaped mountains.

To the west, a crater with similar shape and size.

To the south, it was the small village Bifröst–beautiful but no rainbow bridge to Asgard.

And the winding road we drove on a few minutes ago.

This site would be much nicer visit in a clear and calm day.  For a few instants, I was afraid to get blown into the crater pit by the wind! Other than that it was really fun to walk around the rim.

Back to the road, there were many farm animals grazing under the big Icelandic sky–cows, horses, and lot of sheep.

Do you know there are about 800,000 sheep and lambs in Iceland, a country with the population of just 323,000?!  To our surprise, most of the sheep we saw were small group of 3 to 5, not a large flock.

Our next town was Blönduós.  We saw kids jumping on a rainbow “trampoline”.

Here was our first encounter of black sand beach.  Cold and windy, we were the only souls on the beach! Haha yes, silly tourists.

Continuing north, we caught sight of a forest of young trees. There were the first seedlings we saw since arrival to this country.  Later on we learned from the museum guide that a great effort of replanting was on going in the country.  Most of the young trees were imported from oversea.  Can you imagine the island used to be covered by forests before human settled here?  It was understood that woods were cut down to use as fuels to combat cold.

Another phenomenon we found out unique to Iceland: the center of any settlement, such as a village, a small town even just a couple of houses, was always a church.  Many churches were simple and in the same style: white body with red roof and a steeple.

Our next stop was Glaumbær in Skagafjörður. We went to visit a classic turf farm-museum.  You see, a church in the town center.

The farm museum was very interesting, the houses were covered with sods and grass.

There were at least 12 rooms connecting together, bedrooms for the farmer and his wife and their children, kitchen, storage rooms and many more.  The yellow brick building was a gift shop with a cozy cafe.

To be continued…