Our first (and brief) stop was halfway between Kirkjubæjarklaustar and Vík, at Laufskálavarða (translation from French wikipedia).
Continuing west, we had clear views of Mýrdalsjökull glacier.
And also clear views of Eyjafjallajökull glacier/volcano, as we turned off Rt 1 towards Seljavellir.
Our first planned stop for the day was Seljavallalaug, a "secret pool" just a few kilometers up a dirt track from Rt 1.
... followed by a 15 minute hike into the hills and over a river or two.
The view alone was worth the trek, plus there's a large heated pool at the end. We got there around 11 AM.
And when you get too hot, you just walk down to the river of glacial runoff for a quick rinse. Couldn't be more convenient.
You can see all four seasons of Seljavallalaug in Google image search.
After an hour or so, we hiked back down to the parking lot and continued our quest to the west.
Literally a few kilometers along the ring road, we stopped at the Þorvaldseyri farm and the Iceland Erupts visitor center, at the base of Eyjafjallajökull.
At the visitor center, we watched a 20 minute video about the history of the farm, the volcano, and the 2010 eruption ("the only reason you've heard of it", they joke).
It was after 1 PM when we left the visitor center, so we kept an eye out for a place to eat lunch. We stopped at an "art cafe" restaurant in Hvolsvöllur for burgers.
It was starting to feel "very hot" outside, after lunch.
Next up, we made a left in Selfoss and headed down to the Rt. 34 coastal road. Except I think I turned too early, on Rt. 33, and then the GPS tried to take me on a shortcut back to the correct road.
After a few more creative detours, we were back on track through Þorlákshöfn, and towards the Reykjanes peninsula.
Our next stop was the Krýsuvík geothermal area, which had a nice walking path through some hot springs, mud pots, and sulfur vents.
The smell of hydrogen sulfide gently wafts over the parking lot, greeting you as you exit the car.
As usual, the only thing keeping you away from scalding water (and sulfuric acid, in this case?) was a warning sign and common sense.
Halfway around the walkway, the air was filled with noxious odors (worse than Geysir), the gentle gurgling of mud bubbles, and the steady hiss of steam.
Across the road, there's a brilliant blue-green crater lake, named Grænavatn, that was created by a steam explosion.
As we headed west along the coast again, it was approaching 5:30 PM. We stopped in Grindavík for gas, and made our way around the end of the peninsula on Rt. 425.
The roads to and from Grindavík are probably what it will look like to drive on the surface of Mars, if and when we get there. The lava fields on the west end of the peninsula are completely devoid of vegetation, with nothing but scattered boulders as far as the eye can see.
(This area was apparently [one of three areas] used to practice moonwalking by the Apollo flight crew.)
Our final stop before returning to Reykjavík was in the middle of these lava fields, at the Bridge Between Continents.
Despite our earlier assumption about the name being a metaphor, there is a literal bridge you can cross, where one side is technically North America, and the other is technically Europe.
We opted for a photo at the top, rather than the winding path down into the rift valley.
After this stop, we returned to Reykjavík along the northern coast of the peninsula, retracing the bus route from the airport to the city on the first day.
We arrived back at the hotel around 7:30 PM, regrouped, and headed downtown for dinner.
We ended up at Harry's Seafood Grill, which turned out to be asian-influenced local cuisine; I had the lamb fillet.
After dinner, we walked down to the waterfront to watch the sunset, forgetting that it would be a very long process.
This is 10:37 PM:
11:06 PM...
We gave up around then and walked back to the hotel.
It was still setting, seen from a hotel breezeway, at 11:38 PM.
Tomorrow, Rosaria and Ken are going on a hike up, and then descend into, a dormant volcano. Sabrina and I are going to head just north of Reykjavík to the Akranes peninsula.
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