Day 2 in Ísland
Selfoss to Laugarvatn…
Well, you know what they say about best laid plans… Instead of waking up in the AM to do some running or hiking, we all were apparently quite tired. We slept in until 10:35AM or so, which gave us almost enough time to pack our things prior to the 11:00 check out time. 13.5 hours of sleep for all of us, and Fin was definitely still zonked out.
We hit the bakery next to Bella Apartments for some delicious donuts, a ham and cheese croissant (I guess this is breakfast) and some skyr.
Successful breakfast completed, we headed off to hike the Reykjadalur Hot Spring Thermal River. Weather was pleasant – 58 degrees to start up (around 12:00 noon) to maybe 70 or so by the end (3:30 or so). It was a fairly strenuous hike, nearly all uphill on the way to the warm springs. Kids did great, climbed about 800 feet on the 3k journey to the springs. Took us 65 minutes with a few snack stops along the way. Thermal river was great. We stayed in the lower (cooler) pools for the duration of time. These were plenty hot for us. More like hot tub temperatures than a bath for sure. Nice little cafe at the bottom – we enjoyed some grilled cheese sandwiches and a muffin and some Sprites and more water.
Back in the car, we headed to Laugarvatn and our next place – the Heradsskolinn Historic Guesthouse,, which apparently is more hostel and less hotel. All good though. We have beds for each of us and the room, though small, is plenty for us. Community bathrooms will get the kids ready for college anyway.
Erica and I went for a run around the town, down to the lake, and up on the trails across the road. Trails seemed like XC ski trails, very wide and grassy and not too hilly. Saw the Fontana Springs (we’ll go there tomorrow) and the school grounds, which have a very new, nice 400M track that is open to the public. I did a couple track laps for fun and added on some more trails across the road. Erica and I decided we should rate these runs, so here goes. Rating based on: weather/conditions, surface, scenery, difficulty, and quality. I give this run a 7/10.
That’s it for now.
