Vik, the land of Vikings
Wagner Family Experience — Day 5
Driving south through the darling town Skolfoss, plaster-sided shops and businesses in muted pastels evoked the feeling of Bermuda’s hillsides — minus the hills or warm tropical breeze. Relatively flat, but absolutely charming, it felt like our first glimpse of a genuine Icelandic hometown. On the outskirts, there was a massive supermarket, Toyota car dealership, and a Subway sandwich shop. We’ve seen some American influence in the form of Subway sandwich shops and Sbarros, which the airport humorously hailed as “NY Pizza”. (Cue jokes about The Office when Michael Scott muses the best part about going to New York is getting his favorite authentic pizza from Sbarro.) Throughout our drive, the thing that’s stuck us as genuinely Icelandic have been sweeping prairies across the road from skyscraping mountains, some whose peaks are obscured by clouds, many who weep surprising waterfalls.
Our first stop was to Kerid, a 6,500-year-old crater measuring 270 meters (886 feet) long and 170 meters (558 feet) wide surrounded by red rock and filled with a clear blue pool, it looks a lot like Horseshoe Bend outside of Page, Arizona, but much smaller and you can easily hike into it. This site is privately owned. Eric went to pay the small fee to the landowners and walked away with some of the man’s lunch. Literally. In the most “on-brand” moment, Eric struck up a conversation with the guy. Asked questions about the man’s lunch and came away with part of it. As much as I’d love to try the pungent dried fish, I didn’t want to deprive Topher of the experience. Only Eric can go to pay an entrance fee and come out with a free snack. I’m surprised he didn’t get our visit comped.
As embarrassing as it may be to admit, one of the main reasons I wanted to come to Iceland was because of Instagram. They recently changed their algorithm serving up videos from accounts I don’t follow. One was a travel reel of Iceland. I’ve seen some of the most iconic attractions on my phone for weeks leading up to this trip. Now that we’re here, pulling into the parking lot of Seljalandsfoss, I can barely contain myself. This stunning waterfall rains down 63 meters (131 feet). There is a short and (despite so much falling water) surprisingly gritty walk to and behind the waterfall. Moments after parking we were whipping out the selfie stick for another family photo.
Sidenote about the selfie stick. I’ve never owned a selfie stick, and like most people alive, I’ve spent a fair amount of time making fun of people for using them. In planning this trip, I decided a selfie-stick tripod could come in handy, especially visiting massive sites like this waterfall where a 6-foot-long extension with remote control and tripod feature could come in handy. We practiced with it the previous weekend while visiting family in New Jersey and in Iceland it’s proven to be a worthwhile investment. After a lot of teasing from the family for this purchase, they’ve embraced the selfie stick.
Waterfalls here are like churches throughout Europe. When I told Gillian we were going to another waterfall, she rolled her eyes hard and glared at me. The poor girl just wants to go shopping and check out a grocery store. She’s singing don’t go chasing waterfalls… but she means it. She’s had her fill of waterfalls. This one is different, I told her. You’re going to love it. I could tell she didn’t believe me but she’s been practicing “self-editing” and went along with us to the Skogafoss in the Fimmvorduhals Mountain Pass.
On the way, we saw a Viking house built into the hillside. Eric pulled over yelling “Uhtred, Son of Uhtred!” and was half out of the car before I’d unbuckled. We got really into Netflix’s The Last Kingdom, a historical drama based on the unification of England and the relationship between Vikings and Anglo-Saxons. The hero Uhtred was a Saxon nobleman kidnapped as a child and raised by the Danes who murdered his family. He is unification personified. It’s a thoroughly entertaining show and the Wagners give it two enthusiastic thumbs up. The tiny Viking house built into the hillside was reminiscent of a scene from the show. After making a donation to the landowner so “our dreams would come true”, exploring the tiny house, and pulling Matthew off of the mountain above it, we made out way to the final waterfall of the day.
Skoga waterfall is massive. A thick veil of water covering the face of the mountain. Visitors are encouraged to walk up the 520 steps to the top of the waterfall taking in views of the neighboring farms. Earlier Gillian made friends with a cow who leaned forward to get a head scratch and rewarded her with a generous lick. We joked that Matthew would’ve noted how tiny the cow looked in the field from the top of the waterfall, but Matthew and Eric had disappeared to hike farther down a path tracking the original water source. While they hunted waterfalls, Gillian, Christopher and I hunted for a bathroom. Back down 520 steps, we finally got tired of waiting and left a note on the car to find us at the restaurant next door. We’re halfway through our trip and have finally figured out how to eat at a “normal hour.”
Leaving Skogafoss and with a newfound interest in photographing livestock, I asked Eric to turn left down a narrow road to get me closer to some sheep. This was one of those domino-effect moments. I got a great shot of sheep in the field at sunset. The road we pulled onto led to a black sand beach with an enormous glacier in the distance. Christopher recognized it immediately as “Eastwatch-by-the-Sea.” And we basically freaked out. Eastwatch-by-the-sea is a city beyond the wall where Jon Snow and the Nightwatch fought the White Walkers in Season 7 of Game of Thrones. You remember it was the scene where Jon, Tormund, Jora and Sam with other Wildlings first encounter the Night King and the White Walkers. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a powerful episode, but I digress. We were there.
The glacier pulled Matthew closer and closer. Christopher went with him hiking through crevices and up onto the glacier. It was getting dark; Eric and I were getting nervous. Gillian was getting annoyed. There were scattered signs warning about the danger of ice and rocks. We were standing on the southern part of Myrdalsjokull Glacier, the fourth largest glacier in Iceland covering 535 square kilometers. Specifically, we were standing an 11KM portion known as Solheimajokull. During the past century, it’s undergone large-scale changes retreating 1794 meters since 1930. In 2011, a glacial lagoon started to form and grow as the glacier melted. Every year, elementary students in Hvolsvollur visit the lagoon to measure its depth, now 60 meters. The area is etched with glacier crevasses formed as the glacier moved over uneven grounds along the mountainside. Safely back on the black sand beach, we got back in the car as the clouds lowered in the sky and the light faded.
Buzzing from the excitement of another full day, we got to our hotel, back on Wi-Fi to catch up and recharge. My friend Susan had seen my post about Seljalandsfoss and sent me an Insta-message letting me know she was flying to Iceland and was looking for any good suggestions. She also mentioned she heard the forecast looked good for the Northern Lights. Which was amazing and unexpected. The best season to see the Northern Lights is September through April. Math and Topher were visiting our room. We turned off the lights and looked out the window. Matthew took a photo. As he turned the screen around showing us brilliant green streaks in the sky, we started yelling and jumping up and down. In a move that will win him “brother of the year,” Christopher said, “We’ve got to wake up Gillian. She’ll never forgive us if we don’t.” A moment later our phones buzzed with a message. Gillian texted, “Could you all keep it down?” We threw on coats and ran next door to her room. Moments later we all were outside in the parking lot, walking around the perimeter with guests from around the world pointing, laughing and photographing the ever-changing sky. The pictures showed much more dramatic and different colors than we could see with our eyes. It was an extraordinary experience.
The hardest part about the trip, other than the long days has been trying to capture the unique beauty of the place. It is like the entire country is a dozen different national parks offering something for everyone who wants to enjoy nature. Every day the place changes slightly from the lighting to the weather. One hour it's warm, clear and sunny, a few hours later things shift to overcast and rainy. Sometimes you can see for kilometers and sometimes you can barely see a few meters ahead. I can’t imagine ever getting tired of Iceland’s beauty. The best was yet to come. Tomorrow we go to the biggest glacier in the country.
