We had a whirlwind day on June 12.
I got ready in the hotel room while Nevko did some last minute adventuring. Then we headed out to the Reykjanes Peninsula. The rainy weather was chasing us, so the first hour or so was spent finding a dry location to have the ceremony. We finally settled on the original location of Valahnúkamöl, but the rain & wind started right after the ceremony did. Luckily we had a small fire and many layers of clothes.
The ceremony was performed by Nordic Chieftain Hilmar who used a horn and gave many blessings to the gods. There were a few onlookers – and for a brief second I thought that either some Minnesota cousins or PA friends had successfully crashed.
After the ceremony, we took a few photos in the area then tried to find a bathroom. We followed a car through a gate into a Reykjanes Power Plant, but were unable to find a way in. The plant has a neat exhibit with the earth and nearby planets – all scaled correctly. Since we failed at breaking into the power plant, we headed to Grindavik for lunch.
Grindavik is a small fishing town and we ate at a tiny cafe called Café Bryggjan. There were two other people in the cafe – from New Jersey. They were super surpised and happy to see a bride & groom and took many many photos with us. The cafe served only a few things, but really, only all you can eat soup & bread. So we ate delicious lobster soup. Once we warmed up, we headed back out to take more photos.
Next we headed to the Krisuvikurberg Cliffs which required a small stream crossing, some four-wheel drive and some intense Icelandic conversations. The weather was starting to warm up, but was still very cloudy.
After the cliffs, we went to Seltún – a geothermal area which also has a name somewhat translated as “stinky puddle.” By now, the skies were beginning to clear so we headed a bit further down the road to the beach of the lake Kleifarvatn. There we had our champagne picnic, kransekake cake, strawberries, and chocolate. The one rock had a look of a native american cheif with full headdress – so it was appropriately called “Indian Chief”.
We started the trek back to Reykjavik but stopped at a small field of lupines and moss to take more photos before getting back into the city. We had to crawl through a barbed wire fence and down some old moss covered lava rocks – but the pictures turned out okay 😉
Back in Reykjavik, we took one more quick photo with the help of some American tourists (from VA Beach) then headed to our fancy dinner.
Enjoy the photos!
