Monday, Sept. 5. We are bikers too.

 We'd heard Iceland is not that great for bikers. But today, we met this amazing couple from Holland who were spending 10 weeks cycling WITH their three-year old daughter, Asha. They are staying off the busy Ring Road and just doing back roads and not doing the whole island. But they've camped every night so far except one which is impressive.

They'd just pedaled up a huge serpentine hill, 2-3 miles long, really steep with switchbacks and a 10 percent grade. We pulled over to talk to them while they were catching their breaths at the top of the hill and getting Asha something to drink. They were chill and relaxed but the whole trip so far (they are on week 7) has not been easy because they endured weeks of daily rain. 

I told them we are bikers too and they were probably thinking, but not like us and they were right. He is a cook and she is a data engineer and Asha goes to four-year-old school in October.

Our route today took about three hours but we stopped quite a bit. It is hard to drive here because of all the stopping that you need to do to document the scenery. We are on the east side of the island and it is just as spectacular as the west side.

Seydisfjordur.

A black sheep who got confused and separated from the herd. Naturally.

Seydisfjordur scenery.

 A ferry comes into town a few times a week straight from the Faroe Islands in Denmark so this town gets a lot of European visitors. Also, there is famous art school that the European university kids come to so that they can (have fun, have a boondoggle) experience a study abroad or a gap semester I didn't quite catch how it works. Anyway, the art school in Seydisfjordur is called the LungA School, and I think I'd liked to attend it. 

We did some stretching and yoga on the rest breaks as we made our way down toward Hofn which is pronounced "hoppin." This was a dirt road which are called F roads here. But they're not bad at all.

We got a good look at the big waves of the north Atlanta Ocean here. 

Our route today took about three hours.

. Fred is playing around with a panorama photo at Hofn.

The sunset tonight, un-retouched. That's Flaajokull glacier near our hotel. We are at Brunnholl Country guesthouse tonight. 

Yarn bombing in Seydisfjordur.

Seydisfjordur. Our guesthouse (it is behind us in this photo) was in a building that used to be the post office, and we loved the room and the place so much we really didn't want to pack up and move on.

But also my readers are wondering: what about the food? 

There was cod liver oil at breakfast, but we didn't partake. The waitress said some people drink it in shots for good health but it tastes like &%$#$#*+!@# so they usually chase it with a lot of orange juice.

But over in Hofn, we splurged and went to the restaurant in town that's famous for the local langoustines, which is a kind of small lobster that can be found in northeast Atlantic Ocean. I guess they fish for them around here. They were very very tasty, better than lobster and shrimp I'd say, but it could have been all the butter talking. In any event, we enjoyed the messy dinner that required special langoustine scissors for cutting off shells. It was a very hands on meal. 

Also, y'all. There was horse on the menu. 

Finally, I'll circle back to bicycles. First, here's a treed and yarn-bombed bike.

Then, I could almost feel the forward energy when I saw these kids biking, with not one bottom touching one seat. Photo was taken in Hafnarnes, a seaside town which most of them are.