First Day In Iceland, End of the Day

In my blog last week, I talked about my first day in Iceland and left the story when we arrived at Hraunfossar water falls. But that was by no means the end of our first day in Iceland.

Just up stream from Hraunfossar is a really cool area called Barnafoss. The width of the river is narrower, deeper and swifter than at Hraunfossar. After shooting Hraunfossar I wandered up stream and found this little gem. My only regret is that I did not climb down the bank you see in the shot above and get a better composition with the water coming into the gorge. Just below this area the water moves swiftly and has carved out some very interesting contours.

By the time I had finished with this shot it was getting pretty late and we had a long way to go to get back to Reykjavik, though none of us actually knew how far or which way to go exactly.

The Storm Arrives

We headed west knowing we should be able to find our way to highway one, the ring road that goes all the way around Iceland. But night was upon us and it began to rain. Then the wind began to blow hard and in gusts. And it was now a two lane paved road, in the dark, rainy, windy with big trucks coming at us that created all kinds of havoc. The one good thing was we were now on the ring road heading toward Rekjavik. We had been up almost all of the night before, had been traveling and photographing nonstop all day and now we were gifted with this amazingly exciting challenge: get back to Reykjavik as quickly as possible. . . because we are starving!

When we reached the Hvalfjordor Tunnel we knew we were pretty much home, and I must say the calm in the tunnel (well lit with no wind or rain) was very comforting. We got back to Reykjavik around 10 pm, parked the car and headed for the nearest restaurants. Guess what, they all close at 10 pm. After getting two or three refusals to let us in we found this little café that took mercy on us.

We sat gratefully on stools at a counter. I ordered the salmon dinner and it was, hands down, without a doubt, the very best salmon dinner I have ever had. You could wonder if perhaps it tasted so good because we had not eaten all day and we were exhausted and famished. But there is a flavor that very 

fresh, properly cooked salmon has and this salmon dinner had it! In fact, I was so good I kept ordering salmon all over the south of Iceland. But none compared to the dinner I had on this night. When I return next year I will be sure this time to write down the name of the restaurant and share it with you so you can try it out yourself.