After breakfast (traditional Dutch style – being breads, cheeses, meats and decent coffee) it was off on the bikes. A lovely place to explore, old buildings everywhere, often leaning (falling?!) towards the road, held back by cables. Slightly disconcerting at first.

And yes, that’s marshmallows foamy stuff in a jar. This I have not seen before. It was fun biking around, every so often we had to take a short boat trip crossing, a nice way to break up the ride.

Oh, this old church had had the top of the tower blown off by the Spanish during one of the many wars. They didn’t put it back on again.

The main event for the day was visiting Castle (Slot) Loevestein. The building started as a small stone structure in 1357, and then built on over the years until finished in it’s current state around 1600. There was a good exhibition showing the transition of the castle, and how it became less effectual once warfare included the use of planes. It was also used as a prison. One famous prisoner was Hugo Grotius. He was imprisoned (political prisoner), but was allowed to receive books etc.. eventually escaping in the book chest…

Hugo wrote a lot of the foundation of international law concerning the freedom of the seas and the rights / obligations of nations going to war.

Back via another road / canal crossing.

It was raining hard on our last morning in Iceland. I was all for being lazy (ok, reading my book, which I was quite engrossed in at the time), but, Maaike suggested making the most of it and going to the national museum (correct call)

There was a decent collection – some of it dealing with law & crime & punishment, and some with the role of Christianity in Iceland. Lots of beautiful carvings. They have no idea how the clock worked unfortunately.

This little figure is of God. Or Thor. Or Thorgod.. they’re not quite sure… certainly shows the transition period though.

Some quite funny things, like in this portrait… note how exceedingly similar all the figures look..

I did enjoy the “stuff through the ages” part at the end. It probably did have a better name.. but that’s what it felt like to me.

Finally, it was time to leave for The Netherlands. Iceland was amazing, I’d go back in a heartbeat for more hiking. There is so much to see and do there.

First stop, some buildings built into the rock. I forget why exactly, but yes, here they are:

It was right by a (canny) family who had built an exhibit on the Eyjafjallajokull eruption. I really liked this slice of time through the soil section.

It was interesting reading about the various ways Icelanders have utilised their natural resources. Through hot water, to creating small hydro schemes (the family had their own) etc. Resourceful people. Also a pretty waterfall at Sejalandsfoss

Then it was on to Gullfoss, this huge waterfall and a monument really to environmentalism, as the waterfall was due to be dammed in the 1920s, but was effectively stopped by civic movement (and lack of cash from investors…) and Sigridour Tomasson – the daughter of the landowner (who never wanted the dam in the first place). Anyway, stunning spot.

Then it was on to the town of Geysir! Yes, the town (well, village really) is where the name “geyser” comes from. Geysir itself no longer goes off, except after strong earthquakes. Some … idiots.. tried to trigger it some time ago, by throwing rocks into it. This effectively blocked some important section, and now it no longer goes off.

There is another one (Strokkur) goes off every 5-10 minutes though, so you get your pictures :)

I also really liked the safety sign… especially the last point… And of course, the obligatory tourist ignoring all the signs to get their special shot.

Then it was on to Pingvellir National Park, where the national assembly used to be… and also where the North American and Eurasian plates separate. This is where a lot of their laws were “read” (at the law rock – where the flagpole is (they reckon)). Basically, back in the day the Icelanders decided they needed some form of law, so one guy went off to Norway to study law, and his foster brother walked around until he found the best place to situate the assembly. It was right by a big lake full of fish, lots of firewood, and a stunning setting. Perfect. Every important decision affecting Iceland was hammered out on this plain.

Really nice campspot too (well, the one we stayed at, away from the main place). It was _extremely_ windy and rainy that night… we were definitely happy we had our trusty macpac tent!

This walk certainly goes down as my favourite day hike ever. It was a longish walk (23km), starting at the campsite by the Skogafoss waterfall. It’s simply waterfall after waterfall after waterfall (22 of them) all the way up to the eruption site (more on that later – first, some pictures)

Then the landscape changes dramatically to being stark and barren (and damn cold, I definitely didn’t wear enough warm clothes on this hike). You’re sandwiched between the Eyjafjallajökull and Mýrdalsjökull glaciers. Yes, that’s the Eyjafjallajökull which nuked air traffic over Europe back in 2010. We did see some bikers here crossing over the ice. They’d been driven up (there a 4wd track part of the way up, which you mostly get to ignore when walking), and then did what turned out to be really a very short ride. I doubt it was really worth the effort to be honest.

When Eyjafjallajökull first erupted, it did so at two smaller fissure craters, called Móði and Magni. There’s quite a nice diagram here of where the various vents are. Anyway, it was a welcome stop, as even now, 4 years later, the earth is still _hot_ (and steaming). A great way to warm up cold hands!!

Then the scenery changes dramatically again as you drop down into Godaland (Gods land – and you can see why, (S)He has a taste for the dramatic!). Absolutely beautiful. We actually hadn’t planned on making it down the other side, as we hadn’t realised that there were twice-a-day connecting busses from the other side. Fortunately we met a German couple on the hike, and they told us about it… very handy, as it would have been a shame to miss it.

You can see track work (volunteers) being done above too. Great place to come and help out for a while.

Got back via one of those beasty Mercedes busses at about 10pm. So a long day (the busses take their time..) but what an absolutely excellent day walk.