Waterfalls and Glaciers, adventures galore

Today was chocked full of adventures for us. The weather was wonderful and we took good advantage of it. We started off the day driving to a huge glacier. I could tell you the name but you probably wouldn't believe me if I wrote it down! Basically it is glacier of the sun. We were given our snow equipment-things that fit over our shoes that had big spikes all over them-we thought they were much like the roller skates that most of us had as kids where we had a key to make them fit. Our guide instructed us in how to put them on and checked us well when we were through. Let's just say without those contraptions, we would not have been able to do the glacier walk. We had walked on a glacier in the Canadian Rockies but this was very different. As with most glaciers, the ones here are melting fast. This one has some geothermal things under it that are increasing the melting from the underside. So there were holes and thin spots and crevices all over. We followed our guide carefully or most of us did. I was shocked at how muich work it was to walk up that very tall hill or mountain of ice! It took new muscles that we don't use much. My ankles are sore tonight-so guess our exercise on Tuesday where we exercise the ankles is not quite enough to get them up to speed for this kind of adventure. It was amazing to go up the glacier so far and to see the landscape all around from an upper vantage point. Going up made my back spasm-guess it was putting strain in a way that it was not used to. Coming down was much easier, though harder to control your speed and steps. We were on the glacier almost 2 hours though so it was quite a fun experience.

From there we went to eat lunch at a very neat restaurant on the top of a ridge with a pretty view. I was craving a Coke about that time and unfortunately, they were all out of soft drinks. oh well. After the refreshing lunch, we headed to the town of Vic. It is the southern most town in Iceland. We walked along the black sand beaches and enjoyed the beautiful views. We stopped by a woolen factory and enjoyed watching the workers sorting socks and packaging things.

Next we went to two museums that were side by side. One was an indoor/outdoor museum that was similar to the one we went to a couple of days ago but had many different features and was quite interesting. The other was a transportation museum. From my perspective, its chief attractiveness lay in its nice "technical stop."That is what our guide calls our restroom breaks.
From the museums, we went to our first big waterfall of the afternoon. It was a high one and spectacular because it fell so far. Then we drove for about half an hour to another big waterfall and got to walk behind this one. It involved climbing up rocks as steps and holding on for dear life for us less agile people!It was beautiful though and it was very neat to see it from both sides. We literally climbed up on our hands and knees at one point. Photos won't do that justice! Just imagine it.
We drove on back to Selfoss which is a wonderful little town. Our hotel is wonderful and more upscale than the one even in Reyhjavik. We have a beautiful view from our window overlooking the river and the pretty little town church. Jim and I went for a walk after dinner and it was just lovely. We visited with two pretty horses in the neighboring pasture and found a geothermal area down near the water.
Tomorrow we start off by river rafting....brrrr.. I am thankful for my experience with Julie on our mission trip. Our guide tells me this is a class 2 rapid, but that sometimes it is a class 2+. I think it will be great fun but we can plan to get wet. Look forward to some funny photos, I hope. Who knows if we can get any or not.