Having biked from Reykjavik to Laugarvatn, I checked in at Héradsskólinn, a hostel in a former school building.  After getting both rained on and sweaty through the day, it was nice to be someplace warm, and I took a nice shower after getting situated.  I got dinner in the cafe there, which was vegetable soup with bread and a small salad.  They had reindeer meatballs as one of the menu options, which sounded intriguing, but I passed as that dish was pretty expensive.  The soup was unlike any vegetable soup I’ve had in the US, as it was basically a cloudy broth, as though all the veggies had been pureed, and it had a dollop of sour cream on top.  The bread was freshly baked and crusty.

I had no trouble going to sleep after all the riding I had done, and I got up nice and refreshed in the morning to ride some more.  I was going to head further east to a couple of sights, and then back to the hostel.

I had the breakfast buffet in the hostel cafe, which included more fresh-baked bread, with options of jam, butter, cheese, tomato, and cucumber to put on it.  They also had thick, plain yogurt with jam and muesli to mix in, and hard-boiled eggs.  I ended up having a few slices of bread with jam, a cup of yogurt and meusli, and some tomato and cucumber on the side.

Just before hitting the road, I took this picture of a mountain just across the road from the hostel:

And here is the lake (also called Laugarvatn) on the other side of the hostel:

I saw a few more nice views on my way (though a bit more rain fell on me, as well):

I also crossed a couple of rivers.  Here’s the first, helpfully labeled:

I also saw quite a number of sheep (I had also seen some the previous day):

That one on the left appears to be looking at me, but sheep have just about a 360-degree range of vision, so really all the sheep were looking at me, in some sense.

I also saw horses, who seemed curious about me:

These 2 were scratching each other’s backs:

And at one point, in the middle of a field, I saw a geothermal water spout:

After about an hour-and-a-half of riding, I passed the site of Geysir, where there are multiple hot springs and spouts (also know, of course, as geysers, taking their name from this place).  I would be stopping off there on my way back west.

Here is the other river I crossed:

The first rain of the day had not lasted very long, but soon after passing Geysir, I got rained on more solidly, and for longer.  It cleared just before I climbed a hill up to the site of Gullfoss, the golden waterfall.

Right near Gullfoss I saw some more, somewhat jagged-looking, mountains in the distance:

And there appeared to be part of a glacier visible beyond them:

I parked my bike on a rack at Gullfoss, and then started down a wooden boardwalk toward the waterfall:

I then got a couple of pix of the fall itself:

I was able to go a good deal closer to the water, but it started to rain again as I did so, and thus I didn’t want to get my camera or phone out for any more photos.

I went inside the cafe/gift shop after I’d had my fill of the falls and the cold rain.  It was late enough that I decided it would be a good time for lunch, and the “traditional lamb soup” sounded pretty good (it came with 1 free refill, plus bread).  The soup contained chunks of lamb, along with carrots, potatoes, onions, and cabbage.  It was very nice on a chilly, wet day.

After lunch I browsed around the gift shop a bit, then headed back into the rain.  I headed back west, with the rain continuing until I was almost back to Geysir.

The geysir site is rather surreal, as much of the ground is steaming:

Those areas are roped off, because the water flowing over the ground is quite hot:

Around this site you constantly smell sulphur, and there are several spots where minerals are left on the surface:

The main geyser at the place is the original Geysir, which I did not get to see erupt.  It apparently only does so after earthquakes:

There is one geyser there which goes off frequently (every 8 to 10 minutes or so).  It’s named Strokkur:

Despite its regularity, I had difficulty getting a good picture of it erupting.

There was also this little bubbling pool, called “Little Geysir”:

There were also some calm steaming pools, and I love the deep blue of this one:

I spent some time looking around in the gift shop here, too.  At both places I saw nice looking Icelandic wool sweaters, but they were pretty expensive (and I didn’t have room to transport one anyway).

From there I headed back to Laugarvatn.  A little more rain fell, and I was once again very glad to get a hot shower.  After showering, and before dinner, I went to the town’s little grocery store:

I picked up some granola and yogurt there, to have for the next couple of breakfasts.

I then went and had dinner at a spa near the hostel.  It’s called Luagarvatn Fontana, and its main feature is geothermal baths.  I did not take advantage of those, but in their cafe I got a slice of geothermal rye bread (yes, they bake it by burying a tin of bread dough in the hot sand by the lake) topped with smoked trout from the lake.  After eating that, I had a piece of a flourless fruit and ginger cake.  All of the food was quite good.

Next: Back to the parliament plain.