Isn't Nejavellir a beautiful town?
OK...well...town is a loose definition. But there was our hotel, a power plant, and a house within sight of each other. In Iceland, outside of Reykjavic, that's as close to a town as you're going to get.
Barrett and I took the morning to walk around the most active geothermal area in the country, which just happened to be around our hotel. Iceland's hiking trails are marked like ski trails. Educational/Easy trails are green. Blue trails are moderately exhausting, and black trails make you cry for your mommy.
We stuck to greens for our first outing, but don't let that fool you. If you get off of these greens, you'll be boiled like an egg!
Hot? Cold? Both? Barrett finds a glacial stream joining thermal waters. You can tell which stream is thermal by the abundant amount of greenery growing out of it.
After trekking around our hotel the whole morning, we decided that after lunch would be a good time to visit some other "towns" that were in our guidebook. The most interesting one we happened across was picturesque Skalholt. Granted the entire town consisted of 5 church buildings and a farm, but I could almost pronounce it. Victory!
Skalholt was the religious center of Iceland for hundreds of years. It fell into ruin from multiple fires and recent preservation efforts have rebuilt the church, excavated the foundations of previous buildings, and supported the building of a small museum. The interior of the church is crowned with a multi-hued mosaic of Christ.
Also of interest on the grounds are the remains of a sod house and two stone knights (they're really Catholic Bishops), and a tunnel out of the church basement (good for passing from building to building during harsh winters and being sneaky).
On the way back to home and food we stopped to make some new friends, and then called it a night to rest up for summiting the nearby volcano and tackling some black hiking trails.
Icelandic ponies came to the island over a thousand years ago. Those same horses have evolved into today's breed without the introduction of any outside horses. Consequently, the ponies are unique. They even have an extra gait that all other horses lack. It's a speed between a trot and a canter. These ponies were all too happy to let me pet them, but I fear they were disappointed by my rude lack of carrot or apple.
Tomorrow volcanoes!
Till then dear reader...
