As Meredith likes to say, especially in Iceland, sometimes the journey is the destination. Of course, the destination usually has my bed, but she is right that seeing the scenery here is special. And some days it has to be, because on long country-wide road trips, some days are travel days.
We had to get from our hotel in the far west of the Westfjords to the small village of Hofsos in the north central part of the country. I was worried at first, as our hotel was fogged in, and the roads in the Westfjords are already slow and require careful driving. Happily, once we were underway, the fog lifted in about two miles, and we had a brilliantly sunny day the entire day. Even so, it took four hours to leave the Westfjords. We did have one quick stop for a light lunch, and we could even sit outside to eat. It was a pretty place, so that made for a good stop.
Even out of the Westfjords, it took another five hours to get to Hofsos, which included a supper stop (in a less pretty interior of an Iceland restaurant). But the sun continued to shine, and we drove around a dozen different fjords today and four different mountain passes. We saw fjord-style layer cliffs, “normal” mountains, and mountains that looked as if they’d all had their tops cut off by a giant. We saw pretty streams and quite a few mountains with snow still on them, and saw sheep and ponies aplenty.
The reason we are spending the night in Hofsos is three-fold. One, Meredith wants to be at Lake Myvatn by tomorrow evening, so we needed to get to the general area of north-central Iceland today. Two, Hofsos is on Route 76, which a couple of guides have marked as maybe the prettiest drive in Iceland. Three, Hofsos has an amazing infinity pool and hot tub.
Two successful businesswomen donated the pool complex to the tiny village of 190 people. It is beautiful in and of itself (I am fond of infinity pools), but it also looks out directly over a fjord at a mountain range. Add in a ton of sunshine, and we had a really great swim and soak. We stayed in the pool/hot tub for about an hour (until 8:30 – they closed at 9:00). It was very much a community place, with many people speaking Icelandic. We also heard English, French, and some Slavic language (maybe Polish?). We have now been in high-end spa pools, good community pools, and rustic pools. They are all nice. Iceland does know how to do a good hot pool.
After our pool session, we dropped our wet stuff in the room, and walked around the town. We lingered at the church and the cemetery, and we relaxed in the warm air looking at the snow in the mountains (two mountains nearby still have solid snow tops). And now, my destination is bed.