Today we got introduced to three Icelandic things that we will almost certainly experience again on this trip – wind, water, and wings (in the form of midges). But don’t let the wild words worry you with waning willpower; we didn’t.

We started the day off with a lovely drive to the northeast to a rural area that features the most powerful hot spring in Europe, named Deildartunguhver. Easy for me to say. You can know in your head that hot spots in the Earth’s crust exist, and you can know the heat from those spots can heat water, but it is a mighty thing to stand in front of a hot spring where water is literally boiling and steaming out of the ground to form pools that would scald you. Deildartunguhver supplies the town of Borgarnes with all of its hot water, and happily for me and Meredith, someone built a beautiful spa on the grounds to take advantage of the spring.

We visited the hot springs (which is wisely fenced off and posted with warning signs) and stood in the clouds of steam issuing up from the spring. We would be cool one second (standing in the fifty-five degree air), and then in one step, we were standing in warm steam. Just a couple of feet made a drastic difference. We scouted out the spa area; the hot pools are outside and visible from the walkway, but we were there about forty minutes before they opened, so we took a chance to explore.

We went back to a roadside sign I had seen, and it turned out to explain about the area we were in, with a map as well. We walked across the street to a dirt road to look at a very involved road map, and I decided to take a picture of Meredith with the mountains in the background. I stepped back onto the dirt road to take the photo – no big deal. A dirt road off of a tar road that would see one car every five minutes. So, of course, as I took the picture, a car turned off the tar road onto the dirt road. We got back in the car to go look at a church marked on the map, seeing a John Deere tractor along the way being driven by a mom with her son in the cab with her. The church was very small, and in a beautiful location, but the gate was closed and tied off, so we headed back to the spa.

Krauma Spa is quite wonderful. It feels upscale and is small, capping visitors at 130 people at any one time. We got there at 11:00 am when they opened, and for most of our visit, there were only about a dozen people (and only six of us altogether for the first half hour). Icelandic custom is to shower before going into pools, even ones heated by water from the ground, so we did that before heading out to the pools. Krauma has five hot pools that range in temperature from 98 to 106 degrees, as well as two steam rooms, a cold pool, and a relaxation room.

We started in the coolest pool of the hot pools, where we spent a long time talking with a couple from Denver. It lightly rained some, but that was fine by us in a hot pool. We then tried the second pool, where I discovered that the pool was designed as an inverted cone, presumably so you could lie down on the incline, which we happily did. The third pool was quite large, and had the best view of the mountains. The overflow from the pool fed the small stream that ran next to the walkway up to the building, with the water going back to the hot spring. I joined Meredith briefly in the hottest pool which we went to out of order, by mistake. Meredith wanted to get the full experience, so she went to the last pool while I went to check out the relaxation room.

Which was wonderful. It was a room with ten lounge chairs in it, circling a stand-alone woodstove, while calming music was piped in. The room smelled just a little of the wood being used for the fire, and a wall of windows looked out over the mountains. I settled in, and almost fell asleep. Meredith came in to tell me she wanted to try the steam room and the cold pool. She was back very shortly after discovering it was difficult to breathe in a steam room (one of my complaints about them) and difficult to stay for more than a few seconds in a pool of 45-degree water. She joined me in the relaxation room, which got even better when I quietly ordered a hot chocolate from a staff member who came to check on the fire. It was a wonderful experience. We did hear the wind howling outside the windows, but that only made the room cozier.

So wonderful, in fact, that when we went to shower and change back into our clothes, we discovered we had been there two and a half hours soaking and relaxing. By the time we got ready to leave, it was 2:00. Not a bad start to a touring day.

Back to the car and on to sight seeing. We headed a little more northeast, to the first two of the many waterfalls we hope to see in Iceland, and it was a good introduction to the amazing power of water in the country. A large parking lot and a useful cafe were at the head of a very short trail to Hraunfossar (“Lava Falls”), which was magical. It reminded me of Plitvice Lakes in Croatia – a long series of bridal veil falls emptying into a strong river below. The water comes from groundwater sinking through lava fields in the area, as well as water runoff from a nearby glacier. The water seems to come right out of the side of a steep bank, and goes on for about half a mile. The path takes you to several vantage points and over a bridge to the far side for more views.

Just upstream from Hraunfossar is Barnafoss (“Children’s Fall” – named for the legendary story of two children falling in on Christmas day while mom was at Mass). Barnafoss is a typical waterfall, but a powerful one cutting a channel through the igneous rock of the area. It is also full of mud or gravel, so looks churned up. The waterfall is very loud, and has cut the rocks into interesting shapes.

The only slight downside was the midges in the area. Meredith had read about midges in Iceland, but only in relation to a lake in the north. The bugs don’t seem to want to bite, but they do love to crowd up around your face and ears in large numbers. In places where the wind was blowing, we were fine, but in sheltered areas, they could drive you crazy. We did bring mosquito netting along for our heads, so that will go into the backpack from now on.

We headed back to Borgarnes, but happily took a different way back after a wrong turn (on a circular loop). The views were incredible – the sun was peeking through the clouds in various places, sometimes showing off the snow on a few mountains, and sometimes shining on bare rock. It made those objects pop out against the grey clouds. We also found a very pretty river in a valley area when we stopped to check out the menu for a restaurant (“Rock and Troll”). The restaurant was closed, but the short visit was worth the delay.

Back in town, we parked the car and walked (and were blown by the wind) to the Settlement Center, which is small museum that tells the story of the first sixty years of settlement in Iceland (from about 900-950 AD). I had thought that all of the sagas being referred to around the area were just tales, but there are books of settlement from early on. I’m sure some legendary aspects had crept in (like the idea that huge animals and giants defended Iceland from a Danish magician spy who had taken the form of a whale), but the epics pass on a lot of information about who was in Iceland and where. By the time the Icelandic Commonwealth was formed (about 950), there were an estimated 34,000 people living here. The museum also explored how the Vikings were such great sailors (they were the first to make a boat with a continuous keel for strength), as well as admitting we don’t know exactly how they navigated the open oceans in pre-compass days. The museum only took about thirty minutes to get through, but it helped me to understand how important the epic sagas are to the island’s history.

We walked back along the long trail to the hostel, and grabbed a cheap supper from a nearby grocery store. We may not have much history in Iceland yet, but today was pretty epic.