I woke up very early on day 4 with everything sore, we folded the tents and went once more to that awesome breakfast place with the yummy hot dogs, we left Skaftafel national park and kept heading east along route 1. the road goes by the mountain that surround the huge glacier, largest in Europe! and follows the ocean, the road changes, some strange circle rocks covered in pretty green moss and on other areas the ground is pitch black with lava sand, today supposes to rain but for now the skies are clear. we are heading for a glacier lagoon but stop on the way in another smaller glacier lagoon, a glacier lagoon is an area where the big glacier melts and begins flowing to sea, huge chunks of white or bluish icebergs in various sizes float slowly away on their way to meet the titanic. we leave this smaller less known lagoon and head for the main tourist attraction, which is like the place we just been to, just slightly bigger with more tourists. This is probably the busiest place we encountered on our travels. we took a short stroll along the lagoon, taking photos of the icebergs and watching ducks enjoy these almost frozen water, I held a small iceberg and tried a fresh taste of the glacier, yuck, salty... we headed next to where this glacier channel meets the ocean, and on the black sand the glaciers are melting away and some are taken by the power of the waves, in this very windy day, the glacier melt slowly. i saw a big bird and assume it was a Merlin, a Merlin is the local version of the falcon, but it was just a seagull looking bird in the end, disappointing, I must have gotten over my seagull fetish from Norway, we charged up with some hot chocolate and the usual doughnut for Shay and kept heading east towards hofn. My mom was already there from the night before and went to some natural hot pool, and from what they said, there is this not hot dirty pool followed by a cold shower and you have to pay for this pleasure, so they and so did we skip this place and reached Hofn. (side note from yesterday, the national park person recommended us these timid hot tubs, and also told us that the other hikes other than the mountain we did the previous day were boring and she did it in the most bored out of her mind way, how can someone in a national park can be this un enthusiastic?
Hofn is a fishing village; we reached the village and stopped at my mom's hotel, and heard the Story of Maria. The previous night where my mom. Moti came in after the long hike, they were too tired to carry their heavy luggage to the 3rd floor and Maria, a tiny woman so they say, took it up, one luggage in each hand while they barely dragged themselves.
We took a little walk in the town with a top at the information center to learn of local hikes, waived on the expensive lunch place and had hot dogs for lunch, then we drove for the daily hike. we are still not sure if we went indeed to the right place, our hike began in a chicken coop. this coop was a stone building with a high pointed roof, just like any other winter building, only this one is for chickens. the hike goes slowly up and follows a hill range with valley and a higher mountain range on the other side. the path is narrow and it is easy to lose the path. as we started walking we saw other hikers coming out with deer horns, they said it it allowed to take the horns , so the entire hike i am risking my ankles and looking all around but no luck. we do see moss, lots of sheep, and low bushes. We hike up 1 hour then hike back, we return to Hofn check in to the hostel and them we go splurging.
We went back to the expensive lunch place , which was now full with dinner guests, we waited for close to an hour till we were seated. This place is known for its Langoustine. Never heard about it before, it is something between shrimp and lobster. I order langoustine soup, it's a cream soup with the mystery lobster inside, very tasty and for the main course a meal of Langoustine in some garlic butter sauce, so good… full with sea food, sleep came quickly. Thus ends day 4
This weekend, we visited hocking hills. We passed by a place that has 24 flavors of soft server ice-cream, 24! Usually these place have 3, chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. So many flavors to choose from so I choose Chocolate and Alla choose Vanilla. W.e continue to Old man's cave. This is a small state park and the trail leads up to a very wide but not so deep cave in the middle of a small canyon. The rocks are mossy and the green forest above creates very nice scenery, we keep going along the canyon and reach a waterfall at the end. After the massive waterfalls of Iceland, this is nothing but a trickle, but it still is nice looking, we hike back on the rim above the canyon and finish this 10 k hike after 2.5 hours. It's too early for our place so we return for the ice cream place for a quick lunch, then drive to our inn. After being in tents and hostels. Coming to a fancy inn is quite a change, the entire area is wooded or grassy. We get a little cottage/cabin secluded in the woods, there are other cabins not far but from each cabin you don't see the rest. The cabin has a bed room and living room and you can see from one room to another, there is a big window in the middle and a see through fire place, the fake kind. Scottish music is playing; this is a Scottish in and a hot tub on the veranda. After the hike, the hot tub is great, we relax for a long while, than dress for dinner. This is a vacation, and in vacation I am not supposed to dress up, that is what is for, but this is a formal sort of place. We had for dinner in the main house and go to happy hour. I feel obligated to drink something. Alla order bud light and while I don't like beer, I know you don't drink bud light, so she orders some Belgian beer, then when I am asked what I want, I say I don't drink, the bar dwellers laugh. But I do order vodka pineapple which is too strong for me, but is much better after heavy addition of water. The bar has some nice dill cheese. Afterwards the call for dinner comes and all the guests take their places, the waiters read us some Scottish poetry! Then the food comes, this place has a preset meal, you can choose one of 2 main courses, the rest are fixed and change on a daily basis by a local chef.
The 1st course is yellow fin tuna on some seaweed. I never like tuna, quite hated the smell of a tuna can, so I was very hesitating and very unorthodox for me and took a bite. While I wouldn't say I can add tuna (fresh only, not from a can) to my menu, I can say it was edible. Didn't try the saba weeds or whatever this sea weed was called.
Next we have mushroom bisque. I was brave enough tonight, but mushroom are beyond my will, lucky they have alternative soups for problematic clients such as myself, a cantaloupe apple soup!! Have you ever heard about it, I have not. Cold soup, how strange, but it is very good. The experiments continues with some salad where I peal of the feta cheese and leave the rest of the stuff untouched. Peach sorbet follows, and while I like peach, this sorbet is not that good.
Main course comes with duck, it's been years since I had duck, I forgot I didn't like it, too fatty, and I replaced the rice pilaf with good simple potatoes. Alla is enjoying every minute of this meal and every flavor, the strange candle that doesn't melt, white table cloths and our names printed on the dinner menu add to the environment. The goblets are interesting, they are made of some metal and look ancient, though they are not, but they are chilled. You put ice in them and they remain cold the whole evening.
For desert we get a lemon tart with blueberry puree and whip cream, very good. At the end the chef comes out and asks us how the meal was, the check later showed how much you pay for a meal with a chef that comes out to speak with you.
We had back to the cottage, put a movie on and fall a sleep before the copyright warning end.
We wake up 12! Hours later, get up and rush for breakfast. The breakfast too has no menu. We have an option to choose from Belgian waffles or Scottish eggs with hollandaise sauce. I ask the waitress what are Scottish eggs, and she tells me that they are Scottish eggs with hollandaise sauce, with my newfound knowledge I order Scottish eggs.
Before that warm oatmeal with cinnamon comes, also something I eat once every 10 years, but it was good. The eggs arrive and it looked like a big ball of falafel. It's a hard boil egg inside a ball of meat inside some kind of bread crumbs cover with some interesting spices and yes there is hollandaise sauce around it. Mmmmm. The hot chocolate was good as well. Walking back to the cottage we found Nessie, it is not in loch ness, but here in the Scottish inn, you will have to see the photos… which are way over due at this point.
We reached the cottage and got ready for a couples massage (Alla went all out this vacation…next time back to tents), we snuck in a quick jump to the hot tub before we had to sadly check out. Our next stop was a zip line park. We spend the next 3 hours going on all kind of rope over the ground, strange obstacles and zipping between tree to tree. After initial supervision by the guide, we kind of get to be on our own and keep going through the obstacles. Thunder begin and lightning, there is a thunderstorm warning today, and our tour is stopped for a while till we get the ok to continue. After 3 hours heavy rain begins and we choose to leave the course close to the finish but not completed, we will have to come back for the other activities here and all the hikes we didn't get to go to. On the drive back we make a stop in Columbus, to a place at the German village. Since we didn't have any food this trip at all!, we need some healthy sausage and German cream puffs. Now we are almost back home and we can see Mattanchuk in about 20 minutes.
Good night
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