Day 5: Friday, August 18, 2006

In the morning, on the way out of Snæfellsnes, we stopped back at Arnarstapi to see if we could find the strange caves and rock formations that we didn't see on our walk there two days before. Liz was hurting from the fall off the horse, but I convinced her to follow me long enough to see what we came for:

This is one of the most famous cliff formations in Iceland. We were quite far away, but it was still spectacular.

After a couple hours of driving, we arrived at Hótel Glymur, back along the north side of Hvalfjörður, in the early afternoon. This is where we had come a couple days before and thought about hiking the falls.

When we checked in, the hotel manager told us that the kitchen would be closed that night because there was going to be a 70th birthday party for the mother of one of the owners of the hotel. She also said, though, that the party would be catered and that the hotel guests were invited to join. Since there was no town or village for at least 30 minutes drive, and we had been spending a fortune on food, the idea of a free catered meal in the hotel sounded like a blessing, even if it did mean crashing a party full of people speaking Icelandic.

The hotel room was incredible. We had an amazing view out a 15 by 10 foot window overlooking the fjord, a couch, flat-screen TV (which we actually did turn on for a couple minutes) and free chocolates and wine! The stairs led up to a loft where the beds were again pushed together.

This hotel also had outdoor "hot pots" which is the English phrase that Icelanders use to refer to hot tubs.

Liz went for a soak to ease her sore muscles.

Then I spent an hour or so in the sitting room of the hotel, using the computer, while Liz napped. By about 6pm the weather cleared up and I was getting a little bored, so I decided I'd go try to hike up to Glymur waterfall again, while Liz continued to nap.

This time I followed the blazed trail, which crossed this brook:

And then suddenly went into this cave!

The cave was actually not very long,

but it did look pretty interesting from the other side.

Then I had to cross a much larger river...

by walking across this log (there is a cable to hold onto, if you look closely).

From the other side, I still couldn't see the falls.

Then the trail went steeply UP...

to the first of several cliffs. Notice that you can see the log where I crossed the river below, and the cave in the distance

From here I got my first sight of Glymur, and all its 198 m (650 ft)

This was an interesting basalt column along the way.

Eventually I came to a second cliff... and the trail kept going up!

Getting a little closer to the falls...

It was really pretty scary to look down (this was probably 400 feet high). I just lay on the ground, for stability, and held my camera out over the edge to get this shot. Those white specks are birds that live all along these cliffs.

Looking across to the other side, I could see some sheep (this was not even nearly the strangest of places we saw them, though).

Comming to the top of a third cliff brought me pretty close to the falls. By this point I was getting tired and had drunk most of the half-liter of water I'd brought with me. It was already 7:15pm, and I was afraid Liz might be getting worried, but there was at least one more cliff to climb before I reached the top. I couldn't come this far without making it all the way...

so I climbed up to the top.

And, somehow, got up the courage to walk to the edge, kneel down for stability, hold on to something solid, and take this photo:

At this point I made sure to be thankful I'd survived thus far, and promised myself that I'd be exteremely careful to get back down safely and soon, so Liz wouldn't have to deal with a tragedy on our honeymoon, and wouldn't be worried about one either.

Here's the source of the falls.

And here's the view looking out toward the fjord. The farthest rock outcrop on the right side of the canyon is the cave that I originally came through. It was probably the most amazing view I've seen in my life.

On the way up Glymur I didn't see anyone else, but on the way down I ran into a few pairs of people hiking up before the sun set. There is a person up on that cliff.

I thought I was following the same trail that I came up (it wasn't as clearly marked after the river crossing) but then I didn't feel like I was somewhere I remembered going before. I looked down, and saw this:

So I tried to find a way down the cliff, without having to go back around. It looked like this was a trail, but it was too loose, and I sort of surfed down the rockslide to the bottom.

Then I went back across the river,

back through the cave,

and drove past more sheep, on the way back to the hotel.

When I got back, Liz wasn't in the room. I quickly changed out of my sweaty, dirty, grass-stained (I did fall once, but nowhere near a cliff) clothes into the nicest clothes I had, and then went to search for her at the party that was going on downstairs.

I eventually found Liz, and we piled some food on our plates and sat down. Someone was giving a speech, but we had no idea what was being said, because of course it was in Icelandic. I suggested that we should probably go stand with everyone else and be polite, but Liz kept assuring me that there had been speeches (interspersed with singing) all night and that it was okay. Eventually, though, when a new speaker started talking and the room had become completely silent, I saw that even the chefs had come out and were watching, so I insisted we go stand with everyone else. There was a uniformed man talking to an older couple, who were holding hands. One of the chefs leaned over and helped us: "they're getting married" he said. After the wedding ceremony was over, the hotel manager saw us and thanked us for coming and enjoying the food. She said the wedding had been a complete surprise to everyone, and that the hotel owners had announced that they were marrying each other only a few minutes before it happened! The food was amazing.