We designated today to be a rest day with very little time on the road. The weather was thickly overcast and drizzly when we woke up in Borgarnes. It was nice to be able to sleep in a little since we didn’t have to drive anywhere. Although Nathan’s original plan for today was to drive far west to see the best view of the eclipse, he and all of us reconsidered after driving west yesterday. There’s just one highway west and we knew traffic would be really congested from all the other eclipse viewers and we really didn’t want to fight that and spend hours on the road. The eclipse would be almost the same totality time here at the hotel and since there would be overcast skies and /or rain at eclipse time, the pain of driving west wouldn’t be worth it.
So we enjoyed a leisurely 8 a.m. breakfast in the hotel. Nathan went for a soak in the outdoor hot tub shortly after breakfast. Then at 10 a.m. we drove into town to go to the Settlement Museum. It told the story, through headsets with recorded audio and visual displays, of the first Viking settlers in Iceland. It also told a small part of one of the Sagas, part history and part legend of early Iceland. The history was especially interesting, with historians estimating that in the 800s after Viking ship design improved, it probably only took 72 hours for them to sail between Norway and Iceland in open boats. After going through the museum, we enjoyed some tea and hot chocolate at the cafe upstairs.
Upon our return to the hotel, Denise, Cathy and I soaked in the hot tub. It was very nice, looking at the surrounding mountains and cloudy skies while soaking in hot water. Most, if not all, hot water in Iceland is supplied by geothermal activity, so hot tubs, spas, municipal pools, and geothermal lagoons are very common.
The golf course adjacent to the hotel has a little automated mower that silently rolls around, apparently mowing the edges of the fairway and maybe around, but not on, the greens. They probably have more than one, but we’ve seen only one at a time on various holes. It’s amusing but doesn’t seem like it accomplishes much.
We spent the afternoon around the hotel, resting, not doing much, waiting for the eclipse which would be at totality at 5:48 p.m. A little before that time, there was a small gap in the clouds that allowed us to see a crescent of the sun through the clouds. When we put on our special eclipse glasses, we couldn’t see anything; it was just black. And the cloud gap soon closed, leaving just a thick cloud cover. But just before 5:48 it quickly darkened and became quite dark at totality. Then it quickly got light again. I wanted to take a photo during totality but my camera adjusted for the lack of light and didn’t show the darkness like it really was. So I have no photos of the eclipse to show you.
After the eclipse, we went to the hotel dining room for dinner where I ate a small entree of fish and chips plus lemonade that cost about $40. Meal prices here have been equally expensive during the entire trip.
Lori's Travels 