Iceland Day 10

Geothermal power station, recent and old lava fields, ptarmigan, crater, Myvatn Nature baths

First stop of the day, Krafla Geothermal Power Station - very interesting and they had a nice interpretative center with free delicious coffee.

A short drive brought us to the crater lake above the power station.

Nearby is the the Leirhnjukur lava field, remnants of the 1975 and 1884 eruptions.

 I can't get enough of that sulfurous rock....

nor of lava fields with snowy mountains in the distance.

I love these mounds of grass and this little guy....a ptarmigan.

An Icelandic artist Rosa Sigrun Jonsdottir made large green crochet grass mounds mimicking the above mounds and placed them in the gallery in an art museum (see later post). Accompanying the installation was a video of her crocheted mounds in and about the real mounds.  I liked that her medium was a traditionally female craft and the mounds created a sense of hominess.  Iceland is a land without much  vegetation due to deforestation so the act of creating these handmade crochet objects seems sweet, nostalgic and old fashioned, like putting doilies on a piece of furniture.

Hverfell

The awesome Hverfell, a dog bowl shaped black mound

The rim is a 1/2 mile walk with the crater at 460 feet deep.  The views of the surrounding area is wonderful especially of Dimmuborgir which is on our next stop.

round nub in the middle of the crater

Lake Myvatn in the distance

 Dimmuborgir is a surreal lava field with distinctive crags and pillars.  I think because this was an organized park, I didn't enjoy it as much.  I much prefer finding something like this on a trail, after a long hike.  But, this had a huge parking lot for buses and a gift store/cafeteria.  It somehow lacked charm and the feeling of discovery was missing.  However, it was accessible for most people so do I really need to complain?  NO!

 Then, it was back to the Vogafjos Cowshed Cafe for the cake of the day and a cup of tea...

 We ended our day with a trip to the Myvatn Nature Baths for a soothing minerally soak.

super hot!

We spent at least an hour there, wading between the hot and the not so hot area of the bath.  I exfoliated my face with the mud and felt rejuvenated after a day of seeing the sights.