Day 85-school day

   March 29-Prior to the arrival of Shan's family, Joslyn and Spencer had asked their teachers if their cousins could accompany them to school.  The teachers agreed, so they asked Stacia and Kailey if they would like to do so.  Both were game, so we put Stacia on the bus to Varmaland today and took Kailey over to Hraunborg with Spencer.  While Shan stayed behind for his weekly English lessons at Hraunborg, Sally took the rest of adults on a tour of the sights south and east of Bifröst: Deildartunguhver, Hraunfossar, Barnafoss, and Reykholt.


Misty and Greg at Deildartunguhver.



Norm and Diane at Hraunfossar.

Churches at Reykholt

The minister at Reykholt built this medieveal saddle shed as a "folly."  They were traditionally used by churchgoers to keep their saddles dry while they attended church.  This particular saddle shed is dedicated to a local individual who helped hire the minister years ago and was was well-known for runninig moonshine during prohibition in the early 20th century.  In his honor, the minister built numerous "hidey holes" for liquor bottles into the shed's walls.

Norm and Diane next to the capped hot spring at
Reykholt.  The hot water is used to warm the
greenhouses behind them.

   The minister at Reykholt caught them and talked their ears off.  He is an excellent storyteller, so his stories are very interesting, but he takes a long time to tell them.  They finally pulled themselves away early in the afternoon and made their way over to Baulan, near Varmaland, for a late dinner.  Shan picked up Spencer and Kailey from Hraunborg and brought them to Baulan, from which we all went over Varmaland so the adults could see the girls' school.  While the ladies went inside to meet the girls' teachers, to look around, and to pick the girls up from school, the guys all headed down to Hvanneyri to visit the agricultural museum.  When the ladies arrived, we left Greg and Norm at the museum, while the rest of us drove over to the troll garden.  It is still closed for the winter, but we could still walk around the outdoor paths and visit the various troll statues.



Greg with a large, German-made Lanz tractor from the inter-
war years.  Its steel wheels were designed to be large
enough to allow it to "float" on the water-logged farmland.



Grylla, the troll, likes to eat children, and here she has her cooking pot filled to the brim with them!
Grylla was known for her ability to track down kids by hearing them cry.
At least that was the story that Icelandic parents told kids who would not stop blubbering! 

Spencer and Kailey really get into their Icelandic ice cream.

   We returned to Hvanneyri, collected Norm and Greg, and headed to Borgarnes to finally get Misty and her kids into a swimming pool.  It was still windy, but not as bad as it had been the previous few days.  Nonetheless, the weather was still not good enough for Shan's folks to frolic outside in swimming suits.  As luck would have it, Magnús was at the pool with Erla, so we got to talk to him and Erla was able to join in with the fun with the kids.  It was a few degrees above freezing, so the lifeguard turned on the big outdoor slides and the kids and Misty had a great time sliding on them.  After the kids had played enough and the adults had visited and soaked long enough in the hot pots, we all showered off and headed to Hyrnan for supper and ice cream. 
   We got back to Bifröst and put the kids to bed.  While Shan's family mulled over his map of tourist sites in southern Iceland, Shan and Sally went partying.  Some of Sally's
international students were heading back to Europe since their semester at Bifröst was over and they were having a going-away party, to which they invited Sally (and Shan, by default.)  Since the collection of 20-somethings included Germans, Hungarians, Poles, Icelanders, a Finn, and us Americans, the default language was English.  Other than the international collection of people, the whole scene was very reminiscent of parties from our undergraduate days.  It was actually somewhat eerie, especially since they did not treat us any differently, despite the fact that we were twenty years older than many of them! 
   We had a great time talking to them all and it was interesting to get their perspectives on a wide variety of subjects, especially when they started talking about schoolwork.  Delila, the Hungarian student, gave us tastes of her family's moonshine.  It was tasty and it is likely we would have drank more, so it is a good thing that we had to get back to help out with making the plans for the rest of the family's visit.  As it was, we drank a couple glasses of the stuff and we felt it the next morning.  It was also WAY too strong for these old people!  Back at the apartment, Shan's family had made good headway on planning the rest of their itinerary.  They had developed a pretty good idea about the places they wanted to be, so when we got  back we helped them make some hotel reservations.