Day 123-last knitting group meeting

   May 6-Since today was a Sunday, Sally and the girls could have joined Alison and me in our tour around the Golden Circle.  However, they have already seen these sights and were not interested in spending the time in the car just to see them again. Instead, they had a relaxing day at Bifröst.  "The Princess Diaries 2" remained available for viewing for 24 hours starting when they first watched it the night before, so they watched it a few more times, including one time with Brynja.  They definitely got their money's worth out of that "video rental!" 
   The housing department decided to clean out the storeroom associated with Sjónarhóll today.  Many items had been left by previous students, including a number of bikes and scooters, and a trampoline.  The residents adopted the trampoline and put it up for the kids to use.  So, now we have two trampolines here at Sjónarhóll, since a resident family put their own up a couple weeks ago.  The draw was so great, that our kids even decided to forego a trip to Borgarnes to swim, in order to jump on the trampoline!  We also managed to scavenge a few adult-sized bikes, a kids' bike for Spencer, and a scooter for Joslyn.  Now, we can actually start biking some of the back-country trails and roads around here!

Floí nature reserve with Hveragerði in the background.

   Meanwhile, Alison and I headed south to the Floí nature reserve.  These marshlands are supposed to be great for birding.  The lack of trees certainly allowed us to see quite a distance and we did see lots of swans and geese and some other birds as well, but I think we could have seen more species if we had come at a different time (or had had more patience.)

Alison and the upper falls of Gullfoss.

   However, we were on a schedule, so we headed back to Selfoss to eat dinner and then drove northeast to the Hjálparfoss waterfall.  After that, we saw the principal sites of the Golden Circle tour: Gullfoss waterfall, Geysir and Strokkur geysers, and the Þingvellir historical and geological site.  The sky was clear, so we actually could see the rainbow in the spray from Gullfoss.  Besides that, each of the sights were not much different than when I saw them with my family last month. 

Shan and the lower falls of Gullfoss.

   We took the inland route around the top of Hvalfjörður, through Skorradalur, and across the Hvitá bridge to get back to Bifröst.  The kids met us at the door and told us that we had just missed watching "The Princess Diaries 2," because the 24 hour limit had run out five minutes before.  What a huge disappointment for Alison and me.......  Well, maybe not.  Sally had gotten a call earlier in the day from Emma to tell her that the knitting club was going to meet one last time tonight.  A French knitting group was touring Iceland, so they joined the local knitting group to talk about Icelandic wool and knitting.  Since the group consisted of French and Icelanders, English was the common language that was used, which made it very easy for Sally to converse with everyone in attendance.  Sally has really enjoyed the evenings with the knitting club at Hraunsnef.  It has been an invaluable opportunity to get to know the locals, to see the kinds of items they have knitted, and to learn the different knitting styles of Iceland.