Day 138-class hike

The Bifröst campus as seen from the east.

   May 21-Today begins the second-to-last week of school at Varmaland.  Like in the States, that means that various end-of-year activities begin to dominate the kids' schedules.  So, let the fun and games begin!  Joslyn went on a hike with her class today.  Since her bus stopped at Bifröst to drop off younger kids to go fishing at Hreðavatn, Sally and I were able to board it and go on the hike with them.  We drove around to the east side of the Norðurá river and hiked across the ridge that is due east of us at Bifröst.  The weather was fantastic and the kids were very well-behaved, so we had a very nice time and some beautiful views. 

Joslyn's class and chaperones relax while climbing the west side of the ridge.

Shan, Sally, and Joslyn in front of the pond Mjóavatn. The mountain Skessuhorn is far behind us.

Hiking down the east side of the ridge.

   We stopped at the farmstead Arnbjargarlækur once we came down into the valley on the other side and ate dinner that had been driven out from Varmaland by the school's superintendent.  The house at Arnbjargarlækur is a four-story monster that was built in 1923 and has been used as a hotel in the past.  The current owners foster a number of children, mostly from Reykjavík.  There are 200 sheep on the farm, so that should provide some work to keep the kids busy.  We got a chance to meet the couple and talked to the husband for a short while.  He was quite the character.  Interestingly, one of his daughters is a pathologist at Harvard University and another one is an economist at the University of Iceland.
   After dinner, we all started walking south along the road.  The superintendent and Þóra, Daníel's mother and a janitor at Varmaland, shuttled small groups of us back down the road to another farm that was just a short ten-minute walk from Varmaland.  Sally and I were in the last couple of groups to be shuttled.  We arrived back at Varmaland shortly before the bus took the kids back to Bifröst, so we just rode back with Joslyn and Alex.
   Back at Bifröst, Alex attended a birthday party for Brindís for a few hours, while the rest of us packed to leave.  She came home and got ready to go and then we headed for Reykjavík.  We headed straight to Hamborgarafabrikkan to eat, because it has became the kids' favorite restaurant.  We finished up and drove down Keflavík.  The sky was as clear as it had been the rest of the day, but we noticed that there seemed to be a haze in the air that significaly restricted the visibility.  We later found out that easterly winds had picked up ash from the recent volcanic eruptions, causing the haze.  Once we got to Keflavík we checked into the Motel Alex.  Why do you suppose we selected that one?  The kids bedded down in the triple room, while Sally and I got the neighboring double room.  Since it was rather late, everyone went to sleep pretty quickly.