Page 23 - 2000 ICELAND

We joined those of the group who had been wise enough not to take the
optional trip to Drangey and the bus traveled through a lovely long valley to

Dalvik on a bay of the North Atlantic. The emerald green hillsides (low-
growing mosses, grasses and ferns) embraced the many lovely and neat

farms filling the valley through which ran a big, braided glacial river. Higher
and darker snow-capped mountains marched away behind the colorful hills.

This valley also contained some pockets of trees which the reforestation

project had planted. They softened even further the harsh look of the land
itself.

Our “summer hotel” for this night was a boarding school building. We were

four to a room here, with two beds and two pallets for the sleeping bags.
The toilet/shower facility was pretty close to the room we shared with Pat

and Lynn so we got a wonderful shower.

Footnotes: 1. “Technical Stop” is a pause in the bus travel for the potty.
Sometimes, it was in the wilds, but most often, it would be somewhere with

real toilets or at least, an outhouse. 2. Found out tonight that we are

supposed to help with the dishes after breakfast and suppers. So groups of
4-5 are supposed to volunteer to do the washing, drying and stacking in the

appropriate containers. Kay did her first stint at this tonight. The rest of us
all took turns too, several times, during the trip.

AKUREYRI

They let us sleep a little later today (since

breakfast was not until 8:30) and then
the bus pulled out at 9:15 to drive us to

Akureyri, Iceland’s second-largest city at

16,000 souls. It is a pleasant, bay-side
town, not as a colorful as Reykjavik.

However, it contains a large church
designed by the Hallgrimskirkja architect.

A very long series of steps leads up to the