Day 5

Traveling day for us. We had to make it all the way up to Patreksfjordur, a city in northern Iceland, before dark. That was what Dad said, because he did not want to have to find the house in the dark. It was a 6 hour drive to Patreksfjordur. We saw many small and large waterfalls along the road on the way up.

We did a lot of sitting and watching out the windows of the car. The scenery was boring/rugged. It was a gray day and great for traveling and eating. Mom had brought us many Icelandic snacks. The two favorites were Tuc crackers, they were like a ritz cracker, the other one was Miólkur Rex Gróft. they were like a really thick and hard biscuit. We had to be carful when eating in the cars because we did not have a vacuum to clean out the crumbs.

For lunch we had gas station sandwiches that were ok, not exciting though. The land around was just really green with moss and black, gray, and brown rocks. When we got into farm area, it was more green grass and fences.We mostly saw horses, sheep, and a just few cows. It was not unusual for the farms to look deserted. Young people are moving to the cities.

As we got closer to Patreksfjordur, the terrain became more and more mountainous. It was scary at points on 16% upgrades and downgrades then at the bottom would be a 90 degree turn and NO guard rails anywhere! (at least that is what it felt like, there were a few although I don’t remember them) One could just drive right off the edge and land in the water and rocks below. The roads were also dirt and gravel many places. That was a little nerve-racking. Later on the way back to the Golden Circle (our last home in Iceland, a more populous area), it was not that bad to traverse those roads again because in even more remote areas, they got worse…

The views from the mountains were beautiful! There were many rivers and lakes. At the bottom of the mountains there were farms. Rest stops were very rare and when there was one we were glad to fill up on gas again. Once we could see Patreksfjordur, we thought it small. If we understand correctly, the ‘ur’ in the name means city. Well, this one was a population of 700, the biggest city this far north in Iceland. Immediately mom investigated and found out the population of the tiny town we call home in the states is around 1500! Patreksfjordur is located on an L shaped space out in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. There were 2 grocery stores, a pharmacy, 2 schools, a hotel, and a few other little stores. We stayed in the basement of a house on a hill, daylight basement I should say since our front door opened onto a patio. It was so small: a one person kitchen, no place to eat/sit other than the beds or floor. The place was just a hallway with 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, and the smallest kitchen I have ever seen.

The little red square is the house where we were staying.