Ringroad Selfdrive Tour - 7th Day - In 8 Days around the Island

Following route 1 – also called the ring road – we took a car all the way around Iceland. This is Day 7.

The night before, we had reached the camping ground in Hofsós in the middle of the night …again! This time I had even been asleep already for quite some time in the passenger seat while Nils was driving. The next morning we went for a swim in the Hofsós swimming pool, which is not like any other pool. It is located right next to the sea so one has an amazing view while swimming, or rather while relaxing in the hot pot.

• Book your own Icelandic adventure and book a Ring Road Tour

Most swimming pools in Iceland are outdoor but open all year nevertheless. Therefore people tend to spend most of the time in the various different hot pots reaching from 36 to 42 degrees Celsius.

After that amazing start in the day we went to Hólar to visit a horse museum. (I know, doesn’t sound any more interesting than “herring museum”, but it was actually quite cool.)

The girl at the reception was German as well and had come to Iceland after graduating high-school to work for a few months. She gave us a very special and quite hilarious tour through the museum during which she kept joking about all the fanatic horse-fans usually visiting this museum. Yes, many Icelanders seem to be really proud of their horses.
The most impressive exhibit was a rebuilt stable from 1960 – which would have easily fit into a middle age museum in Germany! The walls were made of driftwood because Iceland scarcely had any woods (before the Icelanders started to plant as many trees as possible). Sales of grain leather with an integrated mechanism to transport hay bails and a cart standing in a corner which could be pulled by a horse completed the picture.
To give a perspective – at the same time in other parts of the world: The economic miracle in Germany, in the US and in the UDSSR the first spaceships with animals on board, the invention of microchips and of devices for a practical use of laser technology (Theodore H. Maiman, USA).
This was the first time that we could actually visualize what it means to be an “isolated state”.
In the end of our tour we walked through the ancestral halls of the Icelandic horse in which we were introduced especially to one specific stallion who in the beginning of the 20th century managed to father 99% of all Icelandic horses living today. That’s what I call dedication!

We went for a short break to Hobbiton, the Shire… Or that was how it looked like! Especially from the side the houses in the Turfhouse museum rather resembled a grassy knoll than a real living place. Even the doors (with their 1.5 meter height) were more fitting for hobbits than for real people! It’s stunning to imagine that a century ago, most houses in Iceland were built this way! Well, not exactly: Most of them didn’t have a wooden front such as these here. As I have said: Almost no woods in that time.

Direction west, our way lead us to Reykjastrandavegur. The English word for “vegur” is path – and this is already extremely over-exaggerated! With breathtaking 8 kph we raced over the gravel while our car screamed in pain. By the time we finally arrived we learned that the boat to the puffin island we had planned to take had already left in the morning.

Because we didn’t want to have come all the way for nothing, we decided to buy some sandwiches and hot-dogs from the two very blonde and constantly giggling 12 year old girls behind the counter of the local kiosk. 
Back in the car I noticed that I couldn’t find my toilet bag… which meant it still was at the campsite (from this place: one hour one way)
Luckily this was the first time I had forgotten some of my stuff on this trip… not! 

The sun was already about to set as we reached Þingeyrakirkja – an old church surrounded by a stunning scenery (at least it would have been if we hadn’t arrived so late that the low hanging clouds covered everything in heavy fog).

While Nils was busy jumping the fence of the graveyard to take pictures and a time lapse of the church, I made pasta. This time with the right amount of salt! Nils still hesitated a bit before taking the first bite.

This post is part of a whole series called "In 8 Days around the Island". 

Ringroad Selfdrive Tour - Day 6 - In 8 Days around the Island

Ringroad Selfdrive Tour - Day 8 - In 8 Days around the Island

Interested in your own Ringroad-Selfdrive-Experience?!

Click on this link to book your own 7 Days Ring road Selfdrive Tour now: Days Ringroad Selfdrive Tour - Guide to Iceland

Or just rent your car here and explore on your own: Rent a Car!

Here you can find a map that shows our route on Day 7: