The Beauty of Þjórsárdalur...

Next day, we escaped the city and drove to our cottage in the Þjórsárdalur valley.


I can't even begin to describe the peace and quiet of this place - despite being close to the main road, there were maybe five cars an hour that would drive by. Once we arrived, we decided to climb the rock formation directly behind the cottage. I made it up half-way before Miss E wanted to go back down, but the boys went all the way to the top. And were rewarded for their efforts by Eyjafjallajökull itself.


See? Just a friendly little puff from the volcano in greeting. Relax, it didn't do anything else the entire time we were in Iceland. There were three volcanoes to see from the cottage - Eyjafjallajökull, Hekla and Katla.

After a loooong soak in the hotpot, we drove down the valley towards Stong, an excavated viking longhouse. Unfortunately, due to some toddler temper tantrums, we weren't able to make it to the actual site. (Excuse for another trip to Iceland? Yes, please!) But on the way there, we stopped at a very pretty waterfall called Hjalparfoss.


Check out those wild rock formations! If you're at all interested in geology, Iceland is a very cool place to visit. And on the way back, we had to ford a river. Twice. (Yes, we got slightly lost despite having the GPS with us. But apparently the GPS didn't like being in the middle of nowhere...) Needless to say, Mr. Ninja was delighted and exhilarated. The rest of us ranged from slightly traumatized to very relieved that we didn't need to push the 4x4 out of the middle of a raging river.

Back to the cottage, more soaking in the hotpot and dinner. That's Hekla in the background.


The best part of the day came at the very end. The sun was finally setting at midnight, and the kids were still loopy from jet lag and the constant light.


So, we all went back into the hotpot. While we were in there, a rainbow appeared.


Since the valley is so huge and free from obstruction, I saw both ends of the rainbow, for the first time in my life.


The Norse believed that a rainbow was the bridge to Valhalla. And after seeing the rainbow in the hushed midnight air of the valley...I'm inclined to believe that we sampled a little bit of heaven. (Yes, cheezy, I know. But you have no idea how close this cottage is to my personal incarnation of paradise.)