Rain, and Hybrid Vehicles

 Well, Iceland is being Iceland today. Rain started last night while we were at dinner, and continued steadily throughout the day, making for a more challenging first full day than desired.

Both of us slept quite well last night and seem well on our way to being over the jet-lag.  Maybe taking the later flight was a good thing after all!  Next time, we'll bring granola bars.

We started well enough, with the lovely breakfast supplied by Hotel Holt, in what was likely the dining room. It was the usual Nordic layout of sandwich fixings, skyr, muesli etc., with the addition of some very nice bacon and a surprisingly bright green apple juice!  Sorry, didn't get a pic, but it was Granny Smith green, although not at all tart.

Then a very friendly taxi driver took us to the car rental place, pointing out along the way that "right on red" is most definitely NOT permitted here.  Good to know.

Everything was going just fine at Europcar, although they did not have the Dacia Duster we had requested, but gave us an upgrade to a very spiffy-looking BYD Seal Hybrid 4x4. We finalized the paperwork, checked where the lights and wipers were, set up the GPS to take us to Kast Guesthouse on Snæfellsnes (I had the pronunciation wrong, BTW....it's SNAY-fells-ness, not SNIGH....). We had noticed a Bonus market up the road, and wanted to pick up some drinks and snacks and a couple of sandwiches for the 3+ hour drive.

By the time Sheila had dealt with the car objecting to how and where she wanted to park, (with Sheila yelling at it to shut up),  finally parking as far from any other cars as possible, we did our shopping and got back in. For whatever reason, there was a very quiet "bing-bong" alert going off every 10 seconds, for no detectable reason.  We drove the 2 blocks back to Europcar and requested a different vehicle with a shorter learning curve.  The resultant Hyundai "TUKsn" ("What?" "TUCK-son." "Oh, you mean Tucson!" "That's what I thought, but SHE insisted it was TUCK-son!" "Well....it isn't. You were right.")....where was I??

The Tucson was still a bit of a learning curve, but at least it doesn't beep and ding every time you do something. The only issue was that the GPS voice is VERY LOUD! Sheila muted the audio, turned the sound way down on her phone, to no avail. The voice is what it is.  

The car is an interesting mix of old and new tech. Key fob--with a physical key that pops out when you push the right button.  Automatic, but the shifting is done by pushing buttons on the center console. It's apparently built for the international market, because P-R-N-D were pretty self-evident. It does not automatically lock when you walk away with the fob, nor does it automatically open when you approach.

We also couldn't convince the GPS that we wanted the scenic route that would go around the fjord and not through the tunnel.  AND we both managed to miss the sign for Route 47, so into the 10-kilometer tunnel UNDER the fjord we went.  At least it was a two-lane tunnel, sometimes even three, unlike the one-lane (but still two-way) tunnels farther north. But it was under the fjord.  Hard not to think about all. That. Water.....

Everything was great until we left Highway 1 (the famous Ring Road) for Route 54, which was either under construction or needing to be. There aren't any pictures of this travel day because 1) rain and 2) this whole stretch was ridiculously flat. Kansas, but greener. It was probably seabed not that long ago.  There may have been scenery, but the clouds that were raining on us were very low.  We sometimes suspected rock formations in the mist, but nothing photo-worthy.

There was a rest stop, marked by a 6-foot painted WC on what used to be the Snæfellsnes Visitor Center. There was a turnstile that accepted credit cards to enter this gender-neutral space. It's really not that hard, if you have actual doors. 

Lars finally got his chance at the Tucson for the last 45 minutes.  The Kast Guesthouse looked so scenic on the website....and it probably is, when it isn't raining.  We CAN see the mountains from our window, even shrouded in clouds.  Our home for the next 3 nights is...compact.

One reason to choose this place was that it includes a restaurant.  The selections are limited--fish with potatoes and vegetables, or lamb with mashed potatoes and vegetables, or chicken leg with potatoes and vegetables, or tomato soup with bread and butter.  Some mixed drinks, beer, or wine (a very nice Syrah). Carrot cake for dessert.  Sorry, no pics of the food...we were hungry!

Back to the room, where at least we got to see a Redshank and a Whimbrel.  The Redshank came and went, but Lars got dozens of pics of the Whimbrel, who spent at least half an hour dining in the back yard.  Now, as soon as we remember how to get the pics from his camera into Sheila's laptop, we'll be good to go! Meanwhile, here are a couple of Whimbrel pics from Sheila's phone.

Hoping for a drier day tomorrow so we can get in a bit of hiking, or at least SEE the scenery!