Thingvellir to Stikkyholmsur

We rode 67.5 miles in 7 hours 12 minutes. This included leaving a valley and circumnavigating a fjord, cliffs and all, so given the vertical feet gained, I think it was by far our hardest day.

We started in the Thingvellir valley, where the Icelanders used to hold court, enact laws, as generally govern. The spot is dramatic, with rivers and a large lake underneath ice-capped mountains. There are fissures running through the valley, mostly filled with streams, and the site sits directly atop the divide between the European and American continental plates.

From here we rode up out of the valley, then back down to sea level on a 20 mile dirt road running past farms nestled between rocky crags on either side.

This dirt road ended at Hvalfjorder, with a well-paved but maniacally-graded road running around the fjord. I spent a lot of time in the bail out gear, crawling along at 5 mph, but have not yet had to get off the bike and push on this trip. I did tweak my knee about half way around the fjord, and worried I would have trouble making it to our destination (the next town with a grocery store, for a badly-needed reapply), but a few minutes rest and a couple of ibuprofen and I was fine.

Leaving the fjord and looking back, the sun finally came out and the spectacular views became even better. The picture below is from one of those moments.

The last stretch of our ride was on busy and boring national highway one. We were tired and in no mood to dodge trucks, but had to in order to reach Borganes for our grocery stop.

We've been subsisting on Skyr in large part- an Icelandic yogurt-like substance, technically a soft cheese. I think we had 5 containers today, for something like 90g of protein and 5g of fat. We buy the flavored, sugared versions, and except for banana split, they've been both very tasty and a good source of energy. I finally got Daria into lox, too.

After our grocery run, we stuck the bikes on a bus to Stykkisholmer, in order to extend our range a little bit before we run out of time here. We have yet another stunning backdrop for our tent here.

Tomorrow the plan is to stay off-bike much of the day, and try things like geothermal pools and bakeries that we haven't done yet.