Tuesday, March 24: Horseback Riding & South Coast (Iceland)

After the dramatic weather of Monday, Tuesday began with sunny, cloudless skies and no wind. In the morning, Andrew, the girls, and I set out for the Solhestar stable in the Reykjadalu Valley for a horseback riding tour in the countryside. I have never ridden a horse before. But one of Greta's top things to do this trip was ride an Icelandic horse, and we found this stable near our Air BnB. 

It was very cold in the morning, but we were given riding jumpsuits, and we'd brought fleece headwraps to wear under our helmets. The horses were adorable: Biggie (Lucia's), Ginger (Greta's), Vikrame (like macrame; Andrew's), and Thrau (mine). We were given instructions on how to steer the horse, and how to get onto the horse. I had a little bit of trouble, with no core strength at all, and though I did successfully get onto my horse, I was not graceful. Andrew did okay. The girls hopped onto the stirrup and slung their legs over their horses like they'd been doing it their whole lives.

We set out in a single-file line, following our guide, into the countryside around the stable. We crossed a few streams, and each time, my horse bent her head low to drink the icy water, nearly sending me into the creek. "Stop drinking, stop drinking," I pleaded with Thrau. The guide laughed merrily. "She loves to drink the water," she said, as I held on for dear life. We proceeded at a slow, comfortable pace with the mountains looming over us. It was an absolutely beautiful morning. About halfway through our two-hour ride, the guide instructed us on how to make our horses go faster, a kind of Icelandic-horse version of trotting, which we then did periodically for the rest of the ride. 

None of us fell off our horses, and the ride was very very fun (and very very cold). I'm so glad we did this.  

After our ride, we went home to rejoin Mom and Dad and have lunch. Then we set out for the south coast. Our first stop was the Skogafoss waterfall. The pathway behind the falls was closed for the winter, but we got a beautiful (though slippery) view from the front. Next we drove to the Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach, with its violent waves that crash down much closer onto the beach than you'd expect. We watched an unsuspecting tourist from a bus group stand too close to the water and get drenched by a fast-approaching wave. This beach is otherworldly, all the black sand and black lava rocks and basalt columns and huge waves, and it is humbling and awe-inspiring to see. 

We would have liked to spend more time here, but after half an hour we headed to Vik, where we had tickets to the Lava Show--a brief history of volcanos in Iceland followed by actual lava flowing into a trough. A little gimmicky, but also very fun to see real lava that was remelted from lava rocks from 1918 eruption of the Katla volcano. 

Afterward, we had a delicious dinner next door at The Soup Company. Lucia got a panini but the rest of us got soup, and each order came with a free second serving, either the same soup or a different soup. Mom got a soup sampler of three soups. Between the five of us, I think we tried all the soups on the menu: broccoli cheddar, red hot lava soup, Icelandic lamb stew, fish curry, red lentil. The red hot lava and Icelandic lamb stew were my favorites. 

By then it was blizzarding in Vik, so we had yet another difficult drive home, though it did stop snowing about halfway. Andrew, the girls, and I got into the hot tub for a bit to finish off the evening. Another great Iceland day.