We also stopped at this fabulous cafe for breakfast, enjoying chocolate croissants straight out of the oven!
There was a cool little market, offering good, crafts, books, and food. Lots of warm looking sweaters, oddly enough.
The little sign reads "Single Gloves Speed Dating." We'll blame the finger on the picture on the exhaustion and the fact that I was in a rush when I saw this. My friend had realized she was missing her bag (she was retracing her steps in the market looking for it), and I was en route with it back from the coffee, where it had been turned in safe and sound.
Next up on the docket for the day was a trip out to an Icelandic horse ranch for a trail ride. Having been raised with horses, I've never been particularly keen on tourist trail rides. However, my friend had never been on a horse and wanted someone to go with, and I was excited to try the Icelandic horse gait, which is called a "tolt." Unlike Tennessee Walking Horses, this gait isn't trained. The horses either have it, or they don't. Our destination for this event was Laxnes Horse Farm, which was the first tourist riding attraction, a family owned place that has been offering trail rides since 1968. This place had been recommended by our tour driver from the first day.
Like every good ranch, there were lots of ranch dogs!
My mount for the day was named Rudi. Tiny, but mighty. Beautifully gaited and very enthusiastic. He definitely wanted us to be at the front of the line, and I was hard pressed to keep him in step with the guide at the front. But having a bit of a challenge was great for me, as they asked after riding ability and assigned horses accordingly. I took a few pictures of the tack for my Mom's benefit (Mom being a horse trainer).
It was a beautiful day.
One of the guide's horses.
The trail ride was tremendous fun!
Back in town, we went in search of the Sun Voyager, a sculpture along the waterfront in Reykjavik. It was gorgeous.
The sculpture itself was pretty cool, too.
After this, we went to the imaginatively named Icelandic Bar for dinner. I had a burger topped with deep fried lobster, which was just as decadent and amazing as it sounds. http://islenskibarinn.is/net/en/
It was back to Hallgrimkirkja after dinner, up to the top for some stunning views of the city.
Given that it was Saturday night, despite how tired I was I agreed to go on a pub crawl, since I knew that the club would be going again that night and I was unlikely to sleep anyway.
It was quite the evening. I took this picture after stopping at a street vendor for some food. It was approximately 2:30am. Yes, there was still light on the horizon.
