HEADING+EAST

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 * =HEADING EAST=

Last night’s Northern Lights were a no-show – well, not exactly, but they were quite faint and only lasted a short while. Tonight is promising to be better but as usual, there are no guarantees. Only a light dusting of snow fell overnight but the temperature dropped and the roads became icier. We drove the first two hours over a very icy snow-covered road – quite scary for us, especially when coming down long hills with bends! At times snow was being blown across the roadway by the strong and very cold winds. The outside temperature fluctuated from -2 to a new low for us of -7C – thankfully we didn’t need to get out of the car although we did stop for a roadside cuppa and, yes, it was very cool! || ||
 * [[image:IMG_3066.jpg]] || [[image:IMG_3025.jpg]] ||



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We are over-nighting at Egilsstaðir which is trade centre for most of central East Iceland. It is situated on a long narrow lake, ** Lagarfljót ****, **Iceland’s third-largest lake. Since saga times, tales have been told of a monster, the Lagarfljótsörmurinn, who lives in its depths. We’ll be keeping an eye out for him (her?) as our guesthouse is on its shores.===== To fill in the afternoon we went for a drive out to Seyðisfjörður, a small town on a fjord carved by the ice age glacier. Seyðisfjörður has been an important trading center from the nineteenth century up to modern times, mostly for its well made natural harbor and its closeness to the continent of Europe. A large car ferry runs from here to Denmark – it was preparing to leave whilst we were there. The colorful, Norwegian-style wooden houses from around 1900 render this village unique in Iceland.
 * [[image:IMG_3096.jpg caption="The village of Seyðisfjörður"]] || [[image:IMG_3087.jpg caption="Unusual pale blue church in village"]] ||
 * [[image:IMG_3076.jpg caption="Seyðisfjörður - way down there at the end of the fjord"]] || [[image:IMG_3083.jpg caption="yet another waterfall - this one was starting to ice over"]] ||