Midnight, Icelandic-summer style
We spent several days in Stokkseyri at the new (ca. 1901) house. We went up there on my birthday and stayed until last night and just relaxed and hung out. For my birthday, we went to a fantastic restaurant on the seashore and had an absolutely amazing dinner that still makes my mouth water just thinking about it: beef carpaccio with fresh mozzarella and tomatoes and delicate greens, the most fantastically simple yet most delicious lobster bisque, and basket after basket of freshly baked bread with wonderful sauces - olive tapenade, a sweet garlic sauce, and my favorite with the soup, tarragon yoghurt sauce. The restaurant was serene: quiet, with simple, beautiful paintings on the wall from local artists, a really great chardonnay served in handmade clay decanters, and of course it´s right on the shore.
We went back to the house afterwards, a little tipsy from the wine and fat and happy from the dinner. We put the kids to bed and relaxed for a while, and then just before midnight, B and I took a walk and took midnight pictures in the area - summer solstice.
The next few days were spent playing Sequence, the kids running free, visiting the beached (dead and smelly) sperm whale, doing touristy stuff that I´ll post photos of later, and mostly just enjoying the solitude afforded by a house with no television, no radio, no internet or even a computer. On Saturday night, we went to visit one of B´s friends that lives out in the middle of pretty much nowhere, with a view of Mt. Hekla (a volcano) and Vatnajökull in the distance and rode horses at midnight.
I promise to post lots of pictures when we get back to Spain, but for now I have just a couple from our horseback riding adventure.
This horse was my buddy - everywhere I went, there he was. I´d turn around and he´d be right behind me. I´d go to the ground for a picture and he´d be right over me. He´s a younger horse and a total Mamma´s boy - any time she went outside of his eyesight when we were getting them ready to ride, he would get very agitated and start whinnying for her. Such a sweet horse!
I was taking a picture of something completely different and felt his breath in my ear and looked up and there he was - it´s a very impromptu picture but one of my favorite of the set.
Dan
Thanks for sharing the great pics
Krustina
I SO love that last picture! I think I want it blown up and put on my wall.
Laura
That last picture is so sweet!!! Sounds like your vacation is just fabulous! I can’t wait to see all the pictures you took when you get back to Spain
Have fun
Krustina
I was just noticing that your nostrils and the horse’s nostrils are, well, similar.
Walter
And some more Things That Made Me Happy Today.
Diary of an Unremarkable Vanilla » Blog Archive » 104 in 1,004
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Diary of an Unremarkable Vanilla » Blog Archive » On Icelandic Food
[...] for my 30th birthday dinner and was so good that my mouth still waters whenever I think about it. I posted about our dinner here and posted pictures of my dinner here, here, and here, and I just hope that the next time we go [...]