When I see rainbows, I know my grandma is near.
She’s being showing me rainbows since she passed away in 1988 and they are a sign of comfort to me. Being Icelandic, spiritually, I figured she would travel with us in some fashion or other, and a rainbow is awesome. Skogafoss is a beautiful waterfall that got even better when Grandma showed up.
The waterfall is one of the largest in Iceland, dropping nearly 300 feet and is 82 feet wide. One can climb the 527 steps up to an observation point for a great. But given that there was snow on the ground and I’m prone to slipping and falling, we pass on that option.
Hraunfossar Barnafoss
Our last stop is more water, frozen and beautiful, and cold. At this point, the cold is simply cold and while annoying, it’s not an obstacle.
The name of the waterfalls translates to lava waterfalls (Hraunfossar) and children’s waterfall (Barnafoss). Overall, Hraunfossar is nearly 3000 feet long!
The beautiful turqoise water is stunning, especially against the white, ummmm, background. Ya, the white background – that fluffy stuff called snow!
There’s a lovely path that takes you along the edges of the long stream of cascades, waterfalls, and the rumbling river but for us it is impossible to see because of the snow. We do know it’s there though as we can see the railing that keeps us from falling into the abyss.
Above Hraunfossar is Barnafoss, which is named after two young children who, according to legend, disappeared one day while their mother had gone to Christmas church services. In the search for the children, locals discovered their footprints leading to the stone arch over the river. The mother later had the stone arch destroyed so no one else would cross the falls again. This is one example of the strong presence of Icelandic folklore.
The weather in Iceland in March is very unpredictable. We had planned on visiting the Vestmaenyaer Islands, but the sea was too stormy for the ferry to run during our trip. Our helicopter ride was also cancelled for weather related reasons and we missed out on the puffins due to the time of year. Even the trip up the Langjökull Glacier was cancelled part way up because of a BLIZZARD!
Ohhh…. And about those northern lights….. ya, no. Most nights were cloudy, snowy, and/or rainy. The one night we thought there was a chance, all we saw was ….. darkness – which can be a beautiful thing if there were stars, but the clouds covered them up too. So Cathy will find the northern lights somewhere else…. Not in Iceland in March.
And we did indeed freeze our patooties. Some might be discouraged by all of this, but we know that it means. We will return…… just not in the winter…..