Skógafoss was the next waterfall on our list. It’s also one of two waterfalls on basically every single tour to the South Coast of Iceland. In other words, it was plenty crowded. Skógafoss is known to be one of the most powerful waterfalls in terms of water volume, and on a sunny day, it’s supposed to throw the most rainbows. Naturally we went on a cloudy day.

The other cool thing is that you can walk right up to the falls. Less cool thing is that it basically means a gazillion other tourists are doing exactly that — loitering for eternity in FRONT of the waterfall and all your waterfall photos.

Like this.

Whatever. We went for a photo op anyway.

We looked around, noticed a viewpoint about 9 minutes of stair climbing up, and decided to head there.

View point is ok. I’ve seen better waterfalls. Pokin tells me to stop being a waterfall snob. I take the opportunity to remind her I didn’t even want to be seeing waterfalls anyway.

I’m secretly a little glad we went, but I’m also ready to head to our hotel. My bud and I are tired.

Tonight we’re headed for Hotel Rangá, where we’re staying for two nights. I saw it on the drive in and it looked like it there wasn’t around that seemed special.

Pokin said it was rated one of the top destinations for watching Aurora Borealis. To see the Aurora Borealis, you need to be around a lot of nothingness and darkness so you can look out into the sky. Aurora sounds cool. I’m down with that. The being around nothing doesn’t. Seems like good marketing spin to me, on the part of the hotel.

Annnnd…yup, I’m underwhelmed on arrival.

There’s something about this place that made me feel like I’m on the set of some sort of horror movie? I can’t explain why.

Maybe it’s this bear.

Maybe it’s this horrible decor for what’s supposed to be a nice place?

Maybe it’s the wood panelling. There’s wood panelling and then there’s this wood panelling.

There’s a lot of wood panelling.

I’m creeped out Nicholas. I’m not sure I want the sun to set here.

I later learned more about that creepy bear. His name is Hrammur (meaning “paw” in Icelandic). He’s 13 ft tall and originally from Greenland. He was featured in a sporting goods store that opened in Reykjavik in 1999 and went bankrupt in 2002. The bear then got stashed in a warehouse. The owner of Hotel Ranga, Friðrik Pálsson saw his photo, tracked down the warehouse where he was stashed, and pleaded with the owners to let the hotel have the bear. The bear didn’t fit the original hotel and a ceiling light had to be removed to get him in.

I guess knowing his name makes him a little less creepy. I approve of the bear-rescue efforts.