Here is a basic Iceland map and some of the major landmarks of our trip by day.
* Note: There are some videos mixed in with the pictures; however, they won't play in the slideshow so you'll need to view them in our Picasa page.
Flight in
- Reversal of roles during the flight - I slept. Anthony did not.
- The Most Interesting Passenger Award goes to a 40 year old body-builder man dressed in regular clothes, but also wearing stilettos pushing a chain-smoking grandma in a wheelchair.
- When we arrived at Keflavik Airport we saw that Iron Maiden was in town, hence the HUGE Iron Maiden 2011 Tour plane parked right next to us at the gate.
- We had a hard time finding the car rental place at the airport. Come to find out, we have to go outside and walk about a quarter of a mile to get to it. How do people do that in the winter... with all their luggage?
- Very happy with our car. Brand new Nissan Quasqai +2, 4WD (something that you desperately need for Iceland roads) with one of those massive moon roofs - we both got excited to see the stars from the driver seat (more on this later).
Day 1 - Reykjavik
- When we checked in at our hotel, Hotel Leifur Eiriksson (how fitting? :)), the man who checked us in had the best hair plugs ever and claimed that "I know everything". We never used him as a resource.
- Our hotel was in a primo location - top of the hill on the main street, facing the famous Hallgrímskirkja church. Could easily walk to the waterfront, all sorts of shops, restaurants and bars. Room was extremely cute with quilted shams and a balcony that faced the downtown. Remember, this entire city is only 40k people - not the downtown you would think of in the states.
- Walked around Reykjavik, stopped in at several shops and got lost looking for the most famous hot dog stand in town (even Bill Clinton had a dog there), and then realizing it was right next to us. Iceland hot dogs (pylsur) are supposed to be the best in the world and stands are everywhere. They are topped with the standard ketchup, some mayo, remoulade, and fresh and crispy onions. However, I don't think either of us thought these were the best hot dogs in the world- Chicago dogs are better.
- Decided to make sure to stay up and not crash from the long flight. Headed out on the road to do the Golden Circle - the known tour of sites that are near Reykjavik. First, we drove around Pingvillavatn, a beautiful lake located on the Continental Divide, and then went on to find the Geysir (pronounced gay-zer) Strokkur. This geysir would shoot up 35 feet of water and steam every 5 minutes on the dot. It was impressive how precise mother nature can be. It was also fun to see the kids all huddled around and singing the Kesha song "It's about to blow ooh ooh oh oh oh". Next stop on the Golden Circle Tour was Gullfoss, the first of countless gorgeous waterfalls. The best part about these falls were the rainbows from every angle and how close you can get to the edge.
- On our way back to Reykjavik we stopped by one of the many horse farms to pet the Icelandic horses. So gorgeous. Although we didn't have any carrots to feed them.
- "Lack of artificial interference"- My definition of the Iceland countryside.
- Went back to our room to take a quick nap and then headed to the waterfront to snap some photos of the cool viking ship sculpture.
- Decided on Sjavargrillid (Seafood Grill) for dinner, a sorta swanky restaurant on the main drag. Anthony got the lamb and whale entree, while I chose the whale and lamb appetizer. This began the Doudt Ordering Challenge of who ordered the best meal - with Anthony winning each and every time for the entire trip.
- Our waitress forgot to charge us for the bottle of wine and yes, we contemplated not telling her. But don't worry moms, we told her and she reran the bill.
- Best thing about Iceland restaurants - you don't need to tip.
- "Cheers" in Iceland is Skal! (pronounced skowl). We perfected this at each meal and added in our own twist of the German tradition of staring at each other while saying it. It is hard to stare at someone, clink glasses, and say skowl without smiling... try it. Really. It is difficult.
Day 2 - Vik
- Breakfast at the Hotel Leifur Eiriksson was well, umm....not that fabulous and apparently is the typical Icelandic breakfast everywhere. Patte, sliced tomatoes, Melba toast, marmalade, crackers, fresh salmon, and cucumbers. Not exactly the breakfast burrito or bacon and eggs we are used to, but we made the most of it.
- Drove around all of Reykjavik picking up our sleeping bags, cooler, food, and then finding a much cheaper cooler and returning the first one. Just as we had everything in the car and were heading out for Route 1 aka The "Ring Road", we drove off from the parking lot and forgot to shut the tailgate of the car!!! Luckily, only one sleeping bag rolled out onto the street and rolled to the side. I was able to run back to grab it safely. Whew! That could have been a disastrous start to the adventure!
- We finally got out on the road around 11am and the landscape was instantly beautiful - mossy lava fields, small little farms at the bottoms of waterfalls, and sheep everywhere!!!
- First stop was Seljandsfoss and Gljufurarfoss which were both easily spotted from the Ring Road. We had a picnic lunch before hiking up and around both waterfalls. You could climb behind the falls at Seljalandsfoss, but that was nothing compared to Gljufurarfoss. Gljufurarfoss was a hidden waterfall that you could only see portions of. You either had to climb a huge boulder (something I was interested in doing but Anthony promptly, and wisely, shut it down) or the only other option was to wade in through the stream that the waterfall was producing. So, I attempted that. IT WAS SO COLD. The bottom of the stream was all rocks and it was very painful on your feet and the water came up to mid-thigh (on me). However, after I tried it once, I came back and made Anthony go with me a second time. It was sooo cool being in this little secluded waterfall area - just the two of us!!!
- After that adventure we wanted some more and surely got it...but not exactly what how we expected it. The idea was to do a 3 hour hike up and around a mountain on the interior of the island. We had been warned by people who had been to Iceland that the roads were rough, but we hadn't seen anything yet. Within 5 minutes of driving towards the hike, we quickly were on a rough gravel road. And I don't mean pebbles, it was rocks. Big rocks. We realized after about 30 minutes that our car wouldn't be able to handle this and turned around. Plus, a stream had blown out the road and we were unsure of being able to pass.
- On the way to Vik, there was a huge waterfall on the side of the road that we couldn't pass up. Skogafoss was gorgeous! We took a hike up the side of the mountain to the top of the waterfall and walked along to find several more waterfalls. It was so peaceful up there with just us and the few sheep grazing.
- We made a quick stop at Dryholaey, a coastal bird sanctuary and rock formation, and finally made it to Vik around 7pm. We grabbed a quick bite at the Hotel Lundi (again, Anthony won the order challenge) in "downtown" Vik and shared some Viking beers. We set up camp, checked out the tiny church on top of the cliff and walked along the black pebble beach with some drinks. All in all - another fabulous day!
Day 3 - Glacier Hike, Lagoon, Moon, and CABIN!!
- Woke up at 5:30am the next morning so that we could drive the 1.5 hours to get to our glacier hike. When we opened up the tent the sun had already beat us up and was just peering over the mountains and lighting up half of the cliffs. Gorgeous.
- All-in-all the night sleeping in the tent wasn't too bad, but it did get very cold and sorta damp from the morning dew. The other problem was no pillows. I used a rolled up towel and Anthony used his light (smelly) jacket.
- The drive to Skaftafell National Park was one of the best drives either of us had been on. The morning sun was shining as we drove through those idyllic mossy lava fields. It felt like we were on Mars. Sooo cool. At the same time, looking to the interior of the island there is always a huge cliff that has some sort of breath-taking waterfall every 20 minutes. Then all of the sudden, EVERYTHING becomes as flat as Kansas, but rock, not fields. We learned later there was a huge flood/mudslide due to a volcanic eruption under a glacier in 1996 that flattened everything in the area. I hate to say it, but it was impressive natural damage. You can even see the damaged area if you look at it on google maps too.
- We arrive at the glacier tour center, get geared up with our helmets, crampons and axes and load up on a school bus to drive to the glacier base.
- We weren't sure what to expect on the glacier which, by the way, was on the largest volcano in Iceland. Some surprises:
- My boots that I had rented were a 36 in euro sizes (two sizes too small which later caused my feet and legs start to really hurt at the top of the glacier).
- It was much, much warmer than we had expected. We were walking on ice after all. Our guides had said that the day before, and the day we did the hike, were the best two days all year - we lucked out once again!
- Who knew ice could be so beautiful and vary so much in texture and color? The blue ice is the much thicker, compact ice. The dead ice which looked like land, but wasn't, was melting...very cool. There was also areas where ash from the volcano had mixed in with the ice making cool streaks, swirls and lines of black.
- Glacier Mice - A glacier mouse is a round rock covered with moss on all sides. It's found on glaciers in Iceland, and not known to be found anywhere else! With time (about 50 years!) and as the rock rolls on the glaciers with wind the moss slowly grows on all the sides on the rock.They are the only living creatures found on glaciers.
- We went on to Hofn and had a great dinner at Hotel Hofn. I think we tied on this ordering challenge. Anthony had the langoustine pasta and I had the langoustine dinner (mini lobsters). Both very happy and full.
- At this point, the weather was getting really chilly and windy. Our plan had been to camp that night, but we realized it wasn't going to work. We quickly called several places to see if we could get in anywhere. No luck. We decided to drive up the coast a bit longer since we were awake and see if there were any open places down the road. After several more calls, Anthony finally got a hold of Binni (who was working at his side job as an air traffic controller at the Egilsstadir airport), who had an open cabin - the best news we have heard in a long time!
- We had to drive another hour or so to get to the cabin and again, it was an amazing drive. It felt similar to Highway 1 in California and I was a little nervous driving around all the corners next to cliffs of the Norwegian Sea, especially when I couldn't see where the road would lead over the hills. The joke became that I thought we would drive into the ocean... but we made it inland a ways and had to take the Ring Road, which was now gravel up a winding road over a mountain. Again, not a fan of gravel roads and driving around cliffs. I asked for Anthony to drive and we headed up over the mountain, into the clouds. it was soo cool to be under the clouds, in the clouds and then see the clouds move off over the ocean. As soon as the clouds left, the moon appeared in the rear view mirror peering over the mountains. We were in the middle of nowhere, hadn't seen another vehicle for over 45 minutes, on top of a mountain in Iceland with the clouds floating on by you. Really a cool moment.
- After we made it over the mountain, we FINALLY made it to the cabin which was this super tiny, but super cute cottage in the middle of the woods. It even had hearts cut out of the shutters AWWW! We enjoyed a few beers on our private deck and watched as the moon moved over the mountains and the fog rolled in. What an amazing day!
DAY 4 - Detiffoss and Lake Myvatn
- Relaxed in the morning, had toast and coffee on the deck.
- Headed to Detiffoss, the largest waterfall in Europe.
- Had our usual pb and j's for lunch at the top of the waterfall and then went down to check out the power. It was really amazing how much water was actually flowing through the falls.
- Drove down to Lake Myvatn and stopped at Hverir on the way. Bubbling (and stinky) mud cauldrons and steaming vents. Neat to see how much energy and heat is actually right below our feet (later we learned that over 90% of Iceland is heated via geothermal power).
- Made it to the campsite at Lake Myvatn and set up our tent in a record 9 minutes. Go Doudts!! Beautiful campsite right along the lake front.
- Went on a hike up Vindbelgjarfjall mountain which provided great views around the lake.
- Had dinner at the Vogafjos Cafe - a cute cafe on the edge of the lake, but is also on a cow farm where you can see them milking the cows right next to your table. Sounds kinda gross, but really not. There is a good division between the manure and the food. Great suggestion from Amber Brooks!
- Next Stop, nature baths - something both Anthony and I had been looking forward to. It was only about $10 for each of us to enter. Changed into our suits and went out into the cold air so we could soak in the warm water. It was the temperature of a really warm bath (except in some areas it got really really hot). The steam was rising as the sun was setting. The bottom of the bath was natural sand and rock. The ONLY negative was the smell. As with all of the water in Iceland, there is a scent of sulfur (reminded Anthony of when he was little and drinking well water or what he called "egg water"). These baths had the strongest scent. We spent a good couple of hours in the water just lounging, canoodling, and getting pruney.
- Headed back to the campsite and fell fast asleep only to awake shortly after with our tent being shaken. We were both out of it and sort of angry thinking it was one of the many kids who were at the campsite either trying to be funny or mistakenly thinking it was a friends tent. Nope, it was the campsite manager. We had not tagged our tent like we were supposed to. I ran to the car (where we had left it) and we quickly got our tent tagged so we wouldn't be bothered again.
- Also, earlier in the day, after looking in several stores we finally found pillows. Three small round Winnie the Pooh pillows...one with Pooh on it and two with Eeyore. They were pretty sweet.
Day 5 - Caving!!
- Woke up, took down the tent in less than 5 minutes (another Doudt record) and headed to the info center to meet up with our tour guide to go caving! Unfortunatley, when we got there, steam was coming out of the engine of the car that was to take us to the cave. Our guide said we had to wait for another car to come from Akureyi so it would be another hour or so before we could leave. That was fine with us. We went to grab some breakfast (waffles and jam for me and a lamb burger for Anthony). We got back, met the rest of our group and headed out.
- Our group consisted of two sisters from South Africa and their chatty 66 year old mum, our guide and us. It was a pretty scary drive out to the lava field - our 4x4 did just fine, but there were times where we were all bobbling heads and hanging on the side of the car when we were tilted to the other side.
- We crossed over the amazing lava field that had been there for about 5000 years. In the middle of the field was a sinkhole which was about 30 feet deep. We geared up and climbed down the ladder into the cave.
- They had a door set up on the outside of the cave to keep random people from coming in and ruining the natural beauty in the cave and to control the temperature if needed.
- The first and worst obstacle was to climb through a hole the size of Anthony. We did alright and no one got stuck, but this was kinda of a big fear for Anthony (being in such a small, tight place where you can't turn around) and he was very relieved, proud, and glad he got through it with no problems. Once we were in the cave, the temp dropped quickly and of course it was quite dark.
- Our guide was awesome and knew so much about the history of the cave and how it was formed. He also shared stories of the actual ice sculptures in the cave calling them by distinct names. The coolest part was when he had us all turn off our lights and it was PITCH BLACK. You couldn't see anything, which made your other senses overreact. It was then that you noticed the drips from the ice-sickles and some crackling in the ice.
- The most fun was sliding down one of the ice ramps on our butts while hanging on to the rope...it was like repelling downward. A little scary, but so fun. And it was fun to see the 66 year old mum screaming and laughing as she did it. Something I could see Edie (Anthony's mom) enjoying as well.
- Headed to our next hotel, Hotel Gigur, which was also along Lake Myvatn. Cute hotel with a great restaurant, but the room felt like a freshman year dormitory with single beds.
- After a quick hike around some craters near our hotel, Anthony and I enjoyed a fabulous dinner and a bottle of vino with a great view of the sunset over the lake.
Day 6 - Akuyeri and drive down west coast
- Grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel and then headed out for our 45 minute drive to Akuyeri - the second largest "city" in Iceland with 17,000 people.
- Akuyeri is a cute town with shops, restaurants and cafes. The cutest thing about the town is all the hearts - it even has heart shaped stop lights!!
- It was a bit overcast so we thought we would take this time and do some shopping. But in true Doudt fashion, we didn't buy anything and instead went to eat. We grabbed lunch at Strikid, a rooftop bar that overlooks the fjord. GREAT hamburgers.
- We continued our drive down the west coast of Iceland stopping along the way to take pictures. The sun started to peak out, but unfortunately, the wind also started to pick up (at least 25-30 mph!). We were supposed to camp that night, but with the wind, we didn't feel comfortable doing so. So after calling quite a few places, we finally found a hotel with a room on the Snaefellsness peninsula (it also had a nine-hole golf course).
- The hotel was really cute and had a restaurant in it where we enjoyed another bottle of vino over a long dinner.
Day 7 - Snaefellsness, gas emergency, and back to Reykjavik
- Woke up and had another Iclandic breakfast in the hotel and headed out to drive around the rest of the Snaefellsness peninsula. We headed west towards the national park. Stopped off at a waterfall to get some really cool pictures. Had some sheep herd around our car which was a little strange. Weren't sure what they were doing...
- Stopped off to get some gas only to find that their signal had lost connection. You would think this wouldn't be that big of a deal. Just pay in cash right? Wrong. The gas stations don't take cash at all. You need to use a debit card. So we drove to the next town about 10 minutes away and find that they are having the same thing. This is where we start freaking out. We only have about 120km left in our tank and it seems that the entire peninsula's gas stations aren't working.
- We decide to keep driving and stop at the next gas station.. .again, not working. We grab our lunch of lamb-burgers and decide to call around to the gas stations in the next few miles. Luckily, a gas station that was about 40 km away had working pumps. We made it and of course celebrated when filling up our tank. Phew!!!
- We made it back to Reykjavik and stayed at the Leifur Eiriksson hotel again. Returned our backpacks and went to dinner - again sharing a bottle of wine and chatted about what an amazing week we had experienced.
Notes
- Ironic, we found it very very difficult to find ice in Iceland.
- Icelandic seafood and lamb is amazing.
- The sun is always at about a 45 degree angle in the sky. The light seems like 10am-sunlight no matter what time it is...noon, 3pm, 5pm, etc it's always at the low angle. Very interesting and throws you off a bit. 8pm sneaks up on you quickly.
- The sun "sets" at about 9:30 or 10 but really it's still right under the horizon so you'll still see a glow for several more hours.
- We never saw the Northern Lights or stars. At night it got dark, but not dark enough to see stars (see the bullet point above). We were both a little bummed about that, but the sunny days and warm weather definitely made up for it.
- Absolutely no cops whatsoever. My lead foot was never an issue.
- Everyone speaks English, even in the small towns. And of course, everyone is super friendly and helpful.
- We loved Icelandic cheese, Skyr, that tasted sweet (almost like ice cream) and often on the desert menu.
- There are no mountain lions in Iceland. Only waterfalls. Don't ask. :)
- There may not be any mosquitoes in Iceland but there sure are plenty of gnats.
2 comments:
It truly is a gorgeous place. Awesome pictures. So glad you guys had a great time!!!
Wow guys! Truly amazing pictures and sounds like a truly amazing trip. :) Thanks for sharing!
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