My Iceland Experience- July- Aug 2016

Iceland:

Saturday, July 23^rd-We flew from DFW to Minneapolis (2 hours) and then onto REK (5.5 hrs)

Sunday, July 24^th- We were picked up and taken to our rental car place (mycar.is) very near to the airport.. I liked this company because there were no waiting lines and total price was decided, on line, so no surprises.  It was $1400 for 2 weeks for a Yaris- which got great gas mileage and handled the roads well, even the NW fjord roads.(not F-roads-don't do F-roads in a Yaris *see my other blog posting about 20 things to know about Iceland)

We needed to kill some time until our room was ready at The Silica Hotel so we drove to downtown  Reykjavik. This is a super cute town to wander around. It also has a few ATMs for you to get some ISKs. I took out 15,000isk =128usd..though I must say I used my debit card for gas and my credit card (with no foreign transaction fees) for almost everything else. (*see my 20 Things to Know About Iceland blog entry) for more info about paying for stuff in Iceland.

  We parked by the ocean and took a quick picture of Solfur- the sun voyager scuplture

Then we re-parked up the hill to see Hallgrímskirkja (famous church) 

We wandered through town, stopping in some great Icelandic wool shops and then stopped in for a bite to eat at Café Babalu’s  (https://sites.google.com/a/babalu.is) We had shared a delicious panini and a bowl of lamb soup- we even sat on their upstairs, outside patio.

Overnight flights are draining on the body- and we were beginning to hit the wall by 1pm. But we pushed on and went grocery shopping. We picked up cheese and baguette, fruit and smoked salmon.  We decided to eat dinner IN our expensive hotel room, because we knew we would be too exhausted by dinner time to enjoy eating at the pricey Blue Lagoon restaurant. (eating in the room was really a great idea!)

 At 2 pm we checked in at the hotel,  –near town of Grindivik- it was pricey but worth it!! .

 We slipped on our hotel robes and complimentary flip-flops, and headed to the shower room.  In Iceland, it is mandatory to take a body shower- without your swim suit- using soap- before entering any public hot spring or pool. Below is the sign you will see..lol

this means wash here and here and here-lol

 It is tough getting a wet body into a swim suit- but I did appreciate the hygiene there- so I complied and then put on my suit. (some places had private shower areas others had mass shower stalls- and it is good to know that public nudity is “not a thing” in Iceland- so don’t leave the locker room without your suit-lol)

 As you entered the Hotel  pool they handed you a cup of volcanic (silica) to put on your face and neck. I was hesitant because my skin is so sensitive- but I am glad I did.  My skin was baby soft for 3 days. 

 

That evening, after our “in room” meal- we carried our swim gear and flip-flops and walked about ¼ mile over to the big Blue Lagoon.(the walk from the hotel to the Blue Lagoon is fabulous)

Because we were hotel guests, we had a private line to get our locker wristbands. We repeated the shower ritual (but this time there were tons of people!) and glided into the world famous Blue Lagoon. There were nice alcoves to sit, saunas, steam rooms, waterfall massages, smaller lagoons with varying temps, and even a swim up bar. We stayed until 11:30pm- with some light still in the sky.

Monday July 25th  We woke up the next morning, ate our, best of the trip, complimentary breakfast in the breakfast room. We went for another dip in our hotel lagoon,-which I must say, I loved more than the big Blue Lagoon, showered and then we hit the road for points north!  

It is a 3 hour drive (take toll tunnel) up Hwy 1 to Hwy 54 to Snaefellsjokull National Park (home of a large glacier)) Our first stop was in Budir. There was a beautiful timber church and graveyard.

 We hiked around the cliffs for an hour or so and got attacked by Artic Terns (I guess we were too close to their nests) They were super aggressive birds.

We hadn’t planned the next stop, but we saw people walking up a steep hill to a mountain and then disappearing, so we knew there must be something cool up there!  It was called Raudfeldsgja- a hidden waterfall inside a small crevice.  I am glad we made this hike.

hike in the stream to get into the crevice

waterfall inside the crevice

hike to the crevice

 Our next stop was in Dritvik to see crazy rock formations,

 metal debris from shipwrecks,

 and a black stone beach.

 But the highlight, for my husband, was to test his strength with the Viking fisherman rocks.

We ate a picnic lunch in the parking lot after walking around for about an hour.

We briefly stopped and gazed at Kirkjufell (aka. Witches hat mountain), in the fjord called  Grundarfjörður. It is the most photographed mountain in Iceland.  It was a bit hazy, but we managed to get a few good photos of it! If we would have had more time, we could have hiked out to the hat and seen ruins of a Viking Lodge and a church from 1000AD.

We continued on to Stykkisholmur, our stopping point for that night. (all totaled 4.5 hours of driving that day, and plenty of time to sight see).  We ate a picnic dinner outside our hostel.–shared kitchen, shared bathroom.  This is where I discovered I loved shared kitchens.  You cook, your food, but sit at community tables and chat with people from all over the world.

We met 2  young women, 1 from Barcelona and the other Australia It was fun talking about our Iceland journeys. Hostels are really different.  You must take your shoes off at the door and walk around in socks- the floors were super clean, because everyone complied.  You could leave your shoes by the door, as most people did, or take them to your room. The shower area was clean, had private stalls with a curtain so your dry clothes wouldn’t get wet. We stayed in a private room, though they did have dorm rooms available.

After our dinner we hiked up to the hill to the lighthouse and got some incredible pictures.  

 My favorite pics came at the midnight sunset. (bring a blindfold so you can sleep, because the sun never really sets)

 Tuesday, July 26^th- Big day!! get the 9:00 am ferry- (MUST BOOK IN ADVANCE) be there at 8:30 to get the tickets at the harbor check-in office. http://seatours.is/FerryBaldur/ ($112.00 for 2 people and a car) 2.5 hour ferry ride..stops on Flatey Island.  You can get light breakfast at the ferry check-in office, or on board..or just eat a powerbar for breakfast-like we did!

  

Flatey Island

 After the ferry- we drove hwy 62 , to road 612 (scary- but beautiful road) out to the Latrabjarg Bird Cliffs.  This is where we saw our first Puffins. 

 Let me tell you, Road 612 is graded, but barely, our Yaris did well- but it was slow going, on scary (really scary) narrow roads cut into the mountain with no guard rails.

 But in the end it was worth it.  To see Puffins up close, you lay on your belly, near the edge of the cliff and peek over- THEY ARE RIGHT THERE, just looking at you…totally cool.. 

The ride out there from Hwy 62 was 1hr and 15min each way.

We went back to Hwy 62, through the town of Patreksfjorder, picked up hwy 63 to hwy 60.  We stopped to get a picture of the Dynjandi waterfall (well marked sign)

We ended our travel day in Thingeri (which looks like Þingeyri on maps- that weird P is pronounced “th”) We stayed at a hotel  $164 a night includes breakfast. Bathroom down the hall. This place was just okay.  The place was super clean, but the window in our 3^rd floor room was small, so the room was stuffy- we really needed a fan- try to stay on a lower floor.  I would try to find a local room to stay, because it wasn’t worth the price, though the beds were super comfy.

only the tiny side windows open- it was stuffy-

The best part of this harbor town was the restaurant, Simbahöllin. My husband had a fantastic lamb tagine and I had a feta, tomato and basil sandwich on olive bread and a garden salad.  Even if you don’t stay in this town, stop into this restaurant. It has indoor seating, outdoor seating and even inside a bus seating!  We walked around the little town and went to sleep.

_We walked around the little town - took the cool pics below- and went to sleep.

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Wed. July 27^th-   After a nice breakfast we headed out on highway 60 towards Isafjordur and then onto Hwy 61 to Latur or Heydalur- ,neither of them appear on any map- which made me nervous, but when we got to the head of the Mjolfjordur fjord,

 we saw the sign for our hotel, $129, private bathroom, restaurant.  I expected it to be right at the head of the fjord, but it is inland by about a mile. This was one of our favorite places to stay. 

 We checked in got on our swim suits and headed towards the river to find the natural hot pot.  The farm dog was nipping at our feet, as we were trying to find the hot spring- I thought “how annoying”…however- after wading across a frigid stream- we figured out that the dog was trying to “herd” us to the stepping stones which crossed the stream- boy did we feel dumb-we should have listened to the dog..lol. The hot pot (natural hot spring) was amazing.

After soaking for a while, we decided to go back up to the main hotel area and try out the rest of the facilities.  First we soaked in the outdoor man made hot pools.

Then we went inside the greenhouse/ horse tack house/indoor swimming pool. Online, some people said the pool was greenish and a bit slimy- of course it is- it has natural hot water flowing into it- this is NOT a chlorine pool.  We loved the rope swing in the pool and appreciated the fruit trees, flowers and veggies growing inside this oasis- this place was special.

We ate dinner in the restaurant. We decided to try smoked puffin as an appetizer- it was something to try once- it was quite gamey.

  I recommend the trout- it is fresh.  My husband had the lamb stew- it was good as well.  The prices were high- but not out of line.  We enjoyed our meal- service was top notch!  After dinner we went for a hike along the path by the river. We enjoyed watching the farm’s Icelandic horses play in their pasture. 

We liked seeing the small waterfalls along the river.  It was a magical place to stay.

Thursday July 28^th  We were still pretty full from last night’s dinner- so we simply made oatmeal in our room- using their kettle – and the oatmeal and coffee cups I had brought with me. There is breakfast available-but it is not included in the price of the room.

 We hit the road for our drive today.  We were saying good-by to the NW fjords- I am so glad we got off RT 1 and went up there- beautiful- and not too crowded! 

We got back on RT 1 for a few hours and then decided to go up the Vatnsnes Peninsula.  We exited at Road 717.  We stopped at Borgarverki- a cool fortification, dating back to 870AD.  We scrambled around the fort.

 and hiked up to the observation point- gorgeous!

We got in the car and headed further north, getting on Road 711, to get to Hvitserkur – a huge rock formation, that looks like a dinosaur drinking from the Greenland Sea!  We walked the path to see the formation. Then hiked down to the beach to see some Viking ruins

 and get a better view of the dinosaur.

We got back in the car and took road 711 back to Rt.1- because the road was a bit better graded.

Our accommodations for that night were off of Rt1, so we went a bit out of our way to Blonduos to get gas and groceries (we had a kitchen to cook in that night).  After getting what we needed, we headed down Road 731 to   Svinavatn. Our hotel was $119- breakfast included- shared bathroom. This was another take your shoes off place. The room was small- but immaculately clean.  There was a shower room and a very small toilet room to share between 4 rooms.

We loved this place as well.   We enjoyed a (low alcohol) beer (that we had bought at the grocery store) on the breakfast room patio, as we wound down from our day of driving. 

I cooked dinner in the little kitchen. After we ate, we strolled around the property- down to the beautiful lake.  We explored the church and the cemetery that were on the guesthouse property.

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Friday, July 29^th- We got up and walked down to the breakfast room, and had a very nice breakfast,  overlooking the twinkling water of Lake Svinavatn.

We began our drive for the day.  We continued to drive south on Road 731 until we got back on Highway 1. We hit Akureyri around lunch time so we ate at Akureyri  Fish and Chips restaurant (a bit expensive-but super good- we could have shared the portion).  

We went to the Vin Budin – Iceland sanctioned liquor store- I finally could buy some wine!  (I bought a box of Lindemann’s cab..$60, yikes- but I made it last for the rest of the trip-my husband got some real beer and some hard ciders, alcohol is VERY expensive in Iceland, but it is cheaper at the Vin Bodin store than in restaurants. I really love my glass of wine at the end of the day.

We drove around the beautiful town of Akureyri and took a few pictures and continued on our way.

It was raining and pretty cold today on our drive today. We stopped along the way at the Godafoss waterfall.  Be sure to park on the east side of the river near the gift shop –even though signs will direct you to the west side–you get better views of the water fall from the east.

Getting back in the car we continued on to the Lake Myvatn area.  We were fortunate enough to check in early to our accommodations for that evening (for 2 nights)  in the town of Vogar  just a bit south of Reykjahlio $154 a night breakfast included. Private bathroom. When we pulled in, I thought I had made a mistake.  This was a campground.  There were camp vans, tents, cabins, shelters etc, but on the back of the property were guest rooms. 

 The rooms were basic, but very clean and the dining facility in the building next to our room was my  favorite kitchen of the trip.  

 We also had laundry done for us here.  We had not been able to find a laundromat and really didn’t want to waste 2.5 hours of vacation- so we paid $24 for a full load-washed, dried and folded.

We dumped our stuff in the room and headed out to Hverarond Hverir - a volcanic place, with steam vents,

 mud pots and a terrific but fairly strenuous hike.  We were here for about 2 hours.  If you didn’t do the mountain hike- it would be about a 40 minute visit. 

okay, really strenuous!

Then we headed down the lake and got a few pics of the mysterious lake- I had never seen anything lake like this.  The cool volcanic columns and the craters and small cinder cones were spectacular.

We also made a quick stop at Höfði.  This is a beautiful peninsula, that has been cultivated with trees over the last few decades.  The weather was not cooperating-rain, cold and high winds- so we just went to the first scenic overlook.  I wished we could have seen the whole thing.

We returned to the room and cooked dinner.  During dinner we met a very nice German family.  We shared great conversation as we cooked, drank, and looked over maps together.

That evening we drove to the Jardbodin Nature Baths.  It was about $30 to bathe.  It is very similar, but smaller than the Blue Lagoon, with less amenities.  It was cold that night- so we enjoyed our hot water bath!

Saturday July 30^th We ate our included breakfast at 7:00 am and scurried to meet our tour bus that was taking us to The Askja Volcano and The Viti Crater. http://www.myvatntours.is/   $150 pp- bring own food and drink.  This is an all day bus tour on a bus made for the highlands and water crossings.

We stopped along the way to see Viking bad guy hide-outs,

 the place where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin practiced for their lunar mission,

and saw earth carving glacial melt.

We did a few high water crossings and finally arrived at the volcano.  We had to hike in the cold, wind and rain for about 1.5 miles to the volcano- crossing a snow melt field that got your feet wet- this sounds miserable- but it was really exciting! We met a great couple from Montreal along the hike to the volcano.

When we arrived at the volcano the sun peeked out for a bit and we got some good pics.  My husband scrambled down the side of Viti Crater to swim in the kind-of-warm water.  I was too scared to scramble down because I was sure I would fall and be muddy for the ride home.  I SO regret not scrambling down.  My advice to you is to wear your swim suit (a 2 piece works the best) under your clothes that morning- so you could just strip off and swim- and then more easily get back into your dry clothes- there are no privacy huts for changing- and though you are far down- tons of people are watching!

On the bus ride home we stopped at a warming hut to eat our lunch ( a very late lunch- and no eating on the bus) and headed home with a few restroom breaks.  This tour was 11 hours and worth every penny.

We got home, took a hot shower- put our wet clothes and shoes on the fabulous heated towel rack in our bathroom.  Then we headed over to cook and share another dinner with the German family. We were exhausted and turned in early that night.

There are so many things to do in the Myvatn area I wished we had had better weather and wished we had stayed 3 nights.

Sunday July 31^st-  We had another included breakfast this morning and headed from Lake Myvatn to Djupivogur. We stopped on the way out at the Dettifoss waterfall.  Be sure to take the road 862 on the west side of the river NOT Road 864 on the east side.  Road 862 was super improved for tour buses and took only 15 minutes off highway 1. Again the weather was yucky so we didn’t hike down to the lower viewing platform, because we didn’t want to be cold and wet for the rest of the day.

The drive to Djupivogar was very scenic.

 We went road 92 to  when we hit the town of Egilsstadir and then continued onto road 96, which merges again with Highway 1, so we could wind down through the fjords. 

 We stayed  at a guesthouse $106, shared bathroom- shared kitchen- no breakfast. . The address was Djupivogar, but the place was actually at the head of the Berufjordur  fjord before you get to the town of Djupi. We almost drove right past it, but thank goodness, I noticed their farm sign on the highway. 

We ended up in a small 2 bedroom apartment attached to the barn. (If I were to stay here again I would have paid extra for the cute cedar style cabins) We had to share the small apartment with 1 bathroom and a small kitchen with another family of 3- thank goodness they were nice.  I think this apartment would be better rented to just one large family. HOWEVER, we loved this place.  I KNOW we loved it, because the daughter Elizabeth- age 18, took us on a tour of the farm, introduced us to her new puppies and told us all about farm life- sheep round-up and growing up in Iceland. It was fascinating.  

We cooked dinner in the small kitchen,

 then hiked down to the water’s edge and collected unusual rocks and just enjoyed the scenery.

 It was a magical stay.*if you can’t find a place to stay- there were several nice places in the cute town of Djupivogar-they may not be on booking.com. 

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Monday, August 1 Our drive today was going to take us past some amazing sights. We had so many opportunities to get out of the car.

giant red chair attached to a rock

 I was very excited. Our first stop was the Jokularson Iceberg Lagoon.  This was fantastic.  I didn’t book a zodiac boat ahead of time- because I didn’t want to spend the money if the weather was bad. I was glad we didn’t. The weather was off and on rain again. So we ate a picnic lunch in the car until it cleared and walked the shoreline to gaze at the ice bergs. 

 We even saw one calf right off (this hammer formation- gave way as we watched!)

They had an amphibious boat tour that looked fun, but I overheard people say it was too short for the expense.  I heard better reviews from the zodiac tours which went further back into the iceberg lagoon, but were even more expensive.  Had the day been nice- I would have liked to have gone on a zodiac boat tour.

My favorite part was watching the icebergs go out of the lagoon towards the ocean as the tide went out- but then get sucked back into the lagoon as the tide came in.

Then on a glacier kick, we stopped at Svinafellsjokull, for a wonderful cliff side hike- to see a glacier up close.

Next stop was Skaftafell National Park-  we went to the visitors center had a nice cold Einstok beer and enjoyed the view from the cafeteria

.  Once fortified we headed out for our hike to Svartifoss, a basalt column waterfall.  The hike was almost all uphill- but they had it graded well with metal grates so it wasn’t slippery.  The water fall route was about 3 miles or so round trip- well worth the effort.

We drove a bit after this to get to our least favorite hotel - Fosshotel, Nupar in Kálfafell 

 This was such a souless hotel, a chain hotel, I would not stay here again.

 After staying at so many charming family run places ,this place was so box-like. I should have done my homework better and found a farm house stay- we saw a few the next day and a few guest homes in Kirkjubaejarklauster a few miles down the road.

With that being said, the breakfast was good- the lighting in the room was good and the staff was nice- it was just expensive and geared to the tour bus crowd.

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Tuesday Aug 2^nd-We headed out of the soulless Foss Hotel and had many beautiful places to stop. Our first stop were the beaches east of Vik – take road 215.  Stop and see the cute church and cemetery and then head onto the black sand beach, the hexagonal rock cliffs and the cool in ocean rock formations.

Then we climbed back into the car went back to the highway and then got back off at road 218 to get out at Dryholaey.  We saw some amazing rock arches and beautiful scenery- I am so glad the sun was in our favor this day.

Our next stop was a place I had found online.  It was an old hot spring pool that you had to hike to called Seljavellir.  So we found the parking near an abandoned pool, changed into our swim suits in the car and hiked 20 minutes to a pool set in a valley. 

 As we were swimming, the great couple from Montreal, we met at the Askja volcano tour, appeared- so we all swam together.  Warning>the changing huts at this pool were co-ed. But the view cancels out the shyness.

I really could have used a shower after the hot spring swim, but we had to press on to the town of Selfoss to get groceries.  Then we headed up to our accommodations for the next THREE nights,

 in the town of Laugarvatn -$129 a night- shared bathroom- pay for breakfast.- shared kitchen, restaurant and bar.  

We were assigned room 13 (this was the third time we were given room 13 on this trip- lol)  But room 13 was great and had a wonderful view.

 We LOVED this place.  The décor and the vibe was perfect.  It was another take your shoes off place- but they provided a bucket of slippers for your use.  We showered, cooked and ate dinner down in the basement kitchen and mellowed out for the evening.

you must leave your shoes by the door

dining room

third floor landing

Wednesday Aug 3^rd –today we had to rise early and get to Selfoss to meet our tour guide, Börkur Hrólfsson- a real Viking pagan descendant.  We found him on facebook, trip advisor, and tourguide.is.. It is expensive to get a guide for a full day.  For this whole vacation we had rented a regular car rather than a 4X4, (and we never really needed the 4X4, so with the money we saved, we got a guide to take us into the highlands. The cost was $750 usd for 11 hours.  I don’t know if he spends 11 hours with all his clients, but we were having such a great time- the hours flew by. I am so glad we got a guide.

Borkur took us to places that were on maps like the Viking Village- but then we got to hear all the lore of the place- like how these men sealed the deal- not with a handshake, but rather by going to a room and “shitting” together.  These stories are why you get a guide.

Borkur drove us to hidden seep waterfalls- (he took the terrible roads to get there, so tourists in 4x4’s wouldn’t follow him)

We saw the wedding falls (where two become one)

We saw the Pope – his legs are still in the mountain kicking causing earthquakes

And unbelievable scenery

glacial melt mixing with water that has been filtered by the earth.

We saw pumice being mined for building purposes at the base of Mt Hekla

We hiked in Landmannalauger among the rhyolite hills with volcanic boulders.

Our day was spectacular, and we didn’t have to worry about high water crossings , an unforgiving landscape, a flat tire, or getting stranded in the middle of nowhere.

We grabbed dinner in the town of Selfoss,  at Menam Thai restaurant recommended by our guide.  It was delicious!  We drove back to our hostel went to sleep.

Thursday Aug. 4^th- we slept in today- and lazed about until 10 am.  We made breakfast in the basement kitchen and went on our way to Strokkur Geysir  and Gulfoss waterfall.  We had visited both of these 14 years ago.  They were out in the middle of nowhere then.  Now there is a total tourist infrastructure there- bathrooms, hotels, gas stations, gift shops and restaurants.  There were so many people, maybe too many people.  But the Strokkur Geysir 

and further down the street, Gulfoss are so worth seeing. Kind of like Yosemite in California.

We returned to our hostel, made some lunch and then headed out to do a midnight sun snorkel between the continental rift (Eurasia plate and North American plate).  We booked this months ahead of time due to its popularity.  $128pp.

 We were glad we did this, but I will say if the sun is not out, I think this would have been just an okay outing.  But we had perfect “sun” at 8:30 pm.  The water was truly prismatic.  We ended up buying the guides photos which were sent to us online at a cost of $30.  The pics were great.  So if you book this cross your fingers for good weather.

We returned to our hostel and ate dinner in the dining room. My husband went with reindeer meatball pizza, and I had the less adventuresome cheese pizza and salad.  (we could have split one pizza and shared the salad- but leftover  pizza made a great lunch the next day-lol)  We had a few beers and hung out chatting with a group of German cyclists.  It was a fun evening.

We meant to swim in the famous Fontana Hot springs ($26 admission) next to the hostel, but time prevented this from happening (you can’t do everything.

Friday Aug 5^th – we hadn’t planned anything in advance for this day. So we decided to head back to Thingvellir National Park.  We toured the old Parliament houses and the cemetery.

Then we headed towards our airport hotel with time to spare, so we decided to drive out to Reykjanes peninsula south of the airport. First we came across Krysuvik-Sultan geothermal area
  on road 42 (east of Grindavik) This was a pretty popular place with a very nice hike.

As we were driving through the fish warehouses near Gridavik , we happened upon Hopsnes. It  is a spit of lava land between Cove Hraunsvik and Cove Jarngerdarstadavik close to Grindavik. East of it is the spit of land called Thorkotlustadanes. Many ships have stranded at Hopsnes and can be seen from the road. ... Hopsnes has an orange lighthouse.  We were actually threading our way through Grindivik to see this lighthouse-

 but we had no idea that we would find a cool area with army bunkers and sunken ship skeletons and explanation signs  (some in English) to help you understand what you are seeing.  The road through here is super narrow- so use caution while driving and looking.

On road 425 south of Hafnir, is Leif the Lucky’s continental divide bridge. We stopped for the obligatory holding the bridge pose.  It was fun!  Even though we did not plan this day there was plenty to do near the airport.

We turned in our rental car at the hotel we spent our last night in. (convenient)   Airport hotel-  $133  private bath and breakfast included. It was utilitarian.  The beds were hard, but the room was big. It was an old army barracks. But breakfast started at 4:30 am and there was free airport shuttle every half hour, so they were catering to the “leaving Iceland” crowd.

I loved Iceland.

 My  parting words..... you will read a lot about N1 gas station hot dogs- they were  not that great, good, but not great! However, sometimes you find yourself in such a remote area that there are no cafes, in that case, an Icelandic hot dog is a good thing.
 Happy Travels