Iceland

Trip date: May 27 - June 5, 2011

This trip to Iceland was planned for last August, as a combined trip to Iceland and Greenland (North of the Arctic circle!). But due to some family reasons we had to postpone it. The airline forced us to use the tickets within 10 months, so end of May it was. Almost wasn't, as a couple of days before our departure one of their volcanoes started acting out again. But all was well by the time we departed.

Turns out, in May there is only one flight per week to Greenland, so we ended up staying the entire time in Iceland.

I will describe below day by day what we did, but first a couple of general notes. Icelandic people are so nice! Very courteous. Haven't heard one single honking during the time we were there. Or maybe that just seems special because we live in Paris? And everyone speaks very good English.

One can pay with a credit card for EVERYTHING.  I have never been in a country before where it was so easy to get by without cash. We got a bit of Icelandic money at the beginning, just in case, and at the end we had to spend it just to get rid of it.

I have read that the restaurants in Reykjavik improved considerably over the past 20 years. I personally wasn't terribly impressed by the food, but then again, I do live in Paris right now, so the comparison is not really fair. I was going to try whale meat and puffin meat, and those sorts of things, but an article in a local paper titled "Whale watching tourists eat whales" guilted me out of it. So this was one of those few trips when I haven't tried any bizarre local specialty.

Here is how it was, day by day:

Day 1:

We land at Keflavik airport and take a taxi to the hotel in Reykjavik (taxis are expensive in Iceland!). The ride takes about 40 minutes and is not the most exciting, as it goes through some monotonous lava fields of the Reykjanes peninsula. There is an intriguing statue in front of the airport, which, according to our taxi driver, is a baby Concorde (the plane not the bird) hatching from an egg. There is also a statue of a rainbow not far.

Hello baby Concorde

The not so exciting landscape of the Reykjanes peninsula

We stay at the Hilton Reykjavik Nordica, which is out of the center. But considering that the town itself is much less interesting then the surrounding countryside this is not really an issue. And our room has a beautiful view of the mountaneous Snafellnes peninsula. We also discover how important it is to have really dark curtains. It's only end of May, isn't the sun supposed to go down in May? If you have seen the Al Pacino movie Insomnia you know what I am talking about.

View from the hotel

Day 2:

A visit to the emergency room. Not exactly planned, but turns out that my husband has an undiagnosed fractured rib, which starts hurting him as soon as we land in Iceland. The emergency room is clean and efficient,  doctors and nurses seem competent, and everyone speaks English, so it goes as smoothly as possible.

With the help of prescription pain medication, we are able to continue in our program as planned.

We spend the afternoon sightseeing in Reykjavik.  The travel book says that comparison with other European capitals is unfair, and it is right. Reykjavik has a small town feel. It mostly reminds me of Banff in Canada, pretty  for a stroll, but no real "sights". Unless you count all the crazily-dressed youngsters hanging around town all week, beer cans in hand (graduation week?).

The most interesting thing to see is probably the Hallgrimskirkja, a modern and bit bizarre looking church (hard to decide whether its beautiful or ugly). It's worth taking the elevator to the top for the view. Its fun to stroll on the 2 main commercial streets and look at all the souvenir shops as well. Our daughter's favorite is the feeding of waterfowl at the Tjornin pond, and we return there a couple of times during our stay with packs of bread stashed away from breakfast.

Hallgrimskirkja, ugly or beautiful?

View of Reykjavik from tower of Hallgrimskirkja

Puffin love

Then dinner with some friends who by coincidence are also in Reykjavik, and we call it a night.

Day 3:

Normally we try to alternate driving days with non-driving days, but car rental is so expensive in Iceland that we decide to group things together. We rent the cheapest (and smallest) car and set out to one of Iceland's biggest attractions, the Blue Lagoon, some 50 km from Reykjavik.

If you have seen pictures from Iceland with people sitting in steaming water, mud on their faces, there is a good chance that the picture is from the Blue Lagoon. It has a strange history, as it is not really the natural wonder you would imagine. Iceland has a number of geothermal power plants (I think more than 90 % of their energy is "clean"), and the Blue Lagoon is the runoff water from one of these plants (and yes, apparently it was named after the Brooke Shields movie). Somehow they discovered that the minerals in it are very beneficial to the skin, so they built facilities next to it and now, thanks at least partly to a brilliant marketing campaign (they can take you there from the airport and watch your luggage while you bathe) taking a dip in this "industrial waste" became one of the greatest things to do in Iceland.

And I can assure you, it is great. The type of great that we don't want to leave and definitely want to come back. We are basically soaking in a huge, steaming, warm (in some places hot) pool with a lot of other people (but it never feels crowded), while smudging white silica mud on our face. It's a wonderful feeling, especially because the air around us is cold (it was only 10 C when we were there). If we want to make it even more special, we can sip champagne or enjoy an ice cream pop right in the water. And yes, the skin feels wonderful afterwards. On the other hand, the water is terrible for the hair, it makes it incredibly hard and completely crazy (something like in the movie There Is Something About Mary).

The only let down about the Blue Lagoon is that when we are in it it doesn't look blue at all, but rather milky white. Luckily, after bathing, we still have the energy to climb to the rooftop lookout terrace. From there the water does look blue and we take some nice pictures.

Blue Lagoon with power plant in background

Day 4:

We drive the Golden Circle, which is neither golden nor a circle, but is definitely worth seeing, as it includes three of Iceland's major attractions (did nature know that tourists want to see everything in 24 hours?).

First stop is Pingvellir, the site of Iceland's first parliament and now a UNESCO World Heritage site. It's significance comes from the fact that Iceland's parliament (The Alpig) is considered to be the world's oldest continuously operating parliamentary institution. There is not much to see in Pingvellir as far as the parliament is concerned, and even the few things to see are so poorly marked that we can't really find them. But the natural beauty of the place makes up for it. It is a really beautiful place to just have a leisurely stroll, and worth stopping just for that.

Pingvellir

Pingvellir

Pingvellir

Next stop is Geysir, the original geyser for which all other geysers were named. It's dead now (or at least comatose), luckily Strokkur next door is active and spouts quite high every couple of minutes. Its a lot of fun to watch and we have to drag our daughter away.

Strokkur quiet

Strokkur spouting

We continue on to Gullfoss, an absolutely breathtaking formation of waterfalls, with almost permanent rainbows hanging over them. Beautiful!

Gullfoss with rainbow

Gullfoss

We drive back to Reykjavik on a different road (hence the "circle") and on the way stop at a church at Skalholt. This sight has some sort of historic significance for Icelanders, but at this point we are too tired to appreciate any of it.

Skalholt

Day 5:

We return the car and switch to some activities which include hotel pickup/drop-off, like whale-watching. It is quite cold on the boat, but I decide I don't need the warm overalls they offer for free (that turns out to be a mistake). We spot about 4-5 minke whales, each of them many times, so we are happy. We also see some sort of porpoise (looks like a small dolphin) so it is a successfull trip.  We don't even try to take pictures, they are always gone in a flash. From mid-May the whale watching tours also include a stop at the puffin nesting islands, but there are only a few puffins when we are there, so that part is a bit of a let down.

A whale watching boat in Reykjavik's harbor

Day 6:

Another activity for which no car is needed: horseback riding. Icelandic horses are apparently calm and nice and not too tall, which makes them perfect for beginners. So here I come, a complete beginner, never sat on a horse in my life. They seem a bit worried when they see my seven year old daughter (all others are adults), and they give her the calmest horse. I think I should have the calmest horse. My daughter has been riding regularly for two years now. They take pity on me and give me a horse who is a "real sweetheart". Real sweetheart is lazy, walks very slowly, so I am always way behind everyone else. What's worse, I have to trot often to catch up, bumpy, bumpy, bumpy....walking and sitting becomes an issue for a couple of days.

But the scenery is beautiful, we cross meadows and streams, and if I wouldn't be worried about falling off the horse I would say it is a very relaxing ride.

The advantage of constantly falling behind is that I get the undivided attention of one of the staff who is supposed to make sure that no one is left behind. She explains to me a number of interesting things about Icelandic horses. For example that all horses in Iceland are Icelandic horses. Apparently they do not vaccinate their horses, so import of horses is prohibited. In fact, Icelandic horses who leave the country are never allowed to return. Also, many Icelandic horses have an additional "speed setting", a bizarre trot (called pace?) which can be faster than galloping. I am glad real sweetheart has only two speeds, really slow walk and a little faster trot.

A beautiful ride

We finish the day with the trip's fanciest dinner, at the Pearl (Perlan). To continue with the theme of making power company facilities tourist attractions, Icelanders decided to turn five giant water containers (supplying Reykjavik's geothermally heated water) into a beautiful building (the name Pearl is fitting) by sticking a glass dome on top of it. At the top there is a revolving restaurant which makes a full turn every 2 hours.

The Pearl (not a very good picture, taken from a moving car)

View from the Pearl

Day 7:

This time we rent a solid 4x4, as we plan to do some dirt road driving.

We drive to the beautiful Southern shore. The first third of the drive is not terribly exciting, just some regular farmland. But we do drive through some geothermally active region, where steam is rising from the ground at seemingly random spots.

Steaming ground

Once we get to the South shore the scenery is absolutely magnificent. We take our first detour to see one of the biggest tourist attractions of the region, the Seljalandfoss waterfall. We walk behind the waterfall and its quite slippery (it was worth lugging my hiking boots just for that one walk).

Seljalandfoss waterfall - front view

Seljalandfoss waterfall - back view

Most tourists turn back to the main road after this waterfall, but we drive on toward the national park of Porsmork. The road becomes a dirt road and the drive becomes fun. The scenery is absolutely beautiful, and we have to cross a whole lot of rivers and streams on our way. I have to admit, I get cold feet after the first crossing and want to turn back. There are rules about never crossing without other cars around. My husband and daughter are visibly disappointed but are nice enough to accept that I am a chicken, and turn back. Luckily other cars come, we continue, and it ends up being one of the funnest things we did in Iceland. After a while we do turn back because we don't have time to go all the way to Porsmork, but this detour was definitely worth it.

A car crossing one of the small rivers

On the way to Porsmork

On the way to Porsmork

Once back to civilization, we drive on to Vik on the South coast. On the way we stop to say hello to the Eyjafjallajokull volcano (as in "hello, you cancelled our vacation last year"). We can still see huge amounts of ash on the ground, even though the area is in better shape than I expected.

Hello Eyjafjallajokull

The South coast

The South coast

The South coast

The South coast

The South coast

Vik is not very exciting, we just have lunch there, then drive a couple more kilometers past Vik. I read that there is a black sand desert so we want to take a look, The desert itself is not much to look at, but the mountains in the background are magnificent, so it wasn't a waste of time after all.

Vik

Scenery past Vik

Scenery past Vik

On the way back we stop at Skogar, which reportedly has the best folk museum in Iceland. We ignore the museum (we have nothing against museums, nature just seems to be so much more interesting in a country like Iceland). We visit the beautiful Skogafoss waterfall where two interesting things happen: 1. the wind changes so suddenly that my husband gets completely soaked; 2. we run into a family from my daughter's school in Paris.

Skogafoss waterfall

Skogar

Cherry on top of the day: the Icelandic national football team is staying in our hotel.

Day 8:

The plan is to do another long drive to the beautiful Snafellnes peninsula. But we decide to give the fractured rib some rest, and return to the Blue Lagoon (yes, you really do want to go back). Taking advantage of our 4x4, this time we take the scenic road.

We decide to cut through the middle of the Reykjanes peninsula on a dirt road passable only by 4x4-s. After the boring ride from the airport we don't expect much of this peninsula, but are we wrong! The drive is amazing! So much fun on the dirt road, surrounded by beautiful scenery.

Route 428

Route 428 scenery

Route 428 scenery

We have audience

Route 428

Once back to the civilized road we pass the town of Grindavik, which is preparing for some kind of maritime festival. Decorations consist mostly of orange donut shaped things. I wonder why?

After another wonderful day at the Blue Lagoon we take another scenic road back to Reykjavik, road 42. While it is a road more traveled (and in better shape) than road 428, the scenery is perhaps even more beautiful. We conclude that the Reykjanes peninsula is underrated.

We are staring at them, they are staring at us

Route 42 scenery

Route 42 scenery

Cherry on top of the day: we can watch the Iceland-Denmark match on TV while looking at the stadium from our hotel window (Iceland lost 0:2).

Day 9:

A lazy day in Reykjavik. We say good by to the seagulls on Tjornin pond. Have lunch in our "usual place" (a little embarrassed to admit, it's called Cafe Paris). Watch a bunch of old Cadillac-s parade by.

Day 10:

This is the first hotel I ever stayed in where they start serving breakfast at 4:30 am! Then off to the airport.

Cherry on top of the last day: the plane at the gate next to ours is Iron Maiden's tour plane.

Can an airplane get any cooler?