Day 1 in Iceland, starts in Reykjavik. Thank god for predictive spelling as it gets mighty annoying keep having to spell this place!
So we arrive in Iceland, just a 3 hour flight away but a place that feels like a million miles from anywhere, on the edge of the Arctic Circle. After queuing at the taxi rank, we realised our transfer was actually waiting for us and we were the last ones they were expecting. Yes, we were THOSE people. Evidently we are not used to having a transfer.
As Iceland is an active volcanic island, the landscape has a very 'lunar' feel to it with a lot of black sand/stone with faded bleached grass and, in parts, it looks pretty bleak, despite its beauty. There are also very few trees, bushes and, with the amount of snow around, this adds to the bleakness.
Iceland itself is pretty small. In total it has a population of 300k which is about the same size as Coventry with 200k living in Reykjavik which means the rest of the country is pretty sparsely populated.
First stop, check in at the Grand Hotel, which is nice enough but a classic "tour group" stop over place about a 30min walk from the centre of town. We dump our stuff and go and see what Reykjavik has to offer.
Need a better picture of this but the main landmark is this huge church in the middle of town which is the equivalent of a church sky scraper and seems to be the tallest building in the city.
After a walk up and down the high street we can pretty much tick off seeing all of Reykjavik. There really isn't too much to it but there are a LOT of good bars. We hear the night life is supposed to be pretty good here with Icelanders hitting this high street on Thurs-Sat like an 18 year old Brummy hits Broad Street on the first Saturday after pay day! Needless to say there is heavy boozing.
We stop for lunch in the lovely little French bistro innovatively called Le Bistro. A beef stroganoff later and we head to what I think is a bar with a Bowling Alley (to me utter delight) in but turns out to be an amazing Big Lebowski themed bar. Loved this place and what made it even more perfect was that it had the Liverpool vs Man Utd game on for me and free wifi for Nat to keep her happy during the game.
Not a picture the wrong way around (the style perfected so well by Eric) but a cool wall art display along the side of the bar.
The Dude and Walter. "That's what you get when you....." (For those that know the film!!). Cool gents cubicles.
Very unusual scaffholding. Not like the metal stuff we have at home.
We have a wander around Reykjavik which takes about 15 mins end to end. The architecture isn't the greatest with most of the buildings having a modular style in big ugly blocks.
After a few drinks we head back to the hotel. The weather is so changeable and transient. We have had varying degrees of sun, rain, snow and wind and have only been here a few hours. After a monumental snow shower where about 2 cms landed in 10 mins the sky clears again and it is beautiful again.
After a little power nap at the hotel we head back out into town for dinner. What surprised us was that after our nap when we woke up it was still light. I was expecting it to get dark really early here (a lot earlier than the UK which is getting dark at around 6:30pm now). Whilst it does get dark very early here in winter we are at the time of year where it is rapidly getting lighter. It finally gets dark at about 8pm - 1.5 hours after the UK. Typically in mid winter it gets light at 11:30am and dark at 3:30pm. In contrast in summer they often get 'midnight sun' with it 'rising' again at 3am. No wonder Icelanders typically only go out at about 1pm.
First stop is the cool American Bar in town which to my delight has el Classico on! Result! Everywhere is set up brilliant to watch sport here.
Funny sign on the toilet.
After a few craft beers (the Einstock and the Classic being out faves') we head to dinner at a place called Fish Company. Dinner is absolutely gorgeous - a gastronomical delight.
http://fishcompany.is/English/About_Fish Company
We have sushi and tuna to start followed by three types of fish for Nat and the pork belly and char for me. Absolutely delicious - or suculento as they say in Spain ;-)
After, we go to a cool bar called Kaffibarinn which randomly had a tube sign outside it.
Day 2 and we are on the road to start our tour. We get picked up at 9am and manage to grab the best seats on the coach - front row above the driver. Maybe there are benefits to being early at times!!
It's a beautiful day which is lucky as the weather has apparently been awful since last November. The sun is blinding though and we are struggling to see anything without our sunglasses.
We set off on route 1 towards the South coast where we will travel for about 300km today into the middle of nowhere. This road is literally the ring road that goes around the whole island and in many parts is the only road connecting large parts of the island. As we set off there are many parts where, due to the snow, you can't see much of the road...
First stop of the day is a waterfall called Selijalandsfoss (yes I had to look up this name!). We hop off the bus and brace the absolutely Baltic winds to take a look. Within 5 mins we are freezing!!
It's so cold I can hardly see - my eyes are streaming.
I cross the little bridge and attempt to climb the 'stairs of certain death' to get a better view of the waterfall. These stairs were so treacherous with thick black ice you could barely stand on them. The spray of the waterfall constantly blows water over them which, after 4-5 months of winter leaves the place more slippery than an ice rink.
To take this pic I had each shoe wedged either side of the steps for stability, gripping onto the freezing railing with no gloves on!!
The thick ice... Needless to say this was as far as I went. Almost a comical hole in the fence there ready for people to slip over and off the cliff.
Time to get back on the bus and thaw out. Next stop is a brief picture opportunity of the big volcano, the memorably named Eyjafjallajokull. This is the fella that erupted in 2010 creating that huge ash cloud across Europe that grounded all the flights. Who would have thought this relatively little thing could cause so much trouble?
A picture of it erupting.
And the exact picture without eruption!
Next up another waterfall called Skogafoss, which beats the last one both in terms of beauty and coldness.
It was a gorgeous setting, helped by the beautiful blue sky and sunshine that created a really strong rainbow.
Finally managed to find that pot of gold at the end of a rainbow....
Next it was time for the trek to the top. Boy was is cold up there! Piercing wind that went straight through you no matter how many layers you had on.
Few quick photos before we froze to death.
Then onto our next stop, the black beaches of the south coast. We head to Reynisfjara beach which has some very picturesque basalt columns and interesting rock formations.
Spot the Bean.
The waves were huge and a bit unpredictable which one unfortunate guy on our tour learned the hard way. A huge wave came up the beach as he had his back to it taking a picture, he then saw it and quickly turned around to face it only to realise he needed to be facing the other way to get away from it. A little spin later his legs tangle like Bambi and he was on the floor just as the ice cold water rushed over him covering him head to toe. It was absolutely hilarious and even more so as he had plenty of time to get out the way.
Back on the bus to a small town of 300 people called Vik. Nice view over lunch sat in the gorgeous sunshine (luckily in a sun trap!). Lunch was poor though. There is not much on offer out in these places so we end up in some kind of service station canteen. The served beer though so every cloud and all that!
More gorgeous scenery. Getting pretty warm now that the wind had died down.
Quick stop to see acres and acres of lava flows...
That night we are staying quite literally in the middle of nowhere in a place called the Foss Hotel in Nupar. The focus is now all about the Northern Lights and given the conditions and clear skies it was looking good and our hopes and anticipation were building. We even checked the aurora forecast which predicted a 4 out of 9 for tonight so looking hopeful.
Our hotel is known by the locals as Guantanamo Bay and to be fair the rooms and food pretty much support this description. Looks quite cool though.
As the sun sets it is looking good still. It ideally needs to be pitch black to see them best so the best time is around midnight when the moon has also disappeared below the horizon.
It is absolutely freezing tonight so we are continuously darting in and outside to check if the lights are forming and if not heading back in to warm up and for some vino!! Luckily we stocked up at the airport with some nice wine (one of the places we visited in Mendoza).
Luckily for us we did get a few good glimpses of them. They are so fleeting and can form and disappear really quickly just like clouds evaporating. We see some good ones just as the sun is setting but our next spot isn't until about midnight just as we were about to call it a night. Well worth waiting up though. We managed to track down the pictures from one of the guys with a really professional camera and tripod and they turned out amazingly.
Our little toom on the end...
To the eye they weren't quite as strong as we would have hoped and we fast realise that what you see them like you do on the photos. A lot of camera trickery going on with advanced cameras that accentuate the light and colours beyond what the naked eye can see. These pictures picked them up amazingly but when we looked up couldn't see them anywhere near as strong. There were however three arcs across the sky with vertical plumes shooting up. They were green tonight which means the particles in the atmosphere are positively charged (as opposed to negatively which creates the purple colours). All in all a satisfactory experience. Northern lights tick.
I must find the pics from the guys website to add them here.
Day 3 and we are up an out at 9am to a gorgeous day again. Not a cloud in the sky to start with.
Despite the substandard food in the hotel at least they do the BEST breakfast pudding - Bourbons and Custard Creams. Breakfast of kings!!
Today we are visiting glaciers and lagoons or more accurately Europe's largest glacier called Jokulsarlon. First stop is to see get some shots of how the glacier has moved down through the mountains, carving its way through and out onto the flat planes below. Amazingly glaciers can move as much as 100 meters per year which breaks down to roughly 2 meters per week - pretty amazing. You could almost see it moving!
We then head to the glacial lagoon where we see lots of icebergs breaking off and floating their way to the ocean.
They can move pretty quick!
We take a walk down to the ocean where the waves often wash the icebergs back onto the beach which leaves the beach peppered with big blocks of ice.
To give the picture above perspective here is me standing next to it!
My new friend. I do actually have my hand resting on the ice and am not just doing an "I'm a little tea pot" impression.
Looking back over the lagoon.
After a spot of lunch at another crappy service station type place we head off the beaten track, up to the actual glacier for an explore.
The glacier is amazing - such an interesting and beautiful place.
Should have brought my ice skates with this lake...
This picture doesn't do justice to just how big these blocks of ice are. They are literally 40-50ft high.
As we sit there and listen to it you can literally hear it moving. It creaks and cracks and there is always little bits of rock and snow falling down through one of the crevasses to the streams running through it below. Pretty epic.
The most ridiculous name of a tourist centre I have ever seen...
After we head to the other glacier the other side of the mountain. We have a nice 25 min walk to it but it isn't as impressive as the first one. We don't get as close to it so it lacks some of the perspective.
Back on the road - there are lots of long, narrow bridges across the wide and desolate flood plane. Apparently the volcano often has some activity under the glacier on top which causes huge floods that often takes out the bridge (unlucky for the people who live here which means they have to travel the long way around the 'ring road' to get back to Reykjavik).
By the time we get back it is completely overcast so we have no chance of seeing the Northern Lights. Boo!! Average dinner and some nice wine (that we brought with us) and a few games of card later and we call it a night.
Day 4 - last day of the tour and we wake up to torrential rain that doesn't stop all morning. Luckily we have a 3 hour coach journey to get back across towards the Golden Circle.
Our first stop today is the "secret" lagoon (not the blue lagoon that everyone goes to) which is a natural geothermal spa. Time to get our trunks on!! The place we go to is called Gamla Laugin and it is absolutely wonderful. Our luck with the weather also continues as the rain turns into the most wonderful snow just as we arrive which adds to the magic when we are in the gorgeous natural pool.
The water literally bubbling up to boil like a kettle then trickling down into the pool for our enjoyment. It is so warm - almost too warm!
Sheer bliss - especially as we grab a few beers from the bar to enjoy in there. A fantastic experience and we literally had it to ourselves.
Back on the coach as the snow continues to fall.
Next stop is Geyser on the Golden Circle. This place is weird. It looks like there has been a massive bush fire as all the fields are steaming from the hot water bubbling up and trickling through the little streams that have formed.
The sulphur smell really stinks though.
You can see it literally bubbling away.
Then we make our way to the big Geyser in Geyser called Strokkur. This is one that erupts every 6-7 mins and reaches 50-60ft in the air. It is pretty impressive to see. We get massively caught out by the first one as the wind takes the spray and absolutely covers us in water. It was like a log flume!
I didn't get any pics on this phone as was focusing on my big camera but this is what it looks like...
After a spot of lunch in a nice restaurant for a change (back on the tourist track now so the facilities are a bit better!) we head to one of Icelands most impressive waterfalls called Gullfoss.
They were not lying either. This was one of the weirdest and most wonderful waterfalls I have seen. It was like the earth just opened up and the water drops down between the tectonic plates.
Weather luck continues as it starts to really clear up once we arrive.
The best view of it...
The top bit of the waterfall.
The final stop on this wonderful tour is a big viewing platform on the top of a mountain called Gestastofa which provided great views.
And finally the short road home back to Reykjavik, back through the snow.
After a short turn around back at the Grand Hotel we decide to get a taxi to Icelands main land mark - a cool looking church called Hallgrimskirkja.
It actually isn't as tall as I originally thought but is set on top of the hill at the pinnacle of Reykjavik which makes it look bigger than it is and helps it dominate the sky line.
It's God's very own Chrysler building
After we walk down into town for a bit of a pub crawl before dinner.
We hit two cool bars (Dillons Whisky Bar) and Bunk Bar as well as one not so cool one before heading to dinner.
We head for dinner at the amazing Grill Market where we treat ourselves to the 8 course tasting menu - highly recommend it and we even got to taste whale which was pretty good.
http://m.grillmarkadurinn.is/en/
All in all a great way to end a fantastic trip. Highly recommend Iceland. It's an awesome place and like nothing I have seen before.
