After a short flight from Karup and a 5 hour layover in Copenhagen we flew to Reykjavik, Iceland for the last leg of our trip before we return home. We arrived at our hotel and met our friend Kim, who is traveling through Iceland with us. We didn't do much that first night except go out for dinner, have a couple of beers and take a bit of a walk. We were a little sad to see snow and cold windy weather but I guess that is what you get when you go to Iceland.
The next morning we got up early and went for a walk around the downtown and checked out some of the historic buildings. We stopped at a tourist information booth and decided to go to the Perlan. This is a building built around some geothermal storage tanks that overlook Reykjavik. At the top of the building there is a dome and observation deck which both give some amazing 360 degree views of the city. One of the storage tanks has been converted into the Saga Museum which has a number of displays with lifelike wax figures depicting important events from Iceland's history. It was actually pretty cool. After having some lunch at the cafe in the dome we headed back downtown to go to the Reykjavik Photography Museum. To finish the day off we went down to the harbour and checked out a a souvenir shop, stopped for a coffee and then went for a fantastic fish and chip dinner. We came back to our hotel and made some plans for the rest of the week before going to bed.
After breakfast the following morning somebody came to pick us up and took us to the rental car office. We got everything sorted out and headed northeast out of town in our red Suzuki Swift. Our first stop was at Lake Thinvellir (spelled a little different but don't have that character on this keyboard) which is located at the tectonic plates of North America and Eurasia. We went for a bit of a walk and got to feel very Canadian...we helped push someone who was stuck in the snow. Stopped and saw an old church and the original parliament which is supposedly the oldest in the world. We got on the road again and the weather started getting nasty. We made it to our farm stay without any issues despite the blizzard conditions. We were going to go out and find a place to eat but the weather didn't let up. We ended up staying at the farm, sat in the hot pot (tub) and drank beer, ate our snacks we bought at the gas station for supper, and played cards. We didn't realize it, but the following morning, the woman at our farm stay told us that the weather had cleared in the evening and the northern lights were rather impressive...and we missed it!
The following morning the weather had improved and we headed towards Gullfoss and Geysir. Gullfoss is an amazing waterfall that plummets into one of the many rifts in the earth that are found in this area. It was a little cold but we got some blue skies and an amazing view of the waterfall. Next stop was Geysir which is a geothermal area with, as the name would suggest, some geysers. We didn't get to see the big one go off as it only does two or three times a day, but did get to see the smaller one blow a couple of times. We continued on, stopping to see the old church in Skalholt and a couple of impressive waterfalls, Selljalandfoss and Skogafoss. On the way, we also passed the volcano that erupted here last year, Eyjafjallajokal, but it didn't look much like a volcano to us. We still had some daylight so we decided to go see the rock bridge at the ocean, Dryholaey, but ran into another blizzard and didn't end up seeing much. That night we ate dinner at our farm stay and had a wonderful meal with broccoli soup, haddock, salad and potatoes.
The next day we had a fair bit of driving and continued east. We had to fill up with gas and it cost almost $75 for half a tank in that little car...I guess we should've rented horses. We made it to our furthest point east, Jokulsarlon, and were treated to a truly spectacular sight. This is a lagoon that is filled with icebergs that have broken off the Breidamerkerjokull glacier and are trying to make their way out to sea. It was a really amazing sight! After having lunch alongside the lagoon, we started heading back west and stopped at the Svinafellsjokull glacier. We went on a short walk and got to get really close to the glacier, which was pretty cool. We drove a short way further and stopped to hike up to the Svartifoss waterfall at Skaftafell. On our way to our farm stay we stopped at a grocery store and made ourselves a great pasta meal for supper.
The following morning we got up early again and out on the road. We drove back through the huge lava field again and stopped at the small town of Vik to see the rock pillars that are just off the coast right next to a black sand beach. We also made it back to Dyrholaey the rock bridge, this time in much more favorable weather. We continued west and drove through a couple small coastal towns before heading to our farm stay near Selfoss. That night we went into town and spent a couple hours at the local outdoor pool (geothermally heated course), which was nice and relaxing.
The next morning we were greeted with more wonderful weather, this time rain. We drove a short ways out of Selfoss and stopped at the Eldhestar horse farm. Despite the weather we went out for a short one hour ride on some Icelandic horses and even got to tolt (a fast walking gait, unique to Icelandic horses). After a quick stop for lunch we passed through Reykjavik on our way to the Blue Lagoon. This is a huge hot water lagoon that uses the effluent water from the geothermal power plant. The water is filled with minerals including silica and has a bright turquoise colour to it. We spent a couple hours relaxing in the warm waters and headed back to Reykjavik to return our car. We checked into our hotel and then went out for dinner at the Sea Baron restaurant and had some of the best lobster soup I think I have ever had.
Our last day in Iceland was spent doing a bit if last minute shopping before heading to the airport to catch our flight (via Seattle) home.
Iceland is a beautiful country with amazing scenery and welcoming people and a place we'd definitely like to come back to...except next time during the summer.