Reykjavik
Lovely city, but no real need to spend more than 1-2 days in Reykjavik. Though it's a big city in terms of physical size, a lot is sprawl and the good stuff is centered right around the downtown/City Hall/Old Harbour area. I'd recommend checking out the concert hall, Harpa, walking Bank St. to check out the galleries, restaurants and shops, and definitely spending time pretending to be a local - drinking, carousing, whatever your deal is. Jeff and I are sadly too old for nightlife (too much country to see to do it hungover!) but I hear it's out of control in Reyk :) If you can catch a soccer match, do it! We got to see Iceland vs. France in the Euro cup and the energy was insane! There is a public swimming pool just a 10-15 min drive from the centre of town that was so fun - 6 hot tubs of varying temps, a huge naturally heated swimming pool that the locals swim in year round (yes, outdoor swimming, year round.. can you imagine?!), and a super steam room. Not to mention a COLD PLUNGE, Scandinave-Collingwood style (yes, it's all coming together...) which has some crazy reaction in your body to make you feel drugged/happy/sleepy. This pool was so fun, we ended up finding pools in 3 other cities as we traveled along - such a great way to spend a couple of hours at the day's end!
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| Old Harbour - waiting to catch our puffin tour to the nearby islands in the Reykjavik harbour |
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| One of the most energetic sports venues I've been to - "the hill". Made me excited for when the Leafs are back in the playoffs! |
The
This part of Iceland
is definitely the busiest and most tourist-y – the free stopovers offered by
Icelandair mean that you can shoot out to see all these sights in a day on a
bus from Reykjavik ,
so everyone does just that. However, for me, it was a can’t-miss because of geyser.
Geysirs are freaking cool! It’s like live entertainment that actually just a
natural phenomenon of the earth. It goes off every 10 minutes or so, so
definitely a great place to hang for a couple of hours like we did. Thingvellir
(that funny “p” symbol is pronounced with a “th” sound) National Park was a “have
to see”, because how can you not go see giant crack in the earth where the continental plates are dividing? But it was
crazy busy and without a lot of interpretive signage it was hard to know just
where to look/what you were looking at. If you’re into waterfalls (like we are!) Gullfoss is definitely
a great third stop ("foss" = waterfall). There are other bits you can add to the circle too, like
Kerid crater area (pretty neat, but the only one you have to pay for).
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| Geysir |
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| Gullfoss |
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| Kerid |
Fridland ad Fjallibaki
Yes, good luck with this language. This is a park/preserve that's technically in the highlands of Iceland. So the best way to get there is arranging a bus, hiring a private tour, or renting a 4x4 vehicle and taking your grit to drive for an hour down a somewhat sketchy gravel road. This was a last minute call for Jeff and I (we were going to spend the day on the Westman Islands off the south coast) but once we saw the pictures of the tie-dyed mountains at Landmannlauger, we couldn't NOT go!
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| Augh |
The drive in was essentially a volcanic desert moonscape where you could see for miles, until the view was interrupted by a giant mountain. If you're into hiking, many people camp at Landmannlauger and set out for the 5 day trek to Thorsmork (again the funny "p"). We did a 4 km loop and saw some of the most beautiful mountains and lava fields ever, so that was ok for me! I wish we'd had time to go further afield to explore Mt. Hekla, a huge volcano due to erupt any day (I like living on the edge), but still nice to see it from the window during our highlands drive.
Vik
The rock formations at Dyrholaey were awesome, but to get "the" money shot of the hole in the rock, you need to approach it from the ring road heading east toward Vik. The view isn't quite the same from Dyrholaey. Also Vik is a lovely little wool-makin' town, with a cute church, a couple of nice restaurants, and great black sand beaches just on the edge of town.
Vatnajokull
Anytime you see "jokull", think glacier! There are many all around Iceland to play on. We do wish we'd gotten to take a snowmobile trip across the top of one, but there are only so many excursions one can stomach paying for ;) So we got our cramp-on and hiked up an offshoot of the main glacier in Iceland with Glacier Guides tours. Good workout, lots of fun, and learned a ton about glacial processes which was so cool. Because at the end of the day, I'm just a nerd.
The East
Sadly we had to skip the eastfjords and east coast of Iceland - we only had 2 weeks and were determined to spend some time in the Westfjords, which are off the beaten path of the ring road. So we took pictures as we drove from Hofn to Akureyri and had a lovely day of mountain views behind us after climbing up them! Don't miss Dettifoss on your way across the top of the country - unreal waterfall with a half hour bumping along a gravel road each way to get there :)
Akureyri & Lake Myvatn
I was more underwhelmed with Akureyri than I wanted to be. It's the biggest "city" in the north, and pretty/well-equipped, but I think the location of our airbnb (right downtown, so noisy all night long!), the weather (cold and mostly rainy) and my sprained ankle may have coloured it as less than awesome for me. Though there was still lots of fun to be had, including a day trip to Lake Myvatn. If you do this trip, I'd recommend: pseudocraters, birding, Krafla volcano area and the MYVATN NATURE BATHS! The latter is known as the Blue Lagoon of the north - it also has that insane milky blue water where your hands disappear after 6", full of silica so your skin feels lovely when you leave (though the built in benches are a little slimed up!), an infinity pool view out to the mountains, and for only half the price of Blue Lagoon in the south. Definitely worth a stop. Good people watching, including a man in a speedo and a toque, and a woman doing some sort of jazzercise with her eyes closed in the middle of the cooler pool. Jeff thought maybe she just wanted personal space. ;) We also rode Icelandic horses from Polar Hestar just outside Akureyri and the horsies are super cute, well behaved, and have excellent hairdos. Akureyri is a good base for whale watching too, but we thought since we were recently whale watching in Canada, we'd choose ponies instead!
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| Myvatn Nature Baths - stolen from internet :) |
The Westfjords
Big, beautiful, dramatic, rocky, fjords and bays, barren, tiny fishing villages, abandoned farms, seals lounging on rocks, Arctic Ocean, puffins, sunshine, winding roads, the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve, Dynjandi waterfall, the Latrabjard bird cliffs, beaches, Isafjordur (best town in Iceland in my opinion - so cute, and peaceful). That is my list of words. My list of feelings: overwhelmed, miniaturized, humbled, comfortable, excited, engaged, in awe. This was a really special place. When I first got there I was thinking: I'm not sure it's THAT different of scenery, is it? But something is very, very different about the Westfjords. Maybe it's the fact that <10% of tourists make it up here ;) Whatever it was, it was well worth the three days we spent there and big drives around the winding fjord roads that took a long time to get you anywhere. :) Being at the Latrabjarg bird cliffs was an experience like no other. Watching charming puffins waddle and hop and take flight, and listening to them groan, and seeing their beautiful big orange beaks up close was something special. Hearing the other seabirds screaming in the background was magical. Amazing amazing place!
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| 15 km guided hike (Westtours), Hornstrandir Nature Reserve |
Snaesfellsnes Peninsula
We took the Baldur ferry from the Westfjords to Snaef. and had a nice day exploring there. We were SO TIRED from hiking 15km across the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve two days before, then having an epic day of driving/ferrying/birding the following day, and probably the 2 weeks of nonstop adventures we'd had as well - so every little hill to climb felt like a serious chore. :P "We are old" feelings aside, exploring the western tip of the peninsula in the National Park was very special, and the shark museum in the north where you can eat the disgusting fermented and dried shark meat was very worth it!! Of course I made Jeff try it and didn't eat it (I'm a supertaster! like I'm going to eat fermented shark!) and his reaction was mixed. But you can't go and not eat the local cuisine, right!? :)
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| Fermented shark - drying shack |
I don't have any regrets about the ambitious schedule we laid out for ourselves. It meant a couple of long days travelling but was worth it to be able to land in a couple of places for multiple nights and really soak in the landscape and culture. We almost didn't make it to Latrabjarg bird cliffs (would have been a major regret), but Jeff changed our ferry ticket to make sure we did, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves puffins. And who among us does not love a puffin!?!?
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| Hi sweetiepie |
I'm going to write a second post focusing more on lessons learned, travel tips, costs (and how to reduce them) and get that up later this week. I found reading other travel blogs really helpful so I hope these posts can be a resource to all my facebook/friends who expressed an interest in wanting to visit this awesome place someday soon!
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