pandginiceland

[pandginiceland]

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By default this blog is newest item first which is great when you are wanting to see what is new. However, it's not so great if you want to read it in one go.

If you want to see the blog in chronological order (ie oldest first), then please use this link:

https://pandginiceland.tumblr.com/tagged/iceland/chrono

Enjoy!

[pandginiceland]

Closing Thoughts

We got home OK despite our late night! We took the Flybus to the airport which worked well - a minibus collects you from your hotel and drops you off at the bus station where you join the bus to the airport. Probably the most cost effective way to get to the airport. Check-in at the airport was very slow - even though we had already done so online. It took nearly a hour to drop our bags!

The BA flight home was smooth with no queues at Terminal 5.

As you can see, we really enjoyed our trip to Iceland. We definitely want to go back but probably in summer next time. Our trip was booked via Trailfinders in Winchester (thanks Alice Blue) which was a painless experience with lots of good advice given. The hotels were good and located in good places.

If you fancy going yourself in February/March, here are some tips from us:

Take a travel sink plug - none of the hotels had plugs in their bathroom sinks (why???)

Try food-halls for evening meals. We found one in Hveragerði and one in Reykjavik The quality of the food was far better than just being "street food" and the prices were lower than more traditional restaurants.

Dress warm in layers. We purchased some Merino baselayers (body and legs), some synthetic mid-layers, fleece lined trousers and thick ski jackets. Beanie hats are a must but avoid ones with bobbles on since they get in the way of hoods. Waterproof over-trousers are also essential for when it snows although check that you can easily get them over your walking boots (don't ask how Paul learnt that one). A Merino neck tube is a good idea (thanks Ben!).

Get some good walking boots and break them in before your go. We would also recommend getting some crampons that can be removed easily. We didn't have them and they would have been useful at times.

Buy all your clothing etc in the UK since prices in Iceland are at least double that in the UK.

Don't feel you need to take any cash. Card readers are everywhere (including churches!). The only time that cash would have been useful was when the card reader had broken in a toilet block. But then we would have needed coins whereas all we had were 1000 krona notes. Fortunately one the park rangers was really nice and just let us in without payment. We had quite a long chat with her after that.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed our ramblings.

Paul and Gill

[pandginiceland]

Chasing the Lights

Seeing the Northern Lights is really big business in Iceland. We heard it time and time again from tourists asking about how to see them. However, they are slightly overplayed. Yes, they are cool to see but what you will see most of the time will look nothing like the promo photos.

With this in mind, we had originally planned to go and find the lights ourselves but heavy cloud on every evening prior to our last night meant that there was no point. However, by our last evening we no longer had a car so we bit the bullet and paid for a tour. Tip - it's worth spending a little more to go on a smaller scale trip. We went with Artic Adventures in a mini-bus of about 24 passengers. The driver, Palli, was really good and had a couple of fiends acting as spotters. Speaking to other tourists who had gone on coach based tours, they just stood in a field for 2 hours whereas we moved around and it seemed like a chase. We also got hot chocolate!

There was a lot of cloud predicted for the evening but some gaps were predicted. This website is really good since it gives you both cloud cover plus the activity level: https://en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/aurora/

For our trip, the activity level was 2 which is low (and pretty average). Anyway, after collection from our hotel, we went to one other hotel for a second pickup and then we headed North.

Our first site was south of the town of Borgarnes. We pulled up just off the road and bingo - the Aurora Borealis was visible in the gaps between the clouds. It was visible to the native eye but not as clear as these pictures show - mainly because I was using 15s exposures with a very wide angle lens.

The cloud closed in so we went further North to Site 2 on the map. Sadly the cloud cover was nearly 100% there so no visuals, although my camera did spot a slight green smear near the horizon.

We were stoped in the car park for a village hall and found a series of tracks that an Artic fox had made (Iceland's only native land mammal). Not sign of the fox though.

We started the drive back to Reykjavik in heavy snow fall and just after the tunnel under the fjord we parked up in a lay-by on the side of major road. The sky was clearer but again although the camera could see some green, it wasn't visible to the native eye.

We got back to our hotel just over 2am. Not great since we needed to get up at 6am to pack up and then get the bus to the airport....

An interesting night though.

[pandginiceland]

A walking tour

We decided to be cultured and do a bit of a walking tour of Reykjavik.

First stop was the Hallgrímskirkja which is the Lutheran parish church in Reykjavík, Iceland. At 74.5 metres tall, it is the largest church in Iceland and among the tallest structures in the country. It was started in 1945 and completed in 1986 and is very distinctive. At the front is the statue of Leif Erikson who was the first European to step foot in continental America (which he called Vinland). His father Erik the Red had found and named Greenland. Looks like both of them were born estate agents.....

Inside you can take a lift up the tower where there are two levels - the first is where the clocks are and the higher level is where the bells are.

There are viewing points on the bell level where you can look out over the city.

We had to wait a short while for the Ash Wednesday service had finished before we could enter the main church. It is very modern but has a Nordic charm.

Interestingly the pews are reversible and can face either way!

The pulpit and the font were quite distinctive. Sadly the main stained glass was removed for repair work.

After the church, we continued our walk to the National Museum of Iceland. This was a really nice place to spend a few hours. The building is distinctive inside and the exhibits interesting. It tells the story of the initial settlements by Norsemen in the late AD800's through the island being owned by Norway and then Denmark before eventually becoming an independent nation in 1944. A few photos below:

Here are few of the exhibits. This was a medieval chalice made from a coconut. The workmanship was incredible

The following is knitwear from around 10th century - note the children's mittens have a cord to keep them together.

This is the detail of a crucifix of Christ the King carved around 1200.

This is the first bible printed in Icelandic following the Reformation. Literacy was high with the church ministers regularly testing the children of their parishes.

This statue from around 1000 is either Thor or Jesus - experts are divided. However, given the prevalence of people holding both religions at that time, perhaps it was a wise choice by the maker who could sell it either way!

And now a more modern exhibit - don't mention the (Cod) war!

Our walk back to the hotel took us though a park with a nice lake

Opposite the mermaid was a statue of a man seemingly wanting the mermaid to come and visit him. Sadly for decency's sake, I can't post the picture here!

Clearly they are not taking any chances with protesting farmers clogging up rush hour:

Murals seems to be popular

Finally we walked past the punk museum - since when did punk become a tourist exhibit?

Anarchy meets the tourist krona!

An enjoyable explore. There was a fair degree of randomness around. A lot of the children seemed to be dressed up in costumes (perhaps part of the start of Lent?). And there was one young women wearing a "apron" of a male torso complete with stick on hair and oversized dangly bits - rather bizarre since she wasn't surrounded by a hen party.

Now to pack up ready for our early morning pickup for the airport. However, before we do so, we are booked on a trip to see the Northern Lights. The signs look promising with some gaps in the clouds. We shall see.

[pandginiceland]

Facial Scrub

Money saving tip from Paul and Gill. Don't waste your money on expensive facial scrubs made of mud from the Blue Lagoon. Instead just wait until there is a snow storm in Iceland and step outside. The small hailstones will pummel your face at 40+mph and will leave you with glowing skin after 5mins.

Warning - do not exceed 15mins otherwise you might find some of your face no longer there......

That was our experience today on our long (358km) drive from Fosshotel Glacier Lagoon back to Reykjavik. We were regularly driving through snow showers. However they were soon gone and we even got some sunshine.

Our first stop was at the Skaftáreldahraun lava field. This lava field was created in 1783-84 from the eruption of Laki and is massive. The eruption covered about 580 km^2 including filling a gorge thought to be 200m deep. From the view point you could see nothing but pillow lava covered in moss in all directions.

The eruption made its impact throughout the world with cooling effects and crop failures. it is estimated that 25% of the population of Iceland died and that worldwide 6 million were killed.

We then drove onto our next stop at Vic. This is where we got our facial scrub. Vic is one of the larger towns on the south coast beyond Selfoss but it isn't very big. It has some shops, a church on a hill plus a black beach. Oh, and fearsome winds!

The weather got worse beyond Vic. At one stage the wind pushed the car sideways into the ice on the road - a little bit scary for Paul who was driving..... Pretty but dangerous

Our lunch stop was at Skógafoss which is one of the well known waterfalls. There was heavy snow when we arrived but it cleared up once we had finished our lunch.

Next stop was Selfoss where we stumbled upon the Skyr museum in the basement of the Old Dairy Food Hall. Skyr is similar to yoghurt but has a far higher protein quota. There was a free tasting included in the museum entry fee and it was really rather nice!

After Selfoss we drove on the main road uphill over the mountains that separate Selfoss from Reykjavik. This is when the snow got really bad. At one point there was a total white out for a minute or so. Really pretty but rather dangerous.

We safely arrived in Reykjavik and checked into our hotel - the large Fosshotel Reykjavik (it has 17 floors). Paul then dropped off the car at the rental dept and walked back to the hotel.

Overall we had driven 1,179km in our diesel Dacia Duster 4x4 and used 70 litres of fuel - about 47.6mpg which isn't bad.

We will be exploring Reykjavik tomorrow. Here are a couple pics Paul took whilst walking back. Lots of coloured houses. The large building is a Youth Hostel

You will notice that we haven't mentioned anything about the Northern Lights. This is because it has been cloudy every single night so far! It looks like tomorrow evening might have some clearer skies so we are booked on a bus tour to find them. It will be late night (plus an early start for our flight home) but hopefully it will be worth it.

[pandginiceland]

More Ice Mr Bond?

Here is the other Glacier and the notice board about kleptomaniac farmers who were fed up with paraffin lights (sorry, only got 30 pictures per post).

A few other facts from today:

The Lagoon was used for the car chase across the ice for the Bond film Die Another Day. However, since the Lagoon is partially sea water and sea water only freezes at -8°C, they built a dam across the entrance so that sea water could not come in a high tide and that only fresh water would go out at low tide. That way the lake would freeze at a higher temperature. Seems quite a lot of work for a mediocre Bond movie!

The Glacier Lagoon is in the Vatnajökull National Park which is the largest glacier in Iceland. However, under the glacier is where the Magna Plume comes up. This makes it the most dangerous volcanic area in Iceland since the ice cap means that any eruption is going to be rather explosive. It will also produce deadly pyroclastic flows and gas clouds. The name of the glacier, Vatnajökull means "short lives" - something to deter people from living in the area after some deadly eruptions in the medieval times.

[pandginiceland]

Ice, Ice Baby

Early start this morning since we needed to be at Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon for a 09:30 ice cave tour. It had snowed in the night which meant the 30km journey took a little longer but was very pretty with the rising Sun.

When we got to the Lagoon, we were allocated to a 4x4 with oversized wheels. Paul got the plumb seat up front with Ingo our guide. We were the only English on the tour. It was about a half hour drive, mostly off road to the start of the ice cave tour. En-route we passed a herd of reindeer. There were two herds introduced to Iceland in the 1800's but the one nearer to Reykjavik died out due to poor management and inbreeding.

We found out that the barren land we had seen yesterday was actually the glacial floodplain. As the glacier flows and retreats, it leaves nothing behind it - the extreme cold and pressure kills off living mater. The mounds/hills are shaped by the glacier push up deposits of stones, gravel and rocks. Eventually moss spores all on the areas and starts to grow. The next plants to appear are Cloudberries - these have white berries but at this time of year, they just look brown.

In the picture below, you can see the green(ish) moss and the brown Cloudberry plants.

The main glacier was a bit beyond where we parked up - see below

The ice cave we were going to explore was in some "dead ice" buried under the glacial moraine. This meant we had to climb up the loose material to the cave opening (circle red below)

Not easy going but some nice views

Once we stooped down through the low entrance we entered the cave. Fortunately we were given helmets! Inside the ice was incredible. it was clear with embedded air bubbles and volcanic ash - all around 600 years old. Where the light came in from the outside it produced shades of blue. OK, it does look slightly better on the camera that in real life but nevertheless it was stunning as you can see in the pictures below.

It was very uneven in the caves with areas to climb and descend. Ingo our guide was very good to Gill and helped her up and down! I don't think she minded being helped by a 6ft young Icelandic man!

After a bite to eat we explored the Glacier Lagoon. You get mini icebergs from the Glacier flowing into the sea though a narrow opening. A lot of this ice flows get blown onto the sides of the Lagoon. There they get eroded by the flowing water.

There were also some harbour seals as well as various sea bids hunting for fish.

Outside the lagoon is the famous Diamond Beach where blocks of ice get blown onto the black sand. The resulting shapes are really beautiful which different colours and shapes.

It was also a haven for Japanese people posing for photographs - one was even a "married" couple. They must have been freezing since it was about 2°C with a strong wind.

On the way back to our hotel we stopped off at another Glacier. There was also an exhibit board about a ship that had beached there in the 1920s. There was also a map of locations/dates of other ships flouring off that coast together with the dates that electric lights appears on the local farms. All I can assume is that the farmers were taking the lights off the wrecked vessels!

[pandginiceland]

A Land of Extremes

A long drive today of 200 hundred miles to our next hotel in the Vatnajökull National Park.

The weather was variable. There were times of sunshine and blue skies following by driving snow/hail showers.

Our first stop was the Lava Centre in Hvolsvöllur. This interactive centre was both a live display of the volcanic activity in all of Iceland together with interactive exhibits explaining how volcanoes work.

We hadn't realised that there had been so many eruptions in Iceland over the last 25 years. Fortunately very few of them produce the ash and chaos of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption of 2011 which shut down European Airspace.

A particularly impressive structure was a model of the huge mantle plume beneath Iceland. No wonder it is so volcanic!

We also learnt how huge lava fields are produced which over time break down and turn into massive fertile plains. We saw this on our drive. There were huge black barren ash fields, puddle lava fields covered in moss as well has large meadows. Some pictures are below.

After the Lave Centre, we drove to ‎⁨Dyrhólaey⁩ which overlooks famous Reynisfjara beach. it was very windy and there were some vicious snow showers. This did mean that the seas were rather dramatic.

The wind really was strong - it nearly knocked us over at times.

We continued Eastward, next stop was Fjaðrárgljúfur which is a really pretty serpentine canyon. it was made famous in a Justin Bieber video a few years ago where he walked along the top of one of the cliffs. These are now roped off!

We then drove on to our hotel in the Vatnajökull National Park. It is at the base of Hvannadalshnjúkur which is the highest point in Iceland. Sadly the cloud meant we couldn't see it.

Tomorrow we go to explore the Glacier and Ice Caves.

Here are some more photos we took en route. The scenery really is special.

[pandginiceland]

Fun fact - Iceland is very proud of their language and the government actively removes English words. So when the Icelandic army wanted to buy tanks, they chose an Icelandic noun which translates as “armoured dragon” rather than just adopt the English (which in itself was a word chosen to hide why the British Army were building big metal boxes in WW1).

[pandginiceland]

Ice and Steam

As noted earlier, it had snowed overnight, changing the landscape yet again. It also left the roads a bit interesting in places although it was reassuring to see the snowploughs out

We head back onto the Golden Circle route, heading back to ‎⁨Laugarvatn⁩ to pick it up. The difference in the view from yesterday was pretty dramatic.

From Laugarvatin, we headed North East to Geysir, home the geyser of the same name and the place which named the geothermal effect. Geysir was probably the first place where Europeans came across them. The original Geysir (see below) very rarely erupts these days - in its heydays it shoot up 200 ft or more.

There is a very active geyser called Strokkur on the site. This goes every 5 to 10 minutes. We watched it go a few times - it was quite impressive.

Here's a photo taken a bit further back

There were lots of other geothermal "amusements" in the park including boiling mud pots, hot springs and fumaroles.

We left the steam and heading further North East to the Ice of Gullfoss waterfall. Gullfoss means golden waterfalls where the low angle sunlight makes the falls appears like gold. However, with the snow and ice it was more silver that gold. There are a series of waterfalls where the Hvítá river descends rapid down stone steps into a crevice.

There a number of viewpoints, although the lowest one was partially closed off due other the ice and snow.

We end up having our photo taken by a couple who insisted they took our photo after I took theirs! Not our greatest portrait but it did show that we needed to dress up warm and dry though!

After Gullfoss, we headed south west where the snow turned to rain. We stopped off at Skálholt Cathedral. This is the 10th church on the site, going back to 1056. It is the historic heart of Christianity in Iceland. The current church was opened in 1963.

The image of Christ above the alter table is a mosaic.

It did slightly amuse that if you wanted to light a candle, there was a card reader for your donation!

In the crypt is a small museum and also an underground tunnel dating form earlier churches so that people could access the church easily in bad weather.

We carried on the Golden Circle route and popped in to see the Kerið crater or caldera. It was raining quite hard so we didn't stay long. It was worth seeing though. To get an indication on the size, look at the people walking along the ridge.

Here is our route and elevation plot

It's our last night in Hveragerði - tomorrow we leave and head east for the Vatnajökull glacier. It's a long drive of about 190 miles but we intend to make some stops along the way.

[pandginiceland]

Yep, definitely snow outside again - although not as deep as when we arrived

[pandginiceland]

Snowing again!

This is the view from our window tonight - it was clear an hour earlier.

The orange glow in a greenhouse.

[pandginiceland]

Crossing Continents

Today we crossed continents - starting (and ending) in Europe but crossing into America. And all by road.

To explain a little more, Iceland straddles the boundaries between the two tectonic plates that carry Europe and America. Those plates meet at Þingvellir (Thingvellir) where it forms a rift valley. There are also ancient volcanoes in the area which have flooded it with lava in the past, some of it creating deep fissures such as the one below.

The weather today was interesting. Most of the snow we saw yesterday was gone (which made driving a lot easier) but instead we got strong winds and driving showers of hail (which hurt!). Fortunately they cleared quickly but they made for dramatic lighting.

We were really glad of the multiple layers we had purchased and put on.

Þingvellir is a very important place in Iceland. It was the home of the annual Parliament which met every year from 930 until the lat 18th Century- 850 years. It was the place where the nation decided to become a Christian nation in 1000AD. It is also where the nation was declared an independent republic in 1944.

As a piece of geology it is impressive. There is a cliff which forms the end of the American continent and a flat plain beneath which the Parliament gathered.

The following pictures show the view from the top of the cliff.

You walk down a fissure beside the cliff edge to get down to the plain. Part of it is a wooden structure which was put in in 2011 when a small hole appeared in the path. Upon investigation that small hole showed there was a massive gap beneath it!

You can walk alongside the cliff to the other end. We walked most the way but saw the other side from another car park since the path was very icy and dangerous.

This is a close up on where we went.

The Parliament/Assembly was a big event with maybe 4000 people attending in the 1100's (10% of the population). The Law Speaker used the cliff edge as a natural amphitheatre so that the assembly could hear him. The people camped out on the open plain with the river being diverted over the edge to supply a drinking supply.

The area around the water was frozen with ice/snow sheets 10's of cm thick.

Where the river was diverted, there is a large waterfall called Öxarárfoss which can be seen from a distance.

Down on the plain, there are two significant buildings. The first is a church which was built in 1859 to replace earlier churches which had started in 1000AD (the first church in Iceland following the decision). Interestingly the earlier church was used for the definition of lengths - it had two marks 20 ell apart. The ell was the measure from the elbow to the fingertips and these marks was the formal definition of that length.

Next to the church is the Summer House of the Prime Minister. Slightly surprised we could get so close to it - Chequers in the UK will have a far greater security cordon!

We completed our walk around the park before getting back to the car.

We then drove to ‎⁨Laugarvatn⁩ which is famous for its hot springs plus bread which is "steamed" for 24 hours in a metal box buried in the ash near a stream of hot water.

We then drove back to our hotel in Hveragerði. We walked out to find dinner tonight. It appears that the town is also famous for hot springs. There is a brewery powered by hydro-thermal energy as well as a number of greenhouses. These have artificial lighting on for what seems like 24/7 - we can see one from our room.

[pandginiceland]

Where’s the snow gone? The view from our hotel window this morning!

[pandginiceland]

Here is the route we took today

and here is the elevation plot

[pandginiceland]

Snow and Heat

Arrived in Keflavík International Airport following a 07:25 flight from Heathrow (we stayed in the Thistle Hotel the night before). Found about 2cm of snow on the ground which made pulling suitcases around slightly interesting. After a rather long delay in picking up our hire car ("computer problems") we were on our way. After a pit stop in a local supermarket, we headed to the Blue Lagoon which is a famous outdoor spa.

The scenery on the way there was striking. You had the dusting of snow but every so often there was a band of black lava where the snow had melted. At times the lava was steaming alongside the road!

You might remember the volcanic eruption in Iceland last year where the lava flow nearly took over the town of Grindavík. Well the Blue Lagoon is only 5km away from Grindavik and parts of the road to it were covered in lava. Some the road is now a cinder track. It made for interesting driving.

The Blue Lagoon is a man made spa where seawater is pumped down 2000m into the rock which then heats it to between 38 and 42C despite it being outside. Also, the water absorbs a load of silicates which turn the water blue.

I was slightly taken aback on check-in to be told, "Oh, there could be a volcanic eruption but don't worry we have an evacuation plan"! It was also rather surreal going from an air temperature of about 2C into a huge pool at 38C+. We bobbed around for nearly an hour, watching a load of people risking their phones to take selfies in the water. We also made use of the free face mask made from silicate mud. As you can see in the picture below, it took years off us.....

We got back to the carpark to play spot our car. Clearly white Dacia Dusters are the car to have.....

After finding our car, we drove approximately 80km along to the coastal road to our hotel in Hveragerði. A lot more snow in places but the road was clear.

Our hotel is nice with a good view from the window

[pandginiceland]

Introduction

People seem to have liked our previous road trip blogs (https://pandginnewengland.tumblr.com https://pandgincalifornia.tumblr.com and https://pandgincanada.tumblr.com )

So Paul and Gill have produced this new one for a week long trip to Iceland. We go on the 27th Feb for a week. Just 3 hotels this time but hopefully some interesting experiences. If the weather is right (both terrestrial and space), we might also get to see the Northern Lights.

We fly to Reykjavik landing before lunch. We then pick up a hire car to go to our first hotel outside Selfoss via the Blue Lagoon. Three nights there before we drive to our second hotel in the Vatnajökull National Park for 2 nights. We then drive back to Reykjavik for another 2 nights before flying home.

Hope you find our blog posts interesting.

Paul and Gill