The Iceland
road trip was a resounding success. There were some adventures that popped up
along the way, but nothing that Thor, Anjali and I couldn’t handle. The landscapes of Iceland are absolutely
breathtaking, and they change so rapidly.
One moment you are staring at fields of lava rocks covered in spongy
moss, the next you are craning your head to see peaks of towering cliffs draped
in clouds, and then all of a sudden the ocean sneaks up on you, blinding you
with the glint of the sun and the black sandy beaches stretched out for
miles.
The South
Once we
left Reykjavik, we drove south to Seljalandsfoss (foss means waterfall in
Icelandic), a beautiful waterfall that you can actually walk behind! As you approach the falls the mist gets
colder and colder and you have to double check your footing, but it was
completely unreal to be behind that waterfall staring out at the pounding
water. Lots of grasses and flowers grew
out of the rocks all around the falls, feeding off the mist.
Next, we
continued to another waterfall called Skogafoss that fell from such a great
height. The waterfall itself was tucked
away behind an enclave of rocks, all covered in moss and flowers. We stood from afar and took pictures, not
wanting to get too wet again. The drive
from waterfall to waterfall was short, through some more gorgeous scenery, all
in the shadow of Eyjafjallajokull, the volcano that blew up a few years back blocking
air traffic in Europe for three weeks.
Then we
drove to Vik, a cute beach side town rimmed by the black sand Reynisfjara
Beach. Our GPS, who we called Michelle,
decided to direct us up a mountain, an unpaved pot hole ridden mountain. After a few terrifying switchbacks, Thor decided
to slow down and contemplate going backwards.
At this point Anjali and I, both decidedly anxious about moving forward (and backward for that matter),
decided it was time to find another way to the beach. Anjali performed an incredible K-turn and we drove the normal path to
the beach, parking our car and taking a nice walk down the black sand. We picked up sun bleached, flat stones in the
sand to warm our hands in the windy cold.
Back to the car and on to the Glacier Lagoon in Jokulsarson. Funny enough, they damned off this lagoon to
film a car chase in one of the James Bond movies. The lagoon is so eerie and magical, you see
these large glaciers, some bright blue, others white and others white with black
stripes from the layers of sand. Birds
flock to certain glaciers and squawk relentlessly as you watch these humongous
chunks of ice silently glide toward the ocean.
We bought a ticket for the amphibian tour and were lucky enough to catch a glacier turning over and
splitting apart while we were out next to it. I caught some of it on tape, but unfortunately it is too big to upload on the blog. The glacier kept rocking back and forth like
a boat slowly sinking. Then it flipped
over and split into two big chucks. By
the time we circled it, tiny chunks of ice were floating all around the
glacier, splinters from the initial crack, popping and sizzling as they
released the air from their ice. The
guide on a chase boat went and retrieved one of these pieces for us to see, feel, and taste! The guide also told us that there is
a prestigious whiskey club in New York that comes out there once a year to get
ice for their bar. Apparently glacier
ice is more complex and therefore melts slower.
After the
glacier tour we dropped down to Hofn for dinner, selecting a delicious and
filling lobster bisque. Saw that Ben
Stiller had also eaten at that restaurant when he was filming The Secret Life
of Walter Smitty. Then we checked into
our hotel and dreamed our dreams.
The East
The eastern
coast was a lot of curvy driving up and down and in and out of fjords. The towns were nestled below the fjords, on the water, while frozen pools of water and snow peaks dotted the top of the fjord. Our first stop was Djupivogur were an artist had sculpted 43 different
eggs from local birds out of stone.
Right next to the Egg Jetty was the most peculiar shop, it was almost a showcase of this man's collection of rocks, stones, gems, driftwood, bones, and... whatever else, as well as a small shop for his wood carvings. We wandered around looking at all of his whimsical sculptures of the Hidden People, fish and boats. Anjali also played with his dog for a bit, very social little creature she was. And to our surprise, inside one of the shelves was a birds nest with a mama and her babies chirping away.
Next we
drove to see Petra’s Stone Collection in Stöðvarfjörður. Petra recently passed away a few years ago,
but her entire life she found and collected thousands of precious and
semi-precious stones, mainly agates and volcanic rocks. Her collection was stunning, I think I took
700 pictures of her stones and I’m not exaggerating.
Greens and reds and yellows all striped and lying next to one another
along with sparkly crystals and rocks with fossil imprints in them, basically a
geologists playground. She also had collected tons of pieces of yard art that lay hidden among the flowers and rocks.
And finally
we stopped in Seydisfjordur to look around, our favorite town by far. There was a lot of lawn art and murals around
all the houses. We stopped at a café and
I had an amazing burger, wonder if it was reindeer meat…
Stayed the
night at a reindeer lodge that also had a teepee fire pit. I can’t seem to shake these teepees now can
I? But thankfully no mice this time.
The North
Spent the
majority of our day in Lake Myvatn which is known for its lava pools and natural
baths. Took part in the baths, enjoyed
relaxing our muscles. This time I did
get my hair wet and enjoyed the waterfalls.
The had an infinity pool looking out towards the mountains. Definitely not as fancy as Blue Lagoon, but
for that reason I kind of liked it better.
Next we
drove to Hverfall Crater and decided to climb it... why we decided to climb it, I don't think either of us know, but it almost killed us. Well to be more accurate it almost made us throw up the lunch we had just scarfed down at the baths. As soon as we got to the top and took a breather, we came back down so we could stay on schedule. It's extremely hard to show the immense size of this crater in the picture below, but you can see some hikers in one of the pictures and how tiny they are.
And now it was time to go find the Yule-lads! As legend goes, Gryla, the magical giantess troll, collects naughty children and eats them, preferably in a stew. She had thirteen sons, all Yule-lads or as we would know them, the 13 Santa Clauses. And they live near Lake Myvatn in Dimmugorgir. So we went there because, we had to find the Yule-lads. Dimmugorgir is basically a large park with lava rocks in it. We took a short walk through the fields behind a Smithsonian tour group, taking pictures and looking for Yule-lads as we went.
Then we raced to Husavik for our final activity of the evening, whale watching! We got there in the nick of time and suited up in large body suit parkas, boarded a boat named Sylvia along with 20 Czech tourists (who spoke no English) and set sail (or motor) out into the Arctic Ocean. The ride was exhilarating, just incredible. Poor Anjali lost feeling in most of her extremities pretty quickly and it took us about two hours before we finally saw a whale, a minke whale. We also saw large groupings of puffins on the water and arctic terns who apparently have the longest migration of any animal - Antarctica to Iceland every year. At the end of the trip we were given hot chocolate and Icelandic donuts. Windburned and sunburned, we trudged off the boat and ran immediately to get fish and chips.
The final leg of our day had us driving to Akureyri, the second largest city in Iceland. It was unfortunate we didn't see more of this city, but we did have a restful and clean night (they had a laundry machine, yay!) albeit a short one.
The West
Our last day and our longest day started very early. We drove from Akureyri all the way around to the Snaefallsnes Peninsula, with a medium sized detour to the western fjords when my phone decided to take us on an unplanned adventure.
We stopped first at Skardsvik Beach which had pieces from the Epine - Grimsby shipwreck littered among the rocks that make up the sand, very hard to walk on. Once you actually reached the beach though, it was absolutely worth it. There were tall basalt columns, similar to Fingal's Cave in Scotland (where I plan to go soon!) that go right up to the water's edge. Tiny snails take shelter in every nook and cranny of these rocks. It was amazingly peaceful, before the school children start shrieking.
Next it was time to climb the glacier! Well... take a ride up to the top of the glacier on a Snowcat, which is basically climbing the glacier. We were boarded onto a bus and whisked up a bumpy road halfway up the mountain where we switched to a Snowcat along with blankets to ward off the cold. The steam heat from the Snowcat ended up being a worse problem than the cold actually. At first we saw lots of pockets of snow among the rock piles and then we were blanketed in fog so thick that we couldn't see anything outside of the Snowcat group, very weird, very spooky... I liked it. And then, all of a sudden, out of the fog looms a peak, part of the glacier. The fog began to dissipate and the most miraculous view appeared before us, the glacier, the ocean, the green hills below us... it was like looking down from Mt. Olympus. We took a shot of Brennivin at the Glacier 'bar' the guide had set up. Now that shot was ice cold!
And finally, it was time for Vatnshellir Lava Caves. We were running a bit late, so a guide caught us up with our group once we were outfitted in our helmets and flashlight. Our guide took us through some huge caves, showing us where the lava had come through and formed different stake like shapes, goopy stakes to be more accurate. We saw large deposits of calcium and magnesium along with a healthy bacteria that is found nowhere on Earth except that cave.
As our journey came to a close, we drove from the peninsula to Keflavik, where our final resting place was and where the airport is. It was an amazing journey and I was so happy to have Anjali along with me as we discovered the magic and beauty of Iceland.
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