Day 10

Day 10

Its our last full day in Iceland and we really didn't anything pre planned so we decided to join a tour to the Prihnukagigur volcano.  It wasn't your ordinary volcano site seeing trip. Of course the weather was the worst its been since we have been here.  The volcano is located in the Blue Mountains South of Reykjavik.  There was a very small ski area where we parked.  It was about an hour hike over very a rough lava field.  It rained hard for a while, then it sleeted and even a bit of snow and of course it was very windy also.  The actual tour of the volcano was inside the crater.  We were lowered on high rise window cleaning scaffold down about 450 feet into the bottom of the crater. The opening at the top is only about 10 feet wide by 15 feet across. This was probably the best thing we have done while we we here. The volcano was created about 450 million years ago.  You could actually see where the lava had flowed up the crater and then cooled as it flowed back down.  We got to explore the bottom of the crate for about 30 minutes before riding the scaffold elevator back up.  They tour company had a nice little shack with lamp soup to warm us up after being in the cold crater.  After a short rest and purchasing a couple cool T shirts, we had to hike back to the parking area.  It started out sunny but he quickly turned to rain and sleet again,  By the time we got back we soaked even with good rain gear.  How many people can say the have actually been to the bottom of a volcano crater??

After  a shower and a nap back a the hotel we walked into the main center of the city for dinner at the restaurant Reykjavik.  They had an outstanding buffet with all kinds of local seafood and meats.  It was by far the best meal we have had here in Iceland.  We were so full afterwards we walked around the bay and other parts of the city for about 2 hours.

Our flight tomorrow doesn't leave until 4:20 PM so we will have some time to do a little more sight seeing in Reykjavik before we leave.

Its been a great adventure and another thing on our bucket list to cross off.  If you ever have a chance to visit, I highly recommend it, just maybe come in the the summer!

Day 9

Day 9

A big surprise this morning as we were leaving the hotel, SUNSHINE.  It didn't last long, it was gone and raining by the time we made our first stop at the Geyser park.  There are a couple of small geysers there but only 1 erupts about every 10 minutes.  The others haven't erupted for several years, but whenever there is volcanic activity they seem to erupt.

Our final water fall of the trip was the Gullfoss waterfall.  It the most powerful waterfall in Iceland and supposedly more powerful than Niagara Falls.  It was pretty awesome with huge amounts of water.

About a 2 hour drive to the Blue Lagoon thermal pools. The water is blue because of the high silica content.  The silica is supposed to be good for whatever ails you especially skin conditions.  The most unusual thing is that the water come from deep underground and is 1/3 salt water and 2/3 fresh water.   It was a cool place but we only got to stay about an hour, we had to get the rental car back by 6PM.

So were back where we started in Reykjavik. We drove 2673 kilometers in 8 days (thats about 1660 miles).  Its been a fantastic adventure but we still have one more thing to do tomorrow.  It sounds really exciting so stay tuned.

Day 8

Day 8

Another cold and windy day, but by now were getting used to it.  I have been wearing 2 layers under my jacket and staying warm.  A fairly long drive this morning along the west coast through the town of Borgarnes and a stop at the Icelandic Settlement Center.  The center has very good exhibits about the early Viking and Norwegian settlements in Iceland.  We both found it very interesting and educational.  The next stop was the Snorri Saga Center. Snorri Struluson was one of the great Viking leaders between 1179 and 1241.  He was considered one of the most influential men in the early developmet of Iceland and its governance.  This was also very informative and educational.  A quick stop at the Dieldartunguhver hot spring, the largest hot spring in Europe. Guess what our next stop was??  A waterfall, actually this water fall is very different in that the the water flows right out of the rocks and it pretty cool.  The falls are named Barnafossar (Child falls)  The story behind the name is that there was a stone arch built over the falls. The family who lived there was going to church, but two of the children did not go. They we told to stay away from the arch but did not listen and were playing on the arch.  When the family came home, the could not find the kids who had fallen of the arch into the falls.  The mother demanded that the arch be torn down so no other kids would fall into the falls.

A long drive around the Hvalfjorour Fjord and them to Pingvellir National Park.  This is where the European continental plate meets the North American continental plate.  The plates are moving further apart by about 2 cm every year.  The Continental Ridge is the main reason for all of the volcanic activity in Iceland.  You can actually walk right down the middle of where the 2 plates are moving.  Most of the large activity took place about 2000 years ago.  Just a short drive to our hotel, It really a farm with a few cabins, but a very nice and friendly place.  Its a working dairy farm out in the country.  

Oh, I forgot to mention the 6km tunnel under the Fjord we drove through today.  The toll was $8.82 US, very expensive just like everything else here.  Our dinner at the farm was $86.47 US and it wasn't anything special.  I was going to have a cocktail but it was $18 US and $35 US for a beer.

The farm has an outdoor hot tub with water right out of the ground.  We tried it out but the water was way to hot to even get in.  I'm guessing it had to be over 110 degrees.

So we are almost all the way around the Island.  And few stop tomorrow including the Blue Lagoon for some swimming and then back where we started in Reykjavik.  We have 2 nights there and will leave for home on Sunday afternoon.

Day 7

Day 7

As usual the day started out cold, windy but with a ray or 2 of sun.  We drove across Vatnsskaro Pass to the town of Blundos.  In case you don't have a map, it on the north side of the island. On to the village of Hvammstangi and we visited the Icelandic Seal Center.  Yesterday it was whales and today we learned all about seals.  The area around Hvammstangi is supposed to be the best place in Iceland to spot seals, but we didn't see any.  From there it was a long drive to the Snaefellsness peninsula and through the Snaefelljokull national park.  We took a short hike to the top of a crater and that was great.  The Snaefelljokull volcano is covered with a glacier and was the site of the original movie, Journey to the Center of the Earth.  By this time the fog had rolled in a we could not see even a quarter of the way up the Volcano.  We did manage to hike down the beach and take some great pictures from some of the lava flows.  There was even an old shipwreck washed up on the beach of a British fishing trawler from the 1940's. We tried to do the Viking test of strength by lifting different size boulders on to a platform.  We would have both been whimpy Vikings.  The is also a cool lava formation call the rock with a hole in it near the beach. The waves crashing on the lava formations were really big. The fog and drizzle  got worse and the visibility was down to about 200 feet.  Since we couldn't see anything we drove on to the village of Stykkisholmur where our hotel was.  We had a very nice dinner in the only open restaurant in town and then walked around the harbor and up to an old light house.

Day 6

Day 6

There was alight dusting of snow on the ground this morning.  We haven't actually seen the sun since Friday morning.  We continued heading west and over another mountain pass with lots of snow still on the ground.  The main highway around the island is Highway 1.  We have taken a few other roads but for the most part we have been on Highway 1.  Part of the road on Highway 1 today was just a gravel road.  More snow and rain as we drove and back towards the coast.  Our first stop was in the small fishing village of Husavik.  We went to the Husavik Whale center and learned just about everything there is to know about whales.

Does it seem like Iceland has lots of really big and cool waterfalls.  It does to me and our next stop today was the Godafoos falls (the falls of the Gods). Someone should do some research to see which island has the most waterfalls. The story behind the falls is that when the Vikings decided to accept Christianity, they threw their Pagan gods into the falls.  It was also a double falls with tons of water going over them.  After the falls we drove through the Oxnadalir valley and over Oxnadalsheidi Pass.  We finally had some sun this afternoon for a while and it warmed up to a whopping 8 degrees C.  Down the other side of the pass to our hotel in the small village of Varmahlio.  It was early so we decide to continue north to Saudarkrokur another small fishing village on the Skagafjordur Fjord.  It was after 5 so everything was closed.  We plan to go back in the morning to see the local museum.  We stopped  for a few minutes at the beach to look for shells but the wind made it really cold even though the sun was out.  We could see some islands off in the distance that looked like giant rocks sticking out of the water.  About a 20 minute drive back to the hotel only to fond out the only restaurant (in the hotel) is closed since its still off season.  We ended up going to the little grocery store down the road and buying some salami, Gysir bread and chips for dinner.  It was starting to rain again on the way back and its been cloudy and raining off and on as I write the blog tonight.

Yes, it still off season in Iceland.  That has meant that many of the local attractions and tours are closed or not operating.  It has also meant there are very few tourist.  The good things is what is open is not crowded and there traffic has been extremely light.  Some mornings we only see 1 or 2 other cars on the road.  If we ever come back it will definitely be in the summer.  We're having a great time despite the cold weather, we still have lots more to see and do with a really cool tour planned for Saturday.

Day 5

Day 5

Today started cold and rainy again but it soon turned to snow as we traveled west.  It was our first day going inland and away from the coast.  We drove over one of the highest mountain passes, it was only about 575 meters at its highest point.  There was still lots of snow on the ground and it snowing the entire time driving over the pass.  It was sort off like skiing in flat light.  The only thing different from the sky and the ground was the dark colored road.  After a while is got kind of disorienting.  We never saw any maintenance vehicles to sand or plow.  If fact we have only seen a couple of highway maintenance vehicles the whole trip. The snow was only sticking to the roads where the winds had blown it.  We suspect the use the geothermal to heat the roads even on the mountain passes.  We did see one vehicle that looked like it had rolled by the side of the road, but the road wasn't slick.  The roads are narrow with not much shoulder, so maybe they just ran off the side.

Our first stop of the day was at the Dettifoss waterfall.  The parking lot only had a few spots, most it was still covered with snow.  It was about a 2KM hike in slushy wet snow out to the falls.  There are actually 2 large falls here, Selfoss and Dettifoss.  As I was crossing the lava to the Sellfoss falls, I started to see small streams of water in the rocks.  The next thing I knew I was almost in the main water channel of at the top of the falls.  I turned around to see where Linda was and she was way back looking at me like "what the heck are you doing".  Anyway I got some good pictures and video.  We turned around and the hiked about another KM to the Dettifoss falls.  We couldn't see the entire falls because the access to the best viewing on the edge of the canyon had too much snow and ice.  Dettfoss is 44 meters high and a flow of 212 tons per second.  It is thought to be the most powerful waterfall in all of Europe (in case you didn't know, Iceland is part of Europe). A 2KM hike back to the parking lot and it was getting colder, windier and snowing harder.

The next stop was at the Krafta geothermal area.  There is a very small ski hill here with one short lift.  Its a very active geothermal area with lots of steam vents and volcano craters.  We had hoped to do some hiking to one of the craters but it was raining and snowing with a very cods wind so we decided not too.  There is also a geothermal power generating station here.  I am guessing they also use the hot water to heat the roads.  Still no tress or bushes anywhere.

Namafjall is a mountain just south of the Krata area.  We stopped there to see the steam vents, mud pots and pools of boiling water.  Someone was cooking a loaf of Gysir bread in one of the steam vents (more about Gysir bread later).

Finally it was on to lake Mynatn.  A very large lake created from previous volcanic activity.  There is lots of evidence of previous lava flows everywhere.  The were several Pseudo craters right across from our hotel.  We stopped for a light lunch at the Vogafjo's Cowshed restaurant. It actually a working dairy cowshed with a gift shop and restaurant.  They have windows where you can see the cow stalls and the milking machines.  If you are there at 5:30 AM or 6 PM you can help mike the cows.  All the food is local and fresh.  The lamb soup comes from lambs raised on the farm.  The make there own Gysir bread and its soooo good.  the Gysir bread is baked in the ground from the geothermal heat.  The extreme heat caramelizes the bread and makes it very sweet.  They even had homemade ice cream with the bread mixed in and it was fabulous.  After  the snack it was on the the Hrossaborg thermal pools. The pools use the  hot water from natural geothermal wells.  The water has an erie blue color and like most hot springs a strong sulphur odor.  There are a few different pools with varying temperatures.  One is even very cold to cool off in.  I couldn't get all the in but Linda did a couple of times.  Her reward was a stop back at the cowshed for more Gysir bread ice cream on the way back to the hotel.  We spent about an hour and a half in the pools before we managed to get our toasted bodies back to the hotel.  We had a late dinner in the hotel  and took a short hike around the pseudo craters before crashing early.

A couple of thing I haven't mentioned is the quality of the hotels, food and friendliness of the people.  Our hotels have all been excellent, clean and fairly modern.  They all have had breakfast included and the food has been very good.  The food at the restaurants is one of the better surprises.  I was expecting dried fish and bread, but the food choices have been very good and the quality of the food has been excellent.  I even found a dark beer that was really good. The people have been very friendly and all speak english.  The hotel staff is very welcoming and helpful.  The wait staff in the restaurants has been very friendly and helpful with understanding the menu and choices.  Most menus are in Icelandic and english.  Paying is very simple, you pay for everything with a credit card.  I got about $10,000 Kronos for cash from an ATM when we got here and I haven't used any of it.  All in all the people of Iceland are friendly and very accommodating.

Day 4

Today was mostly driving along the Southeast coast and Fjords.  Only a couple of stops. one at a large water fall and the other for lunch in a small fishing village.  I did upload a few pictures from today.  I had the video camera running n the car, but I have no way to upload them directly from the canera, so I will have to wait unitl we get home.

The weather was cold and windy again today and we even had a bit of snow as we were leaving Hofn. Driving in Iceland is fairly easy even though we can't read the signs.  All of the major roads outside the large cities are only 2 lanes.  Most of the bridges ( and there are a lot of them) are only single lane and you have to take turns crossing.  Some of the road we were on tioday was just gravel. The maximum speed limit is 90 KM/HR which is about 60 MPH.  The roads are in good shape but probably not safe to drive much faster.  Today there was very little traffic, I guess because it was Sunday.  Mostly just tourists on the roads.  Most of the business and shops were closed everywhere since it was Sunday.

The Fjords were spectacular, but very different from the ones in Alaska,  There is still no trees or bushes. just the grass and moss on the mountains and coastlines.  In the Alasaka fjords the mountains drop right into the ocean.  Here there is still a small flat coastal plain between the mountains and the water. We did finally see a few trees where we are staying tonight. There are funny looking pine trees that I have never seen before, We aslo drove over a mountain pass that still had a lot of snow.  The highest elevation was only about 975 meters.

They have a local legend here about the LagarfljotsWorm, Icelands most renowned water monster and supposedly the sister to the Loch Ness Monster.  We took a couple of picutres next to a poorly done likeness.

I created a new folder on Dropbox for the picutres from Linda's cameras and I am trying to upload them but our WiFi and internet access at the hotel in really bad, so they might not all get uploaded for a few days.

I have been checking the radar and my web cams at home at it looks like we only have about 3-4 inches of snow so far and its melting on the roads.  Also the radar shows most of the heavy snow is all around Shaffers Crossing, but only light snow at home right now.

The official sunset is at 10:23 tonight ( in about 7 minutes)  I will take a picture then and just before I go to bed so you can see how light it still is.  I remember in Alaska only think it was about 7 PM when it actuall 11 PM.  Dusk just goes on and on.

Tomorrrow is Dittifoss, the largest waterfall in Iceland, some cool geothemal and volcanic areas and end the day at Lake Myvatn with a relaxing soak at the thermal pools.

Oh, one last thing.  I had my first Viking beer at dinner tonight and it was really BAD.

Day 3

Day 3

I didn't sleep very well last night, a combination of the time difference and my feet hurt from all the hiking and climbing.  Breakfast at the hotel and we continued heading east along highway 1.  Our first stop was for gas, it was only $8.76 (US dollars) a gallon after the exchange rate. Now I am happy to be driving this under powered roller skate.  Our next stop turned out to be a wild goose chase of sorts.  We spent about 30 minutes driving around but could not fine the location we were looking for.  So on down the road heading for the Skaftafell National Park.  We drove through Skeioarasandur (don't ask me to pronounce any of the places)  It's vast tracts of black sandy desert washed down by the glacial rivers.  We stopped at the park visitors center an watched a video on the glacial eruption that happened in 1996.  Along the road you could still see all the devastation it caused, not so much from the actual eruption but from the glacial floods from the melting snow.  Imagine enough water to float part of the glacier so the water can escape underneath the glacier.  That's a lot of water.  We also stopped at a couple of the Vatnajokull glacier out flows. the coolest one was the Breioamerkurjokull Glacier located at Jokulsarton.  These out flows are huge.  We were able to get up close the the river and see the icebergs that had broken off the glacier and heading out to sea.  This is the second place I have seen a river flowing upstream from the ocean due to  the tidal currents. The other was in British Columbia.  The weather was really rainy, windy and cold most of the day.  I dressed warmer today than yesterday but it still wasn't enough, so tomorrow its even more layers.  Just about an hours drive from Jokulsarton to our hotel in the little village of Hofn, located on the Southeast part of the island.  Its a quant little fishing village.  It reminded both of us of some the fishing villages in Alaska, but with a German style.  Today was a much shorter day we arrived in Hofn around 6:30 PM.

Its looks like some sun tomorrow but still cold, only about 39 degrees.  That might be better than what I hear were supposed to get at home tomorrow 10-20 inches of heavy wet snow.  Hopefully it will all be melted by the time we get back.

Overall my impression so far is that Iceland is a truly unique place.  We have been to other volcanic areas in the northern hemisphere including Hawaii, Alaska and Oregon.  Iceland is very different from all 3.  One of the most noticeable things is the lack of vegetation.  There are very few trees or bushes anywhere. Mostly the flat barren plains near the cost, the tall shear cliffs and the very high snow covered mountains.  There is a lot of nothing for miles and miles.  

One of the interesting things is there is good cell coverage almost everywhere and free WiFi in the hotels and cafes.  Oh and by the way, it gets dark around 11PM and gets light around 4AM.  That makes it even harder to sleep when your internal clock is 6 hours behind the local time.

Day 2

Day 2

Had a nice breakfast at our hotel this morning. it was a typical European style food.  Went to pick up the rental car around 8:00 and we were really excited when they told us the car was brand new and had never been driven even though it was a tiny Hyundai Aleio.  Not quite the Lamborghini I dove a few weeks ago.  The funny thing was the rental car agent went to move it from where it was parked and backed it right into a pole.  I could see it was going to happen but there was nothing I could do.  Luckily it only bent the license plate a little.  So back to the hotel to load up our bags on off we went.  

We thought we knew the way out of town but we decided to set the GPS for our first destination anyway.  Well after driving what seemed liked the wrong direction for 20 minutes we decided to pull over and check the map.  Once we figured out where we were and which way was north, we realized we were on the correct road and going the right direction.

First Stop the Hellishedi Geothermal power plant.  The generate all of the electricity for the capital city of Reykjavik from steam turbines from the naturally generated steam from all of the volcanic underground activity.  The also pipe the hot water to Reykjavik at @900 degrees for heating and water heating.  99% of the city get it heat from this plant, the also use the hot water to heat the streets and sidewalks to melt snow and ice.  The average monthly utility bill for a house is only @$65/month.  Thats really low considering everything else here is about double what things cost in the US.  Anyway the tour of the plant was cool.

We continued Southeast along highway 1, saw a lot of cool waterfalls and climbed to the top of one of them.  The weather was sunny in the morning but got cloudy and a little chilly in the afternoon.  Also went to an early family settlement from the 1700's.   Stopped at the Myrdalsjokull glacier and took a short hike to get a close up look.  This is one of the smallest glaciers in Iceland. The last stop of the day was along the coast to see some really cool cliffs and the black sandy beaches.  All of the beaches we have been to so far have been very fine black sand.  Drove just past the town on Vik to our hotel which was out in the country but it was very nice.  We had a good dinner and then sat in the hot tub for a while and then crashed.  It was a long day, left at 8:30 AM and arrived at the hotel around 8:30 PM.

Day 1

Long line to check in at the airport, but the flight was fine.  We weren't sure how IcelandAir would be but they plane was fairly new and the seats actually had some legroom.  It was an overnight flight but neither of us got much sleep on the plane.  We arrived in about 6:30 A.M. and it was about a 40 minute ride to our hotel.  Since it was so early we couldn't check into the hotel.  It was a cold and rainy day but we spent most of the day doing some sight seeing and window shopping in Reykjavik.  We went to a movie about the Volcano's and we almost fell asleep we were so tired from being up for over 24 hours.

It was about 3:30 PM before we got back to the hotel. we both crashed and slept until about 7 AM.  Were off to pick up the car this morning and will head to the southern part of the Island today.  I'll try and post a few pictures later today.

Here is a link to most of the pictures I have taken so far.  Its too many to upload directly to the blog, so using dropbox the easiest way to get them from my phone quickly.  I post the blog for Day 2 in the morning.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wtn3zs00056u091/AAAfEFrkpUwYTo2xTtM-Ke_ua

I have a little more energy tonight so I am trying to sort the pictures by each day.  You should now see a folder for each day in Dropbox.

Iceland Adventure 2014

We leave for Iceland on Wednesday evening. We've both been trying to figure out what to pack. The weather forecast is around 50 in the daytime and 40 at night.  We will be spending a lot of time outside, so packing correctly is a big deal.

I will try to update the blog every day, but it will all depend on if I have an internet connection.  Our itinerary  is to drive the entire island in 9 days and some of the places we will stay are very small and remote.

i'm not looking forward to the jet lag.  Its a 6 hour time difference which means i will have to try to go to sleep at 6 pm and get up around 2AM Denver time.  Iceland has about 18 hours of daylight right now, so that should make it even worse.

I expect my first post from Iceland to be sometime Thursday or Friday.  Keep tuned in.