ICELAND 2019

Day 1:
We drove from airport to Vik after taking an overnight flight. Of course that was after Mike was on call for 24 hours the day before so that was even tougher for him. Even so there were great waterfalls to see on the way, skogafoss and seljalandfoss waterfalls being the biggest.

We stopped at the Eldasto cafe for lunch where we had delicious lamb stew and smoked salmon sandwich. There were lots of farm restaurants along the way that looked good too.

We checked into our hotel in Vik and found a great restaurant right near the hotel called Smidjan Brugghus, with the best burgers and lots of local craft beer to choose from.

After dinner we walked along the black sand beach at midnight!

Day 2
Enroute to Hofn we made a quick stop at Mossy Lava Rocks, where the monster volcanic eruption of 1782 occurred, changing global climate for several years, including ice floes in the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi freezing, and brutal winters in Europe, most notably in France causing the famine of 1783 that precipitated the French Revolution.

We then drove to Fjadrargljufur Canyon...

We went on to Jokulsarlon Lagoon. The lagoon was amazing! Bright blue color with icebergs floating in it. You could take a boat or kayak around the lagoon.

We chose to hire a guide and walk up the largest glacier, Vatnajokull. The glacier is almost the size of Puerto Rico and is hundreds of feet deep and covered by a fine volcanic ash. It was impossible to maneuver without crampons.

We saw water falls and rivers that went down hundreds of feet, and crevices that looked bottomless. We climbed on ice ledges with ropes and went through an ice tunnel. Unfortunately the ice caves are only there in the winter.

Our guide said this was a wormhole.

Ice axes for decoration

Slippery Slope

Our French climbing buddies. They spoke about 5 words of English and Mike was doing his best to interpret LOL.

After our glacier climb, we headed to Hofn. Along the way, we found a little miniature Niagara Falls

We stayed at the hotel Hofn. Excellent hotel right on the water with great views of the mountains and glaciers. We had dinner at a cute little pub, Kaffi Hornid just down the road from the hotel. Excellent food. We ordered fish and chips but the lobster pizza is their signature dish - next time!

Day 3
In the morning, I went for a bike ride along the coast while Mike slept in. After breakfast we drove for 4 hours almost running out of gas. Lesson learned. We got to Seydisfjordue, a small coastal town with a rainbow road leading to the church.

We went to the Joystick building and met our kayaking guide, Leonard, who outfitted us for our kayak trip on the fjord.

The kayaking was easygoing and educational. We learned about a British oil freighter sunk in the middle of the fjord by a Luftwaffe fighter that is still leaking oil into the fjord. Leonard took us to the buoy marking the wreck and you could see (and smell) scummy oil on the surface. The fjord was still beautiful, though.

Our intrepid guide, Leonard

After kayaking, Leonard told us about two great waterfalls on the opposite side of the fjord that few know about. Great find!

We ate at a local restaurant and finally had the lobster pizza, definitely recommend it. We ended the day in Egilsstadir, at a local craft brewery sampling the beers.

At this point, we should introduce our super sweet ride, the legendary Fiat Panda, shown here being dwarfed by a Honda CRV.

Day 4:
Stopped to see Dettifoss, the falls with the highest volume of water in all of Europe. BTW foss means falls just in case you have not figured that out yet.

Next on to Namafjall geothermal area and Vita, a geothermal lake. Pictures do not do it justice. It is truly either the beginning or end of the earth.

For those interested in the latest in spa technology...

Or perhaps you prefer a steam sauna.

Lake Viti was formed from the crater of an old blasted out volcano.

We also made a stop at the geothermal power plant to learn how they are harnessing this energy to create electricity. Mike was fascinated by this process. We learned that 30% of all power in Iceland comes from geothermal sources the other 70% comes from hydroelectric power. Iceland is very green.

These geodesic domes were scattered around the hillsides. The super-pressurized steam is contained here and sent on via pipe to the power station.

After checking into the hotel in Myvatn, we relaxed at the geothermal natural spa. We both reached a point where we couldn’t take the sulfuric smell any longer. Wimpy Mike was nauseated for a day. Give us our hot tub back home any day.

We treated ourselves to an anniversary dinner at a local farm-to-table dinner at a farm house, vogafjos farm, where literally everything in the menu was either grown or raised on the farm. By far the best meal we have had in Iceland.

Mike is away from the table preparing to go harvest our food. They didn't tell us this was self-serve farm to table!

Because of the lingering effects of the sulfuric chemical warfare, Mike opted out of the whale watching trip on this boat.

Intrepid Kathy was all in!

Kathy saw at least a dozen humpback whales and hundreds of puffins on Puffin Island.

Kathy learned that puffins are not only cute and cuddly, but they are edible!

We stayed at nice cottage in Hvammstangi. We went to a cozy farmhouse in the middle of nowhere, for dinner, famous for their fish soup which I had. There was only 3 items on the menu. Mike had the fried trout and the other choice was lobster but not from Maine.

Day 6:
We made a wise decision in the morning not to go any deeper into the west fjords due to the long drive - 5 hours. Instead we hung around Hvammstangi and toured the Vatnsnesvegur peninsula in search of seals. We found one at the first stop and 5 or 6 at the second stop.

But at the 3rd stop, we hit the jackpot, seeing at least 50-75 seals sun bathing on the beach conveniently located across from a coffee shop.

After our triumphant day of seal hunting, we headed on to our next stop, a horse farm! On the way we checked out the site of 3 volcanoes that had erupted and left pretty cool craters.

We checked into our horse farm, then went into Borgarnes for pizza at La Cocota, owned by a man who moved to Iceland 30 years ago from Columbia and never left. Our waiter was from Poland. Apparently there is a big population from Poland here.

After eating we went to the car to find a flat tire. That added an unexpected challenge to our trip but we got it fixed.

Day 7:
The horse farm is located just outside Borgarnes. It is one of the nicest and least expensive hotels that we stayed in. Everyone was very friendly. It was on a horse farm with horses right outside our room.

Kathy talked Mike into horseback riding. Mike got Singur, a feisty gelding and Kathy got Coki, a sweet mare. The Icelandic ponies are very sweet. The experience confirmed that Mike truly is allergic to horses.

Mike was not thrilled to find out that our next stop was a dairy and horse farm.

But Kathy was. The best part of the dairy farm was the homemade ice cream served in the Ice Cream Barn. We had another farm-to-table dinner, this time decadent burgers with cheese, bacon and egg. We had this lovely view from our table of the cows eating their meals. There is something not quite right about that.

After dinner we went to Geysir to see the hot Springs and the great Geysers. The Strokkur erupts every ten minutes or so. It took us 3 tries to get the perfect video.

Day 8
We took a roundabout way to get to Thingfellir National Park. We walked along the "rift" which is where the North American tectonic plate abuts the Euro-Asian plate. It is the only place on earth where the two plates meet above sea level. It is definitely an area of seismic and volcanic activity as the plates shift.

After the park, it was time to head back into the big city - Reykyavik, population 125,000. It really is a beautiful city with a vibrant downtown and waterfront. One place of interest was the Chuck Norris Grill. We didn't go in.

We did decide to go into Magic Ice, where all the furniture and interior decor is made of ice. Had a few drinks, but it was too cold to stay long.

Day 9
Well, it was our last day. We decided to ease ourselves back into an American lifestyle by going to a very hipster place and ordering a breakfast Burrito, an omelette and Cafe Americano. Delicious. Time to head to the airport.