March Break 2018 – Trip to Iceland
by Lisa
This year we decided to something a little different for March break. Our normal destination is somewhere south – warm, with a beach, and all inclusive (so I don’t have to cook!). But for 2018, we headed in the other direction, north. Cold, with beaches, but not really swimming weather. This year, to Iceland we go.
It’s a self-guided driving tour of the south and west of Iceland. Car and accommodations are booked through a tour company. So its only sight-seeing spots we need to find. Below is a map of the route we plan to take.
Friday, March 9 to Sunday, March 11 – Getting There
Our flight was scheduled for Friday night, 8pm. Got to the airport around 5pm, and went to park car at long-term parking. Despite having pre-booked and paid for a spot, apparently the lot was full. But no worries say the lot attendants, we’ve upgraded you to valet parking. Leave us the car and keys, and it will be waiting at the terminal for you upon your return. Ok.
Checked in with plenty of time, had some dinner after going through security, then waited to board. Boarded the plane on time, and pushed back from the gate. Then sat for a bit. And a bit more. Captain came on the horn and said there’s a problem with the electrical, we’re going back to the gate to get it fixed. Back to the gate. Sat some more. And some more. And some more. Captain comes on the horn again, and says, we’re going to off-board, as it may take a bit more time to fix the problem. So off we get, back into the terminal. And wait. And wait some more. And some more. Its now 1am, and we get the news – flight is cancelled for tonight. Pick up your bags, and we’ll rebook you all for tomorrow. O-K.
Grab our bags, figure out our rebooking, then decide to take a cab back home (leaving the car in valet parking). On cab ride home, realize the only house keys we have are with the car keys, with the valet parking! O-K. But, we realize, we have a hidden spare key. Then we realize its for the back door, which has a kick-lock on it. O-K. Let’s find a hotel downtown then. So we check into the downtown Intercontinental, and get some sleep.
Next day, we’ve got a day to kill, so we have some lunch (late wake-up) then have a walk down to harbourfront. Back to the hotel, then take the UP Express train from Union station back to the airport, arriving at about 5pm for our 7:30pm rebooked flight. We’ve missed our first day/night in Iceland, but O-K.
Get checked in (again), through security (again), and have something to eat (again). Then wait for our flight. And wait. And wait (again). Turns out the mechanics fixing the plane came in on the regular scheduled flight from Iceland, which arrived only about an hour before our rescheduled flight was supposed to leave. So, no 7:30pm departure. Instead, we wait until almost midnight, before we finally board the plane. But all go from there, and we are on our way to Iceland.
Arrive in Keflavik around noon, have a bite to eat at the airport, then pick up our rental car. Hit the road an we’re on our way to our first hotel, about a 4 hour drive away.
On the way, about two and a half hours into our drive, we get passed by a speeding police car, then a speeding ambulance. Up ahead, we learn there has been an accident, and it has blocked the only road east, the one we are heading down to our guesthouse. So, with all the other cars, we wait. And wait. And wait. A 5 hour wait, before the road ahead is cleared. It’s dark now, but we’re finally on our way. Arrive at the guesthouse at about 11pm, and check-in for the night.
Monday, March 12 – A Glacier to Hofn
I can’t spell the name of the glacier. It’s a gigantic national park about 1.25 hours from our hotel.
We did the 3.4 km hike uphill hike to see the Svartfloss (falls in front of black basalt columns). The wind was brutal – 34km an hour. It may not be that cold but the windchill makes it feel around-15. It was 😎. I’ve included a photo to show just how nothing there is. Suddenly it makes sense that Bjork wore a swan dress. There is nothing else here!
We got our 10000 steps in before lunch. Which was cold from the cafeteria because the power went out. Which also meant no water (sensing taps) or toilets. We made a pit stop at a gas station further down the road which had power.
We’ve also learned the worth of the RBC. Claire and my credit cards work fine. Darryl’s TD and CIBC cards not so much. He’s called them (from our four hour roadside stop) and there is nothing they can do, its fraud detection. Geez.
After the falls we drove to see the glacier a tongue of the glacier I can’t spell. More wind. Couldn’t walk on it, but we closer it really well. Darryl also got to do some off-roading with the studded tires. He loved that.
Then we visited Crystal Beach. It’s a black sand beach where ice floats up to. The contrast is stunning. Across the street from this beach is a lagoon where icebergs calf off of the glacier. Even windier! In summer they have boat trips to follow them out to sea.
We chased down a few more glaciers, but were thwarted by washed out bridges. We then drove to the town of Hofn which was teeny but hopping. Not surprising when there is no where else to eat or stop.
Dinner was delicious but pricey- as expected. $200 for three entrees, two desserts, and a beer. Wow! But it was delicious and beautiful. No photo. Phone was forgotten in the car.
We are back at our hotel and hoping for a regular night sleep. Tomorrow we have a 5.5 hour drive to Geysir and want to stop along the way for somethings we missed because of the accident delay as well as the new things to see – like the Geysir! (That’s how you spell it here. We apparently stole the word)
😘😘😘
Tuesday, March 13 – If it’s Tuesday this must be Geysir?
Didn’t send an email off yesterday evening due to the daily hiccup – no heat in our hotel room.
Today we were schooled by Mother Nature. Monday was a breeze compared with today’s gale force winds. It was a good day to be mostly driving.
We made a quick stop back at the Crystal Beach as some better “bergy bits” had washed in.
Our next stop was the Church Floor to see the naturally occurring basalt tiling. I was impressed. We also stopped to take photos of the moss covered lava field. As we drove past the volcano that caused all the trouble in 2010 we tried to be impressed.
Then it was straight through to our main destinations of the day Gullfoss and Geysir.
They sign in front of Gullfoss claims to be better than “the American Niagara Falls”. Maybe, but it hasn’t got anything on our falls.
The geysers were interesting and kind of creepy the way the ground can sneak up and attach you. I got some good photos of the explosion.
Today it’s on to Thingellvir. Seems windy and overcast today.
PS. I forgot to mention the creepy statue. I don’t know what it’s for but sits outside a hotel under construction. I was also on the hunt for the three eyed raven! Winter is here!
Wednesday, March 14 – Game of Thrones Country
If you don’t watch GoT, you won’t understand any of the references. Too bad for you!
Today we visited Thingvellir Park. Important to Icelandic culture as this is where chieftains met every year for parliament until the Danes decided to take the island over. Important geographically, because this is where the North American and European plates meet and create a Rift Valley. But mostly important because this is where the Eyrie is filmed in GoT.
Let me tell you, they have not had to fake any of the weather on the show. It is cold, windy, gloomy and wet all on its own. So gloomy many of my photos didn’t turn out today. Also very icy. Some places even looked like they could stand in for The Wall.
Claire is doing her best Sansa impression as she gets marched to see her aunt. She also did a passable Littlefinger, but I didn’t include that.
We then had lunch on the road to get to our next destination near Husafell. Darryl wanted to visit a volcano thing. Everything here is outrageous. $250 per person for a 1/2 hour walk on a glacier!!! This lava tube was way out in the middle of nowhere (although most of Iceland is). For just under $90 per person we got to walk on a boardwalk with a guided tour of a lava tube (600m long). Our tour guide was English naturally. He was a funny foil for the Icelanders. The winter is the time to visit as the caves are full of ice sculptures caused by drips from the porous basalt roof. Unfortunately, it was difficult to capture their true beauty in a photograph.
Tonight and tomorrow we are in a tiny guesthouse. We met a fellow guest when we arrived. She is travelling solo so we invited her to join us for dinner. She is originally from Japan but has been living in Hawaii for 30 years. It was a pleasant dinner and lovely to meet her.
To bed now, for tomorrow we tackle the Snuffleupaguss or some other long Icelandic named place.
Thursday, March 15 – Beyond the Wall
TODAY’S 1st WORLD PROBLEMS
- Portable wifi slow to load GoT trivia
- Forgot belt – so have to pause to pull up pants when walking
- Rain – parka ☹️
- Having to listen to the same Ed Sheeran and Pink songs (as good as they may be) over 5 times a day on Iceland radio
- The waiter forgot our beer and water ☹️
Today we ventured Beyond the Wall (another GoT reference). We thought there was nothing before, there was absolutely nothing today. Well, there was rain, cold, and we found the wind again.
We did find lava fields, lava valleys, and some up thrust lava sculptures. We also found the god of Snaefellsnes and a black church in the middle of nowhere.
We also found out it was Claire’s jumping and spinning day (small sample provided more available for future embarrassment purposes). And being on the western most point we waved to Canada, so we hope you were looking.
When we got back to our guesthouse area we visited the local museum for an hour of Icelandic history. Then back to the only restaurant in town where we ran into our friend from yesterday and had dinner together again.
We asked the Snaefellesnes god for clear weather this evening as it is our last chance to catch the Northern Lights. Here’s hoping our prayers are answered.
Friday, March 16 – Reykjavic
Today we finally got to the big city. As we were leaving our guesthouse our host asked us why we would want to come here. Seemed strange until we got here. I can see his point. The architecture is not unique or stunning (just like every where else on this island). It’s not thoughtfully laid out or particularly easy to navigate. It does not have a stunning waterfront. There are not amazing museums or sights. It’s meh.
We started at the church, a highlight of the city. There are many churches in Iceland and they are all the same – like the black one from yesterday. They are usually white with red trim and roof – once in a while you see blue, black was so fancy it made the guidebook. They come in four sizes tiny, small, medium, and large and are common across the countryside. Today’s church is all grey and humongous. That is all that makes it different. Ok, there are some architectural differences, but it is clearly part of the theme. Inside it is bright, sparse, with clean lines. That’s it.
We then walked the streets. We found a really ugly city hall with the sculpture showing how trapped we are by work? We found the Canadian embassy (by chance). We navigated crazy construction on the waterfront to find the Solar sculpture (skeleton of a Viking ship). And that was all worthy of note.
We drove through rush hour traffic which seemed intense for such a tiny place to reach the Blue Lagoon for 5pm. We stretched ourselves to spend an hour in the hot spring pools. We then had a delicious (but very pricey) dinner at their restaurant Lava.
We were done and out the door by 8:30. Just in time to hop in the car to the picnic spot we had staked out on our way in. We were hoping that the clouds would clear enough to catch a Northern Light or two. Our luck was good today. We saw some. Not spectacular by any stretch. No colour and only some definition, but we watched five waves pass along with all the other people crammed into the tiny car park. Then the clouds rolled back in and the party was over. At least we checked every box off on our Iceland Adventure.
We’re already checked in for our flight home and hopefully this is our last night in Iceland and you won’t have to hear about our little excursions, adventures , or mishaps anymore.
