Day Four – The Windiest Road in Iceland…on a Windy Day

After Grimsvotn volcano erupted and prevented us from visiting the Westmann Islands, we hastily rearranged our plans for the day. We decided to head north and drive around Hvalfjordur (whale fjord), the biggest fjord in southwest Iceland, named for the many whales seen here by the original settlers. During World War II, British and American naval vessels were stationed in the deep fjord, which also was home to a huge open-air whaling station that was in operation from 1948 until 1989. Whales would be caught out in the ocean and dragged down the fjord to the whaling station. And, while this particular station is no longer in operation, after a 15 year moratorium whaling in Icelandic waters resumed in 2003.

No signs, but I think this is the whaling station

At the tip of the fjord is Iceland’s tallest waterfall, Glymur. Unfortunately, it appears that even this claim-to-fame isn’t enough to warrant placing a sign off the main road. We had no GPS and not a very detailed map, and found what we thought was the road leading to it, but as the road condition went from bad to worse we decided to turn around. When we looked at another map later we realized we probably had the right place, but it was impossible to know at the time. You’d think the Icelandic tourist board would put up a sign to their tallest waterfall!

We continued on around the fjord. Did I mention that this was the windiest day we’d experienced in Iceland? Iceland is windy, but this was crazy windy. There were even white caps on the ponds. The sky was also grey whereas the last few days it had been blue, and we wondered if this was ash from the volcano. So our little car was getting blown all over the road, and I was glad when we started to head inland. Until we hit a gravel road that went on for miles. Eventually we reached Reykholt, the home of Snorri Stulurson, the only known author of the Icelandic Sagas. Snorri wrote The Prose Edda, which contain almost all of what is known about Norse mythology. We visited the museum and then went out in a gale to find Snorri’s geothermal pool. Apparently he would sit in the pool and tell stories. Snorri built himself a geothermal pool which he accessed via a tunnel from his farmhouse. I can understand why he built that tunnel because it was so damn cold outside my hand froze when I took off my glove to take a picture.

Kirsty standing at the tunnel exit with Snorri's pool in front. At least the water was warm!

After that we stopped off at a geothermal hotspot where water spews out of the ground at a temperature of about 100 degrees Celsius. I thought it might feel nice and warm by the water but it didn’t. It was just steamy and smelled of sulphur. We took some pictures and were on our way.

Yeah, it's hot!

Our plan was to head back to the fjord but this time take the 6km tunnel under the fjord, instead of going back around it. We missed the turn that would take us slightly inland so we would avoid, according to the Rough Guide, the most dangerous part of road in Iceland. Apparently this road is very windy and is frequently shut down in winter because it’s so dangerous. And did I mention it was a windy day? After we missed the turn I was going to turn around but then I mentioned to Kirsty that where we were currently driving wasn’t anywhere near as windy as the earlier part when we’d been navigating around the bottom of the fjord, and that we’d have to drive a gravel road to avoid it, which I wasn’t keen on. We also noticed that a lot of cars were coming from the direction of the “dangerous” stretch of road, so how dangerous could it be, really? I decided we were going to risk it. This is where too much information can actually be dangerous, because it turned out to be just fine, and yet had we believed what our guidebook said, we might have avoided it. So there you go. Don’t believe everything you read.

The tunnel was cool. We went down and down forever (remember that it’s a deep fjord) and then, of course, up and up for just as far.

Since we were getting back to Reykjavik earlier than expected, we took a little side trip to Hafnarfjordur, which is apparently the home of the hidden people – elves, dwarves and other spiritual beings. Apparently a majority of Icelanders believe in them. We could have skipped this stop. It’s a very sleepy, unappealing harbor town, and aside from a hike up some lava rocks to a vantage point – not that the view is worth looking at – there’s nothing to do there. I suppose you could go and eat exorbitantly expensive authentic Viking food at the Viking restaurant, but we settled for some fresh-caught fish at Icelandic Fish and Chips, our local (and favorite) fish and chip restaurant down by the old harbor in Reykjavik.

Day Three – Water, Water Everywhere

I’ve taken numerous ferries, catamarans, and hovercraft across the English Channel. On one particular ferry crossing the sea was so rough there were only two people not hanging over the edge puking…myself and another guy, who I ended up dating for a year. I’ve sailed through the notoriously rough Bay of Biscay without a problem and taken a catamaran from Sorrento to Capri on seas so turbulent a lady was thrown from her seat….while my husband and I were sleeping in our seats across the aisle. I love turbulence on planes. I sailed dinghies in college. I had never been seasick. Until we went whale-watching in Iceland.

Ready to see some whales!

The journey started out just fine. We were warned that the sea was rough but I wasn’t bothered because I’ve never been seasick. We sat up on top of the boat. Then we started getting a bit wet as the boat sped up. (We took the fast boat that gets you to the whale grounds quicker…don’t do this.) Then a wall of water came over the side of the boat, and even though we were wearing special overalls, we were forced to retreat down below. And that’s where my troubles began. With the water coming in sheets over the windows, there was no horizon to look at, and I began to feel queasy. When the boat slowed down we went back up to look for the whales. I’m not sure how long we looked (in vain, sadly), but it was long enough that I started to feel better, although I had to move a bit when the kid next to me started spewing over the side.

At one point our guide said, “Minke whale, one o’clock!” But I must have been in the wrong time zone because I never saw it. Kirsty saw it but said it was just the back of the whale and it had disappeared by the time the guide called out. I think she was just trying to make me feel better. 😉 After our unfruitful search we started to head back to the harbor, and again we descended below to avoid getting soaked. Then people downstairs started puking all around me…and I lost it, too. Needless to say I’m not too keen on going whale-watching again and definitely don’t recommend Special Tours. They didn’t even stop at Puffin island, which was on the itinerary. When we asked about it they claimed there were no puffins at the island. If you’re keen to go whale-watching, try Elding which has a much bigger boat. Elding’s online diary entry for the same morning we went whale-watching states they saw three Minke whales and three puffins…

Nice view but no whales

We took a free tour of Reykjavik in the afternoon. The tour runs at 1pm every day, and is, in my opinion, a must-do…after all, it’s free! Oli, our guide, was not only entertaining but also source of useful information about the city and Iceland. Topics included the financial crash in 2008, when all 3 major banks declared bankruptcy, Iceland’s participation in the Iraq war – despite having no army, and the origins of Icelanders – apparently 70% of the first male Icelanders came from Norway, while 70% of the first female Icelanders came from Ireland…so you can pretty much work out what was going on there, if you know your Viking history.

Iceland's Parliament Building

Oli also gave us some other, perhaps not so useful information, such as showing us the hot dog stand from which Bill Clinton purchased a hot dog shortly before his heart attack, and mentioning that Iceland has so much water, it will probably be the last place in the world to run out of water, hence you can feel free to flush the toilet all day long without a guilty conscience.

Oli showing us the statue to the unknown civil servant

While I didn’t feel flushing the toilet constantly was a good idea, I did take an extra long shower…the shower in our room was so small I was constantly being attacked by the shower curtain but the showerhead was so powerful you had to be careful not to get thrown across the bathroom.

Since we were having a water-themed day, we decided to take a trip to Nautholsvik, the local, and free – after spending $60 to puke on a boat I needed something free! – outdoor geothermal pool. But this isn’t any old geothermal pool. This one has a beach, with sand imported from Morocco! And the best part is that this is where the locals go. The signs at Nautholsvik are only in Icelandic – most tourists don’t go here – and we were the only native English-speakers there. It was Sunday afternoon and the place was full of Icelandic families and friends hanging out. They have barbecues where you can grill your own food (I think…as I said, all the signs were in Icelandic so I really don’t know for sure) or it looked like you could buy your own hot dog at the kiosk and then grill it yourself.

Anyway, we had a nice time sitting in the narrow, shallow, geothermally-heated pool not being able to understand anyone around us! The kids would get their hot dogs and eat them in the pool, and I saw a guy drinking his coffee in there too. Anything goes in Iceland. It was quite comical, sitting in a 100 degree pool while it’s about 40 degrees outside and the people sitting at the tables around you are in coats and hats! But we had a good time.

Pretending to be an IcelanderNautholsvik beach

We ended our day with a trip to the Perlan, a museum at one of Reykjavik’s highest points. There’s a viewing deck outside that affords a great view of the city. We took the Rough Guide’s – and Oli’s – advice and didn’t eat at the revolving restaurant on the top, but just went for the free view.

View from the Perlan

One of the things that enabled us to go to Nautholsvik and Perlan was having a rental car, since they’re both a bit too far to walk. We rented a car because we had decided to take a trip to the Westmann Islands the next day and the best way to do that is to drive to the ferry crossing, about 2 hrs away. Tours don’t run there frequently so it’s best – in my opinion – to make your own way there. Of course, when we went to pick up the car the agent was washing off a car that had just returned from the West, where the volcano was erupting and in which direction we’d be heading, and recommended that we not go. The people who had brought the car back had a police escort for much of the journey, because the visibility was so bad. The agent told us that the ash would be everywhere, so we’d be breathing it in (not good) and wouldn’t be able to see anything anyway.

I had really hoped to visit the Westmann Islands, where you can walk up the sides of the volcanoes that erupted as recently as 1973, and still feel the warm lava, as well as see the largest puffin colony in Iceland. But it was not to be. So we planned a route north, away from the volcano, for Day 4.

Day Two – In a Rift and on the Ice

Iceland lies on top of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates – hence all the seismic activity. These plates are pulling the entire country apart, but you can best see the effect at Thingvellir,  where the rift in the valley floor is four kilometers wide and 40 meters deep. You can walk in the chasm created over the centuries by the activity of the subterranean plates. The rift gets 1.5cm larger each year. Thingvellir is also the site of Iceland’s first parliament, where, from the tenth century until 1798, Iceland’s chieftains would gather at the site every year, although from the images we saw it looked a lot more fun than modern government.

Kirsty in the rift at Thingvellir

We drove to Thingvellir in our little rental car. Not wanting to be herded around on a tour bus, and having researched prices and discovered that renting would cost the same as – or maybe even less than – taking a tour (in addition to giving us a lot more autonomy on where we went and how long we stayed) we decided a car was the best option. We also decided that I should drive, since Icelanders drive on the right, which I’m used to, and since Kirsty is a better navigator than I am, although she’ll admit that some of the back roads in Iceland even had her confused! Only problem was that the car was manual. Although my first car was stick shift, and I swore at the time I never wanted an automatic vehicle, I haven’t driven a stick shift in over 10 years! So it took a little getting used to, and occasionally I forgot I was driving a manual, but I think I only stalled it a couple of times…

Driving in Iceland is, on the whole, pretty easy. There’s one big ring road that encircles the exterior of the country, so you basically follow that. The minor roads that lead to the interior, however, are gravel and they take some getting used to. We actually had to pay for “gravel protection” on the car…it was only 800Kr (about $7) but worth it when we could hear rocks pinging off the sides of the car for miles.

So after a stop at Thingvellir we made our way to Vik, which is about 2 hrs east of Keflavik, on Iceland’s southern coast. Along the way we passed through some small towns, lots of farms, most of them with sheep, and some gorgeous waterfalls. When you’re driving in Iceland N1, the major gas/service station in the country, becomes your friend. N1 is so much more than a gas station, though. My favorite was the Vik N1, which aside from the standard convenience store selling hot dogs (pylsur), had a full cafe where Kirsty and I enjoyed a toasted ham and cheese with french fries for just 750Kr, which by Icelandic price standards is really cheap! We timed our lunch very well because as we were finishing up a bus tour arrived. The image below is the view from the cafe of Vik’s beautiful volcanic sand beach.

The bay at Vik

Church in Vik

After a stop at the wool outlet next door to N1 we headed back east to Solheimajokull, the glacial tongue that comes down from the glacier Myrdalsjokull. To get to the glacier we had to drive 5km on the rockiest, bumpiest road I have ever been on, complete with some water crossings. Thankfully our little car made it, although we were really glad for that gravel protection.

At the end of the gravel road we met up with Mountain Guides, the company that was taking us glacier walking. Our guide, Jon, showed us how to put on our crampons and use our ice axe (i.e., carefully!) and we set off up the glacier. There were about 10 of us – the other people had taken a bus from Reykjavik with Mountain Guides. As we walked up the glacier Jon pointed out the volcanic sand domes – the sand collects as the glacier moves and creates a little mound – that Icelanders call Trolls to keep children off the glaciers. You might expect a glacier to be white but it’s surprisingly black and grey because of the volcanic sand that gets thrown around every time there’s an eruption.

Volcanic sand "Troll"

Volcanic sand makes the glacier black

We had to follow where Jon walked because there are lots of holes in the ice. These holes start out very small but as the melting ice flows into them they get bigger and bigger and become huge sinkholes. The entire glacier is moving downhill, pushing everything along in its path.

Just to prove I really was there!

As we were heading back down the glacier we saw a group ice climbing. Jon told us they were guides from Mountain Guides practicing their skills. We stopped to watch them for a couple of minutes. It looked really easy, but I’ll bet it isn’t! Ice climbing is only offered in the wintertime because once everything starts to melt in May, there aren’t many climbing options and it becomes more dangerous, so we didn’t get to try it out.

 

View of glacier from where we parked

After our glacier walk we drove just a few miles down the road to Skogar, where we took a look at Skogarfoss, the biggest of the local waterfalls. Several flights of metal steps (377 in all) lead up to the top of the waterfall, and the views from here are spectacular. A farm is situated just a few hundred meters away, and I thought how nice it must be to fall asleep to the sound of the waterfall. I was having trouble sleeping, with my body clock out of wack and my circadian rhythm completely confused by the almost constant daylight.(When the sun sets at 11pm and rises at 3:30, it never really gets dark!) 

Worth climbing 377 steps for this view!

Going down...

Double rainbow!

It was starting to get late (although there was still plenty of daylight) so we headed back to Reykjavik. We made a couple of coffee stops and got back around 9:00pm. Long day, but well worth it!

Day One – Chill in the Air

I made the most of my first day in Iceland, despite zero sleep last night. My flight took off at 9pm Thursday and landed 5 hours later, which was 6am Friday in Iceland. I don’t sleep on planes…way too uncomfortable. Although, Icelandair has the nicest blankets of any airline I’ve flown. And the movies were free! Food wasn’t, but I brought my own stash of peppermint patties so was happy.

My friend Kirsty arrived in Reykjavik around midnight Thursday and was still in PJs when I arrived at our hotel room around 8:30am. Talk about lazy! 😉

Breakfast buffet is included in the hotel rate so I made sure to eat as much as possible, even though I was starting to shake and feel hungover from lack of sleep. I discovered on the plane that Icelandic coffee is the strongest stuff I’ve ever tasted, so I made sure to take on board a gallon or two.

Then we headed out. And promptly came back in to get hats and down jackets. It was freezing cold and blowing a gale. We stopped by the tourist information office and found that it was too windy for the whale-watching boats to go out. Just as well, because my no-sleep hangover was in full effect and I couldn’t even step on an elevator, let alone a boat.

After a short nap we ventured out again and spent the day touring Reykjavik and taking pictures. I got some great pictures of restaurant menus and the public toilet. Hey, it’s free, heated, and self-cleaning.

Uh, no thanks....

Kirsty waiting for public toilet to clean itself...

All clean!

Tomorrow we are renting a car (look out, Icelanders) and heading out of Reykjavik to go walk on a glacier. Yeah, it’s not enough that the air is frigid, we need to walk on some ice. On our way we’ll stop at a big hole in the valley floor courtesy of the North American and European tectonic plates drifting apart. We’ll also stop by some waterfalls if there’s time. We plan to go to the beach on our way back. I’m serious. I didn’t bring my swimsuit for nothing. More about that later.

Last Minute

I am breaking in my hiking boots. Yeah, I left it a bit late. I actually forgot I bought them until the other day. So I took them for a stroll to pick up the kids from school and they rubbed my heels like billy-o. I was hobbling home and my 9-year-old says, “Can’t you walk any faster?” I actually considered taking them off.

I went online to see if there was an easier way to break them in. Based on the valuable advice I found (what did we do before the Internet?) I am wearing 2 pairs of socks. One pair is my 9-year-old’s ski socks, since his are in better shape than mine. That will teach him to be cheeky. I also have these little corn pads on my heels where the boots rub. That was my invention. So far, so good. Ultimate test will be the walk to school later.

In other exciting news, I have booked my Flybus ticket. Flybus is the bus that will take me from Reykjavik Airport, which is actually in Keflavik, to my hotel in the real Reykjavik. Flybus gets mixed reviews. Some people report having to wait 2 hrs before it leaves. Problem is, my other options are a long freaking walk at 6am (at least it will be light – sun rises at 3:30am!) or an expensive cab ride. So I will take my chances. You can buy your ticket from a machine at the airport but I am paranoid that I’ll get there and the machine won’t work or it won’t accept my credit card, so I bought it already and now I just have to make sure I don’t lose my receipt.

I have checked several forecasts and they all say different things. Basically, it’s cold…somewhere between 30s and 40s. On the bright side, that will make the geothermal pools feel nice and warm!

A Whole lot of Daylight Without Much Heat

So I have added an eye mask, a temperature conversion chart, and winter clothing to my packing list. I just checked the weather in Reykjavik and the high on Friday is going to be 7 degrees Celsius. Despite learning temperature in Celsius as a kid in England, I now have no idea what 7 degrees means because I learned Fahrenheit when I moved to the U.S. I know that zero Celsius is 32 Fahrenheit, and 28 is 82, but I’m a bit murky on the stuff in between. At any rate, it looks like I will have to pack my winter woolies.

On Friday the sun will rise at 3:55am and set at 10:56pm. That’s an awful lot of daylight! While it will be nice to be out late while its still light, I am pretty much never going to see the dark, and sleep could be a problem. Hence the eye mask. I’m tempted to stay up all night because it could be fun to see the sun set on one horizon and rise a short time later on the other. In the middle of the summer it is light 24 hrs a day! Conversely, in the dead of winter Icelanders will only see 2 hrs of daylight. That’s awful.

Iceland’s Green, Greenland’s Icy

I have been to Iceland before. For about an hour. I arrived at Keflavik airport at 9 in the morning and departed an hour later. I was en route to London in December 1996 and Icelandair was the cheapest way to get there. I remember looking out of the window. It was pitch black. At 9 in the morning.

This time, I’ll be staying a little longer. And, being that it’s May, I don’t think I’ll have to worry about a dark sky at 9 in the morning. My adventurous friend Kirsty and I will be based in Reykjavik for 5 days.

We’re keeping a flexible itinerary because we don’t want to be hurtling around the countryside in a bus the entire time, or booked on a hiking trip when its pouring, but our plans include:

– Whale-watching
– Puffin-spotting
– Glacier-walking
– A waterfall or two
– Dip in geothermal pool
– Westmann Islands, created in 1963 by a volcanic eruption (hoping we can take the 25 minute flight rather than 3 hr bus/ferry ride, weather-permitting)
– Anything free!

I bought The Rough Guide to Iceland several months ago and have learned that food and alcohol are very expensive. So we’ll be seeking out some cheap dives and taking our own wine! We’re staying at the Centerhotel Plaza which is right in the middle of old Reykjavik so it should be easy to get to everything.

We do not plan to eat Puffin, Whale, or Shark. Sorry to disappoint.

Oh, and the title of this entry? In the 1992 movie The Player, actress Greta Scacchi plays a seductress from Iceland who quips, “Iceland’s green, Greenland’s icy.” We’ll see.