Iceland Spring Break April 2019
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Well... It's like this: Sarah worked with a travel agency (Nordic Vistor) on a most excellent itinerary for our Iceland trip. Unfortunately, when we got on the Iceland Air flight Sunday evening (after a relaxing, stress-free trip to Dulles), the captain said there was a slight problem. |
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A bit later he came back on and said they thought they could get the part they needed and the installation
might be pretty quick. Making the best of it, we went by the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space museum on our way to the airport Monday evening. |
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Monday's flight was starting to sound questionable as well: They were looking for a couple missing passengers — if they weren't on the flight, they would have to unload their luggage. It turned out that they hadn't checked any luggage. Next there was an issue with a door not closing. The mechanics were called in, trooped down the aisle and we all held our breath (this flight was full of everyone — including a Danish school trip — from the cancelled Sunday flight). The mechanics trooped back off to applause as the captain said they had fixed the door issue. Just after firing up the engines after push-back, the captain came back on the PA system, sighed and said there was another issue. A few minutes later (as we're all starting to pull our hair out — or at least in our case, contemplate a spring break staycation), he came back on to say after phoning a mechanic in Iceland, they were all set. We were actually going to get to Iceland! |
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But we did miss our first planned stop: the Blue Lagoon. We'll see how Nordic Visitor and trip insurance
treat us for that day's loss. We landed early Tuesday morning at Keflavik airport outside Reykjavik, picked up a rental car and starting driving around the tip of a small cape by Gardur, Iceland. Not surprising for a point like that, they have a lighthouse. What did turn out to be be a bit surprising, the beach was white sand. |
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| Our first planned stop was the "bridge between two continents." The right side of the bridge is the North American continent, while the left side is the European continent. The rift just ran across the landscape.This was also our first exposure to the black sand — clearly volcanic — one really interesting thing, it doesn't seem as sticky as expected. It just has an odd feel to it. |
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One Icelandic saying from the Iceland promotion video we saw many times on our two planes was, "In Iceland there is no bad weather, only bad clothes." We packed well, taking our DC winter gear with us in mid-April (as it was warming up in DC). That worked out well. While there were a couple wet hikes, and some howling winds, we were able to bundle up and stay comfortable and really enjoy our time there. Next stop on our way across the southern edge of the island was the Lava Centre. |
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It was actually way cooler than it seemed when we first poked our noses in. There is movie with a lot of
footage but no narration — mostly self-explanatory. Then you get to go through the "lava tube"
which showed all the volcanos in Iceland, when they erupted and what kind of erruption it was. You poke out into a cool full-wall projection of local volacos. If you step in the right spot, you can point to dots on the projection and more information pops up, or the projection changes. It's a very cool interface for controlling the projection. |
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From the Lava Centre, we headed to Hotel Laki and got back on the planned schedule. The next day (after a very nice breakfast) we headed to our glacier boat tour on Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon a short drive further east from Kirkjubaejarklaustur and Hotel Laki. They gave us waterproof pants and insulated coats for the boat ride. |
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| We learned that deep glacial ice is clear like glass and takes on the blue color. As it's exposed to air and rain, it becomes more white. So the bluer ice is "fresher" and the clear ice comes from deeper down. |
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And that seals are OK visiting fresh water glacial lagoons. And that glaciers are big (see the map link above). This tongue that we were looking at comes from Vatnajokull, a glacier which (currently) takes up about 8% of Iceland. |
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| We also learned that glacial lagoons tend to flow into the ocean. And just down the coast is a spot called Diamon Beach. Not named for a rock formation but for the glacial "diamonds" that wash up onto the beach once they flow out of the lagoon. |
| It was just otherworldly on this black sand beach with the crashing waves and chunks (some huge some less so) of glacier on the beach and in the surf. The contrast of the black sand on the clear or white ice was just stunning and turned ice into mountains. |
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| From Diamond Beach, we drove back to another glacial lagoon to look for seals. We saw one pretty far from the shore and another huge iceberg in the lagoon. |
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| Another short drive to Skaftafell / Vatnajokull National Park and we took a short trail to anohter tongue of the glacier, with a much smaller lagoon. But it was no less pretty. With the rain and cliffs, there had to be waterfalls... |
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| The trail on the other side of the park entrance goes to Svartifoss. By now we had picked up a tiny bit of Icelandic: a jokull is a glacier and a foss is a waterfall. Svartifoss is famous for the basalt columns it flows over. |
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That wound down Wednesday. We headed back to Hotel Laki and another delicious dinner. Thursday morning, we checked out and headed to our next scheduled adventure by way of Vik. Another pretty coastal town with another beautiful black sand beach. And stone monolithes just past the beach. To make it more picturesque, there was a pony tour riding by while we were there. |
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| Thursday's adventure: snowmobiling on the glacier. We were outfitted with insulated riding suits, balaclavas and helmets. But first we had to get to the glacier (and waiting snowmobiles). |
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That was eaiser said than done. Fortunately, they are prepared for that. Our driver and guide radioed back after trying to get unstuck. They sent someone else up the road to the snowcat / snowplow that was already there. After breaking the tow rope trying to pull us forward, he was able to pull us back far enough to plow the road and tow us over that messy spot. |
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| Just a little further up the road, the snowmobiles were waiting for us. After a five minute explanation — don't panic and hold the throttle down, don't brake and accelerate at the same time, lean when you're trying to turn and keep your feet on the running board not outside it — we were charging up to the glacier. Of course, with the near white out conditions, we trusted our guide that we were going the right way. We were and it was impressive (more so than the photos show) to stop and look around at another otherworldly environment. |
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| After getting back down to the car — over the freshly plowed strecth of road — we headed for another foss. Seljalandsfoss is famous for the path behind the falls. Getting that wet in a waterfall really seems like a warm, summertime activity. But with our winter and rain gear, it was fine and really cool to be in that big a cave under that big a waterfall. |
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That wound down Thursday and we checked into our fancy room (upgraded because it was open and we were staying two nights) at the Grimsborgir Hotel — their website is a little scary with the ABBA theme. It was obviously very nice and very well located on the "Golden Circle" route. Friday morning (after another very nice breakfast) we started the day just down the road at another spectacular waterfall: Gullfoss. The drop into the gorge is truly astounding. |
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| Next on our Golden Circle loop was Geysir. There are a couple active geysers there, Geysir is actually the less active these days. |
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| The continental rift was next on our agenda. This time at the birthplace of Icelandic democracy; the Icelandic name was translated as "Althingi" in Thingvellir National Park. And of course, they have a couple waterfalls after you walk the path between the continents. |
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The Nordic Vistor folks mentioned "homemade ice cream and good local food" on their map in Efstidalur. Hard to get fresher or more homemade for ice cream than a dairy with the cows downstairs from the dining room (and next door to the ice cream parlor). This was not the only time we saw a, "please take off your crampons or studs before coming in," sign. After lunch, we headed to our hot spring plunge at the Secret Lagoon. Not quite as famous as the Blue Lagoon, but this one is a natural geothermal hot springs — some too hot and roped off. It was an excellent way to wind down the day. |
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| The next day, Saturday, we checked out of the Grimsborgir (after checking out the rainbow) and headed towards urban life in Reykjavik. But of course there were sights to see on the way. The Ljosafoss power station had several cool exhibits, including this wall. It black and blank until you push against it; the harder you push, the bigger the circle that lights up. |
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| Next on the drive, was a dormant volcano. The caldera was beautiful. And you may notice (after the rainbow) that the weather started to improve. We started to see some more blue sky; more, but not a lot. |
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| Our last stop on the way was another active geothermal area. Not swimming this time as it's too hot and no pools big enough. Apparently it's also become more active and geysery as they closed one of the paths as too dangerous. |
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| We had a nice lunch as we got into Reykjavik at a bakery. It was another time that we were fortunate that Icelanders seem to all speak English as it was not touristy at all. After checking in to the hotel we took our last short drive to Perlan, another great museum. This was our chance to see the Aurora — on their big screen. And to contrast the first day's lava tube with their glacier tunnel. |
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Above, Sarah and Robert work on a photo for our Australain friends of the sign saying every contintent has
glaciers (now) other than Australia. On the left, a helpful sign showing the mountains you can see from their observation deck, if it's clear. And below, another of those cool projection rooms (this one pretty much 360 degrees) that you control by pointing at the spots of interest. |
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We managed to survive the giant water tiger, return our car and get back to the hotel where we had a nice view of the harbour. Sunday morning, after breakfast (also very nice), we wandered down the main street that was just a couple blocks from our hotel (Fosshotel Reykjavik). It was a nice stroll with some interesting sites, but nothing like the spectacular outdoors. |
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| We took in the Culture House exhibit, found this very cool viking ship sculpture and then met our van for the trip to the airport and an uneventful flight home. It was a great trip despite the rocky start. We'd go back, spend more time, hope for clear skies and maybe try to get further north. |
Vacation notes:
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