Driving to the top of a volcano, going deaf with the splash of water in huge waterfalls, swimming in natural hot water springs between snowy mountains, enjoying the privilege of being surrounded by desolated nature, tasting the best Icelandic salmon dish in a fishermen's little village... This is a small bite of a 4-day trip in Iceland.
Wanna know more? Just keep reading!
Easyjet offers direct flights to Reykjavik (capital of Iceland) from Bristol Airport every Thursday and Sunday. When we heard they existed, we booked them immediately. As we were flexible with the dates, we got a great deal: just £67 for a return ticket! Let's go there!
We decided Reykjavik would be our base camp and we would rent a car to move around the island. It is probably the best option to make the most of 3 complete days (Thursday to Saturday, as the flight back is at 10am on Sunday). Even though Iceland seems to be a small island, three days were not enough to do the whole loop around the island but it is more than enough to see the Must-See's in the South and West coast.
DAY 1
Once we landed, a guy from the car rental company (more details below) picked us up and drove us to the branch, which was not exactly at the airport but close. We took the 4x4 car and drove helped by our analogical GPS (aka paper map) to the Blue Lagoon.
It's roughly a 20-minute drive from the airport but your nose will know if you are getting closer: the strong smell of sulphur crosses any small little aperture in the car. We parked in the car park and walked around the facilities of the geothermal spa. I did my best to capture the colour of the water, light blue. The geothermal spa complex is one of the most visited attractions in Iceland. It is a man-made lagoon which is fed with the output water of the nearby geothermal power plant every two days. The super heated water is extracted from the ground and used to run turbines and generate electricity. Then, the hot water passes through a heat-exchanger to provide heat for a municipal water heating system. Finally, the water is fed into the lagoon for recreational and medicinal users to bathe in. Very expensive attraction, though: starting from £30, tickets give you admission for a full day of natural spa session in the Blue Lagoon. We decided to go to the roof (access by crossing the restaurant, don't be shy!) and take some pictures of the facilities and continue with the road-trip.
We checked-in in the apartment we rented (more details below) and drove to the city of Reykjavik. Suddenly, the sun hid behind some grey clouds and it started to rain. We parked and visited the city under the rain, which was not very nice but we didn't have any other choice.
What can you see in Reykjavik? The Harpa is a modern concert hall and a conference centre built by the water opened in 2011 and the building has a steel framework with geometrical shaped glass panels in different colours all over. Very beautiful. We also visited the Tjörnin lake, where you can take some nice pictures of the lovely houses around the lake, and then, we walked up towards Hallgrímskirkja, a very unique and modern Lutheran church and best-known landmark of the city. The 73-metre building is visible throughout the city and it was designed to resemble the basalt lava flows of Iceland's landscape.
Setting our course for other Icelandic landmarks, we drove to Pingvellir National Park. Pingvellir is a site of historical, cultural and geological importance. The Parliament was established there in 930 and remained there until 1798, in a place where you would never imagined there could be a parliament. The National Park also has a big geological importance because of the tectonic and volcanic environment. The continental drift between the North American and Eurasian Plates can be clearly seen in the cracks.
This is where we saw cairns for the first time. At that moment, we didn't know how those stones piled on top of each other were called. A cairn, word which comes from the Scottish Gaelic, is a man-made pile of stones. They can be found all over the world and in Iceland there are loads!
By the 37 route, we found the famous Geysir area. Until 1894, the Geysir area was owned by a local farmer, when it was sold to James Craig, a whiskey distiller who would become Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. He erected fences around the site and charged a fee to visitors wishing to view the geysers. He apparently got tired of the project and after passing by different hands, the area was finally donated to the Icelandic people. Now, the entrance is free of charge. There is only on of the Geysers "working", which is not the biggest one there. It erupts every 8-10 minutes, but it can do it even more often.
We finally arrived to Gullfoss, our furthest stop this first day. In my opinion, it is one on the most impressive waterfalls we saw in Iceland. I think it was because of the noise it makes, very deafening. The water falls in a three-step "staircase" and finally falls into a 32-metre crevice. You cannot see the crevice, you simply see the water vanishing into the earth. If the sun shins, you will see a complete rainbow over Gullfoss as we did.
After a long day, we arrived at Reykjavik at 10pm completely smashed. We saw the sunset (at 11.30pm), had dinner and we went directly to bed.
Day 2
On Friday, the day started very early. We had a 4h30min drive until the Glacier and we would make some stops on the way, so at 10am we were ready to go.
The route number 1 goes starts in Reykjavik and goes all around the island. It is a good road for any car, paved, and the limit is 90km/h (don't forget!). However, for the most of the road you will not cross any car (at all). So, unless you want to die of boredom, you should speed up to 120km/h when you see nobody around.
The first stop was Selfoss to get some food. Right after crossing the river, you will see a huge (and cheap) supermarket at your left side. Get water and food supplies, the road to the Glacier is loooong!!
Between Selfoss and Skógafoss, we came across Seljalandfoss. By the route 1, you find the first one and turning left (before) at the 249 road, there are a series of waterfalls in a row. I personally liked the first waterfall at the route 249 because it is possible to go completely behind the waterfall. So cool!
This is where we checked the power of out 4x4 car driving up to the top of the Eyjafajallajökull, the volcano that erupted in 2010 and collapsed flight in Europe. Before the end of the route 249, there is a 4x4 road to the right side going up. If you have a 4x4 car, follow this road and get to the top of the volcano. It's an amazing experience!
Before getting to Skógafoss, we went into a "secret" hot water swimming pool right in the nature. I had my doubts about sharing the location of this secret swimming pool but as I found all the information on another website, technically I am not revealing the secret. It is called the Seljavallalaug swimming pool. It is a 25 metres long pool in a valley, surrounded by mountains still with some snow. The pool is built against a rock wall, where hot water falls naturally from natural hot springs up in the mountain and it gets collected in the pool. It is located very closed to the ring road, just a 10-15 minute walk but it is not visible from the road. I really loved the fact that it was not crowded. We had lunch and after waiting enough time for the digestion to finish (one hour, mom, we promise!), we went into the pool. The water is nicely warm, but not excessively unless you go to the corner where almost-boiling water is introduced into the pool. The pool is not regularly maintained and locals clean the pool once a year, so don't expect a chlorine-bleached pool!
Skógafoss was our next stop. It is one of the biggest waterfalls in the country with a drop of 60 metres. There are some stairs on the right side to go up to the platform, very stable and with a handrail. We saw a couple wearing wedding outfits taking some pictures. I bet they finished completely wet as the amount of spray the waterfall produces is huge!!
Once you pass the small town of Vik (we didn't even stop there), the road gets more boring as you will barely see another car. Just kilometres and kilometres of moor. However, I extremely recommend to get to the Glacier and park your car in Jökulsarlón to see the floating icebergs with the Vatnajokull volcano behind. When we arrived there, low-level clouds covered most of the Glacier and although the sun was shinning (at 9pm) behind, the view was not as good as we would have desired. Nonetheless, we have some awesome pictures!
We drove all the way back (4h30min) seeing the sun set and rise almost at the same time. Icelandic beauty!
Day 3
After an intense Friday, we took Saturday easy. We followed the route 1 along the western coast. The landscape is quite different to the landscape in the South. The sea is visible from the road and the land is probably greener (except for the huge lava pieces you find by the road as you approach to Snaefellsjokull).
Before getting to Akranes, there is the Hvalfjördur Tunnel; an almost 6km long tunnel under the Hvalfjördur fjord which goes 165 metres below sea level. It costs 1000 krones (around 5 pounds) but it saves you one hour of drive.
We went to visit Akranes but we didn't stayed long there. Excepting for the lighthouse, we didn't find the town very attractive. Our next stop was Borgarbyggd, another small town from where you have very beautiful views. We had picnic lunch in front of the Litla Brákarey, admiring the wide sea, and took wonderful pictures of the mountains (picture above).
In Snaefellsnes peninsula, we found Gerduberg, beautiful basalt columns embedded into the mountain. A little further, we refilled our water bottles at a farm with water from Olkelda mineral water spring. There is a spring with carbonated water which has healing properties. For us, drinking the water felt like having an open wound inside the mouth which was bleeding. It was kind of like drinking blood. Weird!
We took the F570 up to the Snaefellsjökull volcanoe. Snaefellsjökull is a 700,000-year-old volcano with a glacier covering its summit. The mountain is famous due to the novel Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne, where protagonists find the entrance to a passage leading to the centre of the Earth. We only found the Sönghellir cave meaning "the singing cave", on the way up. You get goose bumps with the echoes!
We drove our car as far as we could to find a big group of snow-moto drivers enjoying the sun and the snow, and BBQ-ing.
As we couldn't go further, we came down to the main road and drove around the peninsula and the north side until Stykkishólmur. It was around 7pm, too early to have dinner, and we climbed the hill next to the port and took some pictures from up there.
After a short benchmarking of the (few) restaurants in the town, we asked for a table at the Narfeyrarstofa Restaurant, a charming restaurant with exceptional food. All of us chose a fish dish: Mjósund (Icelandic salmon with almonds (they were cashew nuts, though), shrimps and herbed butter) and Stekkjartangi (catch of the day. which was a fish whose name I cannot remember). Any of them would be an exceptional choice. The main dish was around 20 pounds.
Our 3-day trip finished with a 2-hour drive back home. Perfect.
USEFUL TIPS AND SUGGESTIONS
Accommodation: we booked an apartment through Airbnb.com in the East side of Reykjavik which had 2 rooms and was perfect for 5 people. It was a refurbished ground floor of the house the landlady lives. It had all kitchen facilities available, very comfortable beds and it was pretty cheap (20 pounds/night each). If you would like to have more information, let me know and I will send you the link of the apartment in Airbnb.
Car and roads: main roads in Iceland are suitable for any car so there is no need to take a 4x4 unless you want to get the F routes. You can travel to the main touristic areas easily although distances are big and in some areas you will not find any civilization at all. Speed is limited to 90km/h but you can get to 110-120km/h if you don't see a car. Beware of the animals! We had some sheep coming to the paved road many times. You will not find excessive signs in the road, just on the crossroad. So, slow down as you get closer to the crossroad unless you want to miss the road.
We rented the car for 280 pound (3 days) at the Go Iceland car rental company who is specialised in 4x4 cars but there are many other car rental right at the airport, if you prefer.
Currency: Iceland doesn't use euro but the Icelandic Krona. We brought some pounds to change in the bank instead of getting the money at the cash machines. Currency change fees are similar at the airport and at the city centre, so it's fine if you want to change buy Kronas at the airport. To know if something is cheap or expensive, we used to divide the value by 200, and you get some or less the value in pounds. Easy!
Others: we went to Iceland in June, when sun sets at around 11.30pm and rises at around 3.00am. However, it never gets dark. It is quite annoying because you never feel sleepy, or at least it happened to me; I was totally exhausted from the day but my eyes were wide open as I had 2-3 RedBulls in a shot.
We also found the locals to be quite cold, almost harsh people. No many "thank you"s or "hello"s at shops, for example. Or "thank"-ing (or even acknowledging) when we gave the way to another car. Not very warming, really (except for the landlady and some few others).
INTERESTING LINKS
Today, I saw a guy writing poems on the floor with some chalk in Broadmead. I don't know who he was or where he was from. I couldn't see any signs nor flyers. Unknown chalk-poet, I will call him.
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