Iceland Part 3 - Reykjavik and Golden Circle

Saturday

By now we realised the best of Iceland was behind us. Our bodies were sore due to traveling great distances and from all the excitement the past 2 days had given us. Being Diwali we spoke to our families using the UK SIM as the Icelandic SIM did not allow us to make overseas calls. It was raining by then and with a late sunrise, the light, or its lack thereof, hardly made any difference. 

Þingvellir National Park

We left at the usual time we have been leaving the past few days and our first stop was Þingvellir National Park. Part of the Golden circle and home to the fault lines between the American and European plates it was a popular destination. The plates are moving apart at a rate of 2 cm per year. It was also popular for diving between the plates into the Silfra fissure which is filled with clear water offering a view of 100 metres. Since this was out of our league we headed to the main parking lot at Þingvellir. For this we drove over the Almannagjá fault to the American side and parked our car at the main car park. It was pouring and windy too. After figuring out how to pay the parking fee of 500 Kr, which happened to be the first time we paid for parking in this country, and cajoling the kids into getting out of the car we headed straight for cover and warmth of the visitor centre. To our surprise it was super crowded. We dried our faces and warmed up a little bit before SC went out to check on what we had actually come to see. He returned to take us to the mouth of the fault line and the view point. After a couple of quick pictures, which was nearly impossible with all the rain blowing into the lenses, we rushed back into the visitor centre and to the car. There was little else we could do with that weather! So we had successfully crossed over from Europe to America within a few minutes!

Almannagjá fault at Þingvellir National Park

Harpa Concert Hall

Our next planned stop was lunch which we were eagerly looking forward to. We drove straight to the Smáralind mall and expected it to be crowded as it was a Saturday. We parked near Debenhams and headed straight to the mall entrance to find that it was absolutely deserted! There were hardly a handful of people! That was a moment of self-realisation - that we were living in one of the most crowded cities of the world!! Pizza was unanimously agreed upon as the choice for lunch and with the option of Sbarro and Pizza Hut we chose the former as nostalgia struck us. It used to be Shash’s favourite restaurant back in the States when she was a kid. Quickly picked up a couple of pizza slices and spaghetti bowls and settled down. Though we did not have much activity in the morning the weather made us hungry. The sight, aroma and  feel of warm food was enough to whack up an appetite. 

Hallgrímskirkja

Iceland is a country that is generous with free wifi. Gas stations, Visitor centres, Restaurants, Guesthouses, hotels… you name it, they’ve got free wifi! So I made this opportunity to make a quick call to my family back in India and passed on the updates. Soon we were done with lunch and were completely dry. We walked around the mall looking at stores and checking out merchandise. TIGER pulled us in while Cintamani bargained a glance! We came back to the car. While it was still drizzling lightly there was no wind and we were mighty glad about it. We drove on to park at Harpa for a short walk around Reykjavik. On the way we passed the Sun sculpture and I sneaked a picture with my iPhone. There were some confusions about paying for the parking at Harpa and SC headed down to the info desk to pay for it. We were soon up into the concert hall and were admiring the glass structure when our eyes fell on a concert coming up in January - a jazz concert by Vijay Iyer and Wadada Leo Smith! A familiar name gave a sense of pride and we walked out of the concert hall into Reykjavik. It was a short hike to Hallgrímskirkja and we followed the throngs of tourists. Exploring the bests of a city, if you’ve never planned, is very easy. Just follow the crowd! After passing through some interesting looking shops and shop names we reached the Hallgrímskirkja. Sadly it was not the sight I expected. The weather wasn’t helping either. We took a few pictures from the outside and went into the church to admire the choir stand and the organ. Shash wanted to ride up to the top for a view when SC announced that we’d be visiting the Blue Lagoon. I was surprised as it was never part of our itinerary. He thought that since we missed Secret Lagoon the previous night we’ll give Blue Lagoon a try. So we hurried back to the car and started driving out to Blue Lagoon. It was a good 45 minutes away from Reykjavik. I was hoping to catch some free wifi signal to check for tickets but, unfortunately, never managed to.

We arrived to see large pools of blue water in front of a steaming factory of some sort. The geology of the whole area was very different. It was just black lava rocks through out. It was nearly dark by then and we quickly parked our car and walked into the Blue Lagoon ticket centre. We were utterly disappointed when the attendant announced that there weren’t any tickets left. He also encouraged us to check online as that’s the first place tickets will turn up if there’s some cancellation. We used their free wifi and found tickets for 9pm entry. SC was interested but I declined as it was too late for the children plus we had an early flight out the next day. I still had to reduce the number of bags from 6 to 4.

Blue Lagoon from the road

After some pictures just outside of the blue pool and the black rocks we returned to our car for our last ride in Iceland. We drove to Keflavik, filled the tank with gas and returned to Kef guesthouse for our last night in Iceland. SC still pushed me to visit Blue Lagoon and that he’ll drop me. It was just about 15 minutes from Kef Guesthouse. I continued to decline as I had a lot of packing to do and what fun would it be without anyone! We had our dinner of pot noodles and I worked on the packing while the children went to bed. While visiting the kitchen to heat our noodles I met one other family that chatted with us about seeing Northern Lights. It was their last night in Iceland and they hadn’t seen it until then. Quickly gave them tips to head out and find a spot and returned to the room to find out that a school friend of mine was visiting Iceland and in Akruyeri. Informed her that we were in Reykjavik and she also asked me about Northern lights. 

Only then I realised how lucky we actually were! I recalled how pessimistic we were before we had planned our trip to Iceland about being able to see Northern lights during out short trip. We had booked the trip with little to no hope of seeing northern lights but instead to see the different geology and some things that could only be seen here - like the ice lagoon or the thermal pools. We had indeed been blessed generously! Clear nights, good solar activity and the appearance of the northern lights at the right time! With that contentment I finished packing and a bit of re-packing before turning off the lights for a sound sleep.

Sunday

We awoke pretty early and got ready to leave. After a quick breakfast and calling Blue Car rental a few times to get them to pick up the car early, they arrived on dot at 8:30. They had a quick inspection and left with no complaints. We then boarded the airport shuttle and made our way to KEF airport seeing the beauty of Iceland one last time on this cold, wet, dreary and gloomy day. 

Jet Nest at KEF. PC: fotothing.com

We joined the long line for checking in our bag in the EasyJet counter. The counter staff said it was a full flight and asked us to check in more bags. We quickly locked two more bags and relieved ourselves of 2 pieces of hand luggage. We then started walking towards the departures. There was a purple aubergine statue outside and was wondering about it’s significance which, I learned later, was not an aubergine but the sculpture of an egg cracking and the beak peeking out called the Jet Nest! We had saved our shopping for the last and entered the Rammagerdin store to pick up some souvenirs and some Arctic sea salt. The flight was delayed by at at least 2 hours. Surprisingly they had some good sandwiches on the plane for purchase and we managed to finish our lunch on the plane. We landed at Gatwick to a cloudy evening. We were soon on our way home on the Southern trains and District line. Our biggest catastrophe was yet to come! We reached home to find out that we were locked out due to some gap in communication between a contractor and the leasing agent. After numerous phone calls we entered our house a couple of hours later. As with any travels, it felt good to be back home and all the misery of the locked out situation were soon forgotten!

Iceland is a place we’ll never have enough of. Especially when the weather is good. The landscape is absolutely gorgeous. There’s fewer people around once you leave Reykjavik. Even within Reykjavik there’s hardly any crowd. We hope to return some day for a thermal pool experience, seeing some more sights in other parts of the country, hopefully a couple of hikes and perhaps even go down the Snæfellsjökull to the centre of the earth! There are always enough reasons to visit Iceland!

<<< Iceland - Part 2

Iceland Part 1 - Waterfalls of the south coast

Aurora Borealis! That enchanting, mysterious word has been fuelling our desire to visit Iceland for a long time. Extremely cold temperatures, long nights and the luck needed to actually be able to see northern lights put us off from visiting for a long time. Visitors who stayed for over 10 days in freezing temperatures have returned with no luck. How would a few days stay turn out any luckier? And thence we kept procrastinating our trip to Iceland until finally we had no place left in Europe to visit. So it was decided that we will go to Iceland! Presented with an option of the October half-term holidays or the February half-term holidays (with slightly cheaper air fares), we chose October as February was mid winter.

This was one of the longer trips we had taken and we had to make elaborate arrangements to manage the weather, the food and sight seeing. Iceland is an expensive country. Perhaps the most expensive in Europe. So, we decided to self cater for our stay.  Iceland is also a country with widely varying micro climates. There could be rain, sun, wind, hail and snow all in one day. Off to Sports Direct to find all kinds of weather defending gear. With a population of just over 300,000 with most of it in Reykjavik, most parts of the country was uninhabited and desolate. That meant fewer shops, restaurants, hotels and gas stations. 

Tuesday

Iceland Air

After nearly 3 months of planning (and re-planning), shopping and packing, ’twas the night of departure. Our mini-cab to London Heathrow took us through central London as we gaped at the sights as if it was our first time! London never fails to fascinate! Actually, sometimes it does! So after gaping at Harrods in Knightsbridge the three of us in the backseat took a short nap until we finally got to LHR. 

Onward was through Iceland Air and they have a generous baggage allowance. So we checked-in most of our luggage and carried on to the cabin only those that had our electronics. After a small but filling dinner from Marks and Spencers we were off to the gate and ready to board. Being the national carrier, Iceland Air was very comfortable. The children were subject to special treatment. They got their own earphones, some activity pack and a snack box! The inflight entertainment was also surprisingly good. 

The KP index (the level of particles let off by the sun which shows up as Aurora near the poles) was declared very high for the night and through out our journey to the north west we keep looking out of the tiny plane windows hoping to catch a glimpse! I had even hijacked Shash’s usual window seat just for this purpose! No luck sadly. After 3 hours we landed to a rainy weather in Keflavik International Airport (KEF), the international airport of Reykjavik. 

We were out of the plane in no time and the passport check was pretty quick too. I set up the prepaid Icelandic SIM card from Siminn I had brought on the plane. While picking up our bags I made the first call to Kef Guesthouse to come and pick us up from the airport. We walked to the “Meeting Point” a point specifically set up for hotel guest pick ups and after a 5 minute wait we were riding into the Keflavik town. 

It was cold, rainy and windy and we were eager to get into the warm guesthouse and our room. After moving the unusually large number of bags (to us) to the room, we changed and quickly settled down for the night with a head full of plans, hopes and dreams of seeing the northern lights!

Wednesday

After waking up a few times overnight peeping out the window hoping to see northern lights, it was finally time to get out of bed and get ready to start our adventure in Iceland. Sun rises at around 9 am in October. We did not keep a watch on the clock and before all of us were ready our car rental’s representative knocked on our door. We had booked a 4WD SUV with Blue Car Rental based on recommendations and we had requested them to drop the car off at the guesthouse. However for some reason the representative did not bring the car along and asked us to accompany him to the airport office. SC was ready but he was hesitating about returning all by himself in a completely unknown country. Gave him the idea of asking the rental rep to set up the GPS for him and he soon left. Then the 3 of us headed down to the breakfast room. It was self-serve and after getting the children set up I was about to start on mine when SC came back with the car. There was no one other than us in the breakfast room and that made us realise how delayed we were in setting out. 

We hurriedly finished our breakfast and went back to the room to get our bags. I had to move a few of the things around and the number of bags we had increased. We had been given a 4WD Renault Kadjar and I found the boot space just right for all our bags. Setting our GPS to the town of Selfoss we were off. I had left my overcoat open while moving the bags assuming that it wasn’t cold but just windy. I soon felt something pricking my throat. 

Seljalandsfoss

We marvelled at the different landscape around us. There were no trees and the land was covered with either black rocks or with moss until we got closer to Reykjavik which was a good 40 minutes away. As with any large city the suburbs of Reykjavik showed signs of inhabitation. There were multi-storey buildings, car parks, stores and even a Deloitte! Soon we bypassed the route into the city and traveled over a couple of mountain passes. Drizzle turned to thick fog and the visibility was greatly reduced. But before long the sun was out and we saw a lovely rainbow. The light from the sun and rainbow was a joyous sight after the drizzle and clouds we had been seeing since setting out from Keflavik. We stopped at a view point and clicked our first pictures of Iceland, well, at least on the camera!

We soon came down the mountains and to flat land. The weather was drastically different here. It was patches of sun and rain. We soon arrived at Selfoss, a small town and stopped to pick up a pizza at Dominos, which we would eat later and some groceries at Kronan. After walking around the supermarket a couple of times I paid 7100Kr for breakfast and snacks for 3 days. I did the conversion much later and realised I had spent nearly as much as I would for a week’s grocery back home!

Then we headed down the Ring Road, Iceland’s arterial road that goes around the country, to our first stop - Seljalandsfoss. The waterfalls was visible from a long distance away and we were eager to take the turn off and pull into the parking lot. We quickly had the pizza we had bought and rushed out to get closer to the falls. We were hit by awfully cold winds. The sun was playing hide and seek with the clouds and before we could walk the short distance from our car to the path towards the falls we had seen sun, wind and rain. Sam turned to get back into the car and we cajoled her into walking just a bit more so that we could get some pictures. After some quick pictures the other three returned to the car while I got out my tripod and filters to try out some things I had been practicing for a few months! SC ruled out the idea of walking up the path to the cave behind the falls. I had to adhere as it was very windy indeed and the falls was spraying all over. There was no chance that we would make it back without being soaked and we were just too lazy to change into the waterproof gear we had bought. 

Skógafoss

We then started driving towards east on the Ring Road and were contemplating a stop between Reynisfjara beach and Skógafoss  Due to the bad weather we decided to visit Skógafoss and keep the beach for better weather. The distance wasn’t great and in under an hour we were at Skógafoss. The children refused to get out of the car this time and it was me who again went closer to the falls for some beautiful pictures. This was a much larger falls than Seljaandsfoss and the pictures don’t really do justice to it’s height. The sun appeared for a moment and I was lucky to see one rainbow on the falls. I’ve heard of three rainbows at times. Before I could try different angles on my camera the sun bid good bye. After rain chased me back to the car we drove further east and passed a mini parking by the road which we realised were the cars whose occupants were making a 3 km - 45 minute trip (one way) to a crashed DC 3 plane in the desert of Solheimsandur. That was never part of our itinerary and the desolate landscape only reaffirmed that! We then drove onto Vík church and the cemetery above it for a photo-op. This was the most photographed view in Vík. The lovely sweeping view from atop the hill covered the church, the tiny town of Vík, its beach and all the way out to the Reynisdrangar sea stacks in the Atlantic. Vík is the southern most point in Iceland and open to the north Atlantic Ocean. There is no land mass south of Vík all the way until Antartica. So that results in some dangerous waves in the Reynisfjara beach on the other side of the Reynisfjall mountain. Vík is also on the path of a potential glacier flood if Mt. Katla were to erupt. Mt. Katla is long due an eruption and is under the Mýrdalsjökull glacier. An eruption would melt the Mýrdalsjökull glacier and all the glacier melt would flow towards the ocean. The hill we were standing on is the only place that would be safe if that catastrophe were to happen. Thinking about this made me realise how insignificant man was in front of nature! I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the setting sun and take some nice pics from my vantage position but sadly the clouds played spoil sport. We returned to the Ring Road and continued our journey to Hörgsland Cottages, our stop for the night.

Vík í Mýrdal

Being near the Arctic Circle, Iceland’s twilight is longer than the twilight we are used to in rest of the world. So even when the official sunset was at around 5:30 pm, the civil twilight lasted until 6:20 pm. We were nearly in the town of Kirkjubæjarklaustur by then. After 15 minutes of driving in complete darkness we arrived at Hörgsland Cottages. I did not read great reviews about this place and I was quite skeptical about the state of cabins. However I was in for a surprise. Though quite small and cramped it was clean and cozy. The furnishings were tired and were in need of some TLC but it was nothing like the reviews I had read. So for around €100 a night, it was one of the best places to stay in the area (for 4) and for seeing the northern lights as we would soon experience!

Iceland Part 2 >>>