Group photo in front of waterfall; in this case Djynandi falls
Icelanders have, after 10 plus centuries, still a lot of Viking genes in all of them (the first Vikings landed in 870AD), and they give a lot of credence to the Sagas, that formed the minds of children during the dark long winters, as they listened to their grandfathers, who, as the fire crackled and grandpa’s pipe was billowing fumes, told the grisly stories of Ogres, Giants and Elves and old cackling Hags, who brought disaster or wonder to the lonely farmers of Iceland. And as far as the tale is being told, they still do, reason why superstition is still very much alive.
Seljalandsfoss (foss stands for waterfall in Icelandic)
In September, the month that our traditional band of travelers, Gary and Linda and Herman and Marjo and the two of us visited Iceland, winter had of course not yet set in, although the rain often obscured our vision and stymied walks in the autumn colored fields, but the sense of the mystical world described in the Sagas was evident all around us.
Sunset behind the Seljalandsfoss
Winter is coming and the horses are being brought from the mountains to stables
The 350,000 Icelanders have a difficult language, that nobody should try to master, not only because their alfabet has been expanded from 26 letters to 32 with curvy items, that allow for sounds we hardly ever use, but also:
meeting a real Icelander is not easy, as the hospitality industry members, that serve the 2 and a half million annual visitors, come from everywhere (Poland, Rumania, Switzerland, Ukraine, Russia, France, Spain, just to mention a few we met). Icelanders prefer to not have to deal with and or serve those visitors in the establishments they own. So speaking English between all those foreigners is about the best language to use while there.
Ferry trip to Westman Islands a early view of the harbor
Almost there
Bonus is THE grocery store island wide. “Ekkert Brudl” translates to “No Breach” ?????
Anybody has a better translation?
A volcanic island for sure with perfectly shaped cone
Tour guide pointed out the elephant in the rock formation
We circled the island, the size of the State of New York, being about 40,000 sq m or the same size of Cuba, being 103000 sq km or if that is easier to visualize: 25% bigger than Ireland and we drove the island in 25 days with an 8 seater fourwheel 2011 Ford Expedition, a vehicle size not too cozy. and since we had a wifi gadget in the car, it allowed many of us to entertain themselves during stretches of less interest, or for some of us all the time, because, one cannot live without the electronic gadgets of today.
Black Lava Ashes from 1973 eruption covering 20% of the then town
Now about 4000 people live on the main island
Museum showing a dug up house in its original state
The original owners left on time
The island was the only place we saw puffins and this is Hafdis the resident puffin of the Saeheimar Aquarium
I add a nice blog on the museum Right here
Young boy holding a lost pufling in his hand at 12.30am found on the street to be released the next morning.
We joined the midnight vigil looking for stray puflings that were disoriented by city lights on their first flight and landed on the streets instead of on the ocean surface outward.
If you blow up a plastic bag and use them as a soundmachine pumping them between both hands the sheep will come running expecting food, like here and being disappointed.
The lava fields on the border of town.
The actual reason we had that gadget, was to have our Ipad be our gps, since the car gps required typing the destination in Icelandic to guarantee leading us to the right place. our Ipad and IPhone however are intelligent enough to translate our English input into Icelandic destinations with greater accuracy.
Skogafoss never ending water stream falling 200 ft/61m down
Our bungalow at Hrifunes nature park, with almost nobody around
That is to say, behind Herman in a wood fired wooden hot tub,
is another bungalow. The evening skies were often these beautiful
low cloud covered colorful sights
The one lasting Iceland impression will always be these
black lava hills surrounded by colorful fields rooted in same black soil
We shall not bore you with a tale of all our days and what we did and or saw that day, but we will try to give you a feel of what a vacation to Iceland will come to mean to you, not by what you can visit and see, but what at the end, in doing all those things, your short version will be to the people at home, who will ask you about your trip. At the bottom of this blog I will include a day by day recount, which I prepared for the six of us, after we all returned home, including a map of the locations where we overnighted at.
This is truly Iceland as you drive for hours in this landscape
We let other cars go first to see how deep the water is
And where to best cross
Just another of those empty vistas that are so enchanting
Iceland land of trolls and giants that leap over these hills
Sandee got us to almost do a flip-over
We left her in the car to “balance” the heavy ford expedition while help
is on the way. Those Spanish onlookers came from the passing bus, who
pulled us out
So if you ever go or if you already have been there: Iceland is as you know surrounded by icy seas not far below the arctic circle, visited in its spring and summer season by birds, many many different birds, who leave when the weather turns direction winter. There were originally no land animals on this island, with exception of the artic fox, who most likely traversed the ice during one of the ice ages. How they fed themselves before humans brought husbandry is a mystery to me.
This truly Iceland off the beaten track
Sorry just another of those pictures I will treasure
The sun was missing to highlight the blue blue colors
of this Ljotipollur crater lake
Bathers in a hot water spring in Landmannalaugar
Landmannalaugar camping area surrounded by a few colorful hills
Iceland is a volcanic island that tolerates only few species of vegetation.
Imagine a misfit of an apple pie on a stove, topped off with too thin a dough cover, that the cook has mistakingly slit through the middle, and then put the heat on high while he left to go shopping.
The pie is bubbling under its thin cover and spews regularly black burnt liquid, which scars the top of the dough layer and also creates holes in the layer with its spitball eruptions, from which new bubbles emerge covering the pie dough.
Godafoss or the waterfall of Gods, the place where in the year 1000 lawspeaker
Thorgeir Thorkelsson (kind of President) threw his statues of Norse Gods
this waterfall to signify adoption of Christianity as official religion of Iceland
Hverir mudpots near Akureyri showing the blue colors of elements spewed up
A few hundred miles away from the mudpots one could find clear bubbling water
This volcanic activity creates a desolate feel to this land and the realization dawns on you that you walk on waferthin soil with all consuming heat just below you.
Again this lake is steaming hot, this not fog but hot steam
Erupting Strokkur Geysir
When will this one erupt?
Built for tourists so they don’t accidentally stumble
in the hole that was here before the pile of smoking rocks
Okay, enough of this “apple pie description” and let’s tell the volcanic facts of Iceland. Every 3 to 5 year somewhere on this island an eruption will occur. Herman told me that he was stranded at an airport in China when the Eyjafjallajökull volcano (one of the many long long tongue twisting words here in Iceland) erupted on April 14, 2010, which blew miles high so much lava, ice and sand up in the atmosphere, as it blew of its ice cap, that it created a 2.5 km wide caldera, also resulting in ash plumes that stranded airlines and caused air traffic turmoil for months and flooded the southern coastal areas of Iceland. It is funny, but Icelanders have meticulously recorded all eruptions since the early 10th century, so we know that this specific volcano erupted the first time in 920AD and most likely many more times before that. I said there is an eruption every 3 to 5 years, but already one year later in May 2011 the Grimsvotn volcano erupted and darkened the skies 5 days.
Fjadrargljufur Canyon is 2km/1.25mile long and 100m/310ft deep
Amazing views in lush deep green colors
Another shot of our opening picture of the
Djynandi falls
Gullfoss or Golden waterfall drops into a gorge and seems to disappear underground.
It only falls 32 meter/100ft but it thundering noisy fall sprays misted water on every visitor
wherever you walk.
Gullfoss from another angle
A little waterfall in the Thingvellir national park
I don’t know the name of this one.
More Fjadrargljufur Canyon sights above and below
So besides this volcanic awareness: that anytime you could have been blown a few miles in the air, there is also the awe of water cascading everywhere from cliffs. Beautiful waterfalls galore, each competing for the title of most, best or highest to be found all over the island.
The beginners class at their gletschers walk on crampons (herman was doing the advanced walk)
Nothing white about shrinking age old gletschers
Gary posing, but our guide does it better I think
The gletscher lake with blocks of ice drifting oceanwards
this gave the name to Diamond Beach
marjo posing with one of those “diamonds”
the gletscher showed some unaccessible areas
The next awareness you will have, is how few people live here, (350,000 Icelanders vs almost 5 million Irish people on a smaller island) and two third of them live on the west side around or not more than a few hours driving from Reykjavik, where everything feels and looks like any small modern town in the western world.
housing for Icelanders in the olden days when heat was body heat of human and animal in winter times
a closer look
A better picture of those olden days houses
Above and below ancient farm structures of the more wealthy farmers
Lava fields adorned in fall colors
The best proof that nature can teem even in volcanic rocky soil
I can not stop being in awe with these colors
And with the rocky water filled wilderness all around
Did I extoll about colors and tenacity of survival here
And here
and not to forget here. This island of fiery destruction keeps amazing me
The “let’s see Iceland in a few days” vacationers get the tour of the Golden Circle, where all Icelandic phenomena can be sampled, but what you will miss is the lonesomeness, the solitude, the silence, that envelops you, as you turn off your car engine and get the sense, that there is no one around but you and some sheep in a magic world of (in our case) fall colors, which dot the silent mountains and valleys, with here and there in your viewer an abandoned farm or hut, and if you just drove through a 15 houses village, a steepled little church with maybe 10 benches and a pulpit.
Iceland is dotted with small churches, above modern with steel sheeting
And here at the end of the multicolored “yellow brick road”
Where does the congregation live?
These “Vikings” are predominantly Lutheran, who became catholic in the year 1000, after the Althing (Here over later) decided to declare Christianity the official religion. The Njals Saga describes how the Godafoss (waterfall of the Gods) was the place where Thorgeir Thorkelsson, the Law Speaker of the Icelandic Parliament decided in favor of the conversion to Christianity by throwing all the statues of the Heathen Gods worshipped in Norse Paganism in to the raging waters thundering 37 feet down over a 370 foot wide horseshoe formed fall. When later the Norwegian king converted to Lutheranism most Icelanders followed.
Small townships dot the countryside, often with50 plus homes with
1 store,1 church, 1 general store, and a pub
But often one sees just a few homes along a dusty road
No apparent zoning restrictions
The next sense that overwhelms you is seeing sheep everywhere and I mean everywhere even on the steepest slopes that rise up around you. These sheep have little flock sense and are kept for meat. They are feral thus rams can charge you occasionally. The September month is the month where all over Iceland the communities get together on an arranged day for the Rettich, or the sheep collecting drive, to bring them in for the winter, a festive affair that we happened to run in on. Each owner will collect its own flock and keeps it out of winters harms way till spring. The island is littered with bales of hay in many colors of plastic coverings to feed them.
“Junk” (that is his engraved name in his left horn) the ram stares at us loaded in his owners truck after the fall roundup
His ladies in the pen we bleating in unison
This “lady” would not win the beauty contest with 3 horns
The September month is also blueberry picking season. Wild blueberries are everywhere hiding between other low shrubbery. This brings me to the next sense that will still you, as you gaze upon the bright fall colors from small lichen on rocks to mosses, dwarf shrubs, here and there some fungi. You see some birches, low willows and some types of Aspen.
Dried remains are great for fish stocks and actually an export article to Africa
I think this is a dried monkfish head but I maybe wrong about it
The many teeth impressed me
5th and 6th generation owners of a restaurant quality cod processing plant
explain to us the finer details of their trade
Lunch in the famous Fridheimar tomato restaurant in Reykhólahreppur Iceland.
Having lunch in the greenhouse surrounded by tomato bearing vines
Reservations required throughout the year.
Pizza or soup or interesting salads
Those plants were showing their fall colors and the total picture is in one word awesome as they are surrounded by black lava and black sand and bare black hills.
Another shot of fall nature at their best
Barren but eerie beautiful when you are the only vehicle here.
Latrabjarg is a Europe’s largest seabird-cliff now devoid
of birds after their childbearing season.
Little fjords galore all around Iceland
Could not resist: another fall color picture
Latrabjarg, only people and no birds
another little desolate church
I could repeat myself
just let you gaze at the sights
that sum up the word Iceland trip
Whereas the six of us spent our time enjoying the sights together and in evenings of banter and good food and as we drove about 3 to 4 thousand kilometer on good and bad roads, through streams and across single lane bridges, as we could have done anywhere on this globe and feel after awhile that enough is enough, the fact is, that the nature we traversed, captivated us almost everyday, with exception of the 20hr plus raindays, which stymied the sense of exploration and made the car an internet based cocoon, till the next stay-over or next luncheon spot.
these people dive in the waters that divide the
island in 2 halves by the tectonic plates. Don’t ask me why?
Sandee walking a path that is 11 centuries old leading
to the annual National Assembly spot or Althingy of the ruling chiefs
in the Thingvellir National Park
The divers are under water now
those green stings seem to hold the rocks together
Did I show you these miraculous forms of live before?
Highlights: Every waterfall in the tourist guide book is worth visiting.
Our trip on the F208 gravel road to the Landmannalaugar inland, which crossed multiple streamlets. These always make you every time wonder if we could get stuck in the middle of one them. Since there are few vehicles passing, we realized too late that we had no towing equipment on board. This was our first time experiencing true empty wilderness in all its stark beauty. We saw hot water baths and crater lakes, and multicolored mountain slopes.
And Sandee managed to slide us off the road for a photo stop ending the vehicle in a suspended angle, where the question was: will or will we not topple over. A passing bus with Spaniards pulled us back on the road.
Joining a tour to walk a glacier. Walking with crampons under your shoes is something to get used to.
The Hverir stinky bubbling mudpots, which fascinated some of us more than others and later on the Geysir and the neighboring Strokkur geysers spouting up at irregular intervals.
Diamond Beach and the nearby ice lake, where ice rocks glittered against black sand.
The Latrabjarg Bird Cliffs on the most western tip of Iceland, almost bare of birds, but what an amazing view
And as “piece de resistance”: descending in a kind of window washer lift 120 meter down a dormant mountain to a rock strewn crater bottom, where we gaped in awe at all the colors on the walls displaying century old metals that spewed up (but not high enough, so we now could admire them) once a long time ago. While there, an artic fox pup danced around us hoping for food. Apparently a hunter killed the mother and the orphan was left here to be spoiled by the staff.
here and below in silence the amazing colors of the volcano crater we descended into
This brings me back to the Allthing I mentioned earlier. As the island became more and more populated by settlers, that could claim as much land as a man could circle in one day lightning fires on its perimeter and where a woman could do the same, making as wide a circle, pulling a cow behind her. (Women and men had equal status in those days, which begs the question how did you manage to lose that right feminists?).
As all this happened, the local chiefs created the Althing, a national parliament, the oldest legislature in the world in 930 AD in the now called Thingvellir national park, where they created laws and settled disputes and held court. The stone walls and pillars, we saw, witnessed the proceedings in silence during more than a thousand years and here one can also visit the place where the convicted were hung. The park is also the spot where the “cook slit the apple pie”, being the area where the North American tectonic plate hits the Eurasian tectonic plate, aiding to the volcanic activity on the island
All in all my story is only here to enhance the story our pictures tell. May they inspire you to also visit one day or visit it again
our Icelandic Artic Fox puppy
Erik
Summary Iceland Trip
Sept 2 , Keflavik airport to location 1: Hotel Anna.
We saw Seljalandsfoss Waterfall (our first of many) and ate in Selfoss on the way in and arrived late at the hotel, but before the bar closed.
Sept 3 ferry to Westman Islands (location 2) and stayed in Lava Apartments AirB&B for 1 night and had best fish and chips lunch and a 20 person van tour around the island looking at Puffins, and one of Europe’s best golf courses and an open air music venue for their annual festival and the lava area of 1973 eruption over town. That evening we dined at Gott restaurant. Next day before taking the ferry back we visited a museum showing a house covered in lava and ash.
Sept 4 and 5 at location 3, Hrifunes nature park bungalow, where we cooked our first pasta meal and fired up the hot tub with wood. Next day a tour over F208 road crossing streamlets to Landmannalaugar an inland area looking at crater lake Ljotipollur (meaning ugly pond) and colored mountains and hot water bathers. Sandee had our Ford Expedition run off the road and it needed to be towed back on the road by a passing bus with Spaniards, who we met again when having a communal table dinner at Hrifunes Guesthouse. On the way to and fro we enjoyed the beautiful landscape and crossed many waters.
Sept 6, 7, 8 and 9 at the Blue Glacier Foss Hotel (location 4). First day rained out, second day walk at Stokkness beach, and when returning stopped at a cloudy Diamond Beach to see the ice formations on a black beach. Next day a glacier walking tour, booked one class above our capacity, but enjoyed by Herman, while we took the basic walk, followed by a trip back to Diamond beach.
Sept 10 a rainy travel day along the east fjords to Seydisfjordur for an overnight stop (location 5) in Lonseira Apartments right by the 48 hour ferryboat to Denmark, enjoying a dinner nearby where some of us had breakfast the next day.
Sept 11, 12, and 13 to Akureyri (location 6), visiting Dettifoss and Selfoss waterfalls, the Kerid crater lake, passing hot crater electric power factories and the Hverir mud pots on a rainy day, which we revisited the next day while also visiting the Grjotagja Cave, with blue hot water. We walked a beautiful trail trying to find the Cave, but gave up and found it by car later, and we had several dinner visits through the only toll tunnel in Iceland. Here we had to change a tire rim that caused a leaky tire, and refilled power steering oil with no noticeable results.
Next day a sightseeing drive to Siglufjordur visiting the herring boom area museum.
Enjoyed in the evenings the well appointed AirB&B facilities and had pasta dining-in again as well as electric sauna and hot tub
Sept 14, a horrible rainy driving day to location 7, a stopover to the Westfjords area at Stadarflot hotel, a no staff hotel till breakfast with dinner at a N1 gas station.
Sept 15, 16 and 17 at Hotel West in Patreksfjordur (location 8) where we had our Icelandic Wild West adventure, driving to the most western point of Iceland at the Latrabjarg Bird Cliffs, where in season birds are nesting in the cliff walls, with a stopover at the famous red sand Raudisandur Beach, for an invigorating walk, as well as driving the second day through spellbinding views of mountains and fjords, never reaching our expected destiny but spending a sun covered time at the Djynandi waterfalls. We ate 3 nights in a row at the same Stukuhusid restaurant nearby our hotel.
Sept 18, 19 and 20 staying on the Snaefellness peninsula at Kast Guesthouse (location 9) in Lysudalur, midway exchanging cars with our rental company at Budardalur, where we arrived in streaming rain. The next day we continued in streaming rain driving to the main town Stykkisholmur for a Nordic House museum that some of us visited and a bakery for others to stay out of the rain and visiting one of the few open churches. Taking the long rainy drive “home” stopping for lunch at Grundarfjordur.
The next day was spent at our Guesthouse staring at the rain and since it did not stop raining we moved a day earlier to our fore last location in the golden circle area.
Sept 20, 21, 22 and 23 we stayed in a 4 bedroom cabin with private bathrooms for each couple and a full kitchen living room area as well as a in-house hot tub and balcony overlooking the valley below at Uthlid Cottages (location 10) Laundry facilities were utilized there.
We were a 10 minutes ride close to the Geysir area with 2 main spouting wells, the Strokkur and the Geysir. We visited several times and only Herman and Marjo who more frequently went there, saw the Geysir erupt.
We took a full day to visit the Thingvellir National park to visit the great divide rift area of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates and the area where the annual National Assembly of over thirty ruling chiefs and their vassals took place since 930AD, the Althingy, where each year laws were passed, crimes were judged and disputes settled all by collective decision making. The highlight of the tour was most likely the rainy 2 mile walking over lava visit to the dormant Thrihnukagigur volcano and take a tour down inside this volcano descending 120 meters in a kind of window washer carriage lift, gaping in awe at the colorful environment, while standing at the rock strewn bottom of the crater. Of course the only Icelandic fox pup dancing around us, that we ever saw on this trip, was a bonus.
We did some touring in this the most populated golden circle area and visited the impressive Gullfoss waterfall as well as had a special luncheon on our last day at the Fridheimar tomato restaurant in the nearby town of Reykholt, where we had a meal in a hothouse, surrounded by tomatoes and having tomato dishes.
Sept 24, our last night at the airport, Aurora Star hotel in Keflavik (location 11) gave us the opportunity to enjoy one last wonderful dinner in Kaffi Duus in Keflavik village, before leaving early next morning home.
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