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| Dyrholaey Arch - Southern Iceland |
Nothing like going right to the top of your 2016 bucket list. Shortly after completing my USA bucket list I moved on to an "outside North America" list. Iceland went straight to the top. Someone once described it as Yellowstone on steroids and that completely intrigued me. When a package deal from New York City came along I jumped on it with a nudge from a colleague who also joined me for my first European country visit. It was everything and more then Yellowstone...rugged, culturally interesting, excellent food and drink and there was water everywhere.
We flew overnight from JFK to Keflavik Airport on Iceandair, the 757 seemed roomier than I normally had flown and the entertainment selection was excellent. We saw the sunrise just before we landed at 6:15am. Thinking we couldn't check in at our hotel this early, we picked up a 4 wheel drive manual car and took the long way into Reykjavik.
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| Kleifarvatn - Reykjanesfolkvanger |
Landscape
We drove the southern peninsula region and got our first glimpse of the landscape shaped by fire and ice. My first observation was the stark absence of trees and plant-life. The black volcanic landscape was jagged, craggy...rugged. After a short while we noticed the ground was steaming in several places and stopped for a visit at our first hot spring. Signs everywhere warned us not venture to close and the smell was obviously that of sulfur. We stopped for a look at the famous Blue Lagoon, which was closed for construction during our entire visit. The week before our visit I found out you must prebook a visit to the Blue Lagoon. Shocked by such a necessity, I visited the website to find the disappointing news. I quickly googled "alternatives to the Blue Lagoon" and found several options.
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| Just outside the Blue Lagoon |
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| Reykjavik from Hallgrimskirkja Clock Tower |
The travelog on our Icelandair flight informed us ninety eight percent of Icelanders live in urban spaces and most of them live in close proximity to Reykjavik. I surmise tourism is likely the largest employer of Icelanders in some fashion or another. Reykjavik is a bustling town filled with tourists and the infrastructure to support them. Besides the typical tourist type gifts we found beautiful items made with Icelandic wool, native stones and lava. I splurged on a small pink perch skin purse, this was no small fish and I liked the idea that Icelanders utilize the entire fish from meat to skin. There was no visible garbage on the streets. There was also no sign of a McDonalds or Starbuck's and it was hard to find more than 6 ounces in a cup of coffee, throw away packages are minimal, bags mostly paper.New construction is omnipresent and cranes are located all around town; I couldn't but feel grateful I came when I did. Unfortunately, I recognized I am also part of the problem that might come to be in the next decade or so as we trample around this beautiful country. At first glance the architecture seemed to all be the same and void of color, but after a short while I began to see there were a lot of differences and pops of color turned up everywhere. Painted galvanized metal dominated as the material choice. Corner buildings often had corner doors with cutout metal designs. Wood trim and knee bracing around windows and eaves were common in what appeared to be the older buildings. Graffiti was everywhere. Thankfully most of it was very artistic and tasteful, but destructive random tagging saddened me at different times during our visit.
A Land of Tiny Churches
The other two percent of the population lives in predominantly rural areas devoted to farming. People live few and far between and addresses are simply the names of the families who tend the land. The predominant Icelandic religion is Evangelical Lutheran and the isolated farmers built churches as part of their farm complexes. It appeared the larger and more successful the farm, the larger the church. The hills were alive with them!
Icelandic Horses
The vast majority of the farms were devoted to the Icelandic horse and the hay to sustain them. Horses were everywhere and seemed to outnumber the human residents. Farms were well kept and I don't recall seeing any buildings in a ruinous state. We stopped at one point and the horses came to the fence to check us out and let us give them a little affection. We also saw sheep and cows, but to a far lesser degree than the beautiful smallish horses.
Wildlife
We heard the best odds of seeing whales in April was in the north. We journeyed to Northern Iceland to take a Whale Watching and Puffin Tour out of Husavik. The ocean rocked the boat and I felt like I was riding a bronco. Sadly we were a bit early in the season to see a whale, but we saw hundreds of puffins. They are interesting and clumsy creatures who live mostly on the water and take a single mate for life. They are shy creatures and dive down to escape the tourists cameras. They were thoroughly enjoyable to watch as they attempted to take flight, furiously flapping they wings and tumbling when waves impeded the little progress they made to lift off. It was an incredible boat ride and because we didn't see a whale, they stamped our ticket for a free ride next time, be it the next day or ten years from now. And they served us hot cocoa in china cups!
Water, Water Everywhere
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| Oxararfoss |
Bring your raingear and walk behind Seljalandsfoss. During our visit to Pingvillar National Park we stopped at Oxararfoss and walked down from the top through a crevice where the North American and European tectonic plates join together than went to the bottom and walked past another unnamed foss to the place where the oldest parliment in Europe took place in 930AD.
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| Skogafoss |
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| Seljalandsfoss |
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| Gullfoss |
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| Dettifoss |
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| Selfoss |
And after an active day there is the awesome Icelandic pasttime of taking to the baths. Having missed our earlier opportunities at the Blue Lagoon (closed for construction) and Secret Lagoon (only open till 8pm and we arrived at 7:40), we found that the Myvatn Nature Bath in northern Iceland was open till 10pm with extended hours in summer. Make sure to buy a beer bracelet with your entry fee and they will bring you up to three beers so you never have to leave the bath!
We visited on our fourth day in Iceland-April 26th (my son Austin's 28th birthday which was the best April 26th I've lived). This was my favorite day in Iceland consisting of whale watching from Husivik and hiking to Dettifoss and Selfoss; where I broke through the snow and fell into a hole all the way up to my left hip and face timed with Austin with Dettifoss roaring in the background. The Mytvn Mineral Baths were the perfect topper. We arrived at 6:30pm and stayed nearly to closing time. And did I say the beer was all brewed in Iceland.
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| Bryggjan Sampler |
Iceland is a foodie paradise and the beer was excellent. Our first day in Reykjavik was topped off with a visit at the Bryggjan Brugghaus. My sampler consisted of half pints and the Icelandic Catch of the Day was placed on a warm sweet potato salad consisting of cubed sweet potato, beets, scallions and topped off with a butter sauce that was heavenly. We tried to save room for the Warm Apple Cake or Warm Chocolate Cake, but the beer and main course won.
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| my fry baby |
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| Puffin and Whale |
Our second day in Iceland we picked up a young woman from Singapore hitchhiking in Pingvillar. After spending the second half of the day with up going to Stokkur and Gullfoss she told us it was her last day and she still had not eaten puffin. With a little bit of help from Suri and a lot of laughter we found 3 Frakkurs in Reykjavik-a restaurant which had both puffin and minke whale on the appetizer menu. We barely made it before the kitchen closed. The three of us shared a puffin, whale and garlic bread and each had a soup; my travel partner said it was the best French Onion she had ever had. Our bill for the three of us was about $100, but this was a once in a lifetime experience and the food and service were excellent. Iclanders love their licorice and chocolate, often mixed together. Dark chocolate covered licorice was definitely one of my favorites. I made sure I brought back several bags to share with friends and colleagues. They even fill the licorice with chocolate, caramel and coconut.I thoroughly enjoyed the beer in Iceland and only saw beer that was crafted in this beautiful country. Beers were generally between $9 & $11 in restaurants. My two favorites were a Toasted Porter by Einstok and the Borg American IPA, with Amarillo, Simcoe, Cascade and Columbus hops. I read the IPA had a very limited availability, but found it on tap at the Keyflavik Airport so had one last one before we left Iceland.
Vernacular Architecture
I had heard about the turf houses and still not seen one until we were on the southern coast. Our first encounter was met with nasty no trespassing signs, but shortly thereafter we encountered a farm that welcomed us to stop and take pictures and offered a donation box for the structures continued preservation, so I left a generous donation.
Final Thoughts
I would ideally have spent two full weeks here and seen the entire island including the West Fjords, and the native reindeer herd and iceberg lakes in the east. I'm glad we got the 4x4 Jiminy to navigate the island, but we really didn't need it. However I was grateful to have the nailed tires when we hit a blizzard on our way to Akureyri. In hindsight we would have spent very little time in Reykjavik, although this was the best place to get our bearings and some souvenir shopping. The tourism offices in the city hall were very helpful. Our Hotel Klopp in Reykjavik was nicely located near shopping and sights and had an awesome breakfast each morning where we could bulk up for our busy day ahead. We tried to have a nice dinner most days, eating out is very expensive. We found a great bakery in Reykjavik simply named Braud and Co (Bread & Co) where I discovered the most incredible raspberry licorice pastries.
I wish I had planned a brewery tour in the north better. We took a phenomenal ride from Akureyri to Siglufjordur too late in the day to visit two possible breweries: Bruggmijan or Segull. Bruggmijan in particular was willing to give tours with prior notice during reasonable business hours. The 76 Km ride to Siglufjordur was spectacular on the east side of the peninsula and made Highway 1 in California look like a kiddie ride. Approximately the last third of the route consisted of three tunnels the first one was a one way tunnel with turnouts for the northbound lane, coming back I felt like we were often playing a game of chicken...and I had no where to go.
I love Iceland, Thank you!
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