To celebrate our 35th anniversary we wanted to head someplace special. Iceland soon moved to the top of the list. Whytes take a vacation and don’t visit a US National Park, crazy. We told the girls: we are paying for the house, want to go? Apparently we raised a bunch of travelers and they all said yes. We had a family dinner before the trip and I asked everyone to bring 3 places they wanted to see. Our oldest daughter Jennifer won the price for the funniest submittal: she wanted to see a puffin and eat a puffin. Mission accomplished.
There were lots of agreements on what to see which made for easy trip planning. Added bonus there was a direct flight from Cleveland to Reykjavik. We flew out Friday night (great fish tacos at Great Lakes Brewing in the airport) and landed in Iceland early Saturday morning. The airport was a disaster. Iceland is/was very popular and the airport could not handle the amount of traffic that landed at the same time. It was chaos. People everywhere and locals yelling at us where to go. We figured it out and made it through customs and then to the very long line to get rental cars. Leann and I got a free upgrade to a 4X4 vehicle, score. Iceland has miles of dirt roads they call F roads, the upgrade allowed us to travel on these roads. Wonder why they call them F roads? We would find out.
We had all day to get to our first house and decided to drive along the coast and through the southern part of Reykjanesfólkvangur Park. We had 3 cars and learned very quickly that I am not a good leader in a caravan. I would jump in the car and take off, sometimes on a route that we had not even planned. I would then wonder where in the hell everyone was. After we re-grouped, I promised to behave, that didn’t last long. One of the issues: there were 4 people crammed in a very small car with a very small engine. We would get to a hill, they would floor it and barely make it to the top. By the time they did, we were long gone.
After a few more starts and stops we regrouped and somebody found a local place for us to have breakfast. It was on the coast and popular with the local fishermen. We were definitely not from around there but people were friendly
Our first day, along the coast and then up to our house in Austurbyggd.Reykjanesfólkvangur Nature Preserve, I have no idea how to pronounce the name. Icelandic names are brutal.Kerid CraterMy girls, plus 1 (Leann’s sister)Bottom of the craterOur first house was in the middle of the golden circle, it was a great location for a home base to hit the sites.Geysir area that had many thermal featuresNot quite Old Faithful but pretty impressiveThe WhytesGulfoss: I would not kayak here. Gulfoss, if you like waterfalls and volcanoes, Iceland is the place to be.We went a little out of our way to see what an F road looks like, pretty much dirt roads but hard to see in the pictureThis area reminded me of the Alaskan arcticOur destination today was Thingvellir National Park. The park has two distinct persona: nature and history.
History: Thingvelir translates to “Assembly Plains” – the Alþing general assembly was established here around 930 and continued to convene until 1798. The area is highly valued by Icelanders and is a protected national shrine.
Nature: various faults, fissures and waterfalls are found throughout the parkÖxarárfoss WaterfallLögberg -the law rock, anyone attending the assembly could present their case on important issues.Jenny & MikeWe call this the album cover. Looks like a rock album cover from back in the day. Yeah I know, it’s called vinyl. Hipsters changed the name just so they can say they discovered it. Just so we are all on the same page: Hipsters did not invent IPA’s either. Thingvelir is one of the 3 national parks in Iceland: Snaefellsjokull and Vatnajökull are the other two.We headed SE for another great day of sites.SeljalandsfossPretty cool, you could walk behind itSkogafoss FallsTop of the fallsThis was a beautiful hike up steps past the falls and then follow the river upstream. At one point I saw a backpacker going the other way. hmmmDyrholaey, great rock features and lots of puffins. This is the southern most point in IcelandReynisfjara Black Sand BeachBasalt columnsThe “Parentals”According to folklore, these large columns were once trolls that pulled ships from the ocean to shore. They went out too late at night; dawn broke on the horizon, turning the trolls into solid stone.Since the most of us had LANDMANNALAUGAR on our list of things to see and it was on an F road, we took a bus trip and did a nice day hike. This might be the best day hike I have ever done, spectacular scenery and well graded trails.The picture on our landing page was taken here.lava fieldBack to the house and after a very long day to LANDMANNALAUGAR, we stayed close.Icelandic horses, they looked like ponies to me but don’t say that to a local, those are fighting wordsSkálholt CathedralFaxi FallsViking long houseLong day today but Julie, Leann and I wanted to explore the NW side of Iceland. Everyone else headed to ReykjavikKirkjufellsfossKirkjufell was one of the filming locations for Game of Thrones season 6 and 7. Arrowhead mountain is what The Hound and the company north of the Wall saw when capturing a white walker.Lots of birdsSnæfellsjökull National Park, our second national park but we did not make it to the third, slackers. This was the start of our first F road, there was a sign that stated travel at your own risk, death was a possibility. Leann said go for it, Julie was thinking she should have gone to Reykjavik.The road is worse than it looksThe picture does not do this justice. The glacier and the sky were the same color and blended together. The rocks looked like they were growing out of the ground in distorted shapes. It was very disorienting, I thought aliens had landed. Looks like we are almost done, nopeDoes not look bad but we barely made it to the top. After this I knew what F roads meant. You are F#@KED or what the F#@K are you doing here?
We arrived back in Reykjavik in time for dinner. We went to restaurants Friday and Saturday night and the food was awesome. We did a walking tour of the city on Saturday. Our middle daughter is an architect so she researched the sites to see.
The Sun Voyager is a sculpture by Jon Gunnar ArnasonWho doesn’t like a good Chuck Norris joke?Jenny and Mike were brave enough to do thisHallgrímskirkja CathedralViking World museumThe museum holds the Íslendingur, which is a replica of the Gokstad Viking ship. The Gokstad is a 9th centry ship that was found in a grave in Gokstad, Norway. In 2000 the ship was sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to Newfoundland, for the celebrations of the millennium of Leif Ericsson’s voyage.Last picture of the trip, Josh & Jamie (they are getting married next year), Leann & Julie
Iceland was a great way to celebrate number 35, 40 is just around the corner. Where should we go for that?
2 replies on “ICELAND: 2018”
When are you heading back to do the Ring Road??
We looked at going back but it turns out we have seen most of the highlights so we are looking at other options
2 replies on “ICELAND: 2018”
When are you heading back to do the Ring Road??
We looked at going back but it turns out we have seen most of the highlights so we are looking at other options