It was a fascinating trip to Iceland for the Missus and me. It truly is a unique place, though that term gets thrown about too much. The scenery reminded me of Montana or Wyoming, but on the coast, married with Scandinavian efficiency and charm. The bathrooms were all clean (and too small). The people spoke excellent English - both for tourism and presumably when only about 300,000 people speak your language, you have to get you culture elsewhere.
It was VERY expensive, especially in the every day stuff like meals. Truly good meals I'm fine paying a premium for, because you know you're getting a great meal and you know the cost up front. When a mediocre sandwich or burger for two sets you back $75 it adds up. Whether this is because Iceland is a remote island or the inflationary pressures of Scandinavian democratic socialism is beyond my power to grok.
The scenery, though, is truly amazing. The trip basically went like this.
Day One: Landed in a cool, overcast Iceland, went to the Blue Lagoon - which lived up to the hype - then ate the world famous hot dogs of Reykjavik.
Day Two: Saw a very well done presentation on Iceland settlement in Borganes, hiked to an extinct volcanic crater at Edfloss, drove around the Snaefellsnes peninsula, saw where they filmed scenes from Game of Thrones, and we discovered that many of the roads of Iceland are not paved. We stayed that night in an old boarding school converted into a hotel.
Day Three: Drove along the northern coast. Had a disappointing side trip to see seals, we saw them, but from quite a distance. More dirt roads. We went near the top of Iceland, looking out at the Arctic Ocean. Drove though a two-way tunnel only wide enough for one care with little turnouts. That was exciting. Visited a fishing village and then arrived at Akureyri. The gasthaus had shared showers.
Day Four: Drove up to Husavik for whale watching. We shadowed a humpback whale for about two hours as it languidly napped around the surface. We then hit the Waterfall of the Gods on the way back to Akureyri for a really excellent dinner.
Day Five: We went pony riding around the pseudo craters of Lake Myvatn. Quite the jostling experience and I even fell off the pony. We then hit the Myvatn thermal baths that reek of Sulphur. The Myvatn geothermal field also smells of sulphur so strongly it made me gag.
Day Six: Long driving day from Akureyri to Hofn on the southeastern coast. Stretches of desolate nothing and then a more alpine stretch of dirt road near a series of lakes. At Hofn we had a simply transcendent meal and were treated to an amazing sunset.
Day Seven: The long drive along the south coast, with a long stop at Jokulsarlon to watch small icebergs form. Throughout the drive through long stretches of empty land, we would see little farm houses nestled against the cliffs and in small valleys that were hours from towns of any note. Even a town like Vik only has 300 people in it. We spent the night at another former boarding school near Skogafoss. Less impressive.
Day Eight: The plan was to hike to the active volcano, but weather conditions made that impossible. So we drove straight to Reykjavik where we finally had a luxury hotel. We cruised the main drag for tourist shit and then went to see a whale museum that was as well done as all the museums in Iceland. For whatever reason, we ate a tapas joint where an Icelander named Magnus(!) told us to head to Perlan the next day.
Day Nine: Perlan is the Iceland Natural History museum and it, too, was amazingly well done. Efforts to get on an earlier flight failed and so we waited around the Keflavik airport for hours. Don't really recommend it.
And that was it. I have too many photos and videos on my phone and we retroactively made the trip our 25 anniversary second honeymoon (to justify the costs).
10 out of 10, would do again.
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