Iceland: Part III

Day three was time for another drive, this time out to the Snæfellsnes Peninsula. I've got a small snapshot of a map at the bottom of this post, and it links to a bigger google map you can explore (yes, the satellite view is neat). This little journey brought us through a 5km tunnel, an hour out of our way into the center of the country because of a missed turn (see the extra jog on the map), through numerous blizzards and hailstorms, some glorious sunshine, to the base of Snæfellsjökull volcano, many more fantastic views, and a very late arrival at the airport that evening. All in a days work.

(L&V)

Poor Lance was sick (food poisoning from a hardboiled egg that we hadn't kept refrigerated we think?) so it was a rough day for him, but luckily L&V had another day in Iceland to follow up with. We originally all had direct flights back Sunday night, but Icelandair cancelled that and offered to send us back through NY, or let us stay another day. Matt had to be back at work so we couldn't take them up on their generous offer. :(

(L&V)

(L&V)

(L&V)

Matt took enough pictures of the vehicles there to take up an entire blog post (or three) but since I'm the blogger in the fam, I get to decide that most of you probably don't care and whittle it down. There were quite a few pretty darn impressive rigs though, and these were not just for the tourists. Iceland has only 300,000 residents in the whole country, but 13,000km of roads, many of them gravel roads in icy mountainous regions. Someday when I've won the lottery I'll go back and drive one of these beauties around for a week through the volcanoes.

We arrived at Keflavik for our international flight (checking bags) with a whopping one hour and 15 minutes to spare. We were a wee bit nervous, but that part turned out just fine. Weather on the flight southward turned out to be awful and we finally landed at JFK about 30 minutes before our next flight was supposed to take off. After clearing customs and immigration we were 15 minutes past departure time but our flight out was showing 45 minutes delayed also. Unfortunately JFK is practically a city of it's own and we needed to catch a train to one of the other eight terminals. We had 13 minutes when we got inside, still needing boarding passes and to clear security. The folks at Delta were the most inept airport employees I have experienced and were completely unconcerned with us making our flight. After standing in line behind everyone (why would they expedite things when we had a whole 13 minutes) we were finally off. After sprinting a half marathon we stepped onto the plane as they closed the door behind us. Luckily, we had an entire row to ourselves, so we spent the next five hours in deep, deep sleep.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend and I would recommend it to anyone. Everyone we met spoke perfect English, which made everything very easy. The food was creative, the roads excellent, and both the cities and scenery were great. Icelandair frequently has amazing package deals during the off season, and they also offer free stopovers in Reykjavik on their very reasonably priced tickets from the states to mainland Europe so if you have a couple extra days on your way across the pond, this is a must see.

L&V had a great little HD video camera, so someday when I have an extra second or two I'll get that together because there are some pretty fun ones. Stay tuned. In the mean time we've got visitors for the next week who we're excited to show around Seattle for the first time.

Iceland: waterfalls, geysers, rift valley

For our second day in Iceland we did the Golden Circle Tour, minus the tour bus. We went bravely out into the pale morning light of the wildest blizzard I have ever seen. Not that it was snowing particularly hard, but I don't think any of the snow in Iceland actually touches the ground. It simply blows interminably around and around the country. You'll just have to see the video.

Necessary

We came across our first Icelandic ponies, a truly different breed. We felt bad for them out in the cold, all around the country with their rear ends turned against the wind.

Whats that you say? My hair has a strange resemblence to the pony's? It's the wind...

Our first major stop was at Geysir (where the word geyser comes from).

You couldn't tell when it was about to blow so most of the pictures are last second snaps...

If you look closely you can see all the water sucking back in

The second major stop on the Golden Circle is Gullfoss (Golden Falls). It was more frozen than golden while we were there, but stunning all the same. We spent our time there trying to avoid being blown into the falls itself, and the winds rivaled Patagonia.

Lance, me, & Val being blown all around the parking lot

After a picnic lunch in the car we were off to Þingvellir (the funny P is actually pronounced 'th'). Iceland's first national park, it is the site of the first Parliament in 930 BC and also the place where the North American & European tectonic plates meet to form a rift.

rift

After a day out in the elements we headed for a pool/hot tub complex in Reykjavik which turned out to be both a cultural experience and relaxing. It was all Icelandic people, so we left the camera at home.

Our plane ticket/hotel/breakfast/lagoon combo was absolutely dirt cheap, but nothing else in Iceland is. We really wanted to try some Icelandic specialties though, so with a glass of wine we spent some time at the hotel doing our research. We settled on Íslenski Barinn, which had fantastic reviews and everything we were looking for. We had researched well and it turned out deliciously. We got a bunch of small plates and shared everything. Add puffin, shark, and reindeer to the list of new foods. It's a special variety of shark called Hákarl, which is actually cured/fermented. It certainly wasn't something I ever need to eat again, but hey: when in Iceland....

Val, happy about her bravery before she trys the shark

getting the first taste of shark

yeah, thats about how it was

trying not to gag, sipping the Icelandic schnapps that come with shark to wash away the taste

The good stuff: puffin, reindeer, & goose

After the late dinner Matt & I ventured out to check out the renowned Reykjavik nightlife. It was just getting lively when we turned in around 2:30.





P.S.  Is anyone out there? Matt is sad that no one leaves comments. I'd have to say I agree. :)