Hot Springs, Volcanoes and Glaciers in Iceland

Jul 30

Jul 30 Hot Springs, Volcanoes and Glaciers in Iceland

As our flight from Bergen to Reykjavík was delayed, we needed to be at the airport, on the following day, bright and early at 4:10 am. This way, we would be in position ready to catch our newly scheduled flight at 6:10 am. Bleary eyed, we checked our bags in, and progressed through security. We then checked the departure board and discovered that our early flight was not quite as early as we thought. The new time for the flight was now 7:30 am. First our thoughts turned to how much sleep we had unnecessarily missed out on and then we had to again re-arrange our pick-up time. This could be a problem, as we would be cutting it extremely close, with our full day tour scheduled for 10 am Iceland time.

We made our way from the airport into Reykjavík and noted as we traveled along, how remarkable the landscape looked. It was almost as if we were traveling over the surface of a foreign planet, as the terrain had been created by fairly recent volcanic activity (fairly recent, as in the last 300 years!). We were both surprised to find that Iceland (at least this part) was completely barren of trees.

It all worked out in the end and we arrived at our hotel at 9 am, just in time to have a quick buffet breakfast and head out to join our tour group. The day had started off cloudy and cool, but by the end of our tour we almost felt as if we could have traded in our warm jackets for a pair of shorts and a t-shirt.

The tour that we went on took us on a 300 km drive of what is known as the ‘Golden Circle’. Our first stop was at Gamla Laugin, known as the ‘Secret’ Lagoon which is a pool kept warm by natural hot springs. After spending an hour relaxing and bathing there, we went to the powerful, tiered waterfall known as Gullfoss (Golden Falls), where we had time to have a typical Icelandic lunch of organic lamb soup (it was delicious!). After lunch we went to see the Strokkur geyser, which was impressive and the final main stop of the day was to Þingvellir National Park – home of the ancient Icelandic parliament. We made additional stops to view Icelandic horses and also to have some delicious ice cream at a farm where the milk-producing cows looked on us from their adjoining stalls. It was a nice, leisurely paced tour that we enjoyed, despite our lack of sleep!

After returning from the tour, we went out and had something to eat and strolled around exploring the city of Reykjavík before returning to our hotel room at around 9 pm. This was by no means ‘night time’ as in Iceland, similar to Norway, it never gets truly 'dark' at this time of the year, remaining in a constant twilight.

During our stay in Reykjavík we visited the impressive Lutheran church called Hallgrímskirkja and went up its tower to take in the view of the colourful city. We visited the punk museum, which was located in an abandoned public bathroom (!) and spent a lot of time walking around the streets which were touristy, but less so than many of the other places we have been to, which was welcome. Some of the sights we saw during our walks included the Harpa concert hall, a modern glass and steel building and a Viking ship sculpture, along the waterfront called ‘The Sun Voyager’.

One of the best discoveries though from a culinary perspective, was a hamburger restaurant called ‘Block Burger’. We ate here no fewer than three times and rate it as one, if not the, best burger joints in the world (no kidding)!

Iceland is the last country we are visiting in Europe, and the end of what was a fantastic three-year adventure (or may I say, in Icelandic fashion, a Saga?), since having moved to London in 2015. This will also be (more or less) the last entry for this trip, as we will now be visiting family and friends in Montreal, Ottawa and the Toronto area. Our intentions are to head for Calgary, to attend a wedding, before moving to Brisbane, Australia in September.