Springing back to Iceland to see it in the green! COMPLETED 6/29 About This Page:

[chezp]

Pre-trip report – part three: I booked it for this… and now it’s closed?

The amazing beach at Vik I mentioned in the last instalment is a couple of hours’ drive from the airport, and that means we’ll be renting a car, which will be a first for us out there. The last time we visited, we just took the bus into Reykjavik, and then took guided tours. Mind you, there was snow everywhere, and although Mark said he’d be fine with driving, I wasn’t sure about it. I didn’t think he needed the stress. Hopefully, we won’t encounter any snow on this visit…

As I write this though, in early April, it’s not exactly looking promising. The long range weather forecast on Accuweather is saying that the real feel temperature will be around freezing (32°F) and predicts that we might get some snow and rain. Ok, not exactly what we were hoping for. I guess we’ll be getting those thermals and snow boots out again then…

When I booked the car rental, I also booked a GPS. I don’t usually do that, but I figured it would be useful out there. After all, some of their letters are slightly different, and I’m not sure how our GPS, which does cover Europe, would cope with that. As a back-up, I’m also putting maps and directions into our written itinerary just in case. Normally I’d use Google Maps on my phone, but I’m a bit worried about what might happen if we have no phone signal, and I’m sure that will be a real possibility outside of the main towns and cities.

A perfect example of how the letters differ comes from our first stop. Now I’ll give you the other name for it in a minute. In our writing, we’d call it the Thorvaldseyri Visitor Centre, but in the Icelandic language, it’s written as þorvaldseyri. See what I mean?

So what is this visitor centre? Well, the other name for it is the Eyjafjallajokull Erupts visitor centre. Now, as the name suggests, this is the famous volcano that erupted back in 2010, and basically brought air travel across Europe for six days. I remember it well. We weren’t directly affected by it, but I knew someone at work who was on holiday in Australia, who got stranded there for another week. Tough life, huh?

We were very grateful we were taking our own car on various road trips into Europe that year (around Northern France in June and then Switzerland in September), as rental car prices also went through the roof. Why? Well, some people were desperate to get home (don’t forget, if you weren’t in work, it was taken out of your holiday if you couldn’t work where you were on vacation) and hired out rental cars, and drove back. Stories of people driving back from the south of France, Italy and Spain to the UK were not uncommon, and as a result, the rental cars all ended up thousands of miles away from their regular bases, as these were one way rentals. Add to that, there’s not much call for a car that drives on the right over here, as we still drive on the left, and the rental companies ended up paying out a fortune to get cars back to where they’d started from.

I’m fascinated by the fact that the visitor centre opened up 14 April 2011, when the ash settled, and I’m looking forward to learning more about this completely unpronounceable volcano. Perhaps I’ll even learn how to pronounce it?

We’ll also be visiting this waterfall, Skogafoss:

http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/previews/03947_skogafossiceland_672x420.jpg

Once again, doesn’t it look amazing? I have a feeling that, between these various stops, there will be a lot of photos taken on day one!

We’re spending the night at Country Hotel Anna, which I found on hotels.com and the reviews look good on TripAdvisor, so I went for it. What I really liked was the fact they have a hot tub and sauna, which sounded great to me (although maybe not so great, given the temperatures we may be experiencing while we’re out there… ). They’ve got Icelandic horses in the fields nearby, and while we’ve met some before on our previous trip, they are one of the main draws of the country, so I wouldn’t say to seeing some more. Also, they include a buffet breakfast in the room rate, which should hopefully set us up nicely for our next day…

Saturday 29 April

The next day we’re going to re-cover some of the ground we went over on our first visit to Iceland, and this was one of the reasons we wanted to go back. We’ll head over to Geysir, a town which gave its name to the geyser. The last time we were there, it had snow around. I don’t expect it will look that much different, but we really enjoyed seeing it last time, and I’m hoping it will be less icy, as I had to take a lot of care not to slip over.

Then we’ll head over to the Gulfoss waterfalls nearby, which is something we’re hoping will look a lot different. The last time we saw it, it was completely iced up… like this:


There was also a sign there that showed us what it looks like in summer, and this is one of the many reasons we decided to return:



Hopefully it will at least look a little like this picture…

We’ll then make our way to Skarfabakki harbour, which is where you catch the Videy Island ferry. I fancied visiting the island on our last trip, but it just didn’t fit in, as the harbour isn’t exactly in the middle of the city. With a car, getting there is a lot easier. The ferry service is limited during the winter months to say the least. They only have three sailings on a weekend afternoon, and each boat only takes 38 passengers, so I hope we can make it. I did think about booking our tickets beforehand, but then again, if it’s going to be really cold, we may not want to actually go…

We’re staying the night at the Nordurey Hotel and this is where it gets a bit frustrating. I deliberately chose it as it was a bit out of the city, and a lot cheaper than most other places. Apart from the fact that it was a Saturday night, I have no idea why all the hotels were so darned expensive.

Anyway, there was another reason why I was happy to be more out of town this night, as I had plans to go out to dinner at the Perlan, which was home to a restaurant, and this offered superb views of Reykjavik. Notice how I used the past tense? Well, it’s now closed down. I couldn’t believe it when I logged on to their website. So now what? Ugh!

Well, the hotel we’re staying at isn’t in a neighbourhood with lots of dining options. Trust me, I have looked, and looked, and looked. I still can’t make up my mind what to do. We might drive into Reykjavik and eat there, but I think it will partially depend on parking at the hotel. If it’s going to be a nightmare to get a space there, then maybe we’ll stay put. We’ll see. I would prefer to have some definite plans (too much of the Disney planner in me I guess! ) but we’ll wing it, and hopefully we’ll be fine. After all, it’s a city, and there should be plenty of places to pick from…

And maybe it’s just as well that we don’t have dinner booked. We did have to rush our way through our dinner a little bit in Northern Ireland a couple of weekends ago, because I wanted to get back to our bed and breakfast place in time for Doctor Who. I am a massive fan, and have been since the programme’s 20th anniversary all the way back in 1983, so imagine how I felt when I found out it would be returning to our TV screens on Easter Saturday? I immediately worked out all the nights it would be showing, and the amount of times we wouldn’t be around.

Iceland is an hour behind us at present, as we’re on British Summer Time, an hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, and I guess Iceland doesn’t put their clocks forward for summer, hence the time difference, as when we visited in February, we were on the same time zone. Mind you, I guess they don’t need to add an extra hour, given sunrise is just after 5:00am when we’re there, and sunset isn’t until after 9:30pm. That’s going to be a bit freaky, as that’s usually about the longest day we get here in the summer. So that means we either go out super early for dinner, or leave it until more towards the peak dining period if I want to watch Doctor Who live… of course that’s even if the hotel we’re staying at has the BBC. Thank goodness for their iPlayer, that’s all I can say.

Next: what do you mean, they don’t start until 15 May?

[Colexis Mom]

Great plans! I hope the weather warms up a bit for you and the rain/snow holds off!

[cubfancolleen]

Seeing Skogafos I immediately looked on the map to see if we could work it in. Sadly I don't think so. We are renting a car, and like you, did opt for GPS as I didn't want to count on cell service!
Sounds like it will still be pretty chilly for you. Third trip will need to be June. Or you can join us in September!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by cubfancolleen

Seeing Skogafos I immediately looked on the map to see if we could work it in. Sadly I don't think so. We are renting a car, and like you, did opt for GPS as I didn't want to count on cell service!
Sounds like it will still be pretty chilly for you. Third trip will need to be June. Or you can join us in September!

Oh if only, but we already have other plans for September... and there's the small matter of someone having run out of holiday for this year, as apparently I've booked too much.. .

[manticorjenn]

Originally Posted by chezp

No, it's certainly not representative of that at all, but I really liked the feel of the airport. To me, it just looked beautiful and rustic. I guess because I don't usually get to see airports like that - usually they don't have any real form of theming and, to me, that makes a lot of them feel as if they don't have a "heart", if that makes sense?

Yes it makes sense. I guess since it is my home airport and my hometown I am jaded. That theming has been added to a lot of places around town. I have worked with construction and plumbing in the past, so I know what it costs to do that type of theming. It is outrageous for what it is and our location in the state makes it that much more costly because of the lack of manufacturers in the area. We have to bring most of that material in from other sources and that raises the pricing. Needless to say, we have a lot of people that don't have to worry about the costs and just like it for the "rustic" feel while those of us who live and work here just see it as a waste of money.

[MayraLR]

The beach and the waterfall look AMAZING!!!

[SuperDave]

The plans are shaping up with a full schedule as always! The waterfall looks so beautiful and amazing and may be worth to Iceland itself! Hoping the weather forecast is wrong!

[Cam22]

Hope the weather turns out not to be too frigid! Love all the plans coming together.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by SuperDave

The plans are shaping up with a full schedule as always! The waterfall looks so beautiful and amazing and may be worth to Iceland itself! Hoping the weather forecast is wrong!

Me too, but sadly it's not looking promising at the moment.

[chezp]

Pre-trip report – part four: what do you mean, they don’t start until 15 May?

Ok, so now we come to this point in our trip…

Sunday 30 April

The next day we’re going to swap over to another hotel in Reykjavik and this was the hotel we stayed at last time we were in Iceland. It’s called CenterHotel Arnarhvoll, and we just loved it. It’s got superb views across the sea, both from our room (we went for a sea view again) and from the restaurant on the top floor. We also loved their wellness centre, and I can imagine us spending a bit of time there as well during our stay.

Once we’re all checked in, it’s then time to make our way out of Reykjavik, as we’re going to take a day trip out to Snaefellsjokull National Park. It was the country’s first national park, and is a 700,000 year old stratovolcano with a glacier covering its summit. It’s in the west of the country, and is a couple of hours drive away from Reykjavik. Those of you familiar with Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne may think they know the name, and you’d be right, as it was there that they found the entrance to the passage leading to the centre of the earth.

I know there are many things to see there, so I looked at all the various organised day trips out there, and picked a series of stops that sounded interesting. Hopefully my own “home grown” tour will work…

Eventually, we’ll head back to Reykjavik and my hope is that we’ll have been able to book dinner earlier that day at the hotel for the Sky restaurant, as we enjoyed it so much on our last visit. Now again, I’m afraid, our lives will be a bit dominated by TV viewing, but if anyone has seen Line of Duty, you’ll get why. Honestly, it is one of the most riveting British dramas of recent years. It is just superb with unbelievable twists and turns, and cliffhangers like you wouldn’t believe. It’s the final episode of the current series on this night, and we are not missing watching it live! Therefore, an early dinner will be called for, before an hour of being on pins and needles, seeing how on earth they wrap another excellent season up!

Monday 1 May

The next day is 1 May, and that’s important for reasons we’ll get to in a minute. The day will be spent in Reykjavik. We know we have a good breakfast to look forward to at our hotel, if last year is anything to go by.

We’ll have a relatively early start, as we want to get on the first whale watching trip of the day. This was another reason we wanted to return, as we had a free ticket to be used up within the next two years, after our previous trip resulted in a great fat zero sightings of whales. I did like that about the company – they guarantee you whales, and if you don’t get lucky the first time, you can try again, so that’s what we’re doing. Fingers crossed we’ll have more luck this time around…

At least this time around, it will be nice and light when we head off for the whale watching. This is where I find it hard to comprehend how the seasons work in Iceland. We were there in late February last year, and it was still dark after 9:30am. This time, we’re literally only going a few weeks later, and sunrise will be at 5:00am, as I mentioned earlier. Wow!

As I mentioned earlier in this pre-trip report, the reason why 1 May is important is because it’s the first day we can go out and do something I’ve wanted to do for many years, and that’s puffin watching. I absolutely adore these birds, they just look so bright and colourful, yet I’ve never seen one for myself. I was very jealous when a work colleague of mine went on a puffin watching trip a few years ago, and ever since then, I’ve really wanted to do one. This was part of my whole logic for going at this time of year. However, no sooner than we’d booked it, I ran into problems. I’d read on a number of sites that the tours run from May until August, so I thought no more about it… until I went to actually book one. Then I discovered that most companies operate from 15 May to 15 August. Are you kidding me? I could not believe it.

Frankly, I was not going to be beaten though, so I kept searching, and eventually found a company that did offer tours from 1 May, so we booked with them. I just hope it’s not a bad sign that they’re the only ones to start this early, and we actually get to see them. Again, fingers crossed! If we see a whale, and a puffin, then it will be a very good day for us!

The plan is then to have dinner at Restaurant Reykjavik, where we enjoyed an amazing seafood buffet last year. It’s pricey, but my goodness, it’s worth it. However, we will have some time to spare, as the puffin watching trip is only an hour long, and sets out at 2:00pm, so we’ll be back around 3:00pm, and the restaurant doesn’t open for dinner until 5:30pm. We’ll see what the day is like in terms of weather, but we can always wander around the town, browse the shops, or perhaps enjoy a museum. I’m sure we’ll find plenty to occupy us.

I had a list the last time we went to Reykjavik, and I didn’t quite do all of it. There’s the Volcano House, which tells you about volcanoes, as the name suggests, but then again, wealready have visited one attraction that focuses on volcanoes. There’s also the Saga Museum, which sounds like Iceland’s answer to Madame Tussauds, with waxworks depicting some of the most important points in the country’s history. I have heard this is a bit creepy though…

Another option is Aurora Reykjavik, which explains all about the wonderful phenomena of the Northern Lights, which we were privileged enough to see last year. And then there’s also an exhibition called Whales of Iceland, although if we haven’t managed to see any on our whale watching trip, we may not be in the mood for that…

Tuesday 2 May

This is our last full day in Iceland, and today we’ll be heading out of the city, and back to one of our favourite places from our last visit. We’ll be heading out to the wonderful Blue Lagoon, but this time we’ll be driving out there, rather than having to mess around with buses, which were a bit of a pain last time. Hopefully it should at least be a bit warmer too, as whenever we got out of the water, it was a bit of a shock to the system…

We’ve got the same package as we had previously, the premium package, which includes entrance to the Blue Lagoon, silica mud mask, use of bathrobe and towel, slipper, algae mask (delivered at the Silica Bar in the Blue Lagoon), reserved table at LAVA restaurant, complimentary sparkling wine with lunch and one drink of your choice at the in-water bar. You have to select an entry time when you book, so I went for between 11:00am and midday. It will take us about three quarters of an hour to get there, so at least we should have a reasonably late, and more relaxed start to our day, given it’s a day that’s all about relaxing really!

We’ll float around in the lagoon for some time, then we’ve got a late lunch reserved at LAVA at 2:00pm. This is the restaurant we had lunch at last time, and we were very impressed with it, so I figured we’d go back again. I wanted it to be a bit later in the day, as we’ll no doubt have filled up on our free breakfast.

Once we’re done at the Blue Lagoon, we’ll head to our hotel, which is in nearby Grindavik. I did look at staying at the hotel we stayed at last time, but I found something a bit cheaper a little bit further away. I would’ve liked to have stayed at the new resort they’re building at the Blue Lagoon itself, but they seem to be taking forever with it.

It’s all over the next day, as we fly home. We leave at 10:30am, which at least isn’t too hideously early, and it means we’ll also be back in London (provided our flight is on time!) at a reasonable hour, and hopefully before rush hour kicks in, as the section of the M25 is notoriously busy at those times, and the last thing we want to fly back into is traffic!

So those are our plans… now just for a few final preparations.

Next: now where is that very safe place?

[Colexis Mom]

More great plans! I hope you are able to see the puffins!!

[cubfancolleen]

Hope you get to see both puffins and whales!
Glad to hear you enjoyed Lava (I thought I recalled you had, but good to have confirmation). We'll be having lunch there as well.
We're staying one night at Silica, the hotel adjacent to Blue Lagoon. Prices are ridiculous, but they premium entry for Blue Lagoon, so when I figured that in, it didn't price out that much higher than what I was seeing in Reykjavik. Plus, I'm using points for our hotel in Reykjavik, so figured I had a bit to play with.

[pamcarey]

Best of luck for seeing puffins! They're so cute and fun to see! Although very hard to photograph from a boat!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by cubfancolleen

Hope you get to see both puffins and whales!
Glad to hear you enjoyed Lava (I thought I recalled you had, but good to have confirmation). We'll be having lunch there as well.

It was superb - expensive, but you expect nothing else in Iceland sadly.

We're staying one night at Silica, the hotel adjacent to Blue Lagoon. Prices are ridiculous, but they premium entry for Blue Lagoon, so when I figured that in, it didn't price out that much higher than what I was seeing in Reykjavik. Plus, I'm using points for our hotel in Reykjavik, so figured I had a bit to play with.

I was very tempted by the Silica Hotel and I did contemplate it for a long time, but I just couldn't justify it. I haven't checked recently, but every time I looked, there were no details about the new hotel they're building there. If that had been open (or at least they had details about when it would be on the website), I might have been tempted by that, but I dread to think how much that might cost!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by pamcarey

Best of luck for seeing puffins! They're so cute and fun to see! Although very hard to photograph from a boat!

I can imagine. It's probably just like whales, although hopefully a bit easier, given the puffins won't be diving down under the water all the time... I'd like to think. If I can see them, I'll be happy and I'll be delighted if I can get a decent photo or two of them....