Bless Iceland

It was finally time to head home (and pack for Costa Rica). Overall, Iceland was a great place to visit: with its volcanic & geothermal landscape, its high standard (and cost) of living, its American influence (surprising) and its abundance of horse riding tours and geothermal swimming pools (guaranteed in almost every town). We wouldn't go again, but were very happy we went.

Food and lagoon

Our last full day was spent as it should be: eating and relaxing. We tried to visit 'the lobster soup' place in Stokkseyri, but it was closed, so we went to its rival, Rauða húsið (The Red House) in Eyrarbakki instead. We had some fantastic hommus, very good lobster and bottomless soup (to W's delight).


After finally giving up on the idea of the ski resorts opening, we went to the Blue Lagoon. Despite its obvious pandering to tourists, it is extremely well run and a pretty impressive place. I finally got my massage: you lie on a floating mat with a warm, wet towel draped over you, and while your back is massaged, you can gaze up at the blue sky - absolute bliss! W had scoped out the place, so we visited the 'hot' area, floated among the 'clouds', got pelted / massaged by the waterfall, tried out the steam bath (wet heat) and sauna (dry heat) and put mud on our face to make it silky smooth. Then finished the day with the best fish and chips we've had this side of the world: fresh and crisply battered fish, crunchy potatoes and 8 types of skyrronaise to dip the potatoes in (ranging from curry to basil to wasabi) (see above right).

Golden Circle and more

This was our driving day (see right). First stop was the inviting-sounding NLFÍ clinic, where we hoped to book massages. We were led through sterile, hospital-like corridors and left outside a room to wait. No one came out of it, and after watching old people shuffling past and noticing the eerie photos on the wall, we decided to quietly escape.


After getting hesitant confirmation from petrol station staff that roads were open, we set off in icy conditions in our 4WD. We drove down Route 26 towards Mt Hekla (see left), a volcano that goes off roughly every 10 years (last time was Feb 2000) and saw about 2
other travellers in the 3 hours of driving.

As our only map of that road stated that it was '...not meant for use during actual travelling...' (I only realised once we were well and truly on our way), it was extremely exciting when we finally reached a road sign confirming our location - so exciting, in fact, that it warranted a photograph (see right).


We continued on to the famous Golden Circle: firstly Gulfoss (see left), a waterfall that looked even more impressive when you took the extremely icy and slightly scary path to get closer. Our next stop was Geyser - well, Geyser is no longer erupting, so we were really there to see Strokkur (see below right), which was.

After a few failed attempts to capture it (it went off every 8-10 minutes), we moved onto Þingvellir (see below left). This was the original
seat of Parliament, but most of the sights were covered in snow, so we admired the rift (between the North American and European plates), then set off to Reykjavík.


As I had a hand in planning it, dinner was a long affair. Firstly, tasty lobster soup in polystyrene tubs with fresh bread from Sægreifinn (Sea Baron) near the harbour; then we tried puffin (surprisingly tough; in between duck and lamb according to W) and lamb at Við Tjörnina (By the Lake), a fancy restaurant filled with loud foreigners; and finally ended up in our favourite cafe (if you can have a favourite in only 2 days) for dessert.

Back to Reykjavík

We arrived back in Reykjavík later than expected (due to flight delays), but picked up our car and finally got to see the town. After some lamb (very tender), fish soup and nachos at a cafe, we rugged up and went on a personal walking tour, with me (and the Lonely Planet) as our guide (starting at the statue of Ingólfur Arnason).


Almost everything was closed, so after a visit to one of the art galleries (the building being more impressive than the art itself), we headed off to Hveragerði. Due to me missing a road sign, it took a lot longer than it should have, but we still made it to the slightly run down, almost deserted hotel. But it had a hot tub and sauna, so we were happy :)

Lake Mývatn by jeep

A sightseeing tour was scheduled for Sunday, but our guide was sick, so a local resident took us around instead. He told us a huge amount about the town, its history and its stories - he clearly loved the place.



Lake Mývatn sits on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, so a lot of the features were volcanic or geothermic. He pointed out local birds, opened up the tourist info store for us, called a resident to open the craft store and took us around to the sights around the lake:

we quickly explored a specially planted park Geiteyjarströnd (see above left), walked around the 'dark city' of Dimmuborgir, covered our shoes in plastic bags (see right) and stomped through the mud at Námafjall (see above right), peered into natural bathing holes and ended up, of course, at the Nature Baths again.

Lake Mývatn on horse

The next day, we braved the weather again and went horse riding (see right). I didn't quite get the hang of it, so my horse lagged behind on the way out, then began thundering back once we reached the halfway point (well, it seemed like thundering to me). Icelandic horses have a special gait that is supposed to be smooth, but my horse only seemed
to manage that when it was accelerating. Still, we saw amazing views of the volcanic landscape (see below) and didn't end up too sore.

As we were visiting in the low season, transportation and choice of meals was pretty limited. Still, the restaurant has some lovely fish and lamb dishes - and we tried skyr (yoghurt-type dessert) and hverabrauð (strange tasting bread that is baked underground).


That night, looking like Michelin men, rugged up in all our warm clothes, we trudged outside in search of the Northern Lights. We saw a streak of white across the sky, but it never reached the bright green colours you see in photos, so we went back to admire it from our room.

Lake Mývatn on foot

On Good Friday, Lake Myvatn residents don a badge and walk the 30 or so km around the lake - so we did too (well, half of it). At times it was glaringly bright and the cold made it tiring, but we got some great views of the lake and the surrounding area, keeping Mt Hverfell (see right) as our reference point.


We opted for a more relaxing afternoon, napping then recovering in the hot water at Myvatn Nature Baths (see left). Those baths are amazing - we spent so long there, the hotel rang up to see if were ok! There were a couple of large pools, a small tub, steam rooms and snow to roll around in when you got too warm. It got down to -5°C, so while our bodies were warm, our hair froze into fragile icicles.

Halló Iceland

First impressions of Iceland from the plane are brown and desolate. Walk outside, and you can add to this crisp and snowy. Drive towards Reykjavík, and the American influence becomes apparent as you race past shops. Fortunately, the best was to come...


Three hours in a plane wasn't long enough for us, so we boarded a domestic flight and headed north to Akureyri. We had some time to explore the town - primarily from the warmth of a bookshop and a restaurant. We did eventually brave the snow and found a giant snowman (see above) and some impressive graffiti (see right), before being transferred at a crazy speed (given the conditions) to Lake Mývatn.