PS.

we've found the mobile. It's in Copenhagen. don't ask.

ann,

Sounds like a fascinating trip.

I like that you are going to give us all the facts - good, bad and ugly,

Looking forward to more.

gruezi

I hope this is as funny as "round ireland with a fridge."

You're off to a great start! Looking forward to more!

I don't think I'd do any of this but I can hardly wait to hear the rest of the story.

I can't wait to hear more! (And I'm so tempted to ask about the mobile, but I'm biting my tongue...)

Hi again, folks,

Day 1. We're off.

our wonderful housesitter has volunteered to take us to the airport - she's used to getting up early as her DH is a postman. so she arrives at 6am bright-eyed and bushy tailed whilst we are distinctly grouchy. the mood is not improved when we try to cram our luggage [trimmed to a mimimum due to Ryanair weight restrictions] into her car. it goes, just. hopefully DH won't notice that one of our rucksacks is full of food i have been too mean to leave behind, including 2, [yes, that's right, 2] cucumbers I picked yesterday. the housesitter has assured me she loathes cucumber, and I don't grow so many that I'm willing to give them away to just anyone. so in have gone the cucumbers, plus some apples, tomoatoes, and a bit of salad. well, quite a lot of salad, but it doesn't weigh much, does it?

at the airport, our packing juggling has paid off. we beat the 15kgs limit by at least 0.15kgs on every bag. when every kg excess costs about £12, my investment in a digital luggage scale [£19.95 from Lakeland] has been handsomely rewarded. [don't forget to take it with you, will you, so you can use it on the return journey?]

then we are crammed into the less than luxurious departure lounge [and that's stretching it a bit] at Newquay awaiting the delayed flight to Stanstead. I suppose it's better than it was - the first time we used it, the baggage reclaim was a trestle table - I walked past it first time round.

after a delay of about 45 minutes, we're finally called, and being Ryanair there is a mad dash for the seats. [Un]fortunately we get seats all together. we have had some breakfast and filled up our empty water-bottles in the toilets [the rules say you can't bring water in bottles air-side, but it doesn't say anything about empty bottles!] so we don't need to buy anything on the flight.

at Stanstead, we have about 2 hours to spare. we wander over to the Iceland Express desk, and as there is a line of about 4 people, check-in is indeed express. we learn that by pre-booking our seats for £7 each, we qualify for fast-track security. [if you are flying from Stanstead, it's well-worth seeing if you can qualify for this facility]. so instead of the endless queue to be undressed and examined, we get to whiz through with the crews and VIPS.

but this STILL leaves us with about two hours to fill less 10 minutes or so. so like Hobbits, we decide on a 2nd breakfast, and go for FRankie and Bennies, for the simple reason that it's the closest to the entrance. the breakfasts are pretty standard fare, but improved greatly by freshly squeezed orange-juice.

Still an hour to go, we so wander around the duty-free, [DH persuades me that the cost of booze in Iceland justifies taking our own so we buy a bottle of Armangnac and some Toblerone for the kids] the book shops [can't carry any more], and gaze at the champagne and oyster bar. At Standtead???

After an age, the flight is called and we trundle off on the shuttle to the other part of the airport, where we finally get on board the "Iceland Express". it's reasonably comfortable, and the flight only lasts less than 3 hours. so in very little time, we're there. Iceland. and it's hot. terrific.

you may have heard that Iceland is expensive. it is. one of the highest costs is car hire. for 12 days hire of a Suzuki Grand Vitara, it cost about £110 a day. [if I've got the exchange rates right- we'd booked it in January and they's changed by the time we got there in July - I'll check it later when I get the credit card bill]. this was through Tiger, and we picked up at the Budget desk. I didn't opt for super CDW [we'd already paid for the normal CDW] and I can't not remember what it cost, but I soon wished we had.

Being adventureous types, we'd decided not to stay in Reykjavik the first night, but to drive towards the south where we wanted to see the waterfalls and glaciers, and possibly the westermann islands. to get there you can either drive along the "ring road" [which circles Iceland, more or less] or take a more circuitous route though the national park south of the airport, and along the coast. No prizes for guessing which we chose, thinking that we'd use this opportunity to see some of the country.

well, we certainly did that. the tarmac suddenly disappears, and there we are on gravel, interspersed with potholes of various sizes. the scenery is very dramatic - mountains, lava fields, glacial lakes fringed with black sandy beaches, hot springs gurgling up through the rocks, all within an hour of arriving. Wow.

AFter about 100kms, the land levels out a bit, and becomes much greener and softer - this is the greenhouse of Iceland, where the geothermal energy is used to grow crops, such as tomatoes and veg, even bananas! [allegedly].

this is where we've booked our first 3 nights, in a cottage on a farm near Hvollsvollur. [south of Selfoss]. this was all arranged through www.farmholidays.is, who grade and inspect hotels, guest houses, and self-catering cottages, called summerhouses in Iceland.

ours is at a place called Smaratun [no.650] in a Cat III summerhouse, one of three set well away from the rest of the property where there's a hotel and some other accommodation in sleeping bags or "made-up beds". [both very common in Iceland and reasonably cheap if you don't mind being friendly with strangers!]

for 10,000 kr a night we get two bedrooms, plenty of living space, a fully eqipped kitchen, small bathroom, and our own hot tub. this is roughly half the price of a hotel with two double/twin rooms with bath/shower, so for the 4 of us it's a considerable saving. plus we're hoping to do some self-catering and save on the cost of food as well. some hope!

but that night, we opt for a meal in the restaurant. [I'd picked places where we could get a meal if we want to, not knowing what cooking for ourselves would be like. this turns out to have been a lucky choice]. well, it wasn't brilliant, but for about £15 each, we get a three-course meal of soup, chicken in sauce plus vegetables, and some dessert I've forgotten. a bargain for Iceland, as we later discover, all served by a german girl who complains bitterly that the weather is much too hot for Iceland and NOT what she'd gone there for!

then it's back to the cottage to make up our beds [linen and towels provided for and extra 1000 kr each], jump in the hot tub, and go to bed.

NEXT - lava, icebergs, and dead sheep.

I love it that you brought your cucumbers with you! I'm a cucumber fan too.

It's been decades since I've flown Iceland Airlines. Do they really strip search you unless you pay 7 pounds extra? Or was that Cornish humor?

More, please. And I'm really, really curious about the mobile, but I shan't ask.

EL

Love it, bookmarking for the next installment.

Great beginning - can't wait for more . . .

Great report, looking forward to the rest, but what are budgies please?

Hi again,

thanks for the feed-back -

Adrienne - perhaps we should have a special smilie for cucumber fans -or perhaps not!

the reference to the strip search was to the zealousness of the security search at Stanstead. I'm all in favour of not being blown up, but sometimes it strikes me that the rules simply enable any jobsworth to get his jollies by harassing innocent passengers. anyway, the £7 just lets you get through the process quicker, as well as boooking a specific seat on the flight. On the way back we didn't bother, reckoning that there wouldn't be such a scrum at Keflavik at 6am. WRONG!

Nikki- "budgie" is a common UK diminiutive for "budgerigar" which you might recognise as a small parakeet often kept as a pet cage bird here - native to australia i think. [and following DH letting one go accidentally a few months ago, native to Cornwall too, I shouldn't wonder].

el344 - I'll put you out of your misery about the errant mobile- as far as I can. by the simple expedient of phoning its number, we discovered that it was in someone's office in Denmark - presumably DS dropped it on the flight out to Iceland, and that's where the plane eventually ended up having a proper clean. the kind person who licked up said that s/he would pass it to their handling agent, who turn out to be SAS, and another kind person has said that they will post it to us. I'll let you know if/when it turns up.

I'm personally quite attached to this mobile as I've spent a considerable time recovering it from previous escapades - being dropped in bushes at school [guess who had to scrabble about trying to locate it whilst the family phoned it from home?] and being almost drowned on the beach at Portreath being my favourites. I was tempted to suggest that DS go to Copenhagen to get it back but I doubt that SAS would send HIM back free of charge!

anyway, on with the story.

DAY 2.

the summerhouse at Smaratun, whilst a great deal better than the later one, still was not luxurious. the beds [bunks with a double underneath, a single on top] were not the most comfortable and as it was hot we'd had to keep the windowns open which in tru ncaused the venetian blinds to rattle all night. consequently, not much sleep was had and we were awake and ready to go by 8am. [9am on BST of course, which might explain something].

did I mention we'd done some shopping the night before? the mere act of finding a supermarket was an undertaking - for some reason I'd convinced myself that "opid" was the name of a supermarket. so we drove round Selfoss, a reasonably sized town, looking for a "opid". after total failure on that score, we found another one at a petrol station [very common in Iceland we disclovered] and laid in some basic provisions. I've just found the bill. I'd like to be able to tell you what we bought for our 2,743kr, but my Icelandic isn't up to the translation. but I can tell you that a 500gr box of cornflakes cost about £3 or U$6 - which is twice UK prices.

anyway, this enabled us to get our own simple breakfasts [a great saving on the hotel which wanted 1000kr or about £7 each] and make an early start. But at what???

the night before,we'd discussed out options, and the family had decided upon a glacier walk first, followed by a drive to Vik [the most southerly town in Iceland reputedly with a most interesting and beautiful beach] via the waterfalls at Skogar. well, the first problem was that, having negotiated the perilous 10km track up to the glacier, which was grey and somewhat disappointing, truth be told, the guides for the glacier walk never turned up, but I did get attacked by the bench that someone had left at the meeting point, which was suddenly picked up by the wind and hurled at my legs.

so we beat a retreat back down the self-same perilous track, and headed for the waterfall, which did indeed live up to its billing. I don't think that it's possible to say about waterfalls "if you've seen one you've seen them all", and Skogar is a cracker. About 100ft high, with a lovely deep pool at the bottom. DS, as ever drawn to water, ventured close enough to get the first of many soakings, and then decided he'd climb to the top [via a path i should add] to dry off.

I decided that I'd be safer at the bottom, and promtly twisted my ankle when I missed the bottom step coming out of the ladies. ho hum.

then it was off to Vik [pronounced as in wick, or sick] which proved to be a lovely drive, over rolling countryside, with glimpses of the sea beyond. Vik, however, was a bit of a let-down, and nothing to write home about. Lunch WAS memorable, mainly because we consumed the first of many sheep that were destined to be our staple fare. and the soup that invariably precedes it.

What to do now? I should at this point explain that we have a time-honoured way of planning our holiday activities. [you must understand that I'm trying very hard at this point to give a wholly unbiased account, but the rest of the family might feel that I'm being just a tad unfair]. I read lots of guide books and consult my fellow fodorites, and compile lists of possible excursions and trips, which I explain to the assembled company in advance. then at the time, the family completely ignore my suggestions, grab the nearest leaflet with pretty pictures on it, and decide they want to go there - now.

which explains how we came to be driving 200km each way on beautiful hot afternoon all the way to see icebergs on a lagoon. which we had decided ages ago it wouldn't be practical to get to because of the distance.

trying hard to put a positive spin on the adventure, it did enable us to see a great deal of the south of Iceland - at least what we could see from the ring road - twice. there are indeed beautiful glaciers [at least, they're beautiful from a distance], lakes, black sand beaches, and lava fields. lots of lava fields. some are totally barren, and look more desolate than the moon. some are slightly less so and have moss growing on them which makes them look like a load of dead sheep. some have great boulders of lava, and some are quite flat.

AFter we thought that we couldn't possibly drive any further, we were finally there. the lagoon at Jokulsarlon at the foot of the Vatnajokkull, that being the biggest remaining glacier in Iceland, is full of icebergs that have broken off the glacier and float about until they eventually find their way out to sea. amphibious trucks take you on a sail around the icebergs, during which you learn about them and get to eat a bit of glacier ice, if you like. [DS did like of course, the rset of us passed].

and after cheering mugs of hot chocolate, it was time to go back - past the glaciers, the lakes, all the various lava fields [and the most strangely positoned aluminium "Islandia" hotel right in the middle of the most desolate one] to our summerhouse, tired and hungry. what to eat??? - well, cucumber sandwiches of course, followed by coffee and toblerone, and a soak in the hot tub. yum.

what we should have done of course, was to have planned our trip to take in the lagoon in the first place. it is a long way round iceland, and 11/12 days is a bit tight for getting all the way round it, and we should have missed the western fjords, but the north is also full of birds and fjords.

tomorrow - onwards and upwards.

Hi annhig we got back on Monday from 2 weeks in Iceland travelling from the South/East and then back to the South/West and upto the North.

We had a great time although some very long days but the warm sunny days helped (I even got a sun tan).

Enjoying your post (and saving me a job). We weren't lucky enough to see Orcas but had a close encounter with a humpback which was amazing.

The food was a little hit in miss in the Guesthouses we stayed but in all we found them pretty good and the lamb we had was good. Although we also took provisions and even had room for a box of cornflakes!

The roads were the worst bit for me added with some long days travelling. How we managed to keep going on some days is a miracle.

Hi Ted,

looking at your route it's surprising we didn't meet!

don't know about you, but we met very few Brits [assuming you are]; mainly Germans but lots of French, Italians, etc. including TWO lots of Italian off-road expeditions with well-equipped Land Rovers. how we envied them!

the roads were terrible weren't they? how the underneath of our car remained intact I'll never know. we did pick up a slow puncture and can now recommend a vey reasonably priced tyre repair place in Reykjavik should you ever neeed one.

we decided that there were 3 sorts of roads -

A roads.

B roads - where the B stands for bloody awful

F roads - where the F stands for... work that out for yourself!

I think that your decision to stay in guesthouses was a sound one. I haven't got to that bit of my T/R yet where we stayed in one, but it was pretty good, and compared to othe options, a reasonable price.

Iceland was not a good place for self-catering as the choice of food in shops was pretty poor. in desperation we ended up eating at petrol stations a couple of times.
for those readers who are Icelandic virgins, that's not as strange as it sounds - lots of them have quite decent cafes attached, and supermarkets, and nice toilets.

which guesthhouses that you stayed in would you particularly recommend?

regards, ann

Hi Ann,

Yes i'm a brit too and enjoyed the fact that 95% of the country seemed to speak english (except the Icelandic Farmer who pulled up in his car at the age of 99 and his sister who helped run the farm age 104). There's hope for us all.

We cheated a bit and went with a small Icelandic Tour Group partly to avoid the driving as I would have done it all and navigated while the other half enjoyed the view or slept!- A good choice in the end as the B and F roads where a nightmare (nice phrasing) and we crossed a few streams/rivers and down tracks I would never have gone if driving. (At one point a 4x4 got stuck in front of us crossing a river - I helped by taking a photo of course (LOL)

We saw a few italians on motorbikes (as my wife kept pointing out!) and met people from the Netherlands.

Although we did come across a few brits and met a Group in Land Rovers who had brought their vehicles from England via the Faroe Islands. We also saw an english caravan - crazy people!

I kept thinking how much damage was being done to all the hire cars we saw and did they have to pay on return?

Yes the petrol stations were almost mini towns. How weird having a supermarket at the back - although lets not get onto the prices.

We stayed in the following Guesthouses (In some cases called hotels but not as we know it); -

Hotel Hlid near Hveragerdi (4 nights) - I would give it 3 out of 5 and would recommend it.

Hotel Dyrholaey obviously near Dyrholaey (3 nights) - 4/5 out of 5. One of the biggest places (55 rooms) but excellent food and english TV!

Hotel Framnes, Grundarfjordur (2 nights) - OK but rooms and food portions too small. Probably 3 out of 5 again but would look for other accommodation first and couldn't cope with more than two nights.

Guesthouse Ongulsstadir (4 nights) about five minutes from Akureyri. Again probably 3 out of 5. A bride arrived for a night of passion on our last night (we got the room next door!)


Looking forward to your next installment.

Hi again, Ted,

we thought about groups, but DH is allergic to group travel and DS has ADHD [in remission but still a factor] so it's not really an option for us.

and we enjoy the planning phase almost as much as the travelling. [sometimes more!].

I'm interested in the places you stayed - i found the Hotel Framnes on the net and thought about booking it, attracted by the fact that one of te howners is British but we decided to opt for the [disastrous] cottage of Kverna - glad we didn't from what you say.

and i never saw anything about the hotel Dyroholaey when i was planning, though we did drive past it. Sorry we missed it, from your acccout. What did you go and see while you were there?

I remain puzzled about the food. I cannot believe that ordinary Icelanders exist on the sort of fare that we found available, especially further away from Reykjavik. in the supermarket in grunavik, they had no fresh food [meaning meat, poultry, fish] and little fresh fruit or veg available at all.

do you have an answer to this?

so far we haven't heard that they want to charge us for damage to the bottom of the car. although it was very early when we got to the aiport, [6am] there was still someone there to check it over, and she didn't say anything about finding damamge and so far as I know, we didn't so any.

we weren't allowed to go on F roads, [don't know how much worse than the B roads they could have been] under the terms of our insurance, and I think that this applies to nearly all rental cars in Iceland. Therefore no fording rivers, thank goodness.

We both drove, and navigated, with varying degrees of success. some of the roads round the sides of the fjords were really hairy, and there was one moment when I suffered a loss of confidence whilst reversing apparently inexporably towards a cliff-edge, and had to hand over to DH to get us out of the trouble I was getting us into.

I suufered some loss of face, but who cares so long as you're safe? driving there is definitely not for the faint-hearted.

more of the T/R proper tomorrow.

regards, ann

Hi Ann - Well this is a refreshing trip report if ever I read one!
And just when I was thinking of going there........................!
Looking forward to the rewarding finale`!

Ann, your report is so wonderfully descriptive of Iceland that now I don't ever have to go! As always I love your style of writing and your sense of humour.

What a treat to picture you eating cucumber sandwiches in Iceland, so quintessentially British. Made from homegrown cukes self-imported, to boot. Cucumber sandwiches are one of the many English things my Liverpool born grandmother introduced me to as a child. I still carry thinly sliced cucumbers along in a baggie to be added to sandwiches at the last moment - to prevent sogginess - when we travel by car.

DAY 3 - up, up and away!

to continue the "warts and all" vein, this was the day when perhaps our lack of forward planning most let us down, though to be fair, it wasn't all our fault.

the weather dawned bright and sunny again [is this Iceland, really - yes sadly it was, as we disclovered later] so Plan A went into operation. we breakfasted on our supplies of cereal and toast, made cucumber sandwiches [just cucumber for DS, butter or "smyr" as it's called in icelandic, excuse the spelling, and cucumber and cream cheese for me and DD - all in separate bags, talk about a palaver] and set off to walk the porsmork valley, described by the lonely planet people as one of the most beautiful places in Iceland.

it should have been only a short drive away - however, we discovered that contrary to the roads laid out on both our maps, it was NOT accessible from the road that went past our summerhouse, and that the only other way in was via an F road which we couldn't use.

all that driving up and down had left us very grumpy and nearly out of petrol, so we had to drive back up to Hvollsvollor to get some. on the way, I was idly reading the LP guide, only to discover [how had i missed this] that there was a bus to Porsmork from the petrol station at HV at 10.30. Ideal. what time was it now - 10.45.

Lets' go to the information office, DH says [don't ask why we hadn't gone there first, I can't tell you] so we did [it's in the SAGA centre, HV being an important centre for people exploring the Njal's SAGA sites], and got a local map.

BTW, there was a distinct lack of local maps and information in nearly every place we stayed - Iceland requires tourists to be VERY proactive, which we gradually got better at being, but by then we were nearly home.

there were a number of local walks indicated, but what DD really wanted to do, [and so did I] was to go to the Westermann islands to see the puffins, which we had been told you could get to by small plane from a local airport.

After the miles and miles we'd driven yesterday mainly at his behest, DH couldn't really grumble at this, so after a quick phone call to check we could go, we were off to Bakki airport to catch the plane.

What we had not reckoned on was
a) the weather changing and becoming distinctly wet, and
b) that this was the beginning of Iceland's main holiday weekend, when there are a number of impromtu parties all round the country, the biggest one being on, you've guessed it, the Westermann islands. however, having got ourselves to the airport, and stood around waiting for someone to appear whilst watching the antics of some seriously drunk youths [it turned out there were all out flying people back and forth] we were determined to do SOMETHING. so we signed our names on the passenger sheet [the only formalities, no passports and suchlike required] and jumped on certainly the smallest plane I had ever been on -a nine -seater.

and we were off!

[got to go and cook supper now, back later!]

right, I'm back.

i wonder if there is anyone who doesn't feel just a tiny bit nervous when the plane they're on takes off. our housesitter spent the whole of the journey to the aiport, to which she kindly gave us a lift telling us how nervous she felt just driving there! Me, i tell myself that the pilot wants to live as much as I do. the mood was helped by our jolly companions [as jolly as newts, most of them] who seemed intent on drinking their weight in beer even before they got there. the icelanders don't drin koften, but when they do, they do it seriously.

we landed almost before we'd taken off, so short was the journey, and to our surprise found a modern and bright airport building with proper arrival and departure areas - not like the huts we'd taken off from. but information was hard to come by - how to get to the rest of the island, for example.

the island in question is Heimaey, the only inhabited of the 15 islands, which were formed by volcanic action about 11,000 years ago. all except Surtsey which was created by an eruption in 1963, and is not allowed to be landed on in order to see how it develops.

so we walked along the road out of the airport, and tried, with the help of our trusty guide-book, to work out where to go. ideally we wanted to walk to the top of one of the two volcanos, one of which, Eldfell, first appeared during a serious eruption in 1973, spewing out 30 tons of lava and burying a numerous buildings. however we were foiled by two things - the weather, which was now blowing a real hooley, and a total lack of visible footpaths; though we could see people up on the top, we couldnt' for the life of us work out how they'd got there.

At least it had stopped raining - time for lunch. so we sat on our coats on the black sand flanks of the volcano, and ate our cucumber sandwiches, plus some rather manky apples we'd bought, gazing down upon the lava fields over looking the town and harbour below. Though we could see it, walking down to it was not a piece of cake, and we ended up picking our way through the town dump before we found ourselves in the area known as pompeii - the part of town where the houses were buried in lava and are only now being excavated.

looking round for something to do, we came across the aquarium and town museum, which is a great place if you want to see all the sea and coastal birds of Iceland neatly labelled and stuffed. at least the fish in the aquarium were alive! after that, we needed a drink and a loo stop [in icelandic "snyrting"], and found that as usual, the best place in town was the largest and best hotel, where we enjoyed some much needed coffee and hot chocolate.

sitting comfortably in their large comfy sofas, I was reading the guide book again, and spied mention of boat trips round the island at 10.30 and 3.30. you will be even less surprised than i was that we were too late for this too, and as my family are quite keen on such trips, on a need to know basis, I decided to keep what I'd just read to myself. so we wandered around in a desultory fashion for a bit, gradually realising that the likelihood of us seeing any puffins or indeed anything else was pretty remote. There really wasn't a great deal to see or do in the rain, though it wasn't dampening the spirits of all the party-goers who were being transported to their destinations in the back of large lorries. we didn't see any of our friends from the airport again, not even the chap with the builder's kilt [a heat-wave present to him from his boss apparently, complete with special pockets for his bottle opener and screwdriver!]

so we trudged back up the 3kms to the airport, and signed in for the flight back. did I say that on the way out it was the smallest plane I'd ever been in? - well that was true, until we got in this one. room for just 4, plus the pilot. thank goodness I'd been on that diet. taking off was fun - the airstrip on Heimaey ends where the land does - so if you overshoot, you get wet. fortunately we didn't, and within 10 minutes we were back on "dry" land. [actually rather wet land, as it was raining hard by now].

did we see any puffins? - no. [well we did, a stuffed one in the museum.] did we have fun? - sort of. were we wet? - YES.

supper ended up being a pizza in the galleri pizza back in HV. we're a bit picky when it comes to pizza, so we should have known better. thin, crisp, with simple topings like ham and mushroom are tops with us. thick and gooey with chicken and pineapple don't hit the spot, though they seem to be popular with icelanders. Fortunately, you could have a simple marguerita and choose your own toppings, and though the price at about £10 a pizza was a bit steep, the size could not be faulted. so much so that we went home with a very large pizza box stuffed to overflowing.

tomorrow - we encounter the "Thing".

I am loving every minute of this. I'm in the US, so love the expressions you use, and LOVE your sense of humor! Keep up the good work.

Thanks for the great report. I think I'll skip Iceland...

What a delight! Will be on tenterhooks until the next installment.

V.

Hi Ann. It sounds like a struggle for you on your first few days so hopefully things improved later in the week.

Just to re-assure those thinking of visiting Iceland we had a brilliant time and a must see Country just with the right vehicle and enough time. I know we cheated with the tour group but your experiences to date were our fears and it seems we got to all those places off the tourist routes with our local guide and all terrain minibus. Maybe a consideration for anyone else planning the trip in the future.

To answer your questions:-

From our base at Hotel Dyrholaey on day one we: -
a) Visited the Seljalandsfoss waterfall (the one you can walk behind - what a feeling and escaped not getting too wet) We then walked around the area and finding a pallet someone had left climbed the rock face to peer over the edge of a waterfall - what a frill)

From here we continued down the 'F' Road (hearts in mouths has we crossed 3 fords before asking our adventurous drive to please stop at the fourth - the one were the 4x4 got stuck)
Here we were at the foot of a glacier - Wow. Apparently retreating at the rate of 2m per day (yes thats right) and we don't have global warming?

Having lunch (no cucumber but ham and cheese sandwiches) at the foot of glacier in the sun (bizarre).

Then it was back along the F road before a sudden stop as the guide said we could walk from here to place he went as a child. So off we set on a random trek before reaching a gorge and in we went. Scrabbling over rocks and paddling through streams we enter the most amazing place where ropes had been attached to climb the falls so you could see the best bits hidden away - Possible one of the best experiences I've ever had.

b) Our second day from here was the long drive to Jokulsarlon for the Iceberg trip (we also opted not to try the freshly picked ice!) - But the Icebergs were one thing I wanted to see and worth the travel time.

We also visited Svartifoss (another waterfall - but very different and a lovely walk to reach it)

On the way back we stopped off at Nupsstadur (a turfed roof church) where we met the 99 year old farmer).

Have to go now Sunday lunch beckons but will continue later.

Hi y'all,


yes, Ted, your trip certainly proves the worth of the RIGHT organised group trip - who did you go with? fortunately things did look up, as i hope to illustrate. i still can't get over the fact that we both drove [or were driven] all that way to the glacial lagoon and back. i reckon [for us and not much less for you] a 400km round trip.

the one thing i would do differently is a round island trip, rather than what we did. all right we would have missed the western fjords, but I suspect we could have found other places equally good, and not have been retracing our steps so much.

to anyone still contemplating a trip to Iceland after reading this [and I urge you to read all of it, not just the juicy bad bits], it might be an idea of get hold of the brochures published by the Iceland specialist holiday companies like discover-the-world.com and see where they go and how long they spend there. i certainly wish we'd taken more notice of their suggestions.

hi, tod, moolyn, challiman, marija, virginia [apologies if I've missed anyone out] - thanks for your kind comments. it wasn't that bad, honest. some bits were REALLY good. but there's no point in posting if you don't tell it warts and all, is there?

hi again, Ted - my kitchen beckons as I've got to COOK sunday lunch. or in our case, dinner.

day 4 coming up soon.

regards, ann -

or as they say in Iceland,

Bless.

Very enjoyable, thanks annhig!

After reading every book that Dick Francis wrote, I have always wondered what "teaching your grandmother to suck eggs" means. Now I must add "bit of a curate's egg" to my list of unknown things about eggs.

Please help!

Hi Ann, Back from Sunday lunch at the local. Can't beat a good old carvery (Enjoyed even more having been to Iceland)

Your right about choosing the RIGHT company we saw too many coaches with 30/40+ people all fighting to get off for a quick photo and then back on again. I couldn't imagine a worse holiday. You've actually mentioned the company we booked with although the tour was actually run by local company Iceland Naturalist.

On our last day from our base at Dyrholaey we walked to the Myrdalsjokull Glacier. All wrapped up warm we eventually walked through the clouds and stripped to T-shirts in the baking heat (The ever changing climate) - Back down it was fog most of the way and with the rocky ground along with random mini snow/ice fields to cross made for a few falls along the way.

I now feel guilty as we saw lots of Puffins at the Cliffs of Dyrholaey and could get to sit only feet away from them (I hope you got to see them eventually on your trip).

Keep up the excellent trip report as they say honesty is always the best policy.

PS - I would love to know if your tried shark? I must admit it was offerd to us but seeing the faces of those trying it was enough to give it a miss. Or maybe it was the fact that it had hung outside for 4 months curing!

Hi Ted,

glad you had a good lunch. We certainly came back appreciating the range and standard of fresh food that we normally take for granted - those runner beans from straight from the garden never tasted better.

yes, we did get to see puffins - loads of them - both flying out at sea and on the Latrabjarg cliffs out on the tip of the western fjords. i suppose that the closest we got was about 6 feet, which isn't bad.

as for shark, we never even saw it, though I think that it would have been on offer at the Viking feast had we known about it. we did try guillimot - which i wouldn't bother with again -it was rather fishy.

it's one of those dishes that make you ask yourself who it was first thought of eating something that way, and why did they carry on doing it?

Tdudette - hi. a curate's egg is traditonally good in parts - I suppose that comensurate with his lowloy status, the curate would have been the one to get the one that was a bit iffy, without its being actually bad.

as for teaching one's g'ma to suck eggs, the implication is that being a granny she already knows very well how to do it.

I too am a fan of Dick Francis - indeed it's what I was reading all the way home, having found an omnibus edition in our last hotel [memo to self - must send it back!]. there was a rumour that it was Mrs. Francis who wrote them all - did you hear that?

Day 4 coming up.

regards, ann

DAY FOUR

One of the down sides of self-catering [I’m beginning to have problems seeing an up-side at the moment, to be honest, but I’m sure I’ll get over it] is that in more economically-priced establishments, you’re supposed to do the basic end-of-let cleaning yourselves. Fortunately, the summerhouse was no mansion, so it didn’t take much, after we’d packed, to wiz round with the hoover. As we were moving on to a guest house, we weren’t sure what to do with the supplies we’d accumulated and of course, those we’d brought with us, but we packed it all anyway, including what was now just a solo cucumber, rather than just throwing it away, along with last night’s left-over pizza. Waste not, want not!

After DS had done what he kept calling an “idiot check” [until his sister cruelly asked him if he’d looked in the mirror] returning the bed linen and towels to the hotel, it was time to set off for our next stop, blessedly only about 160kms away, and that was with a detour to see one of the main sights of Iceland, the site of the old parliament or Pingvellir, [pronounced “thingvellir” as close as we could get to it]. This is situated at the north end of iceland’s largest lake, and co-incidentally along one side of the fault where the North American and European tectonic plates meet. A real must see, and part of the “Golden Circle” that virtually all tourists to Iceland get taken to at one time or another, as the number of coaches readily testified.

Unlike some people we met later, we managed to find the main information office and café easily enough, and after a restorative coffee, and what we could stomach of the now rather cold and very claggy pizza, we left the car with npt quite all our worldly possessions [including our passports hidden in a suitcase lining, where no-one would ever think to look for them!] right in front of the information office, donned our walking boots and wet weather gear, and set off. Whereas this end of the fault seems pretty small, the further towards the lake we got, the wider and deeper it became, so that in some places, you could walk right along it. It is said to be widening at a rate of at 2-3 mm per year, and we all found it very impressive. After about 2kms, the paths become wooden walkways, there’s a lovely waterfall, and finally the parliament site, which didn’t blow me away but might well have looked impressive if you were a 10th century Icelander. There’s lots of info around there all in english about the site and its significance, and the historical sagas connected with it, including one unintentionally [I think] funny one about how some chieftain came to talk to the “thing”. Well, I found it funny.

The sun had come out and refreshments were now required, and there’s a bit of a Hobson’s choice [unless you’ve brought a flask, which are conveniently supplied in many guesthouses which will fill them as well,] of the hotel at the top of the lake, or nothing. Luckily, most of the lunchers had departed leaving the garden free for us, and as usual, we ordered two large beers – which is just about the right amount of beer for the three of us who drink it [DS being the exception, not because of age, but because he doesn’t like it!]. whew - £8 a pint is a bit steep. We thought that €6 was a lot in Rome – looks like a bargain now. No chance of us drinking excessively here. Nor eating, for that matter as a piece of cake [very nice cake it looked but even so] cost the same as a beer. This is where we were approached by the people who’d had problems finding the info office, and we were able to show them on the map we’d managed to get how to get to the main paths to the waterfall, which obviously worked as we saw them there later.

Then it was time to walk back to the car [about 3km or so], via the beautifully simple little church, the equally beautiful pools where they used to drown female miscreants, and the waterfall, where we picked up the path that goes through the chasm itself, emerging on the other side of the fault. The path then disappeared and we had to walk along the road for a while which was a bit boring, but then it enabled us to see the fault going off dramatically into the hills – great slabs of stone rent asunder by the force of the movement of the earth’s crust. After all that excitement, fortunately the café was still open, and we were able to sample an icelandic speciality – no, not preserved shark or pickled rams’ testicles, but pancakes, sprinkled with sugar, and served cold in every café we came to. And very yummy they were too.

Our next stop was the guest-house Efsta-dal [farmholidays.is no 691] where we were booked for two nights, somewhere between the Thing and Geyser, about 50 miles away. When I had e-mailed to confirm our reservations about a week before we left [probably unnecessary, but it made me feel happier] they had sent us very good directions, so we found it easily, and no problems with it getting dark of course - it never did, all the time we were there! We’d booked two en-suite rooms at about £80 per room per night including breakfast but when we got there it turned out that only one of those was available for the first night, so the kids nobly “volunteered” to go into a room without a bathroom just for the one night. This worked out ok as there were plenty of showers and loos, and the room itself, in the main farmhouse, was clean and quiet though a bit tired looking. And cheaper! Our room was in a brand new block of ten, very spacious with a great toilet and shower room – the standard of bathrooms, even public ones in petrol stations and cafes, was consistently high – and a kettle for making tea, coffee etc. We’d opted for a meal in the guesthouse which was served from 7pm-9pm in the main farmhouse, and was the standard Icelandic fare – soup [leek I think, that was very common] lasagne, fish, lamb, and cheesecake made from Icelandic yoghurt or “skyr” – very good. DD reported that the lasagne was a bit strange. DS managed to finish off what she left with no trouble, and the fish and “muscle of lamb” were excellent, though the decision to serve hash-browns with the lamb when there were nice turned boiled potatoes with the fish was a bit odd, as I could see the French guests at the next table thinking too! For 3 courses plus coffee or tea, it cost ISK 3,000, 3,300, and 3,600 depending on which main course you had – that’s about £22, £24, and £26 respectively]
As we were so close to Geyser we decided that we’d go up there after dinner and have a look. Even at 9pm it was light and after 10 minutes we were pulling into the geyser car park for the first, but not for the last time. The geyser that gave its name to the phenomenon has been pretty quiet for the last few years, but it’s neighbour skogar performs every 7-8 minutes or so, shooting a column of warm water about 100ft into the air. Wow. The first time was quite remarkable, and it just kept on getting better. It was vey difficult to tear ourselves away, trying to anticipate when it exactly was going to go off, and there was quite a lot of others there, even at that time of night. Access to the site is free, and the barriers are minimal – just low ropes to show you where not to go. So you could get really close – close enough to see the water bubbling, sinking swelling, then swooshing [is that a word?] up into the sky. Perhaps not surprising that the hotel over the road had hairdryers in the ladies’ loos.

Tomorrow – wet, wet, wet.

I'm glad you saw the puffins. Don't they fly funny? It was almost as if someone had wound them up and then let them go with the feet and wings flapping around unbelievably quick.

It sounds like the guillimot was as tasty as the shark. Since shark is poisonous to humans I was intrigued to know how they new it was OK to eat after 4 months. (Had 120 people been poisoned until the 121st survived?) - Apparently it smells a lot better after 4 months so that is a good sign! Oh and the flies are kept away by the crust that forms over the shark whilst it hangs (Oh how appetising)

Thanks! Enjoyed the subtlety of the C's egg. Then, does granny paint the empty egg shell?
Yes, I did hear that rumor about Mrs. Francis. Don't think he ever commented. They were interviewed on American tv many years ago and she said they spent the year researching each book's subject together. The most recent, Dead Heat, is co-written with son Felix. Difficult to say, eh?

yep, Tedd, we'd wandered about that too.

Gordon Ramsey got into lots of trouble while we were away, apparently, for eating puffin he caught on Heimay. but it's a lot more understandable than the shark option.

Tdudette - never thought of granny painting the eggs afterwards.

I've been working hard this week so i've been a buit remiss, but I'll get back on the Trip report over the weekend - there's more rain forecast for Cornwall.

regards, ann

I came across this post on the Ireland forum which I'm researching for an upcoming trip. I had to reply as it brought back wonderful memories of a trip I made there with my 85 yr. old mother (7 years ago). I found a small tour co. on the Icelandair website as I wasn't going to attempt driving and don't like "big bus" tours. We spent about 13 days with Bjorn, our young, extremely handsome tour guide and 6 other passengers in a land rover type vehicle. My mother and I had never seen such beauty--and we've traveled extensively! We drove through the middle of the country to northern coast. We stopped at geyser fields in the middle of nowhere. Although we never went to the Blue Lagoon, Bjorn drove up some road (using the word loosely) to what looked like an outhouse on the outskirts of a geyser area. Turns out it was a natural sauna. My mother and one of the other passengers remained in the van, but the rest of us partook of the sauna experience. Exhilarating to steam away and then step outside with the summer 50 degree winds blowing across. Another day along the North Sea coast, we went down a long rocky "road" which deadended at a natural hot tub in the rocks. We spent over an hour, soaking in the tub, a slight drizzle overhead, sheep in the meadow nearby, looking out at the North Sea (when I wasn't nodding off!) in 55 degree temps. You're right about the food being less than stellar, but tins of sardines (which everyone liked), thermos of hot chocolate, cukes, crackers, great cheese seemed to be just the ticket for our daily outdoor picnics in the middle of fields. We never ate in a restaurant--just bought things that day at one of the gas stations. There was never any rush and we covered a lot of the northern and western area of the country. We stopped at a nursery one day, and bought a flat of tree seedlings to replant in one of the treeless areas (most of the country qualifies). Anyone who took one of this companies tours would do this. Erosion is a big problem in Iceland.
Sorry, have probably gone on too long, but such a fascinating country. And maybe it will remain that way as long as peoples' reactions when you tell them you're going to Iceland are "Why would you go there?" !!!

Hi hdjane,

not too long at all- your mother must be quite a trooper. as so few fodorites have ventured to Iceland, i think those of us who have, have a duty to share!

I'd like to say that your reviving this thread has spurred me into more episodes of my saga [pass the pun jar, mum, as my kids say all too often] but i fear that work myst take priority. but I will finish it, promise.

bless, ann

DAY FOUR

After our first guest-house breakfast [a buffet of cereal, cold meats and cheese, hard boiled eggs and as much tea and coffee as you could want plus DS’s favourite hot chocolate] and sorting out some washing that the guest-house owner had very kindly said she would do for us [at least that’s what DH thought she’d said] we set off for the rest of the Golden Circle. Few visitors to Iceland escape this well-trod tourist trail – the Thing, Geysir, and the waterfalls at Gullfoss are the highlights. Yes, I know that we’d done Geysir the night before, but DS‘s ADHD -linked obsessive traits were to the fore in his insisting that we went again [and again!] and after all it was on the way to Gullfoss, wasn’t it?

Luckily the sun was out so we were able to spend another hour or so enjoying the sight of “Strokur” [sorry – got the name wrong yesterday] sending up magnificent columns of water into the sky every 8 minutes or so whilst DH tried to get the hang of his new digital camera. [memo to self – do not buy new camera 1 week before holiday]. So rapt was I that I failed to spot that aforesaid DS had worked his was round to the windward side of the geyser [or do I man the opposite – anyway, you’ve guessed what’s coming haven’t you?] and suddenly there were shrieks [mainly of laughter] as this idiot Brit was soaked from head to foot with warm which rapidly became cold water. So that’s why there’s a hair-dryer in the ladies’ loo in the posh hotel across the road. Regrettably, there wasn’t one in the gents, so DS squelched his way round the rest of the geysirs, and had to sit on a plastic bag on the way up to Gullfoss where he attracted many “admiring” looks.
Fortunately this was another quite damp attraction, so that fact that he was sopping wet was less obvious than it might have been in, say, the sahara desert. That didn’t stop several old ladies who had been at the geyser at the same time as us coming up and asking if he was all right – which was rather sweet of them although I think they just wanted to find out how cross I was!

Gullfoss is really terrific – not quite Niagara but not far off and beautifully positioned so that you can see the double falls of water, one at right-angles to the other, very clearly. A real “must see”. And followed by a real “must eat” in the café whose speciality is lamb soup – which was very good if a bit pricey at not far off £10 a bowl [really not OTT for Iceland] as an American we were standing near was not slow at pointing out. In fact all the time we were in the café I could hear him chuntering outside about how it cost U$20 for soup. $20 FOR SOUP!!!!

By now DS was beginning to dry out, which was a shame as he was due to spend the afternoon Arctic rafting at an outdoor pursuits centre just down the road, if we could find it. [www.arcticrafting.is] As it turned out the finding was not the problem but the road was. It had everything – gravel, potholes, a narrow wooden bridge which looked to be on its last legs, blind hills [like a blind bend but upwards not sideways] and it went on and on for what seemed miles til we got to the centre. The plan had been to drop DS off while we went off to explore the rest of the area, but while we were there, DH talked himself into having a go too, so 6,500 ISK x 2 later, [about £40 each] DD and I were heading off to enjoy a quite afternoon mum & daughter bonding [where are the shops?] while the lads got wet.

But before we could go anywhere, we had of course to negotiate that dratted road again. Where to go? DD had seen something about the Icelandic zoo so we decided to try that first [only because we drove past it as we were pootling along] but it was more a petting zoo than anything and after we’d helped them catch the rabbits that had got out [and probably put them back in the wrong cages] we were back on the road, heading south. Why south? – well, we’d come from the north and we knew there was nothing there, so south it was.

Our first stop was at a little place called Skalholt, just because we fancied a coffee and there was a sign for a restaurant – but what a find. It’s really only two buildings - a modern church built on the site of the old southern icelandic Cathedral, decorated with the most beautiful stained glass and mosaic portrait of Christ, and a hotel/restaurant which doubles as a theological college in the off-season [or is it a theological college doubling as a hotel in the tourist-season?] whatever - it’s called skalholtskoli and we thought it was great. Even better, the sun shone and we were able to sit out in the little potager they had made outside the restaurant. How the herbs and lettuces would fare in the winter wasn’t too clear, but it boded well for the dinner they advertised! There are concerts in the cathedral in the summer too which might be diverting in a country which seemed frankly a bit sparse on the cultural front. [www.sumartonleikar.is] Regrettably my family decide that we were going to be a culture-free zone, but others might be luckier.

The guide-book said that just down the road was a suspension bridge across the river the lads were rafting along, so we went to have a look and discovered that the best view was from the car-park of the hotel overlooking the river. [www.hotelhvita@simnet.is]. Having taken advantage of their hospitality, we just had to have a coffee there too, and were very glad we had – excellent endless coffee [free top-ups after the first cup] and home made cakes. Yum, yum. They advertised a cake buffet on Sundays [sadly this was Saturday] but I’m not sure what more they could offer. There must have been over a dozen types – cream-filled, or fruity, cheese-cakes and sponges, pastries of all types – plus pancakes of course. Although our smiling hostess spoke even less English than we spoke Icelandic, we communicated pretty well, and though I didn’t see any rooms, I suspect this would be a good place to stay, especially if you like cake! And every nook and cranny was filled with “antiques”, so you’d never get bored.

By now, the rafting was due to be coming to an end, so we about turned and headed back to base camp, negotiating that track again, though we found a different, and slightly better route for part of it. Whereas when we’d left them there were only few people around, now the centre was heaving with damp rafters from many different nations, some tourists, and some Icelandic youth having a day out from Reykjavik. And a Lithuanian. All were drinking soup [lamb of course] like it was going out of fashion, drinking beer and enjoying the rafting equivalent of “après-ski”. We felt a bit left out. And very dry!

When we got back to the guest-house, hoping to find the washing done, it turned out that there had been a language problem, and there the laundry-bag was, still full of dirty washing, sat next to the washing machine. As DS was fast running out of clean, or at least dry, clothes, there was no alternative, so guess who worked out how the machine worked and stuck it on to do while were were out at dinner. DD and I had managed to sing the praises of Skalholt sufficiently to convince the boys, so we headed back there to show them the cathedral [just gearing up for a concert but we were allowed a quick peak] and then dinner, which turned out to be a buffet – soup, lamb [again!] and an excellent salad, [the best we had in Iceland, I reckon] and cheese-cake, all for about ISK 2,500 or £17 each – a real bargain for Iceland, and cheaper [and better] than the guest-house the night before. For groups they will apparently produce a banquet based on C18 recipes they have found. If the monks’ menu that was on display was anything to go by, it would be pretty heavy on fish and –you’ve guessed – lamb.

Finally, as it was on the way back, we just had to have another look at the Geysir – yep ,it was still going. DS was bright enough to realise that another soaking would not improve his popularity rating so he stayed clear, thank goodness.

As we were due to set off for the north-west of Iceland the next day, we reckoned we needed an early night, so we headed back for bed. And drying and sorting the laundry out. Ho hum. So much for that early night.

Ann, what a treat to find some more of your wonderful report!

annhig:

Interesting report - thanks for sharing.

Sandy

Nice report... I have just one comment... we did Iceland in October, 2007 and my only comment was that we found the food to be excellent (definitely not cheap, but excellent).

Even when 'forced' to eat at a gas station (because it was the only open place for miles, the hamburgers were freshly made and the fries excellent... some of the restaurants were nothing to look at, but all did an excellent job in both preparation and presentation. We had fish a number of times and it was always first rate.

In addition, the breakfasts at all of the inns, hotels and B&B was great (this having staying in similar places on several continents).

For lunch, we picnic'ed on the road for most meals (were did a lot of hiking, so were never quite sure where we were going to be). Usually consisted of some hardboiled eggs from breakfast, some excellent cheese from the local market, whatever fruit was available (grapes were very good), so local smoked fish or meat, whatever baked goods looked good at the local bakery, and a couple of beers (which were very cheap in the markets). It wasn't 1st class, but the scenery was always great and the dash of our Citroen made a pretty good picnic table.

Hi astein,

nice to hear from you - you were so helpful when I was planning - perhaps I should have taken more notice!

S:

you're right that the breakfasts were consistently good, but we found other food to be variable, to say the least. generally the simpler the better, [soups were great] and most of the supermarket fare we found was downright poor.

you're also right about gas [what we call petrol] stations. unfortunately we rarely found ourselves near one when we needed a meal, but they were a good alternative to what was otherwise available.


sandy and Moolyn - glad you're "listening". I'll try to post the next installment soon.

regards, ann

DAY SIX – It’s along way to Flokalundur [think Tipperary]

Of all the days we had planned, this was one which I had been secretly dreading – a drive of about 400kms, a lot of those over the awful B roads – so that we could end up conveniently placed for our visit to the bird cliffs at Latrabjarg the next day. For all I could tell it might take as many as 10, even 12 hours – all I knew was that it was a B..long way!

So after an early breakfast, packing the car with all our many possessions [including the remaining cucumber still crisp from the guesthouse fridge] and dragging DS away from the guesthouse dogs [a year’s fussing in two days] we were off, initially along a nice A road. This was OK – what was I worrying about?

Anyone who cares to look at the map of Iceland and to find Thingvelllir will see that the only route north lies along the B52 and all too soon, there it was, straight ahead. But look – this is tarmac, no problems at all. Then the sign “mabalik endar” [tarmac finishes] and here’s the gravel, firm at first, then becoming looser, and potholed and then….diversion. Where to? ..who knows? But there was no choice except to go on or to go back, so on it was, mile after mile, past endless heaps of lava, some black, some grey, all dauntingly sterile, until finally we hit the main A road north out of Reykjavik and another choice – a long detour on an A road, or another B..dy stretch til we got to the road we needed. So which would you have taken? – we took to low road, and it was back to gravel and potholes and crossing my fingers against damaging the bottom of the car, until blessed relief, we had done it.

Our route took us past the end of the Snaefellsnes peninsular [our destination after the western fjords whence we were heading] and soon we could see the end of the Hvammsfjordur shining blue to our left as we headed up the coast. By now we needed some petrol and this was out first run-in with the fully automated petrol pump. For this you need a) endless patience, and b) a valid credit card. If you lack either of these essentials you may find that your trip comes to a premature end. First of all, you need to make sure that the pump gives the right sort of petrol – this is reasonably simple. Then you start to interact with the petrol pump. If you are lucky, it “speaks” English, like some ATM machines abroad. You will need to insert your card, put in your pin, decide how much petrol you need [5,6,or 7,000 IKR for example or fill it up] then remove your card, fill up the car and bob’s your uncle. Unless, like me, the machine implacably rejects your card and the very pretty girl from the adjoining café just shakes her head at the ignorance of tourists and goes back to doling out the lamb stew. After a number of attempts [and this was a card I’d used to pay the guesthouse earlier in the day, and which I would use later on too] despite my rising panic I remembered that I’d brought another as a back-up, and hey-presto, it worked. Phew.

By now we needed lunch [200 kms had taken us all morning!] and we rewarded ourselves with some of that stew – and it was very good. Here in the middle of [almost] nowhere, a stunning girl [who spoke faultless English, BTW] and great stew. Then it was back in the car and further and further north, along surprisingly good roads and increasingly lovely scenery, til we reached the fjords. WOW. I’ve never been to Scandanavia, but this is how I imagine it – tiny inlets of blue sea cutting into the hillside, and no people. There were 8 inlets between us and our destination, and truly I didn’t resent any of them. And I even got quite fond of the b…road.

Thanks for another chapter, Ann! I'm anxiously waiting to discover whether that cucumber will survive right to the end and make it all the way round Iceland.

Hi annhig, I'm absolutely sure I will never visit Iceland, so reading your report makes me feels as if I have been there. I love your writing! It's a hoot. I've been saying "Bob's your uncle" for a while now, since I heard Russell Crowe say it, and none of my US friends know what it means. Can't wait to read the next installment. Thanks for sharing your wit with us.
Maggi

Hi moolyn & maggie,

as ever, thanks for the encouragement. the plan had been to finish the trip report before DH and I go away to Brittany for a few days next week, leaving DD and DS in charge!!! but life and lawn-mowing [a bit of an obsession with me, according to the family] have intervened.

any way, lets try to finish Day 6.

regards, ann

DAY 6 [cont]

when we were plannnig the trip, it had been a toss-up between trying to get all the way round Iceland and visiting the western fjords and rightly or wrongly the latrabjarg bird cliffs swung it for us. but where to stay? in this area there is little enough choice and in the end we'd opted for the hotel flokalundur, mainly because of its proximity to the ferry port which wuld take us over to the snaefellsness peninsular on the way back south to Reykjavik.

we'd been warned by our guide book that it was not a thing of beauty [frankly, few icelandic hotels or indeed buildings are] and we weren't disappointed. low and flat, with a long corridor of bedrooms leading off the main building, it did exactly what it said on the tin. but it was clean and comfortable, and we had adjourning rooms right at the end of said corridor, with access onto a lovely west-facing balcony, where we soon found ourselves drinking richly deserved beers out of our rapidly reducing store, watching the sun still amazingly high in the sky even at 7pm.

In a place like this, dinner is inevitably to be found in the hotel, so at about 7.30 we made for the restaurant. what to have? I can't remember what it was to be frank, except that DS insisted on trying the marinated guillimot [lucky he wasn't too hungry that night] and for Iceland it was reasonably good value. and as ever included endless coffee.

after dinner we thought a walk would be good, and armed with our walks laflet from reception, we headed off to try to find the tiny lake which was allegedly about 2kms away. which is a hint that of course we never found it, though we did find a lovely waterfall up above the hotel, and got thoroughly hot and bothered in the process. At which point, it being only 10pm, DS decided he wanted a swim in the sea and to the amusement of a party of germans who'd nicked our places on the balcony to watch the sunset [they were in for quite a wait] DS and his speedos took to the water. Which to judge by the colour he was when he came out, was quite cold. Shame he doesn't like armagnac - we had to drink his share ourselves.

Tomorrow - we visit puffin city.

Hi there Annhig, nice to read your report. (& thanks for all your lovely comments and help while planning our last trip and also for reading my attempt at a trip report! which I 'will' finish)

Iceland wasn't really ever on 'our' list, must say it still isn't, but am enjoying your 'saga', love the worts and all approach, if we want the 'glossed' over version we can read travel brochures.

Looking forward to more. AD

annhig This was the best part of my day! Reading your trip report. You all are such supertroopers. Iceland is not my thing, but damn I'm living it through you.

I am totally at lost about the drowning of miscreants and I'm looking it up online right now, hopefully I'll get some info about it. Otherwise it'll bug me all night.

Great job with your report, I love the twist you Brits put on things.

Theresa in Detroit

hi again,

AD - it was a pleasure and I'm very much enjoying reading your take on GB.

what was it Rabbie burns said?

"haw to god the gift he gee us, to see ourselves as others see us". [with apologies for misquotation and poor transcription of the scots]

Mawmaw <<I am totally at lost about the drowning of miscreants and I'm looking it up online right now, hopefully I'll get some info about it>>

?????

at a loss about which bit?

nice to hear from you BTW and hope you got some sleep. your comments are very encouraging.

unfortunately I now have to do some WORK.



regards, ann

ann sorry I didn't understand the whole drowning miscreants, I didn't realize it had to do with drowning bad people for doing bad things. I get it now. I can't wait to read more, so hint hint MORE PLEASE.

ttt

Hi Mamaw,

sorry i was so opaque!

actually i doubt that these were bad people at all, many were adulterous [allegedly] women, "witches" etc. etc.

we have now returned from our short-break in France, so normal service should be resumed shortly.

regards, ann

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I'm happy your home and will continue. How was France? I have been home sick and dreaming of Paris and Bayeux. And of course checking up on your TR.

Theresa

DAY SEVEN

How many times have you REEAALLY looked forward to a part of your trip, only to have it let you down like a damp squib? Especially when other bits haven’t exactly come up to scratch. Well, I’d been hanging my hopes on this day that it would be the highlight of the holiday, and for once, it turned out to be just that - well, one of them, anyway.

The whole point of coming all this way had been to see the bird cliffs at Latrabjarg, [the most westerly point of Europe] and from where we were staying we still had a two hour drive to get there. More fjords, more lava, more b..roads..and finally we were there. And not alone. A car park full of cars, a light-house, and cliffs covered in several hundred thousand nesting, flying, screaming, birds – kittiwakes, razor-bills, guillemots, and best of all, puffins.

At first we couldn’t see them – how can you not see what’s under your nose? [and in it, to be frank – that number of birds are pretty smelly as well as noisy]. Then one by one they emerged from their nests and we realised that the tops of the cliffs were riddled with their tunnels, where they hide the babies before they fledge. A real city of puffins. The best view [and safest, given the height of the cliffs] was obtained by lying on the edge and looking over. That way you could observe their coming and goings from only a few feet away, with seemingly no effect on the puffins – they are the tamest of the birds on the cliffs, and carry on their lives completely unmoved by their observers. It was a bit like watching a soap opera on telly – a puffin would pop out of its burrow, have a little look round, make that lovely little puffin croak or grunt that they have, then pop off the ledge, to be replaced by another with a beak full of fish which would be duly delivered into another near-by burrow. I suppose that we must have spent a good hour in this way, before DH decided he’d got enough puffin pictures, and we’d got quite stiff from lying on our tummies. And decided that we were hungry, too, and no-one was going to be flying out to see to bring us a beakful of fish.

On the way out to the cliffs, we’d noticed a guest-house at Breidavik which is not far from the cliffs, [possibly the last loo stop] and despite the fact that they have a bit of a captive audience, it turned out to be quite a decent place – and might make a good over-night stop if you wanted to be as close as possible to the birds, not a mention a beautiful and almost deserted beach near-by. Coffee would be good we thought – 3 coffees please – “yes – it’s over there – help yourselves, it’s free”. Regrettably, the soup and beer weren’t free, but they were quite reasonable [for Iceland] and we were able to sit in the sun and drink our [free!!!] coffee after our lunch of oxtail [NOT lamb] soup and bread rolls.

The plan had been to find somewhere to swim on the way back, but we were thwarted by the tide – much to the disgust of DS who got a severe attack of the grumps and spent the rest of the long drive back complaining about not being allowed to swim on the way there. And he was right of course. But there wasn’t much we could do about it then. We did find some amusement at the folk museum at Hnjotur, which is named after Egill Olafsson who assembled a huge collection of local artifacts, from hunting, shooting and fishing, to “Icelandic operating theatres through the ages”! and when we got back, the tide had come back in enough for DS not to have to walk out too far to get a decent dip. But it wasn’t the same as some of the beautiful beaches we’d seen on the way out to the cliffs. Sorry, DS!

To end off a pretty good day, we went for the fish and chips off the “a la carte” menu – which turned out to be really good and remarkably good value, at only £15 each. [only twice what it would have been at home!] and then sat on the balcony with a beer and watched the sun set VERY slowly.

Tomorrow – the ups, and downs, of internet travel.

Annhig, I think your post should be nominated for the most unique title!

DAY EIGHT

After another typical guest-house breakfast, [cereal, breads, eggs, meat, cheese, and endless coffee or tea] and packing the car [including the now somewhat limp cucumber, but as we were due to be self-catering again it might come in useful] we had a couple of hours to kill before the ferry would take us back across the fjord to the snaefellnes peninsular, where we’d booked another “summerhouse” for three nights. The ferry-port was only 6 kms from the hotel and really there wasn’t a lot to do in those 6kms, but we pootled about, and drove up in good time to pick up our tickets [booked in advance on the internet on www.seatours.is getting a 10% discount on the fares of ikr 2190 per car and 2190 per person, total about £80 for us and the car – slightly more than the tankful of petrol the driving would have cost us but a huge saving in time and effort] and boarded the boat.

Whereas the previous day had been marked down in my mind as one of the potential highlights, being a not particularly good sailor [in fact a very bad one, I’ve been sea-sick on dry land before now, as has DD] I’d been dreading this day, even though it was a much better choice than another 300 mile drive round those b..roads again. We were soon ensconced on the upper deck with jumpers, macs and sea-sickness tablets [just in case] though as DH pointed out, it was flat calm very warm and sunny. The trip takes about 3 hours, including 30 mins or so while it puts into the island of Flatey [human population approx 50, bird population several 100,000] and I needn’t have worried - it proved to be a real joy. The day before we’d seen the puffins mainly on land or taking off from the cliffs, now we were able to watch them skim across the surface of the sea like little black torpedos - and so many of them. Plus terns, razor-bills, guillimots, and various ducks that we couldn’t identify. This must be the first sea-trip that I can remember being sorry when it came to an end.

The boat docks at the unspellable and unpronounceable town of Stykkisholmur, and we spent a couple of hours looking round the “ Norska house” set up as a C19 home, and the rather strange “museum of water” which evinced in us the same reaction as the Tate pile of bricks – it may be art, but not as we know it. We’d eaten on the boat [a shame, the cafes of this place looked particularly good] so by 3pm or so it was time to try to find our summerhouse, about 30 miles west near Grundafjordur – another small port on the north coast. On the web-site [www.simnet.is/kverna] the place looked fine – quite a large chalet in a quiet spot on a horse-farm – perfect. That fact that it was not part of the Farm Holidays organisation should have alerted us [ok, me] as should the price – at 10,000 IKR a night significantly cheaper than others but I put that down to the slightly out of the way position. Well, as soon as we got there, we saw the first problem – from one direction [the one from which all the photos had been taken] the view was of hills and waterfalls, from the other there was a nice view of a spoil heap. And the adjoining builder’s yard and road.

Oh well – we’ll be out most of the time [wise words]. The next problem was finding the owner. The main house seemed deserted, but eventually we raised a recalcitrant youth who said he knew nothing about anything especially not any holiday cottages. [more wise words, we should have read between the lines]. Between the main house and the road we could see some tents and in amongst them a couple of wooden shacks so we made for them, eventually finding the owner apparently cleaning one of them out. And the awful truth began to dawn [not soon enough you may think] – this was what we had booked.

Please do not get the idea that we are particularly picky or fussy people. The first summerhouse, whilst not luxurious by any means, had some privacy, a fully equipped kitchen, conveniently placed light switches, somewhere to sit besides dining tables and chairs crammed into all the available living space, and beds in which it was possible to sit up! This one lacked all those, and more. What it did have [and the true awfulness of this did not strike us until later] was a separate section at the rear which comprised the campers’ ablutions. To the right were their sinks, and to the left their electricity points to plug in a kettle for example [to this extent they were better off than us!]
What we should have done was to have a good look round and then run away. What we did was to glance about, and leaving the owner to continue “cleaning” we went off to buy some provisions. Another disaster. Grundarfjordur boasted only one supermarket and the amount of fresh food on sale there was limited. The only meat was either salted or frozen [possibly both]. Where do Icelanders buy fresh meat? Or poultry? We never found out. Eventually I found what I thought were pork chops which I purchased at huge expense. Plus some frozen potato things. And a few other bits and bobs to stretch our dwindling supplies to last us for the next 3 days.

Then it was back to the farm, when its many imperfections became more apparent. By now, a lot more caravaners and campers had arrived and they were busy using the facilities so conveniently positioned by and at the back of our “hut”. Indeed one wanted to use OUR shower [the only decent part] and looked quite affronted when we refused her entry. But we were stuck there with all this food so I’d better start cooking, while the family sort out the beds. [patience, I’ll get to the sleeping facilities in a while]. Hmmm – no cooker, just two hot plates integral to the sink and a microwave, all lit by an angle-poise lamp precariously fastened to the work-top. And the pork chops – oh no, not pork but ham – DS’s particular hate. And how am I going to cook this lot with only two very slow rings and a couple of burnt frying pans? And NO kettle. You do not want to know how long it took to make a cup of tea [whilst DH nobly went back down to the town and managed to find some eggs for DS to eat] and to cook those ham chops. And the potato things. By which time the ice-cream [which wouldn’t fit into the frosted up ice-compartment] was pretty soggy.

Did I tell you that when we’d come back from out shopping expedition, mein host had invited us over for a drink after supper? Despite the many failings of our accommodation, being British we though it would be rude not to go, so at nineish we made our way over to the main house, to find that some lucky! people were having supper indoors so we were invited into his inner sanctum. After tea all round [we weren’t offered coffee as being British, he’d assumed we’d prefer tea] there was a surprise for us, apparently. A little dish was offered round – [I could see DS’s eyes lighting up – sweets, or chocolates, perhaps?] no – Bible verses. Yes – that’s right – Sam 1 v 10. [or whatever]. And an English bible conveniently provided.

Could things get any worse? [well yes they could but you’ll have to be patient again to find out how!]. As a family of more of less confirmed atheists [and DS being someone who finds an argument almost impossible to resist] how to extract ourselves from this predicament was upmost in my mind. To the puzzlement but eventual amusement of the family I found that I had developed an intense interest in Icelandic agriculture and for the next half-hour, every time our host started looking at the Bible, I asked another question about sheep production or fishing conservation. And having bored him into submission, and drunk his tea, we were able to make our excuses and leave.

And so to bed – or rather, a selection of no less than 7 beds and mattresses crammed into the attic of our shack so closely that you could barely walk between them. With a central light switch accessible from none of them, at the top of a rickerty ladder down to the ground floor loo, which was a great discouragement to night-time visits. The beds themselves were not that uncomfortable, but the inability to sit up in bed due to the proximity of the attic ceiling did not improve things. I suppose that we eventually dropped off, [the kids, who were up the other end of the same attic room certainly did as we could tell by their gentle snoring] but we were all too soon awoken by the happy campers near-by making an early start, and using the toilets which were positioned immediately below my and DH’s beds. These 6am ablutions were made all the more intolerable by the endless banging of car doors and the incomprehensible running commentary in Icelandic kept up by the male of the party. Had I known any Icelandic oaths, I might have used them. As it was, their doings had a sort of frustrating fascination. Had we had any doubt about whether or not to stay on, they had helpfully made up our minds for us.

Finally, at about 7.30am , they took off, and wordlessly, DH and I made a decision to do the same. ASAP. Relieved to be getting up, [I had to get up to be able to read the guide book with the list of accommodation in it anyway,] whilst DH set about breakfast, I got the map and the list, and as soon as I decently could set about phoning likely hotels. As might be expected for July and High season, most were full for one of other of the nights we needed, but with the fifth call I struck lucky, and found that the Hotel Glymur down towards Reykjavik had two rooms for two nights. Thank goodness for credit cards. All right, it was more expensive than we’d wanted, but we were NOT in the mood for roughing it any more and we wanted to get right away from this horrible place. I let the kids know the good news, and DH used the only decent pan to make a huge plate of scrambled eggs [we’d bought 10 to last us the three days!] which with the remaining ham from last night went down nicely. Then DH packed the car whilst the kids and I tried to put all the furniture back where we found it [having had to move it to make room for us!] and I left the owner the money we owed him for one night plus a frank note to tell him why we were leaving. All this was done only just in time as the last item [not the cucumber sadly, it was well past its best and was left behind] went into the car, the owner could be seen approaching on his bike as he went round the campers to take their money.

Should we have stayed behind to explain? Well, rather like naughty schoolchildren we ran [or rather drove] away as fast as we could, grumbling at ourselves at having not left straight away the night before, and laughing with relief at having escaped.

Next – disaster [almost] strikes.

I'm going to be sad when this report ends. I'm getting the biggest kick out of it. There's another thread about how to get a job as a travel writer. You should be one!

Ann,

I have to say I've enjoyed reading your report from two perspectives.

1st, the storytelling is excellent and you've kept me quite amused.

2nd, it's allowed me to revel in the skill (or, more likely, luck!?!) that led me to 7 different inns/guesthouses in Iceland without any experiences that would have me fleeing down the road at high rates of speed!

Granted, we traveled in October. This meant that while some places were closed, we were the only patrons at 1/2 of the places we stayed. This meant do backpackers, caravans, etc.

"filled up our empty water-bottles in the toilets" - I am horryfied. In the US, we have drinking fountains for that.

well, thanks to all for the positive feedback.

Maggie - you're too kind. if our government gets its way lawyers like me are going to be redundant so I may need to find another string to my bow!

Astein, - next time, i promise to listen harder to what you have to tell me - and only go to places that you've already tried. It's Newfoundland this year isn't it?

FainaAgain, - water fountains appear to be pretty sparse in european airports. for the avoidance of doubt, however, I meant from the TAPS in the aforesaid facilities, NOT from the toilet bowls.



regards, ann

Thanks for another adventurous episode, Ann! Sorry to read about the demise of the cucumber, however. I was sure it was going to save the day, somehow, or at least survive until the end. But its presence made for a great title and it deserves a prize for that alone.

Hi moolyn,

yep, me and that curcubit had got quite attached. But as we'd come to the [premature] end of our self-catering, it seemed that the time had come for us to part.

given the state of the "fresh" produce available in Iceland, it probably had several more weeks left in it - who knows - it may still be gracing someone's fridge!

regards, ann

Hey Ann!

We actually end up with Nova Scotia... sort of a last minute decision. I'll let you know how it goes.

You're right that food was always an issue, but we didn't have a single bad meal (expensive, but food was good). Even burgers at the gas station were freshly made with good fries and cold beer.

The most memorable was eating at a truck stop up north. Nobody spoke English, drivers were coming in and out to get new loads, ER was on the TV (in Icelandic), the Talking Heads were on the radio... it was quite surreal... though, everyone was nice and they shared the giant bowl of salad and pudding that was layed out for the truckers.

We actually did OK at the supermarkets... we picnic (while hiking or similar) so we picked up cheese (which was quite good), fruit (good but expensive), bread (from the local bakery that most towns seemed to have), smoke trout or salmon (always good) and hard boiled eggs from the guesthouse breakfast. Add to that a bottle of wine or a beer (cheap at the supermarket) and we were set. Otherwise, it would have been very catch as catch can along the road.

Loads roads are definitely an adventure, but I got to play World Rally Car driver in our little Citroen. Even helped dig a big Toyota minivan out of a snowbank near Dettifoss (it was some Italian tourist we met at dinner the night before).

Hi astein,

yep, by the end of the trip we'd more or less got it too.

guess you're just quicker learners!

i'm really looking forward to your Nova Scotia Trip report.



regards, ann

Maggi wrote: "There's another thread about how to get a job as a travel writer. You should be one!"

She is one (unfortunately for her, an unpaid one).

Ann,

For some reason I keep picturing the Travelocity roaming gnome commericials with a cucumber playing the part of the gnome... very disturbing!

You definitely should have gotten photos of the cucumber visiting all of the major sites.

"I meant from the TAPS in the aforesaid facilities, NOT from the toilet bowls." - I was only joking... till I realized my mistake! US "toilet" and British "toilet" are not exactly the same!

Hats off to being divided by the common language

DAY NINE

Now that we’d escaped the world’s worst self-catering chalet, and found [we hoped] somewhere rather better to rest our heads for the next two nights, we were free to resume our holiday. One of our ideas for the two days [now one] we’d been scheduled to spend on the unpronounceable Snaefellsnes peninsular [it’s that 2nd S that caught me out every time] was to take a whale watching trip, and despite my lack of sea legs, after the huge success of yesterdays’ ferry journey, I was all in favour. [We’ve been on similar trips in north America and south Africa, as well as sometimes seeing minke whales off the Cornish coast, and there’s always a thrill when you first spot the water-spout or splash from a tail or fin.]

Also run by www.seatours.is, the whale-watching boats set out from Olafsvik, about 30kms further west along the north coast of the peninsular, and tickets can be purchased either from the tourist information centre [a very swish renovated building near the harbour] or on board, if they’ve got room. We had phoned ahead to book our tickets so we needed only to pop into the tourist office and pick them up, which worked out at about £40 each – not cheap, but then we were used to that by now. [Btw, the phone calls we made on our UK mobiles in Iceland worked out very reasonably, considering the convenience they gave us of being able to book trips and our emergency hotel in advance]. There was loads of parking next to where the boat was tied up by the quay, [and in Iceland, no fear of the car or its contents being nicked whilst we were at sea] and we were quickly on board. The welcome was slightly off-putting, especially for bad sailors for me and DD – “how are you and here’s your sea-sickness tablet”!

To take to not to take? – well, we reckoned they knew what they were talking about, and as we weren’t going to be driving or using heavy machinery for the next few hours [the trip takes about 4 hours altogether] so we took. And were glad we did.

sorry to break off now - got to go to work.

more later, I hope.

Faina - how do UK and US toilets differ? or is it our use of the word that is different?

S:-

regards, ann

Ann - I am really enjoying your trip report.....Iceland has always appealed to me!
Just for curiosity sake, taking into account airfare, accomodation, food and car hire, did Iceland work out more expensive than South Africa?

Hi allyB,

once you are there, SA can be much cheaper. obviously, if you stay in high end hotels [especially the safari ones] all the time, then it'll cost you. but there are loads of much more reasonable options.

for example, the Radisson was £100 per night per room, [these are June/July and therefore low season prices] whereas the glymur [the expensive hotel we ended up in due to my internet c..up] was nearly twice that.

as for food, you could get a really good meal for £10-15 each; it was at least twice that in Iceland. and car hire!!!! it was about £100 per day for a decent 4WD car, which whatever others might say, was essential. I don't remember how much car hire in SA was , but it was nothing like that.

the flights were much more for us, of course, coming from SA, but IMHO you get much better value.

regards, ann

I'll second much of what Ann wrote...

SA is definitely cheaper once you're there. Even staying at a high-priced private game reserve (Kwandwe for 5 nights... booked thru a SA company and paid for in Rand... saved us about 50%), we spent less money 'on the ground' in SA. The flight, however, was about double the cost.

That said, the difference between the two overall was probably less than 20%. It's not like Iceland was double.

I'll disagree with Ann on one point... you can get away with a 2 wheel drive car. We hauled our little Citroen over the worst Iceland could throw at us... we even helped dig/pull a couple of big SUV's out of snowbanks around Dettifoss. It really depends on how comfortable you are on the kind of rutted up 'goat tracks' that you find in some areas of the country. The key on most of the roads is to find the speed at which the ruts cause the least vibration... usually it's about 5 or 10mph faster than you think you SHOULD be going (plus watch a couple of World Rally Car events before you head over to get yourself in the right frame of mind).

The poor little thing ended up covered in about 2 inches of mud, but it saved on gas and rental fees and the area on top of the dash made a great picnic table.

Where is the rest of this report?!! I'm loving it.

I've only read the first little bit of this report and love it. Now, back to reading!

Sally

I'll disagree with Ann on one point... you can get away with a 2 wheel drive car. We hauled our little Citroen over the worst Iceland could throw at us... >>

and I'm going to disagree with astein in a petty tit for tat sort of way! i wouldn't dream of trying to get over those goat-tracks in any thing less than a 4-WD. Though I do agree that going a bit faster than your instinct is telling you to is a good tactic - if nothing else, you spend less time being shaken to bits.

Bostongal - hello again. I just met you on another thread.

I realise that I broke off mid boat trip. how remiss of me. Ann's new new year's resolution: finish iceland trip report before we go to Krakow. [don't get your hopes up - it's in april!].

regards, ann

WIMP!

BACK TO THE TRIP REPORT.

DAY NINE continued, aka "The ups and downs of travel".

My experience of boat trips has not always been good - in fact i enjoy about 1 out of 10. so after the joys of yesterday's ferry ride, i had no great hopes for this trip, especially as previous whale watching journeys had been so good. The first part of the journey out towards the chilly atlantic didn't disappoint [or rather it did] as it was predictably boring, so we took advantage of the free tea and coffee, and looked smug when those who hadn't taken the offer of the sea-sickness tablets looked increasingly green about the gills.

After a while we went up on deck, just for something to do, and enjoyed a great diving show from some passing gannets who were doing what they do best, which is diving vertically from an improbable height into the brimy foam, and coming up with a fish. and then doing it again. After that occasionally someone would shout that there was a fin "at two o'clock" but really there was very little to see and the time for the boat to turn round and return to port in order to pick up passengers for the afternoon trip was fast approaching.

our spirits were also dampened somewhat by talking to another english family who'd got free tickets having been on the boat the day before and seen nothing. then just as we were giving up hope, there was another shout, there just ahead of the boat was a pod of killer whales or orchas, possibly as many as 8, adults and calves. we stayed in the area for about 30 minutes or so, and so far as we could tell, the orchas were very comfortable with our prescence as they made no attempt to move away. The sun came out so we took loads of snaps, most of them rubbish, and even at £5 an orcha, it was well worth it.

of course, the boat did eventually have to turn round, but even then the whales followed us for a while. in truth, we didn't see much else of interest, but it didn't seem to matter.

when we got back into port the weather was on the turn, and it must be said that our impression overall of the snaefellsnes peninsular was not a good one. in fact the nadir [probably of our whole trip] was reached when we tried to explore a track off the main road which was supposed to lead up onto the glacier, and I was trying to reverse the car and
ended up almost sending us over the edge of a cliff. for some reason [tiredness after that dreadful night's non-sleep?] I just could not turn the steering wheel in the right direction, and for the first and only time in my life I had to get out from behind the wheel and hand over to DH who was being somewhat less than patient. the shame! the expletives deleted!

the rest of the journey to the our emergency hotel was completed in that polite and frosty silence which I'm sure you all know only too well, with DH giving every appearance of being asleep [I was driving again] and me both seething inside, and hoping like hell that the hotel, which was coting about twice what we'd paid everywhere else, it live up to expectations.

we got there after about 2 hours drive, and so far as we could see through the rain and mist, it looked OK, though the outside wasn't exactly pretty. The inside however, was a different kettle of lamb soup and I could feel us all start to relax as soon as we stepped into reception. Even DH started to smile. Warm and bright, with lots of local artifacts it immediately felt like home, and before we'd said who we were, we'd been greeted warmly and offered tea or coffee. Then after the obligatory guided tour, we were shown to our rooms [not adjoining, but the kids don't need that anymore and we certainly don't]. this was more like it. split level with a view over the fjord [if you could see it] there was a downstairs sitting area with a telly, tea and coffee making equipment and wet-room, and upstairs very comfy bed with a great view. Heaven - see http://www.glymurresort.com/

to entertain us indoors there was a library, free internet access and a fabulous lounge with the view; outside there were twin hot-tubs, and robes for visiting them. DH went for a nap, and me and the kids sat and read and then used the hot-tubs - we weren't going anywhere else that day.

in the evening we decided that we'd try the restaurant, and were very glad we did - the food was definitely a cut above virtually anything else we had in Iceland, though at the price it should have been. i suppose that it worked out at £40 a head including glasses of wine as opposed to a bottle. This is definitely a hotel I would recommend to honeymooners or those who want to splash out for a couple of days or so, but not for a long break as it's rather a long way to anything else!

As for the night, suffice to say that it was as different from the night before as could possobly be imagined and peaceful marital relations were resumed!

Tomorrow - anyone know where to get a tyre repaired in Reykjavik?

What? Wait! Is there more? How does one get a tyre repaired in Reykjavik?

Just happened to stumble across this post. I laughed about the title and have been reading it on and off for the last few nights. DH has enjoyed the snippets I've read to him as well.

Just saw you have a post on your latest trip to Italy. Am going to save up for another time. Thank you for the wonderful and hilarious posts. Also, I now have some material with which to formulate an answer for DH's question, "Why would anyone want to visit Iceland?"

hi ellens,

glad you're enjoying it. the title is [you probably guessed this] a tribute to Tony Hawks' "Round Ireland with a fridge", so i can't take any plaudits for originality.

Here goes with

DAY 10

the day dawned or rather crept in drizzly and miserable, so we decided to take a day trip to Reykjavik and explore the museums etc. it was a fairly boring 90 minute drive along the busiest roads we encountered in the whole trip before we hit the town and luckiy DH's map-reading skills were up to finding our way into the centre. As it was DH navigating, we were bound to spend a not inconsiderable amount of time looking for a parking spot we didn't have to pay for. this accomplished, our luck ran out because it was apparent that one tyre was considerably lower than the rest, and getting worse. a slow puncture was diagnosed, and the only remedy would be a tyre repair.

were we going to spend all day looking for a tyre replace outfit? or go and enjoy ourselves? having secured a free parknig spot, the answer was obvious so ignoring the gentle whistle coming from the tyre, we headed off into town. truthfully, although Reykjavik is big compared to other places in Iceland, London it isn't. I suppose we wandered around for about 30 minutes til the rain started again, and we decided to make for the nearest museum. this turned out to be the National Museum of Iceland and if you only do one museum in the whole of Iceland, make it this one. it is airy, well-laid out, has a great cafe, AND has explanations in Icelandic and English. [tough if you're french of course!] for me, the most fascinating part was the DNA research into the origins of the Icelandic people; the men turn out to be Scandanavian, but the women are Celts. all those tales of raping and pillaging turn out to be true! but there was loads about boats, fishing, clothing [with costumes to try on and be photographed in and not just for the kids] the parliaments, etc.etc. a really great 2-3 hours.

after than we had a late lunch in the cafe [served by some bloke from Brum who turned out to speak about as much Icelandic as us] and after purchasing some postcards in the gift shop, we went off to look round any bits of Reykjavik we'd missed. which turned out to be not very many.

as all the restaurants we walked past were even more expensive than the one back at the Glymur, and we wanted to see the Saga Museum and Perlan just outside town on the way back to Borganes, we couldn't put off the busines of the tyre any longer, so after a quick flip round the cathedral [lift to the top out of order] we went back to the car, and limped to the nearest petrol station, where the kind attendants gave us directions to the nearest tyre repair place. this turned out to be back along the ring road [which follows the sea wall, more or less] and past the viking monument. asy enough to find, and after some waiting about, the chap said he'd repair it in an hour or so. what to do? if we waited that long, the Perlan would be shut, so rather than hang about, we decided to drive out to the Perlan and hope that it wouldnt' prove so fascinating that we missed our slot back at town.

NO CHANCE. The best bits were undoubtedly the artificial geysir in the foyer and the view from the top. the rest was rather tame ersatz Madames Tussauds. so it was no hardship to tear ourselves away and go back to sort out the tyre. the viking sculpture proved to be a very helpful signpost and we found the place amazingly easily. once it was done, [using a combination of our bad icelandic and his equally bad english] we had to pay. Frankly he could have charged us anything,and it was a nice surprise that the bill came to the equivalent of a very reasonable £20.

then it was back to the sactuary of the Glymur hotel and a relaxing dip in the hot tub before dinner. the menu hadn't changed, but we all had different choices; this might have proved difficult if one were staying for longer than two nights! then it was off to raid the library [some boks in english, many but not all very deep socialogical texts wich you don't necessarily want on your hols, but I'm being picky] enjoy our luxurious room and do a bit of packing before setting off on our last day. what a find.

tomorrow - Day 11 - mudbaths and alarm clocks.

Keeping you honest Ann. You resolved to finish this report!

I don't really know how I stumbled onto this since I have no real interest and even lesslikelihood of going to Iceland. It has been a slow day at work!!

Still I have enjoyed the report immensely and now I want to see how it finishes. Pretty please.

This is a delightful report, but I have to disagree about the food, at least for Reykavik. I just spent 8 days, basing myself there and taking day trips. I had some wonderful food. Fresh and well prepared!

hi aussie5 and susieQQ - thanks for resurrecting it!

aussie - I hope that it's not my report that's put you off.

susie - I'm sure that what you say about food in Reykjqavik is correct, but apart from a couple of snacks, we never ate there. our experience was that the further you got from the capital and its environs, the worse the food got. we tried to find out where the locals bought their provisions but failed -the fresh stuff in the supermarkets was generally dire. I even saw one local remonstrating with a shop-keeper about the quality of the produce - a potato i think - that we wouldn't have fed to our pigs.

how did you find the prices, BTW? I'd be interested in knowing whether the global recession, which of course hit Iceland so hard, has had a noticeable effect.

Since I had never been to Iceland before, I can't really say if things are less expensive since the financial crisis. I thought the prices for meals were equivalent to what I pay in NYC and the hotel less than NYC.

Here goes - Day 11.

after another delightful night and breakfast at the Glymur, we set off for our last day. the plan was to drive to The Northern Lights hotel, [which was conveniently close tothe siepotr for our early morning flight home] book in, then spend the rest of the day wallowing in the pools and mud at the nearby Blue Lagoon, which has become a "must see" for people leaving and/or entering Iceland.

we had thought of driving back via thingvellir to see the chasms again, but the weather was against us and we made our way towards Reykjavik quite happily. however as we made good time, we decided to do some more sightseeing and stopped en route at the little town of Hafnarfhordur, [which takes longer to spell than to see]. Apart from a shopping mall that didn't interest us much, and a rather neglected public garden, which featured the largest [probably only] bonsai collection in Iceland, the most noteworthy building we found was the truly extraordinary Viking Village Fjourkrain, which doubles as a hotel, as well as a restaurant decked out as a viking dining hall. the wax tableaux of Viking life [rather better than the ones in the Perlan Centre, truth be told] which greet you are mere precursors to what is hidden within -the prows of boats, cliffs full of stuffed birds, life-size vikings...all in an immense hall which must seat at least 1000 people at vast tables.

and how many peole were there to share this with us? - apart from the barman that is? precisely two. this was NOT a place for those who dislike eating alone! However, as we were there, and there wasn't realy anywhere else, and DS did not want to pass up the chance to eat like a viking, we had 2 fish soups and 2 lamb soups [you knew that was coming didn't you?] and a couple of beers, and didn't have much change from £50. yes, £50. I haven't hit the £ by mistake instead of the $. I assume that they are busier in the evenings when the hen and stag parties clamber out of the Blue Lagoon and are looking for entertainment.

after this, we made for the hotel, which was a very souless combination of rectangular blocks, and after checking in, we made for the Blue Lagoon. changing rooms are provided [divided by sex which is just as well because the routine is to shower nude before you go in, which is a bit of a shock to us anglo-saxon types] and then you stride out into the steaming hot waters, and wallow around like hippos. [at least that's what DH said, but I'm sure he didn't mean me!]

it's not really deep enough to swim, so they have provided other activities, like mud banks [the mud is supposed to be good for skin conditions, but it just made me itch] a waterfall, massages, drinks brought out to you, a bar, etc, etc. but after an hour or so, I confess that I was a bit bored. actually, it's a place that would be more fun in the winter when the contrast in temperatures would be more marked.

so well before it closed we were leaving [via the cunningly placed gift shop of course] and heading back to the hotel to finish our packing for the very early start. we had originally thought we would eat there, but the menu was pretty boring, so after some indecision, we made our way back to the Blue Lagoon for supper in their restaurant, where the food turned out to be both tasty and reasonably priced!

Back in our room again, [a quad for the first and last time ever, according to the kids who find DH's snoring intolerable] we were in bed by 10pm, ready for our 4am start. unfortunately, while we were at the restaurant and discussing our early start, DD, having got her GMT and BST confused, had set her mobile to wake us all up not at 4am, but at 2!!! OMG. I don't know anyone who is at their best at that time of the morning, even when it's necessary, but when it's unnecessary, it's unspeakable. her name was mud! of course, we never got off to sleep again, and actually it was a relief to get up at 4am. and of course it was already light.

considering the hour, breakfast wasn't bad, we had already paid the night before, and by 5am we were setting off for the airport, which was supposed to be about 15 minutes drive away. well, that was a long 15 minutes; allowing for the fact that we had to find a petrol station to fill up the car, fiddle around with the money to pay [they are virtually all automated] explain to some english people who had seemingly only just arrived how the pumps worked, it took us a good 45 to get to the airport. and a further 15 to find the place to return the car, queue up, have it inspected, etc. Whew - I had to admit that I'd been a bit wary of that moment, but luckily they didn't get the mirrors out to inspect the underneath, so we escaped being liable for any damage.

then into the fray that is Reykjavik airport at 6am. no, I had no idea either. it was hopping! check-in was crowded , but the luggage allowance was a generous 20 kgs each so that was no problem, and by 8am, we were soaring away from Iceland and back towards the UK, and the hell that is Stanstead, where we had to connect for our Ryanair flight to Newquay. [now discontinued, as you are reading this after September 2009]. being Ryanair of course, the limit is 15kgs for checked luggage, so a good deal of time was spend trying to ensure that all 4 of our bags weighed that and no more. what amusment we provided for fellow travellers swapping knickers and socks! but we did it in the end and managed to check-in without incurring any penalties. Phew.

the final lap - the flight home to Newquay followed by a taxi ride in the teaming rain with one of our bags on the laps of the three of us crammed in the back as they sent too small a taxi! and immediately we got home the dog ran off to be with his girlfriend down at the pub! but it was good to be home and find some fresh cucumbers [and other things] waiting for us.

PS - throughout the trip, DS had claimed that he'd left his mobile at home. Not entirely to our surprise, as we were pretty sure we'd seen it at the airport, we couldn't find it there. what WAS a surprise was when DH phoned it on the off-chance DS had left it on, it was answered by someone who said she was working at a service desk at Copenhagen airport where it had been handed in and very kindly boxed its ears and sent it home. unfortunately it can't tell us how it got there.

Well done!

Your report did not put me off; on the contrary. And the story was so well told.

The problem for us is that Iceland is such a long way and the major attractions of glaciers, waterfalls, fiords, geysers, lava can all be found in New Zealand. Gee that ad campaign must be really working!

hi aussie - thanks for your encouragement and kind words. I've only got two other TRs to finish now!

it sounds as if NZ and Iceland have a lot in common, though I hope that the food in your parts is better. of course there is another way in which they are similar - they both have a lot of sheep!

If we start making Kiwi sheep jokes we will never hear the end of how they won the Bledisloe Cup and how woeful the Wallabies are.

I will have to go and find your other trip reports now.

LOL all...

I'll have to say that in our two weeks in Iceland, we didn't have a single bad meal. We went in October and many of the restaurants were closed.

Even with that, we ate well... even the burgers at the gas station were freshly made and quite good. Oddest meal was a a 'truck stop' in an area where everything else was closed for the season. Imagine a dubbed version of ER on the TV, Talking Heads 'Life During Wartime' on the radio, truckers coming in to get their assignments and have a bit before hitting the road... very surreal. Meal was good... hot sandwiches... all you could eat pudding and salad (set out for the truckers)...

Breakfast at all the guesthouses and hotels was good... we picnic'ed most days (beer, cheese, smoked fish, fruit from the grocery... hard boiled eggs, etc from breakfast... fresh baked goods from the local bakery).

We also found NZ and Iceland to be similar... especially, the south Island of NZ...

astein12, Glad to hear that I'm not the only who had good food in Iceland..Here are some of the food that I particualy liked:

Skyr: a mixture of yoghurt and low-fat curd blended with fresh fruit. I can get this at Wegmans here at home but it isn't nearly as good.

Gravlax: appetizer of salmon cured in salt, sugar and dill and served with a dill and mustard sauce. The one I had was accompanied by thinly sliced radishes and caviar. I loved this so much that I ordered it more than once.

Fish: I had Arctic Char, Turbot over pureed lentils, Grilled and Baked Salmon and Plaice. All were very good. Preparation was usually quite light and lovely.

Lamb: I usually don't eat lamb, but I had delicious Medallions cooked rare and very tender.

Icelandic Meat Soup: A tasty kind of vegetable soup with lamb meat cubes.

Foamy Mushroom Soup: Don't know much about this except it was mushroom soup and it was foamy instead of liquid. Very tasty.

Creamy Lobster Soup: Very good, but the lobster tails floating in it contained over-cooked meat. Maybe they were for decoration and not meant to be eaten.

Potatoes: Many entrees were accompanied by plain boiled potatoes or sauteed baby potatoes. For some reason they were delicious and needed no extras to enjoy.

Barley: I had an appetizer with barley, broccoli and herbs which was very nice.

Sandwiches: Combinations of veggies, sliced eggs, some with ham on rye or grain bread are available prepackaged at many locations. very fresh!

Desserts: I didn't have many desserts, but did have Blueberry Ice Cream, Ice Cream whipped with Strawberries and mixed with little hard candies, Apple Crisp, and Oatmeal Cake.

Ann, how lovely to find the your completed report! Now I know all about travelling in Iceland and don't actually have to go there myself, with or without a cucumber.

I'm sorry your work commitments prevented us from meeting up in Dartmoor this past June because I would love to have found out whether you are as hilarious in real life as you are in your reports.

SuzieQQ, I'm glad you found good food in Iceland so there is hope for other travellers in the future.

hi, all,

I'm quite happy to accept that we were unlucky in some of the places that we ended up eating. I agree that most of the food in restaurants was ok, sometimes better than that, though the better stuff did tend to be very expensive. My main cooment/grouse about the food was what was available if you were self-catering, which we were for part of the time. the choice was VERY restricted and the quality generally poor. apart from the skyr, that is, which I agree was yummy. sadly the pot we tried to bring home was confiscated at the airport as being a "liquid"!

moolyn - I'm sorry too. perhaps another time?

I'll second SusieQQ's food list... can agree with almost all of them... and add a few more:

1) Whale - had it marinated in soy and grilled on the wharf. Really good. Very much like beef.

2) Organic Fish and Chips (at Icelandic Fish and Chips). Very good and reasonable for the city.

3) Baked goods. Found a good bakery in many towns and lots of good pastry and bread.

4) Fruit. Mostly imported... not cheap, but available and good quality.

5) Sheep-poo smoked trout. While I love a good gravlax (and had plenty), one of the best cured fish dishes was smoked trout... and when you lack wood, you burn whatever you can.

Sheep-poo smoked trout. While I love a good gravlax (and had plenty), one of the best cured fish dishes was smoked trout... and when you lack wood, you burn whatever you can.>>

I'm sooo sorry we missed out on that - not. ditto the shark meat that they bury for 6 months then dig up and it's still disgusting.

clearly we were less lucky than astein or susieQQ when it came to food. I though the best dishes were generally the soups.

I read your report before our trip. Loved it.
Thanks !
Phil (Travellingdad)

hi "dad",

I've been reading and enjoying your reports too. I hope that reading my Trip report helped you plan your holiday, and perhaps avoid some of the mistakes we made!

regards, ann

Hi Ann.
As a born and bred Icelander I can probably answer some of your questions but one that you´ve asked a few times is: "Where do Icelanders buy fresh meat? Or poultry? We never found out."
The short answer to that is Supermarkets. Not like the small grocery stores in small villages that only carry a very small selection and charge high prices or the gas stations that, due to their longer opening hours, charge even higher prices but Supermarkets like Bónus, Krónan or Nettó that can be found in many of the larger towns. These places have a much better selections and much lower prices (often only a quarter of what the gas station charge you) but are only found in places like Selfoss and Hveragerði in the south, Borgarnes and Stykkishólmur in the west and Akureyri in North.
Most people do the weekly (or monthly if you live in the countryside) shopping in the supermarkets and only use the smaller, more local stores, for things they might have fogotten to buy, hence the small range in the small stores.
Your road selection seems to have been a little strange, if you had purchased a road map (like the Icelandic "ferðakort") that shows what roads have asfalt and what roads have gravel surface you could have avoided a lot of worst roads.
You have to keep in mind that Iceland only has some 320 000 people and over 200 000 of them live in the capital area and most of rest in the larger towns that are interconnected by roads that are almost totally with asfalt surface. Roads that have almost no traffic are of a corresponding standard and many of them are actually surprisingly good.
I have spent many summers driving around Iceland on roads with varying standards and I can assure you that you have no need for a 4wd vehicle as long as you stay off the F-marked roads, indeed the 4wd cars have in many cases been the cause of accidents involving tourists that have not been accustomed to large vehicles and lost control on the gravel roads, sometimes fatally.
Vik is not pronounced like "sick" but closer to "weak" (the way I prononce English at least)
From Þingvellir (written with a Þ and not a P) you should have taken road 36 to Mosfellsbær and then the road 1 until the junction with road 60 towards the Western fjords, doing so would have cut down the length of gravel road to about 50 kms but this would not have been obvious unless you had a map like the one I described above.
I probably could have added some more but I stop here.
If you need to clarify something I can try my best.

Sigvaldi

hi sigvaldi,

you are right that we could have done with your help before we went. Icelanders are a bit short on this board.

we did have a decent map though, and never drove on F roads, as that would have invalidated our insurance; however, when we hit that huge diversion or the B road around the fjords, we were a bit short of choices - it was the gravel or nothing.

as for food, you do not surprise me that people use the bigger supermarkets rather than some of the smaller ones we came across. however, this must involve driving long distances for a lot of people, which preseumably they don't want to do very often. More difficult than meat, which can be preserved for long periods of time by freezing, is the issue of fresh fruit and veg which deteriortate far more quickly and which outside Reykjavik and the area around Hveragherdi seemed to us to be a pretty poor quality and very expensive. [sorry, my computer won't do icelandic letters].

Hi again.
Well, a better road map would have showed you more alternatives in the Þingvellir area but the choice is not as great in the Western fjords (but there is very little traffic there also)
As for the supermarkets, they are in many places around the country and people seem to prefer driving the distance (combining their regular shopping trip with some other activities) and thus reducing their use of the local stores and causing them to have to cut down their selection.
In many places the local food store had to close because of this.

In many places the local food store had to close because of this.>>

you are not alone in this. it has happened a lot in the UK too. our local village store is trying very hard to provide a good range of fresh foods but it's so difficult for them to compete on price, which is what a lot of people by on ,rather than freshness and provenance.

also a lot of people round here grow their own which I anticipate may not be an option for a part of the year in Iceland.

Well,Iceland has, just like the UK,a maritime temperate climate, making the winters a lot less severe than the latitude might imply but for growing your own around here over the winter you need a greenhouse.
Geothermally heated greenhouses, with big lamps, make it possible to grow vegetables througout the winter and many vegetable farmers are doing that increasingly, providing us with a variety of fresh vegetables year round.
Fresh fruit is another matter, most of that is imported.

Topping..

It's an oldie but goodie. Thanks Ann for this great report and it looks like we will get to do the Grand Circle tour next year!
In November we will just have time to check out the Blue Lagoon.
Did you eat at the posher restaurant or the cafe at the Blue Lagoon?

hi sassy cat,

glad you enjoyed the read.

i wish that we had done the grand circle too - I'm sure that we covered the same mileage or more, - but I'm not sure that we could have fitted all that in AND gone to the western fjords, which was the BEST BIT.

the cafe at the blue lagoon wasn't much - but the restaurant was pretty good. that's where we ate.

have a great trip,

regards, ann

Thanks Ann, The western fjords sound great but our stopover next July will probably be for 2 nights. Just long enough for a Grand Circle trip.

Maybe these brief visits will inspire us to spend longer in Iceland one day but on the other hand I hate lamb and it sounds like the food outside Reykjavik is not that wonderful!

sassy_cat,

Please read the comments on food by myself and astein12. I had great food, not only in Reykjavik, but also in the countryside!

SusieQQ, I did read your comments but alas my family does not eat fish or shellfish and I don't eat lamb. My DD is absolutely horrified at the thought of seeing whale on a menu LOL. Rotten shark? Don't even go there!

Looking forward to the skyr though!

SusieQQ, I did read your comments but alas my family does not eat fish or shellfish and I don't eat lamb.>>

not sure that you're going to have a terribly good time from a culinary point of view. some of the best things we had were soups - meat [often lamb, sometimes oxtail] or fish. occasionally there was chicken on the menu, sometimes puffin or guillimot. veg and fruit was not of very high quality, except in Reykjavik and at the hotel glymur which was reflected in the cost of the meals there.

on the bright side, breakfasts were good, there are lots of eggs, and endless coffee. if yo're only there for 2 days, you'll probably survive OK.

sassy_cat,

well, in Reykavik there were Italian restaurants, Hamburger joints, pizza etc. You also have to have a hot dog from the hot dog place at the harbor...sorry, don't remember it's name.....also, at truck stops and cafes at the major tourist stops, the sandwiches with veggies, eggs, ham, etc. were fresh and quite good.
Have fun!

Yeah, a 10 hour layover in November followed by a stopover of less than 48 hours next July.. we can survive!
We'll spend more time in Paris on both trips so I'll consider Iceland my 'diet' time.

SusieQQ, I don't eat hot dogs or hamburgers either and I've never considered myself difficult LOL .

Ann, I know you brought cucumbers from the UK. I might just bring some fruit from the US if anyone can confirm that they'll let me bring it in. I'm a fruit bat or at least I was in a previous incarnation.

sassy cat - I have no reason to believe that you won't be able to "import" with you a reasonable amount of fruit.

iceland is NOT California or Florida. they really don't care if your luggage is crammed full of apples, pears, oranges, tomatoes or indeed, cucumbers.

if you have "veggie" tendencies, i suspect that you will do better in "high end" places [like the restaurant at the Blue Lagoon] than you will at petrol stations, which bizzarely are very popular meeting and eating places in Iceland. Howevr some of these places, like the posh hotel opposite the geysir site on the golden circle, are quite heavy on trad icelandic food. as you ahe mentioned the golden circle, here's the link to the hotel geysir website:

http://en.hotelgeysir.is/?c=webpage&id=80&lid=78&option=links

I was hoping that they would have a menu posted but you could e-mail them to see what they say about whether they have the sort of food you like.

otherwise i fear that you may have to eat in Reykjavik and bring a packed lunch!

sassy_cat,

Here are a few suggestions of restaurants where I ate>

Rossopomodoro--Italian right on main street Lauganegur

Vox---in my hotel Hilton Nordica--excellent, but pricey.

Brasserie Askur--near Hilton--known for its Steak Buffet on Sunday evenings.

Also, there were ethnic restaurants such as Thai and Indian which I didn't try.

I think you will be suprised at how good the food is!!

Ann, we've decided we'll eat at the Blue Lagoon restaurant in November. I think it's called Lava. That will probably be all we'll need to eat apart from a cup of coffee and something sugary to kick start us when we arrive off the red eye. Thanks again!

SusieQQ, Thanks for the restaurant suggestions.
Thai and Indian restaurants are my favourites so I will look out for them!
I'm sure we'll find plenty of good food for our 2 day stay next year and we're unlikely to stay anywhere other than Reykjavik.

OMG! what a fabulous report.

I ahve no plans to visit Iceland as of now, but your report kept me reading on.

FANTASTIC - thank you ann!

sassy cat - good choice.

if you are staying near Reykjavik, you should be fine.

s_n_t - thanks! i hope I didn't put you off Iceland as it has some truly fantastic sights. hopefully those who are planning a trip there can learn from our mistakes.

PS - another restaurant/cafe tip - the museum of Iceland, which is a great place to visit, also has a very nice cafe, strangely staffed mainly by non-icelandic speakers, which was a surprise, given the name of the museum!

annhig,

I had a delicious ham and leek quiche and fresh salad at that cafe in the National Museum.

susieQQ - at least we agree on something about the food in Iceland.

marking for later digest - parts i've read are so so enticing

perhaps annhig went to Iceland to get her money from her retirement funds back?

perhaps annhig went to Iceland to get her money from her retirement funds back?>>

fortunately I did not have any money in Iceland. unlike Cornwall county Council which had about £5 million there.

So far as i know, all the UK local authorities have got their money back now, but I'm not sure about private individuals.

we actually went before the crash, but when Iceland went belly up it surprised me not at all - there was very little infrastructure to underwrite all those loans. just a lot of lava and sheep.

What is a curate egg?

I'm considering a trip (four or five nights) in late May so I've started reading the various reports here.

flygirl - there is an old english saying - "like the curate's egg - good in parts". i suppose it harks back to the days when a curate, being the lowest of the low at the bishop's or vicar's table, might get an egg that was not as fresh as it might have been. so something that is like a curate's egg, is good and bad.

Ann, thanks so much for this detailed report. It has already been of great help as I plan a trip to Iceland for this summer, and I'm anticipating using quite a bit of the information and advice as I complete the planning and the trip.

dbalbert - my pleasure.

i think that the two bits of advice that I would emphasise [which may well be contradictory, but what the hell] are

1. DO go all the way round if you can; don't do what we did and back track - you end up doing as many miles and don't see as much.

2. Do go to the western fjords and get the ferry over to the Snafellnesess peninsular. perhaps the best sea voyage I have ever made, and I hate ferries!

annhig, what a wondeful trip report, just loved your sense of humour. unfortunately we'll be in iceland for just 2 days, so won't be able to do very much more then the Golden Circle, Blue Lagoon and a glacier tour. am vegetarian, so aren't i glad we'll have our cruise ship to go back to for salads and fruit?!!!

glad you liked it, geetika. I got some flak elsewhere for not saying everything was wonderful but I don't see the point of not being honest.

Anyway, i strongly recommend the golden circle, and a glacier tour is a great idea. BTW, the food in the restaurant at the Blue Lagoon was pretty good, so you might we find something there.

hope you have a great time!

Hi Annhig - Skimmed your travel report (with a big smile) - Glad the list of pros at the beginning was longer than the cons. We did the ring road tour in Aug 2006, and loved everything about Iceland. Our vacations typically involve lots of miles, and rarely more than 1 nite @ any l stop, but this trip maybe broke mileage records! (One friend famously said after looking at the itinerary - that's not vacation, that's boot camp) Iceland is so spectacular & we saw so much every day that even the long days didn't feel long. We love lamb (and yes, Icelandic lamb is the best!) and generally ate very well - chose small guest house /hotels with good reputation for food. Big breakfasts before leaving, and excellent dinners at the end of the day. Lunches were "interesting." Ate a LOT of hot dogs @ gas stations, and also thankful for travel snacks we brought from home (nuts, and bags of "orange essence prunes") - along with some water, those snacks got husband, me & 19 YO son thru some long stretches with no civilization. Reading your report let me relive much of our own trip. Thanks for your amazing & amusing report!

hi burnhamski [love the screen-name, BTW]

well, I've yet to meet anyone who is neutral about Iceland. i think that it is one of the few places where the "one-night stand" approach works best; it's not ideal for the sort of touring that we like which is to spend a few nights in each place before moving on. Sadly we only knew about this by the time we left!

I cannot claim that we loved everything about it, but we did have a great time, and some unmissable experiences. I'm glad that you enjoyed it so much too.

Hi,

My wife and I are considering flying to Iceland for 17 days this this coming August.

Is it safe (meaning availability) to find accommodation as you go? Are there enough B&Bs or guesthouses around (we plan on doing the circle) enough for finding a bed in the evening? We would greatly prefer the freedom of driving and stopping where we feel like rather than planning our stops beforehand.
Any hints?
Also, any "reasonable" rental car agency with democratic prices? We are seeing 1,000+ € for 14 days, which is rather expensive..

Thanx,
Paco

hi ured -

well, first of all i am no expert, having only been once, but so long as you are not very fussy, and don't want to stop on very out of the way places, i would think that you would be able to find places to stay as you go, even in August.

I am not up to date with prices in Iceland, but we paid roughly what you are being quoted for a hire car, so it doesn't surprise me.

if you decide to travel this way, i would urge you to have an up to date guide book with you [ours proved invaluable when we hit that problem with accommodation, and had to find somewhere new to stay] and to go the Western Fjords - you have long enough to make that feasible, and it was definitely the highlight of our trip, along with the boat trip where we saw the Orcas and the Baldur ferry to the snaefellness peninsular via Flatley.

hope that you decide to go there, and that you have a wonderful trip.

Thanx!
Great report BTW!
Paco

no probs, Paco.

hope it helps.

Ann - we are following in your footsteps in August. I may just cut and paste you trip report, change a few names and call it my own. I hope you don't mind.

I know this is an older report, but I am enjoying it so much! I've got to bookmark it to finish a bit later.

cold - please do, i doubt anyone will notice, except that they will wonder why you're not quite as amusing as usual.

please let me know if i can help with the planning at all.

Toucan - I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Cold, watch out for horse riding and their weird "gait" it nearly split me in two. Do take a spa wherever you are, they are so good.

Funny you should say that Bilboburgler - the plan is for a five day hike and then three of our group are going to run in the Reykjavik marathon. But one of the group is a very competitive dressage rider. She is insisting we ride horses somewhere on the hike.

Those Icelandic horses don't look like they would appreciate dressage instructions being yelled at them.

we never got anywhere near any of the horses and it looks like that was a good choice.

I actually really enjoyed the horse riding; I found the gait to be quite comfortable, but then, this was only a half day or so, not a long trek. The "Viking ponies" are definitely unique; if one of the horses is taken elsewhere, it's not allowed back in the country.

And yeah, I don't see them caring much about dressage.

if your friend loves horses then she should try it for at least a half day.

What a lot of fun this was to read Ann. The longest vacation we ever took had precisely two bad days, which isn't bad considering. They came complete with steely silence as you say, as both issues involved travel and slight errors in judgment.

we rode here at this hotel http://www.eldhestar.is/?c=webpage&id=60 there was a general coral at the start of the day and we were brought to the hotel from Reykyavik (in the price). Then we were broken into groups, riders, non-riders and finally sent off with a local girl to try the gait. Certainly some people got it, though I felt I spent my half day having a sofa bashed into my bottom (your stirrups are lowered so you cannot get into a riding trot).

After getting off I lay down for an hour in our hotel room and then walked (like John Wayne) to the town spa (about 1 km away) where I lay in a hot tub for the rest of the day.

Mrs Bilbo said the riding was great and the restaurant pretty good.

Best trip report on fodors!!!

Leslie - you are far too kind.

I hope that it doesn't put people off going to Iceland because it's a fascinating and very interesting place.

Not at all! My mom and I are going this summer and I'm even more excited after reading your report. I have to confess to being glad we're taking the wimpy way out by doing a small-group tour so we don't have to drive on those A, B, or F roads but doing it on your own you definitely had an amazing adventure.

I loved learning UK sayings & slang from your report. I had to keep googling to get the meaning: Hobson's choice, curate's egg, blowing a hooley, chuntering. Fun!

I'll check out some of your other TRs - you're a great writer. It does make for an interesting piece when a trip isn't 100% perfect. Thanks for taking the time to share your experience and not sugarcoat it!

Thanks, Leslie, that's very encouraging - i might get round to finishing some of the unfinished ones!

I think that your decision to join a small group is a very wise one; it's possible to drive for long distances in Iceland without seeing much of interest and hopefully being with a group will keep that to a minimum, whilst also allowing for some individual exploration.

do ask if you've got any queries before you go, and I'd be very interested to hear about your experiences when you get back.

annhig said:
Thanks, Leslie, that's very encouraging - i might get round to finishing some of the unfinished ones!

Why start now?

You even have 2 trip unfinished trip reports for the same city (Rome), don't you?

how cruel, indy-dad, to draw attention to my shortcomings, when Leslie had been so gracious!

fair, but cruel.

sorry, annhig -- couldn't resist

and why should you?

Haha, if I didn't finish within a week of returning I'd never remember a thing to report on. I'll try to look for the ones that are completed so I don't get left on tenterhooks!

Thanks for your kindness in not poo-poohing the tour. I know group tours are anathema to fodorites but sometimes they work for me.

If the tour experience is especially good - or bad - I'll report back.

I know group tours are anathema to fodorites but sometimes they work for me.>>

that makes us sound terribly narrow-minded - justifiably, on occasion.

there are some places where I do find it difficult to see the point of a tour eg mainland europe, but Iceland is definitely not in that category, as it's quite difficult to negotiate and get the best out of, as I think our story demonstrates.

Were I going to Albania or China, or North Vietnam [which is unlikely] I would also take a tour.

horses for courses!

Oddly, I visited both Vietnam and China without tours, but I did use some day tours for Iceland, as I don't drive. But I'll agree that it's easy to get around and make your own choices in many respects! I'd love to return; it's been too long.

good for you Amy. I am a little risk-averse, but I'm getting better!