Iceland 2 week trip itinerary/report
Jul 28th, 2015, 06:25 AM
#41
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Ann, you can have a great time in Norway without going down the cruise route - we loved Oslo and the Sognefjord area. The latter is a doable drive from the capital and should fully satisfy your fjords, waterfalls, glaciers and mountains appetite.
Jul 28th, 2015, 08:33 AM
#42
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Annhig, someone has to back up! 
That never happened to us on a bridge, but it did happen to us coming down from Dyrholaey on a narrow, winding, dirt road, when we encountered a tour bus going up. We had to back up, uphill, around a curve, to get to a place big enough for the bus to pass.
That never happened to us on a bridge, but it did happen to us coming down from Dyrholaey on a narrow, winding, dirt road, when we encountered a tour bus going up. We had to back up, uphill, around a curve, to get to a place big enough for the bus to pass.
Jul 28th, 2015, 09:20 AM
#43
Tally - living in Cornwall I can tell you that I know all there is to know about backing up.
I have a memory that there were passing places on the blind bridges, I don't remember having to reverse on any of them, thank goodness. [you may remember that my track record with reversing our hire car wasn't good, if you got to that part of my TR!]
I have a memory that there were passing places on the blind bridges, I don't remember having to reverse on any of them, thank goodness. [you may remember that my track record with reversing our hire car wasn't good, if you got to that part of my TR!]
Jul 28th, 2015, 02:07 PM
#45
Tally - we specialise in them, along with hedges that look like they are made of plants but are actually stone, but one plus is that in the main local drivers are very polite [not only do we thank someone for waiting for us, but the thankee then thanks the thanker] and know the passing places so most of the time we get along fine.
Jul 28th, 2015, 04:42 PM
#46
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Day 10 - Tue, July 7 day trip around the Trollaskagi peninsula
Siglufjordur herring museum
Hofsos pool
Glaumbaer turf house museum
overnight: Saeluhus
Today we went on a day trip from Akureyri up around the Trollaskogi peninsula. We left around 8:00 and got to the first little town around 8:30. Dalvik. Not a lot there, but we thought we'd stop in a coffee shop for a bit. The only one we saw didn't open until 10:00. Not early risers in Dalvik, apparently.
So onward north we went, through Olafsfjordur, a tiny town on the fjord, and through 3 tunnels to Siglufjordur. One of the tunnels was one lane with pull off places and another was 7km long. Siglufjordur is a slightly bigger tiny town on the water, with steep mountains shooting up behind. We found an open coffee shop/bakery and had coffees, cake and hot chocolate, bought some bread for dinner, for about $20. Very tasty stuff there and nice people.
The big attraction there is the herring museum. Herring was big there until about 1950, or thereabouts. There were several fish processing plants in the area and fortunes made off herring. And then the herring disappeared, and the town shriveled up. The town is at the top tip of the fjord and the tunnel connecting it to Olafsfjordur was only built recently, so the town was just a blip on the map for a long time. Now you can drive all the way around the fjord (instead of over the mountains on a dirt road) and the tourists are coming, so it's coming back to life. The herring museum is in 3 buildings along the water. One is the old bunkhouse and it still has things in it from the workers like they just up and split and let half their stuff behind. Pretty cool! Then there's the factory, where they processed the herring and separated out the oil and made the rest into meal for animal feed. Finally there's the boat house where they have some old boats you can go aboard. All of it was pretty interesting.
Back in the car and around the fjord, and the farthest north that we've ever been. The scenery along the way was fabulous! It has started as a cool, cloudy day but by the time we were driving around the tip, it was sunny and mostly clear.
We made our way around to Hofsos on the other side of the peninsula from Siglufjordur. Not much there, except a really cool hot springs pool. And it was cheap! Only $5.50 for adults and kids are free. The pool building is built into a hillside so you hardly see if from the road. Inside there are big windows looking out at the pool and fjord beyond, and halls off to the dressing rooms. There's a sign at the front door with rules. Like, shower naked, no phones or cameras in the dressing rooms and if you're caught, they'll call the police (or something like that). They went to the men's dressing room and I went to the women's where there were no private stalls, just a big shower room. The whole pool shower thing is a little complicated.
1) Leave shoes just inside the dressing room door on the big shoe rack.
2) Disrobe and put valuables in a locker (this pool only had tiny lockers for keys and wallets and things). The locker key is on a big rubber band that you wear on your arm into the pool.
3) Get naked and shower. Take only your towel with you and put it in a towel rack that is somewhere near the showers. My shower area had a diagram about which places to wash, but no shower police.
4) Dry off before you go back to the dressing room. DON'T GET THE DRESSING
ROOM FLOOR WET.
5) Swimsuit on. This pool has little baskets to leave your stuff in, just sitting in the dressing room. I guess they assume no one is going to steal your stuff then blaze down the one road alongside the fjord.
6) Go to pool! They don't seem to take their towels with them. Not sure where they're leaving them. Maybe by the showers?
This pool was really neat because it was a normal local swimming pool and not a tourist attraction (although it is that as well). It has a rectangle pool for swimming and playing, floaty pool toys for kids, with water that was slightly warm but not toasty. They also have a hot pot, or a hot tub without jets, with hot water bubbling up from the bottom and draining at the top, lined with a bench inside around the edge. It was very popular, even on this sunny day, thanks to the cold wind blasting. Loved it!! But the coolest thing is that the big pool is sort of on a hill and it looks like an infinity pool that flows over in the ocean. When you're in the pool looking out, you see the edge of the pool water and the ocean just beyond that. Way cool. We stayed for a few hours and played in the pool with floaty things and sat in the hot pot. Loved it!!
From there we drove down past the end of the fjord and to a turf house museum called Glaumbaer. Very cool! It was a big house with several rooms connected with peat lined hallways, each room with a slanted turf covered roof. People lived there until 1947. Nifty!! Next door is an old fashioned café with traditional cakes, so we had some sherry cake. yum! Not much else out there, just cool views all around of green fields and stark mountains.
That was it for the day! Then about an hour drive back to Akureyri and our cool little apartment/hotel. They have one washer and one dryer for free, so we jumped in and got a load done.
Off to the last stop of our trip tomorrow: Reykjavik. Should be fun!
I forgot to mention a couple of things I thought were sorta funny. You know the speed limit signs that tell you your speed and flash red or green, or tell you to slow down? We saw one here that flashed our speed in green, above a lit up smiley face. Today at Siglufjordur, there was a statue of a big fish on a dock, with a fishing pole, and a little person hanging off the end. You can't say Icelanders don't have a sense of humor.
Notes
Tunnels – Some of the tunnels around the Trollaskagi peninsula are one lane, with pull over places inside marked with 'M'. If the pull over place is on your side and a car is coming, pull over!
pool locker rooms - I saw signs at a couple of pools that said school aged kids must go in the locker rooms of their sex. Just fyi, in case you are traveling alone with your little kid and they are not the same sex as you. Seems to me that 6 or 7 is a bit young to go by themselves, but we didn't have to find out if that's a firm rule.
Akureyri street lights – A lot of the red lights are heart shaped! Funniest thing ever. I remembered reading that they did that during the financial crisis to make people feel better.
Siglufjordur herring museum
Hofsos pool
Glaumbaer turf house museum
overnight: Saeluhus
Today we went on a day trip from Akureyri up around the Trollaskogi peninsula. We left around 8:00 and got to the first little town around 8:30. Dalvik. Not a lot there, but we thought we'd stop in a coffee shop for a bit. The only one we saw didn't open until 10:00. Not early risers in Dalvik, apparently.
So onward north we went, through Olafsfjordur, a tiny town on the fjord, and through 3 tunnels to Siglufjordur. One of the tunnels was one lane with pull off places and another was 7km long. Siglufjordur is a slightly bigger tiny town on the water, with steep mountains shooting up behind. We found an open coffee shop/bakery and had coffees, cake and hot chocolate, bought some bread for dinner, for about $20. Very tasty stuff there and nice people.
The big attraction there is the herring museum. Herring was big there until about 1950, or thereabouts. There were several fish processing plants in the area and fortunes made off herring. And then the herring disappeared, and the town shriveled up. The town is at the top tip of the fjord and the tunnel connecting it to Olafsfjordur was only built recently, so the town was just a blip on the map for a long time. Now you can drive all the way around the fjord (instead of over the mountains on a dirt road) and the tourists are coming, so it's coming back to life. The herring museum is in 3 buildings along the water. One is the old bunkhouse and it still has things in it from the workers like they just up and split and let half their stuff behind. Pretty cool! Then there's the factory, where they processed the herring and separated out the oil and made the rest into meal for animal feed. Finally there's the boat house where they have some old boats you can go aboard. All of it was pretty interesting.Back in the car and around the fjord, and the farthest north that we've ever been. The scenery along the way was fabulous! It has started as a cool, cloudy day but by the time we were driving around the tip, it was sunny and mostly clear.
We made our way around to Hofsos on the other side of the peninsula from Siglufjordur. Not much there, except a really cool hot springs pool.
And it was cheap! Only $5.50 for adults and kids are free. The pool building is built into a hillside so you hardly see if from the road. Inside there are big windows looking out at the pool and fjord beyond, and halls off to the dressing rooms. There's a sign at the front door with rules. Like, shower naked, no phones or cameras in the dressing rooms and if you're caught, they'll call the police (or something like that). They went to the men's dressing room and I went to the women's where there were no private stalls, just a big shower room. The whole pool shower thing is a little complicated. 1) Leave shoes just inside the dressing room door on the big shoe rack.
2) Disrobe and put valuables in a locker (this pool only had tiny lockers for keys and wallets and things). The locker key is on a big rubber band that you wear on your arm into the pool.
3) Get naked and shower. Take only your towel with you and put it in a towel rack that is somewhere near the showers. My shower area had a diagram about which places to wash, but no shower police.
4) Dry off before you go back to the dressing room. DON'T GET THE DRESSING
ROOM FLOOR WET.
5) Swimsuit on. This pool has little baskets to leave your stuff in, just sitting in the dressing room. I guess they assume no one is going to steal your stuff then blaze down the one road alongside the fjord.
6) Go to pool! They don't seem to take their towels with them. Not sure where they're leaving them. Maybe by the showers?
This pool was really neat because it was a normal local swimming pool and not a tourist attraction (although it is that as well). It has a rectangle pool for swimming and playing, floaty pool toys for kids, with water that was slightly warm but not toasty. They also have a hot pot, or a hot tub without jets, with hot water bubbling up from the bottom and draining at the top, lined with a bench inside around the edge. It was very popular, even on this sunny day, thanks to the cold wind blasting. Loved it!! But the coolest thing is that the big pool is sort of on a hill and it looks like an infinity pool that flows over in the ocean. When you're in the pool looking out, you see the edge of the pool water and the ocean just beyond that. Way cool. We stayed for a few hours and played in the pool with floaty things and sat in the hot pot. Loved it!!
From there we drove down past the end of the fjord and to a turf house museum called Glaumbaer. Very cool! It was a big house with several rooms connected with peat lined hallways, each room with a slanted turf covered roof. People lived there until 1947. Nifty!! Next door is an old fashioned café with traditional cakes, so we had some sherry cake. yum! Not much else out there, just cool views all around of green fields and stark mountains.
That was it for the day! Then about an hour drive back to Akureyri and our cool little apartment/hotel. They have one washer and one dryer for free, so we jumped in and got a load done.
Off to the last stop of our trip tomorrow: Reykjavik. Should be fun!
I forgot to mention a couple of things I thought were sorta funny. You know the speed limit signs that tell you your speed and flash red or green, or tell you to slow down? We saw one here that flashed our speed in green, above a lit up smiley face.
Today at Siglufjordur, there was a statue of a big fish on a dock, with a fishing pole, and a little person hanging off the end. You can't say Icelanders don't have a sense of humor. Notes
Tunnels – Some of the tunnels around the Trollaskagi peninsula are one lane, with pull over places inside marked with 'M'. If the pull over place is on your side and a car is coming, pull over!
pool locker rooms - I saw signs at a couple of pools that said school aged kids must go in the locker rooms of their sex. Just fyi, in case you are traveling alone with your little kid and they are not the same sex as you. Seems to me that 6 or 7 is a bit young to go by themselves, but we didn't have to find out if that's a firm rule.
Akureyri street lights – A lot of the red lights are heart shaped! Funniest thing ever. I remembered reading that they did that during the financial crisis to make people feel better.
Jul 28th, 2015, 04:50 PM
#47
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Day 11 - Wed, July 8 Akureyri to Reykjavik
Borgarnes Settlement Center
overnight: Gray Tower apartment, Reykjavik
Greetings from Reykjavik! This morning we packed up and checked out around 8:45. Hotel reception didn't open until 9. No early risers there either! Oh, I forgot to mention what happened the night before, our first night in Akureyri. The smoke alarm went off at 0200! We jumped up (no need to turn on the lights because the 'black out blinds' didn't really keep the light out and it was plenty light outside), swung open the front door thinking we just needed some fresh air (there was no smoke), swung open the back door and finally it turned off. We were up fairly early, like 0600, so it didn't wake us up again when it went off at 0630, but probably did everyone else nearby.
We drove back to the west through the same valley we drove home through the day before and stopped at just about every gas station along the way. First stop: Varmahlid. Next stop: Blonduos. The gas stations are the center of activity in the little villages and have little shops and restaurants. They always have self service coffee machines that make plain coffee, espresso and espresso drinks, hot chocolate, etc, and it's all really good for 225-275 ISK each ($2 and under). And they seem to all have soft serve ice cream that is priced well. We stopped at a grocery store in Blonduos and stocked up on breakfast stuff. Their version of yogurt, called skyr, is fabulous and not too expensive. A single serve cup is about $1 or so. We got skyr, smoked salmon, rolls, soft cheese and apples. The fruit and veg selection is pretty slim pickins at every store we've been in. The soft cheese is like Camembert and is really tasty and not too expensive, maybe $4. The label says, "Icelandic white mould cheese." Sounds tasty! ar ar
Trivia here: Island is Icelandic for Iceland. I keep reading it as island and am thinking, yea, it's an island. ar ar
From Blonduos the road turned inland and wasn't the most exciting scenery we've seen. Low hills, few trees, no ocean views.
Next stop: Borgarnes, an hour north of Reykjavik. We decided to visit the Settlement Center there, a museum about the settlement of Iceland. I didn't really know what to expect but it was way cool. There are 2 parts to the museum and you get an audio guide that tells the story of the Vikings coming over in one part, and the other is dedicated to Egil's Saga, one of the famous Sagas of Icelanders. These are old stories about the first settlers here. They're mostly about Norwegian vikings that didn't get along with the king of Norway (probably because they killed one of his relatives) so they ran off to Iceland instead of submitting (or getting killed as payback). The sagas, including Egil's Saga, have loads of violence, death and revenge. Anyway, it was really interesting and took an hour to get through it.
Back in the car and onto Reykjavik! The capital of Iceland and home to about half of the 300K residents of this lovely island. We found our apartment but between the one way streets and road construction, it took a bit to find the parking. Found it, unloaded and got in the apartment.
Here it is, almost 9pm and it looks like it's middle of the afternoon. We can see the mountains and ocean since basically one wall is all glass. Groovy! Tomorrow we're planning to walk all over town. Yay to no driving tomorrow! I think it was about 5 hours driving from Akureyri to Reykjavik today. So far this has been a really fun trip! It feels like we've been here for a long time and it's hard to think it will be over soon.
Borgarnes Settlement Center
overnight: Gray Tower apartment, Reykjavik
Greetings from Reykjavik! This morning we packed up and checked out around 8:45. Hotel reception didn't open until 9. No early risers there either!
Oh, I forgot to mention what happened the night before, our first night in Akureyri. The smoke alarm went off at 0200! We jumped up (no need to turn on the lights because the 'black out blinds' didn't really keep the light out and it was plenty light outside), swung open the front door thinking we just needed some fresh air (there was no smoke), swung open the back door and finally it turned off. We were up fairly early, like 0600, so it didn't wake us up again when it went off at 0630, but probably did everyone else nearby. We drove back to the west through the same valley we drove home through the day before and stopped at just about every gas station along the way. First stop: Varmahlid. Next stop: Blonduos. The gas stations are the center of activity in the little villages and have little shops and restaurants. They always have self service coffee machines that make plain coffee, espresso and espresso drinks, hot chocolate, etc, and it's all really good for 225-275 ISK each ($2 and under). And they seem to all have soft serve ice cream that is priced well. We stopped at a grocery store in Blonduos and stocked up on breakfast stuff. Their version of yogurt, called skyr, is fabulous and not too expensive. A single serve cup is about $1 or so. We got skyr, smoked salmon, rolls, soft cheese and apples. The fruit and veg selection is pretty slim pickins at every store we've been in. The soft cheese is like Camembert and is really tasty and not too expensive, maybe $4. The label says, "Icelandic white mould cheese." Sounds tasty! ar ar
Trivia here: Island is Icelandic for Iceland. I keep reading it as island and am thinking, yea, it's an island. ar ar
From Blonduos the road turned inland and wasn't the most exciting scenery we've seen. Low hills, few trees, no ocean views.
Next stop: Borgarnes, an hour north of Reykjavik. We decided to visit the Settlement Center there, a museum about the settlement of Iceland. I didn't really know what to expect but it was way cool. There are 2 parts to the museum and you get an audio guide that tells the story of the Vikings coming over in one part, and the other is dedicated to Egil's Saga, one of the famous Sagas of Icelanders. These are old stories about the first settlers here. They're mostly about Norwegian vikings that didn't get along with the king of Norway (probably because they killed one of his relatives) so they ran off to Iceland instead of submitting (or getting killed as payback). The sagas, including Egil's Saga, have loads of violence, death and revenge. Anyway, it was really interesting and took an hour to get through it.
Back in the car and onto Reykjavik! The capital of Iceland and home to about half of the 300K residents of this lovely island. We found our apartment but between the one way streets and road construction, it took a bit to find the parking. Found it, unloaded and got in the apartment.
Here it is, almost 9pm and it looks like it's middle of the afternoon. We can see the mountains and ocean since basically one wall is all glass. Groovy! Tomorrow we're planning to walk all over town. Yay to no driving tomorrow! I think it was about 5 hours driving from Akureyri to Reykjavik today. So far this has been a really fun trip! It feels like we've been here for a long time and it's hard to think it will be over soon.
Jul 28th, 2015, 05:03 PM
#48
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Day 12 - Thu, July 9 Reykjavik
Hallgrimskirkja
Reykjavik 871 museum
Viking maritime museum, Odinn ship tour
Valdis ice cream
overnight: Gray Tower apartment, Reykjavik
It's Thursday, we must be in Reykjavik! We love this apartment! We're across the street and a building away from the ocean, and we can see a bit of the ocean and snow capped mountains beyond between buildings. This is a great place to stay. This apartment is fully furnished with groovy Euro appliances that we have no idea whatsoever how to use. This morning Y decided to boil eggs. Pot, check. Eggs, check. Stove... check, but how the heck do you even turn it on? It has a touch pad area with just a few really vague buttons. Thank God for the internet. Y found a video on how to use it.
We were out around 8:45 (after spending forever trying to figure out the stove top) and headed uphill to the big famous church, Hallgrimskirkja. The city looks a lot like any very small European city that happens to sit on a spit of land surrounded by ocean, is a bit hilly, with lots of old buildings and narrow streets. We took the elevator up the tower of the church (only because that's the only way up, otherwise for sure we would've climbed the stairs ) and had great panoramic views of the city while being blasted with cold wind, even though it was a bright sunny day. That wind! When it blasts and hits you just so, it's freakin' freezing. Fortunately it didn't blast all day and was a wonderful sunny day for us.
From there we headed downhill on a narrow shopping street. We found a tiny kitchen shop crammed with everything you could imagine, floor to ceiling. I love kitchen shops but we didn't find anything in there we just had to have. The prices here are a pretty big deterrent to random shopping. Down the hill a bit we came to a funky cafe called Babalu, so stepped in for some coffee. Great coffee and cakes! We split a nutella cheesecake, that was really like heavy frosing on a crust. Y got some apple thing. Yum! The cafe had all kinds of stuff all over the place, like stuffed animal heads (fake ones) on the walls with sunglasses, or a tea cup on a head, and life sized Star Wars posters in the bathroom. I think it was about $20 for a coffee, latte, and 2 fabulous pieces of cake.
Onward! We looked in lots of tourist shops, and while there were certainly tourists there, we never felt overrun with other Americans or anything like that. We wandered and shopped and ended up at the Reykjavik 871 exhibit. They were building a hotel and dug up some ruins of a viking long house, probably from around the year 871. They built a museum around it. All that's there is the foundation and bottom of walls, but it's still pretty nifty, plus there's a lot of info about how they lived back then. I had read all about such things in the past year, when I read every book you can imagine on Iceland, but the boys had not kept up with the pile I had for them, so it was an easy way for them to get the scoop.
We wandered towards the old harbor looking for food trucks or some cheap eats. We only found 2, and tried them both. One sold crab cake sliders (mini sandwiches on buns). It was about $10 for one, so not really cheap eats. Next we found a fish and chips truck. We got one with just fish for 1000 ISK (about $8) and split it. Yum! We got another and split it.
Next up was the Viking maritime museum, but we didn't actually go in the museum, we just took a tour of the coast guard ship out front in the harbor. It was involved in the 'cod wars' with Britain. Britain was fishing for cod too close to Iceland, Iceland expanded their water boundaries, Britain didn't honor them, Iceland rammed their ships with their ice cutter coast guard ship, Britain scoffed, they signed a treaty. Repeat 2 more times. The ship was pretty interesting and we all enjoyed it.
After that we were getting pooped and needed a break, so luckily there was an ice cream shop nearby. Valdis. It was PACKED with locals. I took a number and waited while the gal called out the numbers before mine in Icelandic, and the people ordered in Icelandic, and everything was in Icelandic. I thought, I should've learned some Icelandic. My turn came and I tried to order using the Icelandic words for the flavors and the gal just stared at me. Said it again in English and she smiled happily and talked to me the same exact way an ice cream gal at home would. They must start teaching them English when they're babies. They speak it perfectly, and even with slang. We ate our ice cream outside on a bench. No inside seating. I wonder if it's so popular when it's not so nice out, like 99.9999% of the time?
From there we headed back in the direction of our apartment, looking for the willy museum but didn't find it before we got the the street our apartment is on. (I'll just leave you hanging on that one. ar ar Hopefully we'll go tomorrow and I can report back). We were back at the apartment kinda early, but we were pooped and didn't really feel like stomping around anymore today.
Tomorrow, the Blue Lagoon! I got our tickets for 0900 so we'll be up and out early. It's like the #1 tourist thing in Iceland, so we're expecting big crowds and lots of non-Icelanders, but hopefully it will still be fun.
I forgot a funny thing that happened today. In Reykjavik they have standalone 1 person public potties like elsewhere in Europe, except here they are free. If they aren't in use, you just push a button and the door opens, you step in and the door automatically closes behind you after a few seconds. They are cylindrical buildings, really just big enough for one, however, the sign on the door says kids under 10 should be accompanied by a parent. Inside is a potty and behind is an automatic sink/dryer in the wall. When you're done, you step out, the door locks behind you for a minute while it self cleans. Not really sure how it self cleans but the floors are always a bit wet. Anyway, X wanted me to go in with him. Ok, it's a bit of a squeeze but we both fit. He opened the door to leave but I hadn't washed my hands, so I hung back to use the auto washer. Then the door started to close and I didn't even notice, because I was trying to maneuver my hands under the tiny space of the washer. X grabbed me and hollered, and I got out just before the door closed and the self clean started. ar ar ar I probably wouldn't have been a happy camper if I had been self cleaned as well.
Hallgrimskirkja
Reykjavik 871 museum
Viking maritime museum, Odinn ship tour
Valdis ice cream
overnight: Gray Tower apartment, Reykjavik
It's Thursday, we must be in Reykjavik!
We love this apartment! We're across the street and a building away from the ocean, and we can see a bit of the ocean and snow capped mountains beyond between buildings. This is a great place to stay. This apartment is fully furnished with groovy Euro appliances that we have no idea whatsoever how to use. This morning Y decided to boil eggs. Pot, check. Eggs, check. Stove... check, but how the heck do you even turn it on? It has a touch pad area with just a few really vague buttons. Thank God for the internet. Y found a video on how to use it. We were out around 8:45 (after spending forever trying to figure out the stove top) and headed uphill to the big famous church, Hallgrimskirkja. The city looks a lot like any very small European city that happens to sit on a spit of land surrounded by ocean, is a bit hilly, with lots of old buildings and narrow streets. We took the elevator up the tower of the church (only because that's the only way up, otherwise for sure we would've climbed the stairs
) and had great panoramic views of the city while being blasted with cold wind, even though it was a bright sunny day. That wind! When it blasts and hits you just so, it's freakin' freezing. Fortunately it didn't blast all day and was a wonderful sunny day for us.From there we headed downhill on a narrow shopping street. We found a tiny kitchen shop crammed with everything you could imagine, floor to ceiling. I love kitchen shops but we didn't find anything in there we just had to have. The prices here are a pretty big deterrent to random shopping. Down the hill a bit we came to a funky cafe called Babalu, so stepped in for some coffee. Great coffee and cakes! We split a nutella cheesecake, that was really like heavy frosing on a crust. Y got some apple thing. Yum! The cafe had all kinds of stuff all over the place, like stuffed animal heads (fake ones) on the walls with sunglasses, or a tea cup on a head, and life sized Star Wars posters in the bathroom. I think it was about $20 for a coffee, latte, and 2 fabulous pieces of cake.
Onward! We looked in lots of tourist shops, and while there were certainly tourists there, we never felt overrun with other Americans or anything like that. We wandered and shopped and ended up at the Reykjavik 871 exhibit. They were building a hotel and dug up some ruins of a viking long house, probably from around the year 871. They built a museum around it. All that's there is the foundation and bottom of walls, but it's still pretty nifty, plus there's a lot of info about how they lived back then. I had read all about such things in the past year, when I read every book you can imagine on Iceland,
but the boys had not kept up with the pile I had for them, so it was an easy way for them to get the scoop. We wandered towards the old harbor looking for food trucks or some cheap eats. We only found 2, and tried them both. One sold crab cake sliders (mini sandwiches on buns). It was about $10 for one, so not really cheap eats. Next we found a fish and chips truck. We got one with just fish for 1000 ISK (about $8) and split it. Yum! We got another and split it.
Next up was the Viking maritime museum, but we didn't actually go in the museum, we just took a tour of the coast guard ship out front in the harbor. It was involved in the 'cod wars' with Britain. Britain was fishing for cod too close to Iceland, Iceland expanded their water boundaries, Britain didn't honor them, Iceland rammed their ships with their ice cutter coast guard ship, Britain scoffed, they signed a treaty. Repeat 2 more times.
The ship was pretty interesting and we all enjoyed it.After that we were getting pooped and needed a break, so luckily there was an ice cream shop nearby. Valdis. It was PACKED with locals. I took a number and waited while the gal called out the numbers before mine in Icelandic, and the people ordered in Icelandic, and everything was in Icelandic. I thought, I should've learned some Icelandic.
My turn came and I tried to order using the Icelandic words for the flavors and the gal just stared at me. Said it again in English and she smiled happily and talked to me the same exact way an ice cream gal at home would. They must start teaching them English when they're babies. They speak it perfectly, and even with slang. We ate our ice cream outside on a bench. No inside seating. I wonder if it's so popular when it's not so nice out, like 99.9999% of the time?From there we headed back in the direction of our apartment, looking for the willy museum but didn't find it before we got the the street our apartment is on. (I'll just leave you hanging on that one. ar ar Hopefully we'll go tomorrow and I can report back). We were back at the apartment kinda early, but we were pooped and didn't really feel like stomping around anymore today.
Tomorrow, the Blue Lagoon! I got our tickets for 0900 so we'll be up and out early. It's like the #1 tourist thing in Iceland, so we're expecting big crowds and lots of non-Icelanders, but hopefully it will still be fun.
I forgot a funny thing that happened today. In Reykjavik they have standalone 1 person public potties like elsewhere in Europe, except here they are free.
If they aren't in use, you just push a button and the door opens, you step in and the door automatically closes behind you after a few seconds. They are cylindrical buildings, really just big enough for one, however, the sign on the door says kids under 10 should be accompanied by a parent. Inside is a potty and behind is an automatic sink/dryer in the wall. When you're done, you step out, the door locks behind you for a minute while it self cleans. Not really sure how it self cleans but the floors are always a bit wet. Anyway, X wanted me to go in with him. Ok, it's a bit of a squeeze but we both fit. He opened the door to leave but I hadn't washed my hands, so I hung back to use the auto washer. Then the door started to close and I didn't even notice, because I was trying to maneuver my hands under the tiny space of the washer. X grabbed me and hollered, and I got out just before the door closed and the self clean started. ar ar ar I probably wouldn't have been a happy camper if I had been self cleaned as well.
Jul 28th, 2015, 05:13 PM
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Day 13 - Fri, July 10 Reykjavik
Blue Lagoon
Icelandic Phallological Museum
wandered around town
overnight: Gray Tower apartment, Reykjavik
Well poo...our last full day in Iceland. This has been a fun trip!
Today we were up and out early for our 0900 tickets at the Blue Lagoon. If you've ever seen a picture of Iceland, it was probably the Blue Lagoon. I couldn't decide if we should go or not, but considering the very first thing I ever saw about Iceland that got my attention was a picture from there, I figured we may as well. Booking ahead is required, because EVERYONE goes to the Blue Lagoon. Every tourist that is. I bet locals don't go there. It's too expensive and too crowded.
Kids are free, but we cost 45 euros each, so it was over $100 for us to go. We got there around 0845 and queued up. We finally got to the check in and got bracelets with chips in them. The chips open the lockers and also are used to store fees for anything extra you do there. They went off to the men's locker and I to the women's. So this was our #5 Iceland pool and even still it was by far the most confusing. #1 - place to leave shoes, check. #2 lockers. This is where it got confusing. There were several rows of lockers and none with keys. The magic bracelets were meant to open the lockers but how? When I was about to give up and go ask at the front, a gal (dressed head to toe in black, not looking like she belonged in a locker room at all) asked if I needed help. Well, yeah, I have to idea at all what to do here. Ok, you need to swipe your bracelet over the screen in the middle of the lockers to lock and unlock, but no idea how she assigned a locker to me. But after she did something I could open and lock #49 with my bracelet. Groovy! But where are the showers?? Found them and they appeared to all be private stalls, and only one little sign saying to shower before getting in the pool. The attendants didn't seem to care at all if people showered naked or showered at all. I suspect they get really tired of telling tourists to shower naked. Ok, great, done with that, where is the pool?? Found it, found the boys and got in. So far, the BL wasn't getting a lot of points from me. I had read sooooo much about it and I think it's overhyped.
The pool is quite large, bright opaque blue-white water, surrounded by black lava rocks. It looks really cool. About the same as the Myvatn Nature Baths that we went to earlier on this trip. It's one big pool with a few bridges around smaller parts, a fake cave, a little 'river', wooden boxes with white silica mud that you can scoop out and slather on your face, and a power plant in the distance. And a bunch of zombies slowly moving around the pool with blank looks on their white silica mud covered faces. It was fun for a while and we explored every nook and cranny but it's really meant for just lounging in, not really doing anything. We stayed for about 1 1/2 hours then braved the locker rooms again. By that time it was filling up and getting crowded. We managed to make our way out and walked the long trail back to the car, lined with high lava rock walls.
It was #5 of our Iceland pools and we all agreed that it was #5 in the ranking. Too expensive, too touristy, too crowded, too hyped, too much trouble to get to and had to book in advance. If it was the only pool we had gone to I'm sure we would've liked it more, but the other pools were niftier.
Back to our apartment then out to wander. It has been a pretty nice day but started to sprinkle after a while. We wandered up to the willy museum. WILLY museum. ar ar ar So yea, it's a small museum dedicated to the willy. They have willies from lots of different animals in jars. The most impressive was from a sperm whale (I don't really need to comment on that, eh?). They also have some from humans but they looked pretty shriveled and funky. The funniest thing in there was a display from the 2006 Iceland Olympic hand ball team. They got a silver medal in Beijing. They have a case with silver molds of all the team members' members. X said that if they had gotten gold, they would've gotten gold molds of their willies. ar ar ar
After that we just wandered around. I looked at wool sweaters but they're awfully itchy so I passed. I did get some wool mittens. We got ice cream. We wandered and shopped and learned that our little one really doesn't like to just wander around a town. He's ok with wandering if there's an eventual destination, but doesn't like aimless wandering.
Back to our apartment around 5pm, dinner, laundry and all that. We haven't packed yet...
So that's about it! Here's a brief summary of our opinions of Iceland.
- It's clean. Clean restrooms, clean accommodations, clean countryside, even the city is pretty clean.
- Cool people. I think they are slightly reserved but seem to be well educated and have a good sense of humor.
- Pretty expensive, but not everything is outrageous. Ice cream and dairy, coffee, fish at the store, all seem fairly reasonable.
- Easy to get around. Even though the traffic signs are in Icelandic, we've managed ok, and since everyone seems to be bilingual, it's really easy to communicate.
- Beautiful scenery!
- Erratic weather. Wind. Crazy wind.
Blue Lagoon
Icelandic Phallological Museum
wandered around town
overnight: Gray Tower apartment, Reykjavik
Well poo...our last full day in Iceland. This has been a fun trip!
Today we were up and out early for our 0900 tickets at the Blue Lagoon. If you've ever seen a picture of Iceland, it was probably the Blue Lagoon. I couldn't decide if we should go or not, but considering the very first thing I ever saw about Iceland that got my attention was a picture from there, I figured we may as well. Booking ahead is required, because EVERYONE goes to the Blue Lagoon. Every tourist that is. I bet locals don't go there. It's too expensive and too crowded.
Kids are free, but we cost 45 euros each, so it was over $100 for us to go. We got there around 0845 and queued up. We finally got to the check in and got bracelets with chips in them. The chips open the lockers and also are used to store fees for anything extra you do there. They went off to the men's locker and I to the women's. So this was our #5 Iceland pool and even still it was by far the most confusing. #1 - place to leave shoes, check. #2 lockers. This is where it got confusing. There were several rows of lockers and none with keys. The magic bracelets were meant to open the lockers but how? When I was about to give up and go ask at the front, a gal (dressed head to toe in black, not looking like she belonged in a locker room at all) asked if I needed help. Well, yeah, I have to idea at all what to do here. Ok, you need to swipe your bracelet over the screen in the middle of the lockers to lock and unlock, but no idea how she assigned a locker to me. But after she did something I could open and lock #49 with my bracelet. Groovy! But where are the showers?? Found them and they appeared to all be private stalls, and only one little sign saying to shower before getting in the pool. The attendants didn't seem to care at all if people showered naked or showered at all. I suspect they get really tired of telling tourists to shower naked. Ok, great, done with that, where is the pool?? Found it, found the boys and got in. So far, the BL wasn't getting a lot of points from me. I had read sooooo much about it and I think it's overhyped.
The pool is quite large, bright opaque blue-white water, surrounded by black lava rocks. It looks really cool. About the same as the Myvatn Nature Baths that we went to earlier on this trip. It's one big pool with a few bridges around smaller parts, a fake cave, a little 'river', wooden boxes with white silica mud that you can scoop out and slather on your face, and a power plant in the distance. And a bunch of zombies slowly moving around the pool with blank looks on their white silica mud covered faces.
It was fun for a while and we explored every nook and cranny but it's really meant for just lounging in, not really doing anything. We stayed for about 1 1/2 hours then braved the locker rooms again. By that time it was filling up and getting crowded. We managed to make our way out and walked the long trail back to the car, lined with high lava rock walls.It was #5 of our Iceland pools and we all agreed that it was #5 in the ranking. Too expensive, too touristy, too crowded, too hyped, too much trouble to get to and had to book in advance. If it was the only pool we had gone to I'm sure we would've liked it more, but the other pools were niftier.
Back to our apartment then out to wander. It has been a pretty nice day but started to sprinkle after a while. We wandered up to the willy museum. WILLY museum. ar ar ar
So yea, it's a small museum dedicated to the willy. They have willies from lots of different animals in jars. The most impressive was from a sperm whale (I don't really need to comment on that, eh?). They also have some from humans but they looked pretty shriveled and funky. The funniest thing in there was a display from the 2006 Iceland Olympic hand ball team. They got a silver medal in Beijing. They have a case with silver molds of all the team members' members. X said that if they had gotten gold, they would've gotten gold molds of their willies. ar ar ar After that we just wandered around. I looked at wool sweaters but they're awfully itchy so I passed. I did get some wool mittens. We got ice cream. We wandered and shopped and learned that our little one really doesn't like to just wander around a town. He's ok with wandering if there's an eventual destination, but doesn't like aimless wandering.
Back to our apartment around 5pm, dinner, laundry and all that. We haven't packed yet...
So that's about it! Here's a brief summary of our opinions of Iceland.
- It's clean. Clean restrooms, clean accommodations, clean countryside, even the city is pretty clean.
- Cool people. I think they are slightly reserved but seem to be well educated and have a good sense of humor.
- Pretty expensive, but not everything is outrageous. Ice cream and dairy, coffee, fish at the store, all seem fairly reasonable.
- Easy to get around. Even though the traffic signs are in Icelandic, we've managed ok, and since everyone seems to be bilingual, it's really easy to communicate.
- Beautiful scenery!
- Erratic weather. Wind. Crazy wind.
Jul 28th, 2015, 05:19 PM
#50
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Day 14 - Sat, July 11 Reykjavik - KEF - home
Kolaportid weekend flea market
Harpa
home!
We were up early and I spent a few hours packing. I didn't think we had acquired much but it was much harder to get it all back in the luggage that I had expected! I sorta thought this might be an issue so the day before when we were out and about, I looked for a cheapy fold up duffel bag, or just a cheapy bag of some sort but couldn’t find one anywhere.
We loaded up the car and checked out of our apartment (that just meant leaving the keys and closing the door behind us) and headed off to look for the Kolaportid weekend flea market. We found it in a warehouse type building and ambled up and down the aisles. Lots of used clothes, books and misc stuff, so not really that interesting, except the food section on one end. We got some fairly cheap bakery goods (much cheaper than even the cheapy grocery stores we'd been do) and some more dried fish. Didn't take long to be done with the flea market, so we headed back to get the car and thought we'd go to a museum out by the airport.
On the way we passed a really cool building, a concert hall called Harpa. It's hard to describe, but the exterior is all glass that's angled in different directions so it reflects the light in interesting ways. We ditched the museum idea and went in instead. Way cool!!! They've done some really cool stuff with the glass exterior walls (4 floors high, I think) and it just looks neato on the inside. There are also gift shops and a cafe and it appeared to be a popular place to just wander around. We loved it!
Back towards the car we stopped at a bakery and had coffee, Y had some boring thing and X and I split a caramel topped sweet roll thing. Yum! On the way to the airport we filled up the car and washed it one last time. I love the free car washes at the gas stations.
Onto Sixt to return the car. I read a zillion bad reviews of Sixt before we went, and the car rental companies in general in Iceland, and how they try to cheat people and make them pay for a whole paint job for one little scratch, etc etc. I was nervous about turning the car in. We were using our cc that provides free zero deductible CDW insurance, so I really had nothing to worry about because even if they said we caused some damage, we wouldn't have to pay anything, but I really didn't want to mess with any drama about the car. When we got the car the clerk that checked us out was a jerk, and went on and on about how we needed to buy their (expensive) insurance because our cc wouldn't cover this and that (like how did he know??). The rental contract only showed existing damage in one small place, but the car had paint chips and scratches all over. I wrote that on the rental agreement and wanted him to print a new one but he just signed it and said that was enough, but then it was on me to keep that one copy that he had signed. Anyway, when we turned in the car, a gal walked out with me to check it, she looked around for less than a minute and that was it. No drama, no problems at all.
Drama in the airport though (sort of). There were 4 Icelandair flights leaving from the same tiny area at the same time, all packed flights to the US, so there were probably 1000 passengers in that general area. It was a ZOO. We didn't have seats together (because somehow, even though I planned this trip for over a year, I messed up and didn't request our seats for the return flight until a few weeks before when I noticed) but at the gate the guy got us 2 seats together, then on the plane it was like musical chairs anyway as all the families swapped seats so they could sit together.
Standard flight home. Icelandair takes care of the kiddies on board. X got a free hot meal and a goody bag with headphones so he watched movies on the seatback screen until he finally couldn't stay awake any longer. The people at Icelandair seem to have a good sense of humor. On the onboard menu they offer a variety of stuff and in most cases they just have a description of the food but in some cases they have some pretty silly stuff. Like for the skyr (yogurt), it says something like, "Boring flight? Try eating your yogurt with a fork. It will take longer and keep you entertained." ar ar ar
That's it! No idea where we'll go next. Any suggestions?
Kolaportid weekend flea market
Harpa
home!
We were up early and I spent a few hours packing. I didn't think we had acquired much but it was much harder to get it all back in the luggage that I had expected! I sorta thought this might be an issue so the day before when we were out and about, I looked for a cheapy fold up duffel bag, or just a cheapy bag of some sort but couldn’t find one anywhere.
We loaded up the car and checked out of our apartment (that just meant leaving the keys and closing the door behind us) and headed off to look for the Kolaportid weekend flea market. We found it in a warehouse type building and ambled up and down the aisles. Lots of used clothes, books and misc stuff, so not really that interesting, except the food section on one end. We got some fairly cheap bakery goods (much cheaper than even the cheapy grocery stores we'd been do) and some more dried fish. Didn't take long to be done with the flea market, so we headed back to get the car and thought we'd go to a museum out by the airport.
On the way we passed a really cool building, a concert hall called Harpa. It's hard to describe, but the exterior is all glass that's angled in different directions so it reflects the light in interesting ways. We ditched the museum idea and went in instead. Way cool!!! They've done some really cool stuff with the glass exterior walls (4 floors high, I think) and it just looks neato on the inside. There are also gift shops and a cafe and it appeared to be a popular place to just wander around. We loved it!
Back towards the car we stopped at a bakery and had coffee, Y had some boring thing
and X and I split a caramel topped sweet roll thing. Yum! On the way to the airport we filled up the car and washed it one last time. I love the free car washes at the gas stations. Onto Sixt to return the car. I read a zillion bad reviews of Sixt before we went, and the car rental companies in general in Iceland, and how they try to cheat people and make them pay for a whole paint job for one little scratch, etc etc. I was nervous about turning the car in. We were using our cc that provides free zero deductible CDW insurance, so I really had nothing to worry about because even if they said we caused some damage, we wouldn't have to pay anything, but I really didn't want to mess with any drama about the car. When we got the car the clerk that checked us out was a jerk, and went on and on about how we needed to buy their (expensive) insurance because our cc wouldn't cover this and that (like how did he know??). The rental contract only showed existing damage in one small place, but the car had paint chips and scratches all over. I wrote that on the rental agreement and wanted him to print a new one but he just signed it and said that was enough, but then it was on me to keep that one copy that he had signed. Anyway, when we turned in the car, a gal walked out with me to check it, she looked around for less than a minute and that was it. No drama, no problems at all.
Drama in the airport though (sort of). There were 4 Icelandair flights leaving from the same tiny area at the same time, all packed flights to the US, so there were probably 1000 passengers in that general area. It was a ZOO. We didn't have seats together (because somehow, even though I planned this trip for over a year, I messed up and didn't request our seats for the return flight until a few weeks before when I noticed) but at the gate the guy got us 2 seats together, then on the plane it was like musical chairs anyway as all the families swapped seats so they could sit together.
Standard flight home. Icelandair takes care of the kiddies on board. X got a free hot meal and a goody bag with headphones so he watched movies on the seatback screen until he finally couldn't stay awake any longer. The people at Icelandair seem to have a good sense of humor.
On the onboard menu they offer a variety of stuff and in most cases they just have a description of the food but in some cases they have some pretty silly stuff. Like for the skyr (yogurt), it says something like, "Boring flight? Try eating your yogurt with a fork. It will take longer and keep you entertained." ar ar ar That's it! No idea where we'll go next. Any suggestions?
Jul 29th, 2015, 12:49 PM
#51
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Thank you so much for the detail... I am in the beginning stages of planning for next year - it will be myself, Hubby and 13 year old son... so it was great to hear what worked for you. Would you mind sharing your total budget for lodging? I am trying to determine whether we will go with the Campervan or hotels/ cabins and the trip you took looks similar to the lodging we would choose. (I'm trying to compare the cost of car+hotel to campervan and I cannot easily find costs of lodging online)
Jul 30th, 2015, 08:05 AM
#52
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Did you look at booking.com and tripadvisor? The cost depends on the exchange rate when payment is due. I paid for some of ours months in advance, then the dollar got stronger, and when I paid the rest, it was cheaper.
Jul 30th, 2015, 09:26 AM
#53
Terrific report, Tally; i picked out a few bits along the way to add my two penn'oth:
<<The herring museum is in 3 buildings along the water. One is the old bunkhouse and it still has things in it from the workers like they just up and split and let half their stuff behind.>>
we have a similar museum in cornwall but ours is a tin mine, left just as it was when the last miners clocked off for the last time. Don't know which one came first.
<<Britain was fishing for cod too close to Iceland, Iceland expanded their water boundaries, Britain didn't honor them, Iceland rammed their ships with their ice cutter coast guard ship, Britain scoffed, they signed a treaty. Repeat 2 more times>>
I don't think that that is the official British version - for the sake of "balance" this more or less sums up the UK received wisdom about the subject:
http://britishseafishing.co.uk/the-cod-wars/
<<My turn came and I tried to order using the Icelandic words for the flavors and the gal just stared at me. Said it again in English and she smiled happily and talked to me the same exact way an ice cream gal at home would. They must start teaching them English when they're babies>>
I was really impressed too by the English/german/french I heard Icelanders speaking until I talked to some of them and discovered that they were in fact English/German/French people working in Iceland, some of whom spoke virtually no icelandic at all - that apparently was not a drawback! That's not to say that you're not right about many Icelanders speaking excellent english, but quite a few people speaking excellent english are in fact--english.
I envy you having made your way "all the way round" - perhaps we'll be back there one day and get to the other side.
<<The herring museum is in 3 buildings along the water. One is the old bunkhouse and it still has things in it from the workers like they just up and split and let half their stuff behind.>>
we have a similar museum in cornwall but ours is a tin mine, left just as it was when the last miners clocked off for the last time. Don't know which one came first.
<<Britain was fishing for cod too close to Iceland, Iceland expanded their water boundaries, Britain didn't honor them, Iceland rammed their ships with their ice cutter coast guard ship, Britain scoffed, they signed a treaty. Repeat 2 more times>>
I don't think that that is the official British version - for the sake of "balance" this more or less sums up the UK received wisdom about the subject:
http://britishseafishing.co.uk/the-cod-wars/
<<My turn came and I tried to order using the Icelandic words for the flavors and the gal just stared at me. Said it again in English and she smiled happily and talked to me the same exact way an ice cream gal at home would.
They must start teaching them English when they're babies>>I was really impressed too by the English/german/french I heard Icelanders speaking until I talked to some of them and discovered that they were in fact English/German/French people working in Iceland, some of whom spoke virtually no icelandic at all - that apparently was not a drawback! That's not to say that you're not right about many Icelanders speaking excellent english, but quite a few people speaking excellent english are in fact--english.
I envy you having made your way "all the way round" - perhaps we'll be back there one day and get to the other side.
Jul 30th, 2015, 09:38 AM
#54
Tally - you ask about places to go next - when we had kids about the age of your son, we toured France, went to Majorca, spent a week on Lake Garda, as well as taking seaside holidays in north Devon [and the odd trip to Florida to do Disney et al].
Aug 3rd, 2015, 08:37 AM
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Here's a bit more info about driving and the rent car. We had a Chevy Trax, fairly small (but not the smallest) 2WD, 4 door. We drove 2564 km (1593 miles) and spent 40150 ISK on gas ($302 at the current exchange rate). The price per liter for regular gas was about 225 ISK. Car rental with Sixt, booked months in advance, was about 820 euros for 2 weeks which included a GPS, but didn't include any extra insurance (we used our credit card's insurance).
Aug 4th, 2015, 12:37 PM
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Tally - really enjoyed your report! Very informative and entertaining. Thank you.
I was in Reykjavik for only 2 days last week and loved it. I was very interested in reading about your experience at Blue Lagoon. I considered going but decided against it mostly for the cost and based some of the reviews I read on trip advisor. I didn't miss not going.
I was in Reykjavik for only 2 days last week and loved it. I was very interested in reading about your experience at Blue Lagoon. I considered going but decided against it mostly for the cost and based some of the reviews I read on trip advisor. I didn't miss not going.
