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&...8&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.