Iceland - Our Itinerary Part 1

After posting many photos grouped by themes, I've decided to post our 12-day itinerary around Iceland. 

Before I begin, I must emphasize that Iceland is very expensive.  The hotels, the food, the gas, everything.  So if I refer to value for the price, it stands that "the price" is always way high!  But when I comment on good value or service and price, I'm speaking relatively with prices overall in Iceland.

We went around Iceland along Route 1 (or Ring Road because it does a ring around the island) in a counter-clockwise direction.  I believe it is more popular to drive clockwise but we decided otherwise.  You tend to see the same travellers again and again as they are following the same general direction as you are and staying in nearby places.  That was part of the fun!  We did not complete the "ring", however, on the western side because we chose to drive through the "highlands" on Route F35 through the middle of the island between two glaciers Langjokull and Hofsjokull.

Reykjavik

We started in Reykjavik because Nick had a conference for work (which is the reason we decided to make a vacation out of it).  We arrived at midnight on June 18th (or you could say the wee hours of the morning on June 19th) and made our way to the Grand Hotel where most of Nick's co-workers were staying.  The meetings were being held at the Hilton (where Tom Cruise was also staying while filming Oblivion).

photo from their website

The Grand Hotel (which is across the street from the Hilton) is the largest hotel in Iceland (having the most rooms).  The breakfast buffet was complete (eggs-scrambled & hard boiled, sausages, bacon, cold meats, smoked salmon, breads, cheeses, fruits, cereals, waffles, juices, coffee, etc.).  The supper buffet was also good and complete (salmon, roast horse, lamb, potatoes, vegetables, salads, soup, dessert).  And it was, of course, expensive.  Needless to say it was extremely comfortable but I did find it a little far from the main part of town.  You could walk in town along the shoreline, but it did take about 20 minutes which could be inconvenient if it rained.

photo from their website (our room was just to the right of the N in GRAND!)

There is a path along the shoreline, which is where I snapped these photos of the Sun Voyager sculpture,

the skyline,

as well as the smoking mountain across the way.  It reminded me of Arenal Volcano when we stayed in Costa Rica, which was smoking a little the whole time.

Here is a view of Reykjavik harbor from Nick's Company whale watching tour. 

And they grabbed a bite at the most popular restaurant in Iceland...a hot dog stand! 

While Nick was working I was exploring Reykjavik as you can see from my post - Evening walk around Reykjavik.  I also went on a day tour around the Golden Circle (Geysir, Gulfoss, Thingvellir, etc.) which we also did together afterward.  And I also went to the Blue Lagoon which was the subject of a previous post.

We visited a little cafe called Loki to try some local foods (featured in my previous post about food).  It's a must while in Reykjavik.  It's right across the street from Halgrimm's Church. 

 View of the church from inside Loki's:

 As we left Reykjavik on the afternoon of Nick's last meeting day, we drove to the tip of the peninsula just outside the city.  There's a little island called Grotta that has a causeway at low tide and that is separated from the main land at high tide when the water covers the causeway.  You can get stranded on the island if you aren't careful.  There is a little lighthouse on the island.  Grotta has more than 100 different species of birds including the eiderduck and the tern. The island is restricted as a natural reserve.  We were not allowed to go as it was nesting season. 

We drove out of Reykjavik towards the east, stopping in the town of Hveragerdi (hot springs garden).

This area is full of hot houses where they grow tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and many other vegetables.  It is an active geothermic area with fumaroles, boiling mud holes and hot springs all over the town.  The heat is used for the hot houses so they can grow vegetables all year round.  Iceland is self-sufficient in that way.

You don't see many flowers in Iceland, other than Lupines.  So I snapped a pic of these daffodils planted in a window box with a bee pollenating.  The bees are imported by the hot house keepers to pollenate the vegetable plants.  They fly freely inside the hot house.  This one got free!

There is a Geothermal Park in the middle of the town where you can boil eggs right in the hot streams!

We took a quick walk around but it was raining and the park was just closing as we left, so no boiled eggs for us!

We drove through the town of Selfoss.  Our first stop was Hotel Hvolsvollur in the town of the same name in South Iceland.  The thing that struck me about this place was the friendly staff.  The clerk suggested what to do the next day (see my post Journey versus Destination).  The rooms were adequate, good value for the price.  Although it did have a 1970's or 1980's feel to it (which means it could use a little renovating).  We had the buffet supper which was going to turn out to be similar no matter where you ate:  roast lamb, salmon, roast horse, skyr for dessert...  And the breakfast buffet was similar to what we got throughout Iceland. 

Hotel Hvolsvollur - photo from their website

To be continued in the next post Iceland - Our Itinerary Part 2