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

Animals we saw in Iceland

The animals most seen in Iceland are definitely sheep.  Sheep, sheep and still more sheep.  It's a bit like the waterfalls, after a while there are so many they become part of the scenery.  I've already posted a photo of the first sheep we came across that was in the middle of the road.  That happened at least 5 times during our travels around Iceland.

Couldn't pass up taking a photo of this little lamb with his little friend.  This is at the farm in Modrudalur.

The next most common animal to see along the way are the Icelandic horses.  The ones in these photos are in pens and were part of a horse show I saw.  But the horses, like the sheep, are found grazing everywhere across the plains in Iceland, especially in the farms along South Iceland and North Iceland, where they are bred.  Horses were first brought to Iceland from Norway with the settlers.  They have been isolated for more than 1000 years and so are not found anywhere else in the world (except if brought out of Iceland).  Once a horse leaves Iceland for any reason, it will never be allowed back in.  Therefore, the breed is pure.  They are small but powerful work horses.  They have a unique gait as you can see in the video.

Whales can basically be seen all around Iceland.  Here are minke whales just outside of Reykjavik and humpback whales in the bay near Husavik. 

Minke whale

Minke whale

Humpback right up next to the boat - cannot get any closer.

Humpback whale

Humpback

Humpback tail

Humpback waving his fluke

There are so many bird species in Iceland that birdwatchers can be kept very busy.  We are not avid birdwatchers, however we did see many different species of birds along the way.  We did see a short-eared owl in full flight in Northeastern Iceland in the Highlands.  How do I know what species it was, I researched owls in Iceland and found there are only 2 species, this one and the Snowy owl which is extremely rare.  This one definitely had brown on it so I deduced it was the short-eared.  I did not take the camera out to film or photograph it because I knew that if I looked away, I would miss a once-in-a-lifetime vision.  So trust me when I say that it was very graceful and a wonderful sight indeed!

A puffin bobbing in the water

A puffin in flight - they have short little wings and look kind of awkward when they fly.

A fulmar (I think, I looked it up)

Fulmars, unlike the puffins, soar over the ocean very gracefully.

Photo of the fulmar was taken from the top of a cliff on the western side of Öxarfjörður fjord.

I've no idea what kind of little bird this is, but he posed for me.

He was in the little forested area called Hofdi, around Lake Myvatn.

Some ducks in Lake Myvatn

Architecture in Iceland

I was surprised to see that the architecture in Iceland has a distinctly modern feel to it.  Even some of the sculptures are very modern.  We've taken some photos of examples of the architecture all around Iceland just to give a hint of the "modern" feel of the country despite its rich and long history.

View from Grand Hotel room in Reykjavik (you can see Hallgrimsskirkja steeple in the distance).

Hallgrimsskirkja (Hallgrim's Church)

Street in Reykjavik

Street in Reykjavik looking towards Mt. Esja.

Rainbow Tower at Keflavik Airport.

New Harpa Conference Center at Reykjavik Harbor

View from inside Harpa

Building in Akureyri (unsure what it houses but I found it interesting).

The Church in Akureyri (Akureyrarkirkja)

These 2 statues are by Jon Gunnar Arnason.  The first is Solfar (Sun Voyager) in Reykjavik, the second is in Akureyri but I don't know what its name is.

Iceland's population started growing after its independence from Denmark in 1944.  Prior to that time, they lived mostly in sod houses which are rapidly consumed by the land and must be rebuilt every 20 or so years.  Because there are relatively few trees in Iceland (less than 1% of Iceland is forested), there was, and is, not an abundance of wood with which to build.

These sod buildings are at a farm in Modrudalur Northeast Iceland.  The farm settlement provides accommodation (guesthouse) and has kept up the old sod building allure as a tourist attraction.

Notwithstanding the sod buildings, Modrudalur has a modern-looking little church too.

There used to be trees in Iceland when it was first settled in the 900s.  However they used wood to build their homes and ships, so Iceland was deforested before they knew it.  Seeing as it takes longer for trees to grow in the Icelandic climate, it never recovered its forests.  Just now the government is making efforts to reforest.  One of our hotels was in a "forest area" (Hallormsstadaskogur in East Iceland) and it is clear that the trees were planted.  They are experimenting with various types of tree species.

The forest is along the eastern shore of Lake Lagarfljót.

When you tour Europe, you see many gothic churches and cathedrals, gilt and ornate.  In Iceland, the oldest church we saw was built in 1859 at Thingvellir.  The one in Husavik is the second oldest, built in 1907.

The church at Thingvellir (1859)

The church at Husavik (1907) notice the mountain in the background is bluish, that's the lupins in bloom.