August 4, 2022 – August 10, 2022
8/4/2022
Today was a fairly mellow day for us in northern Iceland. We were able to check out of our room at 11, so we enjoyed a rather late breakfast and got to sleep in a little bit. Most of our lodging has included breakfast, and the food (and coffee) have been good, though they don’t vary too much. We’re particularly enjoyed the jams with toast, as well as the variety of things that are on most of the menus. We then drove a short way to the Godafoss waterfall. When we got there, we were a bit surprised to see that it was quite crowded. We walked the short distance after parking, took a few pictures, and continued on our way. We decided to drive quite a ways today before eating, since we knew we were staying out of town on the coast, and could not easily go anywhere for dinner. We found a nice little local place to have fish and chips in Hofstadhir, a small fishing village that had a lot of charm. The food was good – it has been hard to go wrong with fish and chips in Iceland. Many places have fish and chips, or baked cod, on their menus.
After leaving Hofstadhir, we had to go through several long tunnels. As it turned out, once of the 4 km tunnels was one-way, and there was quite a bit of traffic! Every few hundred yards, there were turn-outs for cars going “our way” to turn out and get out of the way of oncoming traffic. Not knowing exactly how that worked was definitely a bit nerve wracking. But… we survived, and had a great drive along the sea with the mountains in nearby view. Iceland is most definitely mountainous and rugged – more so than I thought it would be.
After driving quite a distance in the remote country, we made it to our “hotel”, which turned out to be a house with four rooms. The location was quite spectacular – located yards from the ocean, down a winding dirt road several miles long. It had a very remote and fairy-tale like feel to it. We went for a walk on the beach where there were lots of birds, and spent several hours with a couple from Richmond VA and a man from Italy (who lives across the lake from George Clooney) in the common dining room / living room area of the house. We had a great time, and it was midnight before we knew it. With the very long days of light, it’s easy for time to creep by, and it can be late before you know it!
8/5/2022
Today saw us driving a fair distance again to a new place to stay. We saw some very pretty country in the northern part of Iceland, as we continued to make our way counter-clockwise around the “Ring Road”. We have been impressed with how clean the country is, and how safe it feels. We see next to no trash by the roads, and bikes are routinely left unlocked by their owners in front of shops and houses. We’ve been impressed by the constant beauty of the countryside as we drive along, typically at 90 km/h (about 55 mph). Many bridges are one-way, which requires slowing down and yielding to oncoming traffic. Fortunately, there’s not much traffic!
Today’s main event was… whale watching! We had good weather, and were finally able to make it out to see if we’d see anything. We had a good guide, and sure enough…. we had not been on the boat for long when she thought she spotted a whale. We traveled around the fjord, and were able to easily spot at least 5 or 6 whales – several of which we got close to and followed for a bit. They are quite the magnificent animal. We saw humpback whales, and when they bring their tail up in the air, it means that they’re going to dive. Most dives last at least 5 minutes, which leaves one to patiently wait until they re-appear (which can be some distance away). There were about 25 people on our boat, and we had a good time being out with the whales for several hours. It was definitely a good tour, with plenty to see! We would definitely do this again.
Our hotel for the day had a good reputation for a large and very warm outdoor pool to enjoy. When we arrived at the hotel, I went for a 4 mile run up a dirt road, and when I got back we decided it was time for either some time in a hot tub, or in the pool. We decided to drive up the road to check out some hot tubs right next to the ocean, but when we got there, they were busy. So…. we headed back to our hotel, got our suits on, and went to the pool. It was a nice big pool (roughly Olympic sized or even bigger) with few people in it. We spent some time in the pool, but also some time in a natural hot pot right next to it. The hot pot was too hot for me, so I spent most my time in the pool. Mona did the same, though she managed the hot pot a bit longer than me! After spending the better part of an hour swimming, we went back to our room and relaxed. The “hotel” felt more like a dorm, with shared bathrooms and some common areas for eating and just lounging about.
8/6/2022
This morning we got a quick breakfast at the hotel and were on our way. As with most hotels we have stayed in, breakfast was included, and was served buffet style. We typically eat a pretty hearty breakfast, largely snacks for lunch, and then eat a full meal at dinner in the evening. After breakfast was done, we headed to the western fjords to see everything they had to offer. We again found some amazing beauty, with hills of green, mountains of lava, and ocean fjords that looked almost like glass, as we did not have any wind to deal with. We made it to a number of waterfalls in the afternoon, and decided to hike into at least the closest of the falls Valagil (2km). Of course, as we got moving, we decided to do the further falls as well, and ended up covering over five miles and 1,000 feet of elevation by the time it was all done. The scenery is truly amazing – lots of waterfalls, very green hills and mountain sides, grazing sheep, and streams fed from nearby snow still on high slopes. We thoroughly enjoyed our hike, only encountering one other couple on the hike. I’ve also really enjoyed the remote feel that so much of Iceland provides. You really do feel like you’re in a remote and isolated part of the world when you venture out on these more difficult and lengthy hikes! That evening, we checked into our hotel, and found a nice place to have a burger and fries. As I mentioned earlier, the food has been good (but certainly not cheap), and we’ve enjoyed having fish (mostly cod) on many occasions, but also the occasional burger, etc at some of the places we’ve eaten at.
8/7/2022
Sunday was going to be a day of Mountain Biking in the western fjords, but alas… the weather thwarted us. We woke up to cloudy, rainy, and chilly weather – in the low 50’s with fairly constant rain. As a result, we decided to check out some back roads, and did some driving on roads not traveled as much. Getting off the primary roads is easy, particularly as we had a four wheel drive, and google maps does a pretty good job at identifying dirt and gravel roads. For the most part, you can get internet access across Iceland as well, which makes it easier to find attractions, restaurants, etc.
After doing some backroad driving we made our way to the Dynjandi waterfall, which was truly spectacular. It wasn’t very busy (which was nice), and you could easily walk up to smaller falls, and then the main fall itself. The water was perfectly fanned out across rock, and came tumbling down the rocks generating a lot of white water and mist. Pictures likely won’t completely capture the beauty, but it really was well worth the time seeing it – even though we’ve now seen – literally – hundreds of waterfalls.
After spending an hour at the waterfall, we had a quick lunch in the car, and then continued on our way to our next hotel in the western fjords. The roads in this area have been very scenic, but they can be slow, and even a bit treacherous in places! Even the main roads had miles and miles of gravel / dirt, sometimes running right along a cliff edge leading directly to the ocean far below. It’s very beautiful, but you can’t expect to go too far too quickly when in this part of the country.
Before checking into our hotel, we went to a free hot pot about 20 minutes away. The temps were great, and you could look right out over the ocean as you soaked. After spending 45 minutes there, we went back to the hotel, cleaned up, and then enjoyed another excellent dinner of fish and chips at pretty much the only restaurant in the town of roughly 150 people. The days are long here in the summer, meaning that you have plenty of time to explore and do whatever outside before you can’t see. We’ve continued to be impressed by this part of the island, and if we had to choose between the more popular “ring road” and just coming up in this area, we’d probably pick coming up here. Tons of scenery, nice small towns with little traffic and no crowds, things to do (e.g., biking, hot tubbing, hiking all over), and the hotel we stayed in was really a nice welcoming place.
8/8/2022
Today was another cold and rainy Iceland day. We decided to adjust our plans a bit and take a 2 hour ferry ride over to a town closer to our ultimate return point (the capital), in hopes of visiting a national park where the weather might have been a bit better. Mona was able to get our plans changed, and we had a really enjoyable ferry ride for several hours (note that getting on and off the ferry was very smooth – no passports required, etc. riding the ferry saved us a little over an hour’s driving time as well). Alas, we made it over, started our drive into the national park, and the rain just would not relent. We drove around to see a few sights, and just decided to check into our hotel a bit early and look around town.
We stayed in a hotel that used to be part of a hospital (but had been done up nicely) and offered us nice views and a central location in town. We were able to make reservations for a small restaurant that got great reviews, and had a great dinner trying out their “tasting” menu. We enjoyed our time there, and had a quiet night at the hotel.
8/9/2022
Our plan for our final full day in Iceland was a full one: we wanted to visit the volcano that erupted while we were here (this made headlines across the world), needed to get a little shopping done, and wanted to visit a large hot tubbing venue just outside the capital (Sky Lagoon). We hadn’t gone far, and learned that the hike into the volcano was once again closed for the day due to weather. With weather once again thwarting some of our plans, we spent a little extra time shopping in the capital and having lunch. This also gave us plenty of time to go soak in the hot tubs, which for me included some time in a cold pot (one of the pools was 50 degree (F) water, so was quite brisk to say the least). After our time in the hot springs, we found another place to have our final fish dinner in Iceland, and also got checked into a hotel that was close to the airport.
Weather can play a big role in what you can (and can’t) do here in Iceland. We sure are glad for the dry and relatively warm days we had when we first got here! Otherwise, it would be harder to do many of things the island has to offer. We have seen people out bike packing, and staying in tents, and it looks pretty rough!
8/10/2022
Wednesday was a big travel day for us. We got up early and got our rental car returned without any problems. We had a little time to kill in the Iceland International Airport, and before long it was time for our long(ish) trip home. The flight was full, which wasn’t a surprise (our flight out was as well). We had a good flight, though a guy behind us was coughing and sneezing the entire flight – we were pretty sure we’d likely have COVID after listening to him the entire distance.
We made it back to JFK without any problems, retrieved our luggage, and caught an Uber back to my cousins place in New Jersey. We had a quick dinner with Karen and Booker, and then decided to get to our campground before it got too dark. We needed some groceries, and ended up in a suburb in New Jersey that was more foreign than anything we’d seen in Iceland – it was a neighborhood comprised almost entirely of Hasidic Jews – street signs were in Hebrew, and only formal wear was seen on men, women, and the kids. It was like being in a suburb of Jerusalem, and we definitely stuck out! Thankfully, they had a few grocery items that we needed, and we made our way to the campground. After a long flight, we were ready to be back “home” and to get some sleep!
