Iceland Land of fire and ice
Location: Iceland just south of the Arctic Circle in the North Sea
How I came to visit Iceland; it wasn t even on my radar.
or A funny thing happened on our way to London.
Our travel agent mentioned that Iceland Air offered a good price for flight from Orlando to London. We looked into Iceland Air and discovered an interesting bonus.
Since the 1960s, IcelandAir has encouraged passengers to make the most of their time by enjoying an IcelandAir Stopover for up to seven nights at no additional airfare.
So we said, We can add a trip to Iceland to our itinerary? What the heck, let s do a four day Stopover! Our Stopover was September 22-26, 2016
Language: Icelander s native tongue is Icelandic, but most Icelanders also speak perfect English.
The Flight
We flew out of Orlando at 7pm. When the pilot started speaking in Icelandic, we knew We were not in Kansas anymore. Announcements were made in Icelandic first and then in English.
Iceland Air flight attendants and new paint scheme for their planes.
Aurora LED lights in cabin of Iceland Air jets.
The trip from Orlando to Keflavik, Iceland was very casual. Icelanders are very friendly. Most people on the plane were flying back home after vacationing in Florida. The flight attendants were friendly and helpful. Time in the air was seven hours.
Arrival in Keflavik The temperature was in the high 40s and drizzle when we arrived in Iceland at 6am their time (2am EST). We didn t get any sleep on the plane.
Iceland Air s hub Keflavik Airport Iceland has some modern-style architecture
The Keflavik airport is 30 miles from Reykjavik (about 45 minutes)
Iceland is an expensive place to visit, as are most islands. (Like Hawaii, the Caribbean, and the UK).
Rental car
Our diesel Hyundai with all-wheel drive and automatic transmission. Cost was almost 800USD for four days with full insurance. All-wheel drive came in handy a couple of times. Automatic transmission vehicles in Europe are uncommon because of fuel cost. Fuel was about $8 a gallon.
We couldn t check into our hotel until afternoon, so after we got our rental car, we headed to Blue Lagoon for to soak in their gigantic natural hot tub.
Hot tubbing Etiquette Humorous, but a bit risqué you ve been warned.
Blue Lagoon A expansive geothermal hot tub (known locally as a hot pot ). Expensive, but worth doing once.
Blue Lagoon promotional video from their website:http://www.bluelagoon.com
Currency Iceland s currency is the Iceland Kronar. All major credit cards were welcome.
Icelandic Kronar bills. We like to use cash for spending money. We went to banks In Reykjavik and withdrew Kronars from the bank s ATM machine using our US debit card. Banks are a safe location to withdraw money and offer a good exchange rate.
Iceland s currency is the Icelandic Kronar (abbreviation: ISK) A thousand Kronar is worth just under 10 USD. Last September a thousand Kronar was worth about 8 USD, so Iceland is even more expensive to visit this year because the US dollar has weakened.
A medium priced meal at Old Iceland Restaurant 5200 ISK= 49 USD
Lodging
Hotel Odinsve Our hotel in Reykjavik in the City Center (in the trendy old section of the city).
The view from the cafe window of Hotel Odinsve We enjoyed a Scandinavian-style breakfast buffet daily.
Hotel Odinsve The view from our room at sunrise.
Hallgrímskirkja is Iceland s largest church at 73 m tall and was the tallest building until recently when Iceland s first "sky scraper" was built. The church stands on a hill, Skólavörðuholt, which is situated in the center of the city and is visible from all over Reykjavík and surrounding areas, making it a great landmark.
The view of Reykjavik from the top of Hallgrímskirkja Our hotel location is indicated by the arrow.
Weather (its colder in New England)
Fahrenheit
Wind The wind always blows in Iceland and sometimes it blows very hard.
Average wind speed by month
The wind bends the grass at a memorial to traffic deaths on a section of the *Ring Road. *The Ring Road goes along the entire coast of Iceland making a ring around the island.
The Power of Iceland
Driving in Iceland Icelanders drive on the right-hand side of the road and they drive very fast.there are lots of roundabouts, Iceland s traffic signs are (mostly) intuitive, they use yield signs (very few stop signs), and very few cops. I studied traffic signs and stop light patterns online before our trip. Iceland uses the metric system, so speed limits are in kilometer per hour.
Driving video
We purchased a new Garmin before our trip that has both North America and European maps. The Garmin worked well in Reykjavik, but not so well in the outlying areas. It was fun listening the Garmin try to pronounce Icelandic names. It couldn t do it any better than we could!
Easy to understand traffic signs
Icelanders love big tires on their trucks and SUVs. The large tired truck fill their entire side of the road. The large tires allow the trucks to go off-road in the interior, through snow, and mud.
Outside Reykjavik, the roads quickly become very narrow with few places to pull over to take photos. I drove by more photo ops than I could count because there was no safe place to pull off the road.
A long one-lane bridge We drove across this bridge.
Day 1 Reykjavik. We walked around the downtown area and looked at the stores, shops, and restaurants. We got turned around, but found our way back to our hotel eventually.
No trip to Reykjavik would be complete with eating at the world famous Baejarins Beztu Pylsur hot dog stand. Made from lamb with pork and beef, topped with ketchup, lightly spiced dark mustard, remoulade (a mayonnaise with gherkins and capers), crunchy fried, and raw onions.
Old bicycles are painted and attached to posts with hinges to close streets to motor vehicle traffic.
A Reykjavik coffee shop
Day 2 South Coast route: Reykjavik to Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon.
Steam vents were visible in many places in the Iceland countryside.
Iceland has varied landscape. In addition to glaciers and volcanos, it also has vast areas of farmland.
Breath-taking scenery
Hayfield. Remember what I said about the wind? Look at the piece of plastic on the wire across the road.
Seljalandsfoss Most major attractions are right bedside the road with ample parking and port-ajohns available. Bring a rain suit. You re gonna need it.
Tourists walk behind Seljalandsfoss
Behind Seljalandsfoss How many waterfalls can you walk behind? Iceland has few safety rails and no attendants at what could be very dangerous natural features. Use your best judgement as to what you can and can t do physically.
Moss -covered lava rocks These lava fields went on for miles and off into the horizon.
Sheep graze on a mountainside Sheep are seen practically everywhere there is grazing available in the countryside.
A roadside glacier! How easy is that? I was standing only a few feet off the road when I shot this pano.
Hali Hotel Our lodgings at the end of our easterly drive along the south coast of Iceland. We drove 400km (250 miles). Note that the side of the building looks like books on a shelf.
Hali Hotel has several buildings. This was our building. Our room was the one with three windows (in the middle of the building) overlooking the North Sea.
Day Three South Coast route: Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon to Reykjavik
Morning at Hali Hotel A big rain storm with high winds blew in overnight creating this flat light.
When we arrived at Ice Beach after a long day on the road, the tide was out and there were dozens of pieces of ice on the black sand beach. I had visions of shooting a photo like this one the next morning, but mother nature foiled my plans.
The high tide and stormy North Sea washed all the ice pieces off the beach overnight. The low tide didn t allow the surf to reach the small pieces the high tide left behind. A photographer is at the mercy of Mother Nature, especially on a whirlwind trip in an exotic location.
With the large pieces of ice washed out to sea, I was left with shards of ice to photograph.
A seagull flies over an iceberg at Glacier Lagoon in Jökulsárlón
The weather was terrible the morning I shot this image of Glacier Lagoon. Glacier Lagoon is accessed by a parking lot and is right across the road from Ice Beach. The icebergs pass under a bridge and end up on the beach.
It was a dark and stormy day at Glacier Lagoon. The rain suits we brought came in handy.
Lava fields covered with moss stretch on for miles ahead and to the mountains on one side and the North Sea on the other side.
A face in the moss.
Seems like there was a rainbow around every corner in Iceland. The weather was very unsettled on Day 3 with alternating showers and sunshine.
This is Laufskálavarða - the Cairn of Laufskálar. Traditionally everybody passing by Laufskálavarða for the first time should add a stone to a cairn at Laufskálavarða for good fortune on their journey through this dangerous area. These stone cairns have piled up for the past millennia.
The majority of Icelanders believe in Elves. In a land as enchanting as Iceland, I understand why. This is an elf portrait of my wife and I the Cairn of Laufskálar
These are basalt rock stacks battered by the sea. There is no landmass between here and Antarctica and the Atlantic rollers can attack with full force. According to folklore, they are former trolls who tried to drag their boats out to sea only to be caught by the rising dawn. The sea around them is rather wild and stormy, so travelers will not be surprised to discover a monument to the memory of drowned seamen on the beach.
Vik church
Sea stacks in Vik
Skogafoss. Fifty feet wide wide and 200 feet tall. Shot with an Olympus M5 MkII on a tripod with a Lee Little Stopper 100mm sheet ND filter. ISO 200, 12-40 Pro lens at 40mm, 1/40 sec at f/22.
Day Four The Golden Circle (300km or 190 miles)
Þingvellir National Park
Þingvellir means meeting field in Icelandic. This general area or Þingvellir National Park was the site of history s first parliament.
Fall colors in Þingvellir National Park
Mars like landscape in Iceland s interior.
In Þingvellir National Park the North American (left) and European ( right) tectonic plates are separating. You can walk through the rift between the plates.
A waterfall on the North American side spills into the rift between the tectonic plates.
The river from the North American side flows through the rift between the tectonic plates.
Icelandic horses. A special breed for a harsh climate. They are beautiful animals. A small herd of these horses running is a magnificent sight.
A short video of Icelandic horses. Remember I said the wind always blows in Iceland?
A short narrow, one-lane bridge
I had to stand on a short, narrow, one-lane bridge to get this image. I had to stand on the curbing and lean against the guard rail to keep my balance as cars slowly passed only a foot or so away.
Geysir The original
Strokkur geysir
Run off from Geysir. Even though there are signs and the run off is roped off, every few minutes someone gets their finger tip scalded by testing the temperature of the water. And, no, I wasn t one of them but I briefly thought about it.
Little Geysir
Gullfoss
Gullfoss is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Iceland. As one first approaches the falls, the edge is obscured from view, so that it appears that the river simply vanishes into the earth.
Before we went to Iceland I bought two ebook that helped me decide where to go and what to see, as well as directions and suggestions for photo ops.
Here is a free Photo Guide to Iceland ebook. Available at: https:// www.icelandontheweb.com/ articles-on-iceland/travelinfo/photo-guide-to-iceland
This ebook is available for $19.95 fromhttp:// www.naturephotoguides.com/e-books/iceland/
The End