Iceland

Wednesday 25 October - Zurich to Iceland 

Iceland felt colder than the 10 degrees!

Iceland up on the left 

We caught the shuttle bus to Iceland car hire where we'd booked a 4X4.

Ok, that's not ours. It's a Mitsubishi 😄

It's this (taken next morning)

Driving on the right, we headed for Vik which is about 3 hours from the airport. There was a lovely sunset.

The landscape is so foreign here!  Volcanic rocky ground with a spongy moss like plant growing on it.

After about 20 minutes we stopped at Blue Lagoon (at the hotel) to have a quick look

From inside the hotel. It was beautiful.

I think the main part must be further from where we walked, but the pools we saw looked beautiful (with some industrial plant next door 😃)

Evelyn found a local radio station on her phone and we drove on with the ocean on our right and visible a lot of the way. Such a barren landscape - no trees.

The moon was huge and beautiful - my phone can't do it justice.

And then zoomed in 

There were a lot more cars on the road than we expected which wasn't fun once it was dark with headlights on us and light rain. We arrived about 8:30 at our guest house which is lovely. 

There seem to be lots of "Christmas"lights in Iceland.

Thursday 26 October - Vic 

It only gets light just before 9 o clock 

Had a good breakfast at our guest house.

Breakfast 

View from our guesthouse 

Our guest house from the church 

I recently watched the series called Katla which was set in Vik. While I only realised this later I thought the church looked like the one in the series although all the churches in Iceland look similar.

Our first stop was black beach.

The sand is really black

The wind was howling and it was freezing cold.

Evelyn loaded the app on her phone to pay for parking but we hadn't worked out how to use it yet. Look how expensive it is here!

We passed another church.

Some pics taken while driving. Iceland is so dramatic. Truly beautiful.

We went to see the Sólheimajokull glacier. Truly spectacular.

There were quite a few groups walking up the glacier.

The water in front of the glacier had beautiful ice Berg's floating in it 

Close by was the Sólheimasandur plane wreck. I would have liked to walk the 3.5 km there (and then back again) but we were worried about time, so caught the bus (R400 - ouch).

Looked like Ayres rock on the way.

Our driver had very wild hair and a bouncy chair over the rough road. We had a giggle about it because an Asian lady in our Airbnb was laughing in the morning while she told us she didn't know why she brothered to blow dry her hair here (which was beautifully straight). We have call this wild hair the Icelandic hair 😀

He told me that in 1973 the Americans were flying over the glacier when the pilot needed to change over to his second fuel tank. It was broken and wouldn't swap over so they had no fuel and crash landed just before the sea. I believe everyone survived the crash.

And zoom in...

 

I was glad when the bus returned for us and we could get out of the cold wind.

Next up was Skógafoss waterfall.

There was a pathway next up the falls and then up the river. I wished I had more time to walk further up river.

I just love the furry sheep here. Grazing next to the path up to the top of the waterfall.

Evelyn wanted to see the waterfall the you can walk behind, and driving there we saw these lovely houses. Can you see them?

Broken down house next to them.

Some sheep on the side of a hill.

Snow on the mountains.

Horses on the side of a hill.

Whatever!

The landscape is so lovely.  Smaller waterfall.

And the beautiful cows.

We found the waterfall.

Driving to Reykjavik we saw steam coming out the ground and went to investigate. Wow! It was crazy. Boiling water and mud with the sulphur smell. We were fascinated.

Those eyes!

Reykjavik was bigger than we expected. We found our Airbnb without problem (Aurora house) and have a room right next to the big church.

View from our bedroom window.

We relaxed a while then went out to have a glass of wine.

Iceland hairstyle chair 😄

Punk museum 

Lovely restaurant where we had our drinks. The one barman was from Italy.

Friday 27 October - Reykjavik

Breakfast at our guest house had THE nicest freshly made bread. I ate too much!

We heard out and I was again enthralled by the landscape.

We visited Kerid crater, one of the few attractions you have to pay for.

We drove on through the Thingvellir National Park,

I keep thinking of my dog for some reason..

The sun came out and the grass looked golden at times.

We found a house built into the rocks.

It's view..

Some sheep for Jess.

I could have spent all day at the Geyser Hot springs. Just incredible!!

About every 8 minutes you see the water churning and suddenly there's and explosion of steam. Sometimes smallish and other times meters into the air.

I could have watched all day!

Evelyn went for a coffee while I walked up to the viewing site.

Looking over the side of the hill

The sun was shining 💥 so took some selfies 😀

I've been to Iceland!!!!

Found Evelyn and we took a pic of the statue - wrestling is their national sport.

You see lots of these huge vehicles here.

Our next stop was the beautiful Gullfoss Falls.

Beautiful grass walking back to the car.

Big truck!

Evelyn stopped so that I could say hi to some horses.

The horses here were brought one at a time (in small boats) from Norway, so the best were chosen and today they are known to be clever and friendly.

We cleaned up nicely at Secret Lagoon, watching the moon come out.

Driving home we stopped at Selfos and looked for a food Hall. 

Evelyn ordered fish stew and I had mushroom soup. It was truly delicious.

We drove back to Reykjavik in the dark and to end the day we waited 1 and a half hours at the viewing spot for northern lights which didn't appear.

Saturday 28 October - Reykjavik 

We spent the day in Reykjavik.

They have such pretty flower beds. Look like cabbages growing in them.

View from church 

Such a beautiful cat in a shop.

The street art in Reykjavik is lovely.

We walked to the theatre.

And to the sculpture near it.

Buildings behind sculpture.

Evelyn went to the Penis museum while I looked on an art gallery and H&M. 

I was tempted to buy one of these.

I met Evelyn back at the museum where she was having a beer tasting.

For lunch we went to the famous hotdog stand.

We looked in a wine shop.

R860!

R916!!

Passed another church.

Noisy swans.

I thought of my local with the same name.

Saw the most beautiful cat.

We rested at home for a while before heading out for evening. 

Stopped at the gallery (same company as one I'd looked in earlier).

Looked in at a food Hall.

We went to the American bar which we'd checked were playing the rugby.

Evelyn's friends arrived to watch with us.

AND South Africa WON the world cup against New Zealand. 🎉

The toilet

People were dressed up in Halloween costumes and town was festive.

Sunday 29 October - lights!!

We had a slow morning. Evelyn tried the pickled shark meat. They serve it with a local alcohol, brennivin, to help wash it down 

The guys we watched the rugby with recommended a hot tub on the beach, so we drove to a place called Akranes and spent the afternoon relaxing.  It was really cold. The road was icing up.

Saw an adorable puppy - Icelandic husky.

We weren't going to stay at first as the pool, which is small, was too full but were glad we changed our minds as people soon left.

It was 6 degrees outside but we had to join the locals and go for a swim!!

We stayed until sunset.

When we got out the water, the same as after Secret Pool, our legs felt so heavy! I guess astronauts feel the same when they come back to earth.

To kill some time before we could see the Northern Lights we drove to the next town to a recommended coffee shop.

Cute dog

We had a cappuccino each and shared this tasty garlic and cheese bread.

Soon after we arrived at the steak house to have dinner, Evelyn's app said the lights would be visible in an hour's time.  We had just finished our meal when I looked out the window and saw a strange shaped cloud which I suggested might be the lights. It was!

We paid and drove as fast as we could away from the town lights. When we passed a section with street lights I could see nothing.

We pulled over in a darker section and I took a photo of the dark section in the sky and this came out!!

My first ever photo of the Northern lights!!

So now we knew were looking at the right thing.

We found a quiet dark spot (well, the full moon was pretty bright!) and watched the display.

Selfies to prove we saw it 😀

The lights got brighter and we had a magnificent display.

It was freezing - minus 6!

Evelyn got back into the car and I stood alone in the cold, the sound of a stream running, watching the sky perform. A memorable moment I'll never forget.

Our car and house lights in the background 

So happy - much warmer in the car

We drove back towards Reykjavik, stopping twice on the way when we saw more.

My last photo of the lights 

The road went under the sea for 6km - first half quite steeply downhill and the second half uphill.

It felt weird being under the ocean.

Driving back the sky more cloudy - we had been so lucky!!

We could see the Yoko Ono light reflected on the clouds.

What a night!!

Safely back at our guest house (called Aurora)

Monday 30 October - Iceland to Switzerland 

I wanted to buy a glass polar bear I'd seen so walked down to the shop. The lady had told me they opened at 10, but now the sigh said 11. Oh well, photos will have to be my mementos.

Walked back home slowly, taking photos.

We drove half an hour back to the airport, filled up the car and returned it. I was on a standby ticket and at the gate, was told I got the last one. Pheh!! Don't think I would have been able to make my Cape Town flight otherwise.

Unfortunately neither of us had window seats and so didn't see the glaciers on our way home. Evelyn's Dad was waiting at the airport to drive us home which was nice luxury. Evelyn went straight to bed while I packed my bags for the trip home.

Tuesday 30 October - Switzerland to Rome to Ethiopa

We caught the bus to the airport together and Evelyn checked me onto the flight. I'm happy that they were able to check my bags all the way to Johannesburg so that I'm free to explore Rome today. I'm now waiting at the gate for the 7:20 flight to FCO.