Iceland: Glacier Lagoon... Not so much!

 As I was perusing the internet, looking for top-rated things to see while here, I came upon Glacier Lagoon. The spectacular meeting of a glacier and the ocean, on the east side of Iceland. A place where glassy chunks of ice lay around on the beach, looking all beautiful. To all intents and purposes it appeared to be about a 3 hour drive from us. Doable.

We set out bright and early (after visiting the bakery) and followed directions through some mountains to the coast. This was also the way to the volcano we had plans to hike... plans disrupted by inclement weather. The road through the mountains was unusual. We felt like we had been led astray by Google. No-one else was out here! It was twisty and turny and heck of steep for this little car in this season. 

Once at the coast we headed north. Funny thing is that I was noticing how slowly the car appeared to be making progress toward our destination. A quick check of Google Maps revealed it would actually take FIVE HOURS to get there! Oops. Screwed that up, didn't I?! New plan. 

After regrouping at (you guessed it) a bakery, we headed inland to rejoin that Golden Circle loop where we had found some more interesting places to visit.

We stopped first at a famed Icelandic greenhouse. This particular one grows about 40% of Iceland's tomatoes, using geothermal heat and grow-lights powered by electricity that has been generated using geothermal steam. Crazy innovations! The tomato plants only live about 9 months and during that time they appear to grow about 15-20 feet, with just a tiny little pot of soil at the roots, but a constant supply of pure Icelandic water and a nutrient mix formulate by one of the owners.

We ate lunch here. Caprese salad and tomato soup - of course! It was comfortable and wonderful in the greenhouse. This might be the only place in Iceland I could work with joy and warm feet!

With full bellies and renewed energy, we headed out to brave the weather (on and off rain and fairly cold) to see what else Iceland offered up today.

Kerid Crater! Volcanic of course. This place was just off the main "golden circle road" we were on, and the hike around and into the crater was not too long. However, on arrival the heaven's opened up and we found ourselves waiting out the weather from the car. Boring? Not really. The people-watching was fascinating! With every wave of freezing torrential rain also came a wave of tourists tearing madly from the direction of the crater - dressed in jeans, fashion sneakers, hoodies and little more. How odd! When we finally left the car, I was dressed in merino base layer, snow pants, wool sweater, down jacket and rain jacket. I had a possum fur hat on and a wool buff but my head still absolutely needed the down jacket hoot and protective wind/rain hood of my jacket also. Did I mention the electric gloves? Vital.

We hiked the crater rim:

And then down to the bottom:

Pretty huh?

After this, things got a bit less successful... relative to the amount of planning done, I guess the expectation of success was kinda low anyway, but long story short is that we struggled to find a geothermal power station that was open. I had thoughts that we should learn about this technology. We tried... and have miles of backcountry road views to prove this!

And in the end we found a stunning ultra modern hotel perched on a hill over a valley and we stopped for a latte. A latte with pastries from this mornings bakery.  Hahaha. 

Tonight was our last night in Iceland and therefore the last opportunity to view the Northern Lights... if it hadn't been cancelled AGAIN. Too cloudy. It's a cloudy country so thank goodness we had found redeeming features like scenery, hot springs and great food. 

What was for dinner, you ask?

We tried out our first Danish restaurant and I had a sandwich sampler. A bit like a flight of sandwiches. 

Delish!

Last night in Reykjavik and while I loved my time here, I was also eager to come home to the fur-babies, the chickens and the puppy pictures (anticipation of puppy for real!) and settle in for the holiday season. :-)

Iceland: The Golden Circle

 Like me, you may have heard of the Golden Circle. 

In essence it's a beautifully scenic drive to 3 of Iceland's treasures; Thingvellir National Park, Geysir and Gullfoss Falls.  And then a lot more. We hired a car and decided to drive this ourselves, giving us the freedom to stop and start at will, shop for souvenirs, eat when the urge strikes and .... enjoy seat heaters. Oh yeah, it's still pretty cold here despite starting out an absolutely gorgeous sunny day.

I make this sound like a very uncomplicated day. That is never the case in a foreign land, as you know.

Mark's alarm went off at 5:30am. His phone had fallen under the bed and it continued to play chirpy notes until it was found and retrieved. Way too long!

We toddled downstairs to take part in the hotel's 'early' breakfast. Apparently a light version of the regular breakfast. We were the only ones there and it felt like stealing when I had to uncover all the food. Early breakfast is missing the oatmeal. I didn't think this would be any issue at all, but apparently I have come to love the oats cooked in water and salt. (I'm surprised too.)

At 6:30am it was time to catch the shuttle to the airport. That's where our rental car was to be picked up.

By 9:00am we were de-icing said rental car in freezing temps and learning to drive the world's smallest car on icy roads. Fun!

Ok, on with the day... We left Reykjavik with a map that no-one would envy and the nav system paired to my phone for directions. All good. The decision had been made to drive the Golden Circle and just see what happened. :-)

Stop 1: Just outside of Reykjavik - I think! Maybe still in Reykjavik? The sun was rising and the light looked fab on the mountains.

Stop 2: Near and inside Thingvellir National Park. The original place of parliament, then later a place that handed out judgment and sentencing to criminals. Apparently mostly incest and fornication type crimes... as they believed that God would judge the whole of their society for the crimes of members, so death sentences were commonly used - and worked as a good deterrent. I guess there were a few women tied up in sacks and drowned too... even just in the swamp!

At first it seemed that getting to the places on the map that we'd highlighted, was the goal. After a while though, we did come to understand that the journey rather than the destination was going to be the most enjoyable part. 

Stop #2: Geysir  

Yup, the original thing. All of our geysers took their name from this one. A less spectacular version of Old Faithful. It erupts with greater frequency, just a 5 minute walk from the car on muddy terrain. 

Nobody thought to warn us that the empty park bench that we sat our butts on, was "downwind" of the fallout. We were all of 2 minutes on it before the eruption and subsequent egg-smelling rain was upon us. :-) Aren't the best memories born from traveling moments like this?

The final stop for today was Gullfoss Falls. Iconic Iceland. 

It was a tiny bit cold and getting darker. The wind was fierce and we had ALL our layers on. Thankfully, there was a visitor center/cafeteria/gift store at the end of this road too. We had lamb soup and fresh bread served in large bowls. I found a wee elf Christmas decoration and adopted him near Gullfoss Falls too. (I found Icelandic wool to be too scratchy against the skin for my liking, but darn if they dont make lovely little mementos with it!)

The car ride back to the hotel in Reykjavik took just over an hour. The roads were getting slicker and we were tired. 

 I'm kinda sort embarrassed to admit we stopped at a Domino's to grab pizza (take out) for dinner. This is where we discovered that Iceland is pretty serious about reducing paper. NO menu's - not even on the walls. We had to borrow a cellphone of an employee to order pizza in the store

Pizza and wine were consumed while playing Gin at the hotel. What a pleasant evening! 

NOTE: Too cloudy again tonight to view the Northern Lights.  :-(