- 86,701
- Rule 12
- GTP_Famine
As a bit of an antidote to a pretty tumultous year one way and another, I figured a nice foreign break - my first in 12 years - would serve the purpose. Amusingly (or not) the year got a smidge crappier a week before we left, but it served to juxtapose the fun just that little bit more.
So off we went - myself, my partner and daughter - to London Stansted Airport (STN) in the wee small hours of the 17th of December to catch our flight...
Monday 17th
The ATC tower at London Stansted - tallest structure of its type in Europe - as viewed from terminal building
Two of us had flown before - my partner had not, so this was a wholly new experience for her. Our plane, miraculously, left on time and the next three hours were filled by an excited person taking photographs out of the window of her very first plane flight:
Clouds! From above!
Scotland! From above!
Well... save for the last 15 minutes of the flight. After clear and beautiful weather for 1,100 miles, the plane began its descent to the Leifur Eriksson International Airport, Keflavik (KEF) straight into cloud. And rain. Lots and lots of rain. And a crosswind from hell.
The steed - an MD-90. And welcome to Iceland
The pilot managed to get the bird down though, despite being at 20 degrees off straight until about 25 feet from the deck. We would later find out that "Thish ish, like, the worsht weather in Icsheland for, like, ever man. They closhed the airport lasht Friday for, like, the firsht time ever."
Oh, nice.
Content with merely being alive we collected the luggage and headed to the car I'd thoughtfully rented. "Mazda 3 or similar". Petrol, manual, climate control all in the price... Can't go wrong.
Grey Mk2 Ford Focus 1.6. More on this later and elsewhere.
After hopping into the left-hand drive manual car and heading to the right-hand side of the road, we managed to negotiate our way to the hotel and safety until morning.
The Hotel Leifur Eriksson, Reykjavik - "Base Camp"
I should, of course, add at this point that when the plane touched down at 2.30pm, there was little more than 30 minutes daylight remaining...
Tuesday 18th
A certain small person is female and aged 6. Thus she likes horses. I say "likes". What I mean is "has her entire life revolve around, including toys, posters, pencil cases, pictures, dreams and every waking moment,". Though, being 6, she hasn't yet ridden.
Unbeknownst to her, I had prebooked a half day's riding on Icelandic horses at the Laxnes Farm. This would cost 4,000ISK (£34) per adult, but was free for under 7s. Someone is 6. Win.
Pony-trekkers and the landscape in which we trekked...
The view from Laxnes Farm
Though she was led round for most of the journey, eventually she was allowed to ride free on her own. I, of course, was given a horse called "Bad Boy" ("I wreshle wizh him all the time!") who liked drinking. Lots.
Icelandic horses are, apparently, unlike European horses, since they've been bred apart for over a thousand years. They've retained 2 additonal gaits (normal horses have: Walk, Trot, Canter, Gallop) called "Tolt" and "Skeid". Or, in Bad Boy's world, "Really Very Slow Indeed" and "Quite Alarmingly Fast"...
At the end of our horsey experience, we had a small wander around Reykjavik's main shopping streets. And something hits you when you're wandering around Reykjavik's main shopping streets. It's not that it appears to be dark already - though it was - but that there isn't a single building over 3 storeys. And no two buildings look anything like similar...
View towards Laugavegur - Reykjavik's main shopping street - from Hotel Leifur Eriksson
Shops on Skólavörðustígur - Reykjavik's second main shopping street
It really is a capital city that looks like pictures on jigsaw boxes.
Directly opposite the hotel, of course, is the tallest building of any kind in Reykjavik - Hallgrimskirkja...
Hallgrimskirkja - with statue of Leifur Eriksson
It sounded bells every 15 minutes up until 9pm. At which point Reykjavik on a weekday goes completely quiet.
And I mean completely quiet. Here we are in the centre of the capital city and it goes totally, pin-dropping quiet at 9pm... We'd later find the reason out for this. The good news was that, after this nice, crisp, clear day, Reykjavik's radio stations announced that the spell of bad weather was officially over...
Wednesday 19th
Yep, Icelandic weathermen fail just as badly as their British counterparts.
Today was the hardest day on the poor old hire car - 230 miles would be covered to go see some of Iceland's geekier sites. First up was a trek to the Seljalandsfoss waterfall.
Iceland has many waterfalls, but not many are 200 feet high and allow you to walk behind them...
Attempt #1 to make dull car look interesting - Seljalandsfoss waterfall
Two bravely approach the path behind the falls...
The view from behind
The path round is a bit steep and very slippery, so only I made my way round. It's a very surreal experience, but utterly breathtaking. There's quite a lot of that in Iceland...
From there we went back to Selfoss for a bite to eat at Subway. I know, I know, but it was relatively cheap (2000ISK for the 3 of us - or £16) and besides that, when was the last time you saw this out of a Subway window?
The view from Subway Selfoss
After a swift bite to eat, we headed up the road to Geysir. Geysir itself is the world's oldest known geyser, but doesn't erupt very frequently - generally after earthquakes. However, it's in a field of 30 or so geysers which erupt with differing regularities and force. The most impressive and well-known is "Strokkur" ("butter churn") which erupts 25-35 metres every 5-10 minutes.
It was hammering rain, so we didn't stick around long - but it was long enough to witness this:
Strokkur. Not doing much
Strokkur. Erupting.
From there it was, drenched, back to Reykjavik. Which was fun in the fog. Not.
Thursday, 20th
We'd planned to go see the Leif the Lucky Bridge but, after a comment from the nice lady in the Grindavik Post Office ("You want to see the bridge? In the dark?") we made our way to The Blue Lagoon.
For the unaware amongst you, The Blue Lagoon is an accidental tourist attraction. Outflow from one of Iceland's many geothermal power stations reacted with a lava basin to form a very large lake, rich in minerals which gives it a distinctive blue colour. Regardless of air temperature, the water temperature in the public part of the Lagoon is always 38-40 degrees Celsius (the Lagoon itself is much larger and, in parts, way hotter).
In short, the Blue Lagoon is the best thing on the planet. Ever.
The road between Grindavik and The Blue Lagoon. Oh yes.
The Blue Lagoon. It genuinely is that colour.
Sunset over The Blue Lagoon.
Friday 21st - Midwinter's Day
We reserved Friday for a tour of Reykjavik. We drove up to Seltjarnarnes in the west of the city and wandered the Laugavegur and Skólavörðustígur again.
A Reykjavik Fire Hydrant. They all look like this...
One of Iceland's many statues-without-explanation - at the east end of Laugavegur
The Reykjanes Volcano, as viewed from Seltjarnarnes
"The Pearl" - a restaurant and geothermal hot water storage facility - viewed from Seltjarnarnes
The lighthouse at Grotta, Reykjavik's furthest point west
Sunrise at Ness-Nesklubburinn golf course, Seltjarnarnes. This was as high as the sun reached all day. Photo taken at NOON.
Arty shot - we found this window frame washed up on the Seltjarnarnes rocks. Reykjanes volcano in the distance...
From there we headed back to the hotel for a rest and to pick up the proper camera. We'd heard a rumour that there was a lift (elevator) in the Hallgrimskirkja across the street, so made our way over...
Oddly, in the plaza was this car, several SUVs, a bowser and a lot of camera equipment placed in a big circle. It transpired that they were taking some shots of this Legacy for, presumably, press shots or a magazine article. In that light, it seemed rude not to take a shot of my own. One shot, no flash, aiiiii thank you.
Moving on, there was indeed a lift in Hallgrimskirkja - 400ISK got you a trip to the eighth floor, and some steps took you up to the ninth...
Skólavörðustígur from the top of Hallgrimskirkja - hotel on the right.
I did take some shots of a 360 degree view around Reykjavik, but I'll need some Photoshop time to knit them together...
From there a little more shopping occurred, followed by an early night - we had a flight to catch at 7.15am the next day.
Only now we found out why Reykjavik shuts at 9pm on a weekday. At the weekend, Icelanders party. P-A-R-T... Why? Because they gotta. Pubs stay open until gone 6am but, unlike the UK, Icelanders are happy drunks. Happy, close-harmony singing drunks. You haven't lived until you've heard a bunch of drunk Icelanders singing drinking songs in harmony. Mental.
Saturday 22nd
Today was travelling day. After leaving the hotel at 4am - they kindly laid breakfast out for us at 3.45am - we dropped the hire car off at 5am ("Jusht park it up in short shtay, get a ticket and leave the keysh in the car") and were greeted by the news that Iceland Express FHE153 had broken. We were going to go on the Berlin plane instead. Once it had got back from Berlin. In 6 hours.
Still, the Leifur Eriksson International Airport is a nice place to be stuck for 6 hours. We got some free food out of the airline too...
Keflavik Airport. 7am. Unexplained artwork.
Keflavik Airport. 9am. Unexplained artwork.
Keflavik Airport. 11am. Unexplained coordinates. "You Are Here" would suffice...
There is no plane. And yes, that's snow blowing across the apron...
Eventually, however, we got onto our MD-90 and left the ground to some even more stunning views than Monday's:
A view towards Grindavik - you can clearly see the rupture in the crust coming towards the camera caused by the
American and European plates separating, along with, to the right, Reykjanes Volcano and the Blue Lagoon.
Seriously now, this country makes brilliant photographs all by itself.
And one last view, to round off the trip...
London Stansted tower again, at 4pm on Saturday, 5 days and 5 hours after the first photo...
Seriously. Iceland is awesome. We're going back - though we'll have to save up a little first. Taxation in Iceland is staggering - beer costs £6 ($12) a pint and an average meal cost £50 ($100) for the three of us. That said, there is no such thing as an average meal in Iceland - the food is absolutely and utterly stunning. From the bread for toast in the morning, to the milk, the butter, the waffles at Cafe Mokka (halfway down Skólavörðustígur - they speak good English. Visit it. NOW), the simple stuff like cheeseburgers (Nonnabitti on Laugavegur - special sauce like you wouldn't even believe. Try their "fish sandwich") and Subway, all the way up to the expensiver seafood at the Blue Lagoon restaurant. I didn't have a bad coffee all week. It's all stunning. Your mouth will love you, even if your wallet won't.
The Icelandic people are a joy to be around. Nothing is too much trouble, they all speak English and they are the most relaxed it's possible to be without being Dutch. Someone actually spoke this phrase out loud to me: "No rush, man. It's Iceland, you know?". Crime is practically non-existant - the hire car guy told us that, since we'd be leaving the car earlier than their office opened, we should leave the car in the short stay car park with a ticket and the keys inside it. He left his own car (a new Explorer) running when he came to pick us up...
The landscape is staggering, as you've seen. It's all so photogenic and looks exactly like it has been all drawn by children. The sky meets the ground like children draw. The mountains are mountains that children draw - pointy and in the middle of otherwise completely flat land. The water is the colour kids colour water in. The houses are like kid's houses - all different colours and with pointy roofs. It's mindblowing. You'll suddenly encounter a house, in the middle of nowhere, adorned with Christmas decorations (they go up in September and come down in February - they like the additional light) - and all of the headstones in all of the graveyards have lights on too...
We'll be going back - though probably to the Myvatn area we didn't get a chance to see, and in the summer. I suggest you all book yourselves flights out there too, before the EU outlaws air travel... And if you go to Iceland but don't go to the Blue Lagoon I'll shoot you. In the nipples.
This holiday was brought to you by:
Iceland Express
Hotel Leifur Eriksson, Reykjavik
Auto-Europe/SIXT
Laxnes Farm
The Blue Lagoon
High-resolution versions of pictures for wallpapers are available upon request...
So off we went - myself, my partner and daughter - to London Stansted Airport (STN) in the wee small hours of the 17th of December to catch our flight...
Monday 17th
The ATC tower at London Stansted - tallest structure of its type in Europe - as viewed from terminal building
Two of us had flown before - my partner had not, so this was a wholly new experience for her. Our plane, miraculously, left on time and the next three hours were filled by an excited person taking photographs out of the window of her very first plane flight:
Clouds! From above!
Scotland! From above!
Well... save for the last 15 minutes of the flight. After clear and beautiful weather for 1,100 miles, the plane began its descent to the Leifur Eriksson International Airport, Keflavik (KEF) straight into cloud. And rain. Lots and lots of rain. And a crosswind from hell.
The steed - an MD-90. And welcome to Iceland
The pilot managed to get the bird down though, despite being at 20 degrees off straight until about 25 feet from the deck. We would later find out that "Thish ish, like, the worsht weather in Icsheland for, like, ever man. They closhed the airport lasht Friday for, like, the firsht time ever."
Oh, nice.
Content with merely being alive we collected the luggage and headed to the car I'd thoughtfully rented. "Mazda 3 or similar". Petrol, manual, climate control all in the price... Can't go wrong.
Grey Mk2 Ford Focus 1.6. More on this later and elsewhere.
After hopping into the left-hand drive manual car and heading to the right-hand side of the road, we managed to negotiate our way to the hotel and safety until morning.
The Hotel Leifur Eriksson, Reykjavik - "Base Camp"
I should, of course, add at this point that when the plane touched down at 2.30pm, there was little more than 30 minutes daylight remaining...
Tuesday 18th
A certain small person is female and aged 6. Thus she likes horses. I say "likes". What I mean is "has her entire life revolve around, including toys, posters, pencil cases, pictures, dreams and every waking moment,". Though, being 6, she hasn't yet ridden.
Unbeknownst to her, I had prebooked a half day's riding on Icelandic horses at the Laxnes Farm. This would cost 4,000ISK (£34) per adult, but was free for under 7s. Someone is 6. Win.
Pony-trekkers and the landscape in which we trekked...
The view from Laxnes Farm
Though she was led round for most of the journey, eventually she was allowed to ride free on her own. I, of course, was given a horse called "Bad Boy" ("I wreshle wizh him all the time!") who liked drinking. Lots.
Icelandic horses are, apparently, unlike European horses, since they've been bred apart for over a thousand years. They've retained 2 additonal gaits (normal horses have: Walk, Trot, Canter, Gallop) called "Tolt" and "Skeid". Or, in Bad Boy's world, "Really Very Slow Indeed" and "Quite Alarmingly Fast"...
At the end of our horsey experience, we had a small wander around Reykjavik's main shopping streets. And something hits you when you're wandering around Reykjavik's main shopping streets. It's not that it appears to be dark already - though it was - but that there isn't a single building over 3 storeys. And no two buildings look anything like similar...
View towards Laugavegur - Reykjavik's main shopping street - from Hotel Leifur Eriksson
Shops on Skólavörðustígur - Reykjavik's second main shopping street
It really is a capital city that looks like pictures on jigsaw boxes.
Directly opposite the hotel, of course, is the tallest building of any kind in Reykjavik - Hallgrimskirkja...
Hallgrimskirkja - with statue of Leifur Eriksson
It sounded bells every 15 minutes up until 9pm. At which point Reykjavik on a weekday goes completely quiet.
And I mean completely quiet. Here we are in the centre of the capital city and it goes totally, pin-dropping quiet at 9pm... We'd later find the reason out for this. The good news was that, after this nice, crisp, clear day, Reykjavik's radio stations announced that the spell of bad weather was officially over...
Wednesday 19th
Yep, Icelandic weathermen fail just as badly as their British counterparts.
Today was the hardest day on the poor old hire car - 230 miles would be covered to go see some of Iceland's geekier sites. First up was a trek to the Seljalandsfoss waterfall.
Iceland has many waterfalls, but not many are 200 feet high and allow you to walk behind them...
Attempt #1 to make dull car look interesting - Seljalandsfoss waterfall
Two bravely approach the path behind the falls...
The view from behind
The path round is a bit steep and very slippery, so only I made my way round. It's a very surreal experience, but utterly breathtaking. There's quite a lot of that in Iceland...
From there we went back to Selfoss for a bite to eat at Subway. I know, I know, but it was relatively cheap (2000ISK for the 3 of us - or £16) and besides that, when was the last time you saw this out of a Subway window?
The view from Subway Selfoss
After a swift bite to eat, we headed up the road to Geysir. Geysir itself is the world's oldest known geyser, but doesn't erupt very frequently - generally after earthquakes. However, it's in a field of 30 or so geysers which erupt with differing regularities and force. The most impressive and well-known is "Strokkur" ("butter churn") which erupts 25-35 metres every 5-10 minutes.
It was hammering rain, so we didn't stick around long - but it was long enough to witness this:
Strokkur. Not doing much
Strokkur. Erupting.
From there it was, drenched, back to Reykjavik. Which was fun in the fog. Not.
Thursday, 20th
We'd planned to go see the Leif the Lucky Bridge but, after a comment from the nice lady in the Grindavik Post Office ("You want to see the bridge? In the dark?") we made our way to The Blue Lagoon.
For the unaware amongst you, The Blue Lagoon is an accidental tourist attraction. Outflow from one of Iceland's many geothermal power stations reacted with a lava basin to form a very large lake, rich in minerals which gives it a distinctive blue colour. Regardless of air temperature, the water temperature in the public part of the Lagoon is always 38-40 degrees Celsius (the Lagoon itself is much larger and, in parts, way hotter).
In short, the Blue Lagoon is the best thing on the planet. Ever.
The road between Grindavik and The Blue Lagoon. Oh yes.
The Blue Lagoon. It genuinely is that colour.
Sunset over The Blue Lagoon.
Friday 21st - Midwinter's Day
We reserved Friday for a tour of Reykjavik. We drove up to Seltjarnarnes in the west of the city and wandered the Laugavegur and Skólavörðustígur again.
A Reykjavik Fire Hydrant. They all look like this...
One of Iceland's many statues-without-explanation - at the east end of Laugavegur
The Reykjanes Volcano, as viewed from Seltjarnarnes
"The Pearl" - a restaurant and geothermal hot water storage facility - viewed from Seltjarnarnes
The lighthouse at Grotta, Reykjavik's furthest point west
Sunrise at Ness-Nesklubburinn golf course, Seltjarnarnes. This was as high as the sun reached all day. Photo taken at NOON.
Arty shot - we found this window frame washed up on the Seltjarnarnes rocks. Reykjanes volcano in the distance...
From there we headed back to the hotel for a rest and to pick up the proper camera. We'd heard a rumour that there was a lift (elevator) in the Hallgrimskirkja across the street, so made our way over...
Oddly, in the plaza was this car, several SUVs, a bowser and a lot of camera equipment placed in a big circle. It transpired that they were taking some shots of this Legacy for, presumably, press shots or a magazine article. In that light, it seemed rude not to take a shot of my own. One shot, no flash, aiiiii thank you.
Moving on, there was indeed a lift in Hallgrimskirkja - 400ISK got you a trip to the eighth floor, and some steps took you up to the ninth...
Skólavörðustígur from the top of Hallgrimskirkja - hotel on the right.
I did take some shots of a 360 degree view around Reykjavik, but I'll need some Photoshop time to knit them together...
From there a little more shopping occurred, followed by an early night - we had a flight to catch at 7.15am the next day.
Only now we found out why Reykjavik shuts at 9pm on a weekday. At the weekend, Icelanders party. P-A-R-T... Why? Because they gotta. Pubs stay open until gone 6am but, unlike the UK, Icelanders are happy drunks. Happy, close-harmony singing drunks. You haven't lived until you've heard a bunch of drunk Icelanders singing drinking songs in harmony. Mental.
Saturday 22nd
Today was travelling day. After leaving the hotel at 4am - they kindly laid breakfast out for us at 3.45am - we dropped the hire car off at 5am ("Jusht park it up in short shtay, get a ticket and leave the keysh in the car") and were greeted by the news that Iceland Express FHE153 had broken. We were going to go on the Berlin plane instead. Once it had got back from Berlin. In 6 hours.
Still, the Leifur Eriksson International Airport is a nice place to be stuck for 6 hours. We got some free food out of the airline too...
Keflavik Airport. 7am. Unexplained artwork.
Keflavik Airport. 9am. Unexplained artwork.
Keflavik Airport. 11am. Unexplained coordinates. "You Are Here" would suffice...
There is no plane. And yes, that's snow blowing across the apron...
Eventually, however, we got onto our MD-90 and left the ground to some even more stunning views than Monday's:
A view towards Grindavik - you can clearly see the rupture in the crust coming towards the camera caused by the
American and European plates separating, along with, to the right, Reykjanes Volcano and the Blue Lagoon.
Seriously now, this country makes brilliant photographs all by itself.
And one last view, to round off the trip...
London Stansted tower again, at 4pm on Saturday, 5 days and 5 hours after the first photo...
Seriously. Iceland is awesome. We're going back - though we'll have to save up a little first. Taxation in Iceland is staggering - beer costs £6 ($12) a pint and an average meal cost £50 ($100) for the three of us. That said, there is no such thing as an average meal in Iceland - the food is absolutely and utterly stunning. From the bread for toast in the morning, to the milk, the butter, the waffles at Cafe Mokka (halfway down Skólavörðustígur - they speak good English. Visit it. NOW), the simple stuff like cheeseburgers (Nonnabitti on Laugavegur - special sauce like you wouldn't even believe. Try their "fish sandwich") and Subway, all the way up to the expensiver seafood at the Blue Lagoon restaurant. I didn't have a bad coffee all week. It's all stunning. Your mouth will love you, even if your wallet won't.
The Icelandic people are a joy to be around. Nothing is too much trouble, they all speak English and they are the most relaxed it's possible to be without being Dutch. Someone actually spoke this phrase out loud to me: "No rush, man. It's Iceland, you know?". Crime is practically non-existant - the hire car guy told us that, since we'd be leaving the car earlier than their office opened, we should leave the car in the short stay car park with a ticket and the keys inside it. He left his own car (a new Explorer) running when he came to pick us up...
The landscape is staggering, as you've seen. It's all so photogenic and looks exactly like it has been all drawn by children. The sky meets the ground like children draw. The mountains are mountains that children draw - pointy and in the middle of otherwise completely flat land. The water is the colour kids colour water in. The houses are like kid's houses - all different colours and with pointy roofs. It's mindblowing. You'll suddenly encounter a house, in the middle of nowhere, adorned with Christmas decorations (they go up in September and come down in February - they like the additional light) - and all of the headstones in all of the graveyards have lights on too...
We'll be going back - though probably to the Myvatn area we didn't get a chance to see, and in the summer. I suggest you all book yourselves flights out there too, before the EU outlaws air travel... And if you go to Iceland but don't go to the Blue Lagoon I'll shoot you. In the nipples.
This holiday was brought to you by:
Iceland Express
Hotel Leifur Eriksson, Reykjavik
Auto-Europe/SIXT
Laxnes Farm
The Blue Lagoon
High-resolution versions of pictures for wallpapers are available upon request...
love that pic so much gets me away from gloom and doom Reading, glad you guys had a good time 
Oh yeh 1280 x 1024 thanks guys.
