Blogs from Grindavík, Southwest, Iceland, Europe

The bed in our hotel room has been very comfortable so we have both slept well and we don’t wake till the alarm sounds. It’s looking a bit grey outside but then it looked that way yesterday morning too. We enjoy a great breakfast before bringing our bags down ready for our campervan adventure! At 10 on the dot, Iris arrives to take us to collect our van. We are given the low down on all the dos and don’ts to ensure we won’t come back to a stack of parking and speeding fines. We are also warned about the dire consequences of driving through rivers or letting the wind (which is fearsome here) rip the van doors off! We are handed a tablet which is the sat nav system and also a communication device between ... read more

Nejdrive se ucime, jak tu funguji benzinky. Vsechny jsou selfcare (coz ocenuji), ale s nasi znalosti islandstiny neni menu prave citelne. Nastesti se samo od sebe objevi moznost zmenit jazyk a v inglis uz to jde o poznani jednoduseji. V podstate musite vlozit kartu, zadat PIN, zvolit, kolik chcete natankovat a vytahnout kartu. Az potom muzete vzit pistoli a zastrelit serifa... teda nakrmit Salamandra. Vyrazime k vodopadum Gullfoss. Cestou zastavujeme u vodopadu Faxafoss, ktere sice v zpetnem pohledu staly za zlamany prd, ale jelikoz jde o nase prvni islandske vodopady, pripadaji nam super. Co by za ne treba v Krkonosich dali, ze? Gullfoss je ale trochu jiny kalibr. Asi jako the Mountain oproti Impovi, Golias oproti Davovi, Vasina oproti Ondinovi... no, chapete me, ne? Voda ve vodopadu pada (co by taky mela delat? Tancovat cardas?) dvoustupnove ... read more

I What would motivate an otherwise rational human being to return to Iceland in the frigid throes of winter? Well, I love being treated like a Viking King. I miss truly great Scandinavian cooking and of course those ethereal Danishes. I loved that there was no queue at the Icelandair ticket desk and the hot meal in flight – Icelandair’s Swedish meatballs - would be the beginning of my Iceland-plumped belly. Maybe I need the recurring rehabilitating high of travel to Europe. I was almost refused admission to the country last year when I arrived in Keflavik. NATO has closed down the airbase since my last visit sending 20,000 American troops packing (much to the delight of Icelanders everywhere.) Now, water is banned from entering the country. And when we get off the plane, we not ... read more

Oh Iceland Land Of Fire and Ice (Well, Rain, To Be Precise) Land Of Whale and Steam And Fish Like Carp and Bream Land Of Doughnut and Penis Geothermal In Extremis Land Of Geezer and Rift Fumes of Sulphur Sniffed Land Of Glacier and Skidoo Mark Skyr and Rotting Shark Land Of Testicle Cake and Necropant (Nothing Rhymes With Necropant) Land Of Moon and Lagoon We’d Like to Come Back Soon Land Of Fire and Ice Because You’re Very Nice.... read more

A bus day. Starting with a very quick tour of the city (the city isn’t huge and big buses aren’t allowed in the tight inner-city streets). A stop at the imposing and austere Hallgrimmskirkja. It is the tallest building in Iceland and dominates the city landscape. Lutherans aren’t exactly renowned for having fun and this shows both on the inside and the outside. We pass myriad monuments to Icelanders – it doesn’t take much for them to drop a statue or devote a building in memorial to citizens who in other countries would be otherwise forgotten. After the city tour, we head out to the Reykjanes pensinsula, back towards the international airport at Keflavík. For the record the consonant combination 'fl' is pronounced 'pl' in Icelandic. So it is pronounced Keplavik. You are starting to sound ... read more