Iceland in 3 days

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After a five hour flight from JFK we landed in snowy Keflavick at about 6:00 am eager to get our trip started.

The guy at the Budget desk gave us a double upgrade, so we drove out with a Suzuki Vitara for the price of a Volkswagen Gulf Wagon (USD 230).

Our first stop was to check out the thermal springs and electrical plant near the blue lagoon, which was our first sighting of the hot water springs which are so common all over Iceland.

After checking out the water, figuring out that we couldn't take a dip, we moved on to a beautiful little town on the end of the Reykjavik peninsula called Grindavik, where we went shopping and stocked up on basic supplies of Coke and Tissues, after which we found the towns pool and hot tubs, apparently most cities in Iceland have a pool of some sort. Being that I forgot my bathing suit at home, I was able to rent one from the pool desk, for a extra $4.

It was April 3rd they were still getting over winter in that part of town, so there we were sitting in a hot tub at 7 am with snow falling on our heads.

After praying and grabbing something to eat, we started driving around the town, after driving around town on this road, we were out of town not really knowing in which direction we were going, as the snow started coming down harder we realized that we were lost, and the best part was that there was nobody around to ask, after driving for about 45 minutes, we came across this tractor crew who were busy putting down gravel on the road, and after schmoozing a bit we left in the direction of the road that would take us to the road to Reykjavik.

We stopped at this Geyser and hot spring, where we bumped into two French guys who had been camping out all night in the back of their truck, it was a area where it seemed there were a bunch of non active geysers, with hot water running out of the ground down a stream, we took some pics, read the signs and checked the place out for half a hour before we got back on the road.

About a quarter mile down the road I turned off at the sight of a big lake, we drove on the closed road that took us to the water were we stopped and checked the place out, there were houses on the opposite shore which are probably used for fishing, nice looking cliffs in the distance over the water and a lava field all around being in the middle of nowhere with not a soul in sight, it was nice and peaceful.

I then started driving north to Reykjavik, were I figured I would take the road to Thingvellir National Park the place where the first parliament met in 930. After almost falling asleep at the wheel we made it there with snow falling all around us.

We spend 2 hours there, that was the low point of the trip, at least for me, I was zonked, hungry and cold.

We then drove to Geyser on these snow covered back country roads. We checked out the visitor center and gift shop where we ate, we couldn't really see much of the actual Geezer being that it was snowing and very foggy.

We then drove to Gullfoss where we saw this really nice waterfall, there was still some ice on the sides of it, and the noise it was making was very powerful after taking some pics we went back to our car.

The total amount of other tourists we saw the first day was something like 7.

When we were finished with the waterfall, we started driving southeast, thru some very nice fields and scenery, our destination was Skogar where I thought there was a open youth hostel.

We pulled up at about 10:30 pm, found the "open from April 1st" youth hostel and discovered that it was closed, so we drove around until we found a farm house were we got beds for a cheap $33 a person.

Staying in the same farmhouse was a French couple who had taken a little over two days to do what we had done in just one day, he was from Lyon and said he was in exile in Paris.

From both reading and speaking to people, a lot if not most of the industry outside of Reykjavik comes from the tourists, and lots of farms have converted a space to rent out to guests, and have either stopped raising horses, or raise just enough to make money off the tourists.

On our second day, we got up nice and early and went in search of a mikvah, or pool. Our first stop was the town of Vik, a nice small town of 300 people on the water, its a town famous for its wool products, so after finding out that the pool was closed until after school hours, visiting the wool factory, and looking around for a store that would have a converter for my camera battery recharger, we kept on driving east, in search of our pool.

We found a big farm that had been turned into a nice hotel, where we used their hot tubs and davened in their lounge, I chatted with the son of the owner who manages the place, about life, traveling family etc. nice guy.

Day Two:

We kept on driving east towards Hofen, when we passed by the spot where they filmed a few scenes from some 007 movies, we bumped into the crew of some BBC car show, who's director was a bit shocked that I never heard of it, being that its shown in 90 countries. They were filming a race between their cool looking cars and these jet kayaks. The area was where a glacier had receded a little, so you had some cool little icebergs floating around on their way out to the ocean.

We then set out to Hofen which is a small city of 1749 people, they have a mall where I was able to pay $28 for a 99 cent converter, but Iceland is Iceland and I wanted pictures, we then checked our email in the Library where we asked the librarian about driving onto a glacier.

What she told us was that its possible to get onto a glacier with a expensive tour that uses monster tires, but its extremely dangerous to do it yourself, especially this time of year when there is still snow on the paths up there, and it should not be done. However she showed us where "it should not be tried" so off we went to drive onto the glacier.

We turned off the road on the F985 by a town called Smrylabjorg and started on this dirt road, we went higher and higher, round and round, over snow, above two small lakes, until we couldn't drive anymore due to the snow being to high, so we got out, hiked up another ten minutes to a spot with amazing views and not a soul within 15 miles of us, davend mincha, and took some pics of the glacier from above.

On our way down as the sun was going down, we stopped in the middle of the road and hiked down to the tip of the glacier where the ice was blue and there were really cool crevices and holes, got some cool pics with my almost dead camera, and hiked back to the car as it was getting dark.

We stopped 15 minutes away on the side of the road where we made a small fire with the stuff we had bought back in Hoffen, after a visit from a concerned local farmer who was checking on our fire safety we roasted the 12 pound rib eye I had brought with that had kept most of our food cold, and got on our way in search of a place to spend the night.

After over two hours of driving and many stops in search of lodging we pulled into Skaftafell which is on the map as a town, but is only a hotel. After ringing the bell for 15 minutes they let us in (it was 12:30 am), for a small sum of $180 we got their last room which had two tiny beds, and a mattress on the floor.

Day Three:

In the morning we chatted up the Frenchman at the hotel reception about making it into the interior to visit Mount Hekla, after having some tea in the morning, and davaning, we set out for Mount Hekla, which the Frenchman had told us to stay away from as it was both dangerous and unreachable this time of year, even with a good jeep.

After another stop in Vik, we drove up the side of the mountain overlooking Vik and the Ocean, it had a amazing view, as well as 50 Mph winds, Phil's straw hat flew away to what we figured based on the wind direction was Ireland.

After stopping and checking out a lava formation somewhere along the way, we turned off the main road right before the town of Hella. After driving on gravel for about a hour, with nobody else in sight and just lava all around us covered in snow, we reached the turn off for Mount Hekla which is the most active volcano in Iceland.

Along with a map of the area was a sign showing that it was a 4x4 only trail, and another sign that said impassable.

We kept on going, over snow, ice, craters, rocks, hills, we kept on going, we stayed off the path due to fear of braking and thus getting stuck in ice, but we kept on going, making sure to stay in sight of the poles showing the trail, after driving about 12 k in this type of stuff at about 15 kph we were at the foothill of the mountain, at that time the car was starting to smell like burning rubber, and it was already 5 pm, with us needing to get to Reykjavik and find a hotel for the night, so we stopped, davend mincha, and hiked 5 minutes to get a better view (which was hard as it was all white and very foggy) in the freezing cold, I estimate that it was about minus 10F with the wind.

We drove back the way we came, got back on the main road, and started making our way to Reykjavik. We stopped in Sellfoss where the Mikvah was used in a pool that had a magen david on the roof, and where I checked my email at the front desk of the local hotel (nice people).

We then hit Reykjavik while stopping along the way in search of hotsprings. Once in Reykjavik someone showed us the way to a Internet cafe, where I booked a room for three people at Bojork hotel (they gave us two double rooms).

We ate, and went to sleep, in the morning, after not seeing the guys from the other room I figured that they had woken up to see the city, 20 minutes later I found them still sleeping, so we rushed to the airport and just made our flight to Amsterdam where we had a stop for a night and then we were off the Ukraine.

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Photos

Old rocks...
There is a frozen waterfall showing in the backround.

Lost...
Somewere in Iceland

Gullfoss
Leible by the waterfall.

Icelandic Horses
Famous for their special gait, sometimes called the no spill champaigne gait.

Vatnajökull
Looking down at the glacier

Vatnajökull
Trying to get back down.

Vatnajökull
On the ice.

Breidamerkurjokull
Site where they filmed some 007

Vik - From Above
A town of 300 people.