Blogs from Northwest, Iceland, Europe - page 4

May as well admit it now, no Northern Lights. During the week before we arrived there was considerable solar activity and thus extensive Northern Lights. However, it was stormy the entire time so no one in Iceland saw anything. We had very good weather, at least in terms of storms, and very few clouds after the first day, but no solar activity to speak of-thus no lighting of the atmosphere. Oh well, we did see lots and lots of waterfalls, most of which were full of ice. Yes this is a cold country. Temps never rose above freezing anywhere, and when combined with the wind, it was cold...very cold. Okay, after the pain of the previous blog we spent a couple of days at a "horse farm". BB was out and about each morning petting "my ... read more

From Akureyri’s domestic airport (1 hr 10 min), we dropped off the rental car and Sarah, Sheila, and John flew west onurl=https://www.airiceland.is/Flight/Search?interline=false&fromCityCode=AEY&toCityCode=IFJ&departureDateString=2017-07-08&returnDateString=2017-07-08&adults=5&children=0&infants=0&roundTrip=false&useFlexDates=false&allInclusive=undefined&promocode=&fareTypeCategory=1¤cy=EUR&tour=false&tourCode=&youths=0 Air Iceland at 5:00 pm, arriving in Isafjordur at 7:55 pm, with aerial views of Iceland's indented coastline and glacier-carved interior. Originally settled in the 9th century, Isafjordur became a trading post for foreign merchants in the 16th century and today is the main town in the remote Westfjords in far-northwest Iceland. The sheer isolation of this region has kept it well off the traditional tourist circuit. Sean and Mandy flew back to Reykjavi... read more

Amazing Iceland 3 of 3 A whale of a time! Low cloud greeted us once again this morning, but there are occasional breaks as we backtrack northwards to Egilsstadir and take the gravel track 70 km out to Dyrfjoll and the cliffs at Hafnartangi to check out the puffins! Parts of this road are now surfaced, winding, ever winding, through lush green moorland, between gushing rivers and snow-topped mountains. Sure, it’s a long way out and a long way back but there’s a reward for the effort. A short-eared owl performed its graceful flight for us, whimbrel and redshank called, red-necked phalarope danced around in circles in pools, harlequin ducks rode the rushing rivers and whooper swans grazed the marshes en route. Wow! And finally, the cliffs: thousands of jovial puffins in rafts on the water ... read more

From Reykjavik to Hvammstangi Day 1 Check out our mode of transportation while in country, courtesy of Kuku Camper. We call her Silver Bullet - our camper van. Thankfully Abby is able to drive manual, otherwise we would be SOL. Kellie and I have never been taught to drive a stick shift. Reykjavik, the Capitol of Iceland, is where our journey began. From there, we headed north to the Ring Road, or Route 1. The plan for the next 8 days is to travel the entire Ring Road, which encircles the country. We will be traveling along the country in a clockwise fashion, making stops along the way to sightsee and discover more about Iceland. This trip is the ultimate road trip. The scenery is absolutely stunning. Glaciers, waterfalls created from glacial melt, mountains, Icelandic horses, ... read more

We left Hvammstangi in the morning, stopping first at the Wool Factory, one of the highlights of the area. Then we continued on to the completely empty roads to the Snaefellsnes peninsula. Seriously, we only saw one truck until we got to the turnoff to the peninsula and even then, probably a total of less than ten cars for the next hour. Some beautiful sights though. You could see the snow covered peaks in the distance, the beautiful fjords along the way, and the winding road for miles. I had been reading up on the area and I really wanted to see a place called Beserkjahraun, where two hired hands had cleared a path through a massive lava field so one could marry the farmer's daughter. Unfortunately, it was on a small gravel path through about ... read more