Iceland 2017

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Hello from Iceland – Blog 1 Canberra/London/Iceland

Before you start reading the blog we want to say a big hello and super hugs to Lucas, Flynn and Liam. Also hi to Ollie.

So we have tried the direct flight from Canberra and it is a no brainer – straight to Singapore. Not sure if Singapore Airlines think it will last given the aircraft is a bit old and the seats are a bit on the hard side!! But that said they have plenty of space and the flight was very smooth.

Premium Economy from Singapore to London was much more comfortable and the extra touches were appreciated. Did note however that the quality of food and booze on SA was not quite what it used to be – more European type food and ordinary wine.

Arrived to a breezy and cool day in London. Stayed out at Kew Gardens Hotel because it was close to the National Archives Centre where we researched a member of the Robertson family tree who was in the 82^nd Foot Soldiers in the 1830’s (yes sounds weird but…). We were able to piece together six years of his life using the original Regiment Registers. There is something very special about reading leather bound books that are on average 190 years old. The script writing was immaculate and all the registers showed incredible accountability for every shilling spent by the Regiment. The registers showed Alexander Robertson was a guard at Edinburgh Castle, spent time in Sunderland and then served in Ireland. Things went bad for Alexander in Ireland in 1836 and after 10 days in solitary confinement he decided to buy his way out of the Regiment for 20 pounds. Imagine that! Not sure what happened to him after that.



So back to our world. The next day we headed to Greenwich – never had the time to do this and we decided to make the most of another breezy grey London day. Caught the Kew train and changed onto the Jubilee Line at Westminster. OMG we do feel sorry for the daily commuters on this line. It is deep, fast, rough and noisy. Then there was the bus ride to Greenwich via the new housing estates. We saw places we never knew existed.

Arrived in Greenwich and was greeted by the old Cutty Sark, an old 1869 clipper designed to carry tea around the world. We originally saw this ship in the Thames River in 1976 and Graham’s words were; ‘She looks a lot bigger and flasher now than when we first saw her”. Walked up the hill to the Royal Greenwich Observatory and got a real lesson in how they came up with a way of measuring international time as well as ways to perfect navigation – very important in the 1800’s. The design brief for inventing a clock in the early 1800’s required something that would be accurate to less than 1 second over a year. Amazingly it was a cabinet maker and not a clock maker who invented the most accurate device. Clever guys those blokes and they also figured out how to use the clocks to determine longitude and that was how we ended up with Greenwich Meantime.

Caught the ferry back to Westminster and it was so lovely to see all the old buildings of London. We hopped off at Westminster and visited Westminster Abbey. It seemed so different to our earlier 1976 visit. No people doing brass rubbings of the tombs on the floor and it was very crowded. It might be the burial place of kings and queens but not sure where there is a spare spot for Lizzie and Phil! Got the tube back to Kew Gardens Pub for a meal and an ale – had an early 4.30am rise for Reykjavik, Iceland.



Day 1 Friday – Reykjavik Iceland

Great flight with British Airways despite reading of terrible service in all the local newspapers. Arrived in Reyjkavik at 10am and headed to the duty free for a bottle of Baileys and some Scottish Whiskey. Prices good for litre bottles – better value than wine!

Our Nordic Visitor rep was there to pick us up and we liked the chauffer driven Mercedes. It took about 45 mins to get to our hotel and we immediately felt like we were staying in an IKEA apartment!! Caught the bus to the Blue Lagoon for some rest and recovery in the hot pools. We did the silica and the algae mud treatments along with heaps of other people. All good for a laugh. GG said it would make his hair grow and I definitely have less wrinkles now!! Relaxed for over an hour and then went to the Lava Restaurant where we ate the best salmon, cod and other seafood delicacies we have eaten in a long time - a great way to spend a few hours. The restaurant was built amongst huge pieces of lava hence the name. It made for some very interesting architecture. We caught the bus back to the hotel and walked along the seafront and through the city. Reykjavik is a small city and very easy to walk. Saw the famous church and older areas before heading to bed feeling exhausted after a big day – happy to finally be in Iceland.

Day 2 Saturday – Driving the Golden Circle

Picked up our little Ford Focus and headed off up the one and only main highway called The Ring Road. Very easy to navigate if you are on the road driving anti-clockwise around the island in a road – the sea is always on the right and the mountains on the left. GG doing a great job driving a manual geared car as well as being on the ‘other side of the road’. Leanne’s job is to keep saying ‘stay on my side the road’.



Our first stop was Pingvellir National Park and the Almannagja ravine. The park lies in a rift valley that marks the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the boundary between the North American tectonic plate and the Eurasian plate. The ravine where the two plates meet is amazing and of course it makes for great viewing. Huge upthrusts, volcanic rock and beautiful meadows set along the streams and river banks. About 30 years ago a fissure opened in the path where we walking and a huge hole appeared. The path had to be closed to walkers and cars that used the road – it just goes to show that things were still happening under the ground and the plates between the continents are always moving.

The Pingvellir National Park is also associated with the Althing, the national parliament of Iceland, which was established at this site in 930 Þingvellir AD. It is the oldest parliament in the world. Sessions were held at the location until 1798. It is a very special place for the people of Iceland and we loved the beautiful scenery.

Next stop was the Geysir geothermal area. Not as impressive at Pingyellir but hey the Geysir erupted about every seven minutes and the hundreds of visitors loved it.

We then drove to the beautiful Gulfoss waterfall and yes it was the start of viewing many spectacular waterfalls in Iceland. Really impressive.

Our last visit for the day was the Kerio Volcano. This turned out to be a volcano crater with deep red sides dropping into a pool of water that was a spectacular blue. After a big day of driving and walking we arrived at a working farm for our second night’s accommodation. The food served here was great and they provided lots of info about the traditional food of the Icelandic people. GG did the smoked tongue and LG ate the skyrr (like yoghurt). Not bad!



Aug 6 - Day 3 Sunday– Waterfalls and Volcanic Beaches

After a traditional breakfast where we tried some amazing food our first little stop was the Skalholt Cathedral built in1076. A lady was playing an old harpsicord at the altar and it sounded really beautiful. Outside there was an archaeological dig showing foundations dating back thousands of years. A busload of tourists arrived and it was time to move fast….. heading on the Ring Road to the Seljalandsfoss Waterfall. The drive was strange because on our right the land to the sea was so flat and to our left was the steep cliff escarpment where many waterfalls toppled over the old sea cliffs. Seljalandsfoss plummeted 40 metres and we were able to walk behind it which made us very wet - but is was a fun thing to do. We walked further along the trail to the Gljufrabui ‘hidden waterfall’ deep in a canyon. We managed to get a great photo of the cascading waterfall but gave up going deep into the canyon when we saw the deep water on the canyon floor.

Continuing along the Ring Road we saw high in mountain mist the Eyjafjalajokull Volcano. Not sure if anyone reading this blog remembers the famous Iceland volcano that exploded in 2010 and stopped aircraft flying in Europe for about a week. It was sleeping beautifully as we drove passed.

Next thing we saw was a tiny village of traditional turf and stone huts belonging to farm workers from a few hundred years ago. It was tucked into the hill for protection from the winds and the roof was grass. Such a basic hut to live in a very cold place in the winter.



Continuing along and driving across many serious one lane bridges we arrived at Skaftafell – a large glacier. Here we did a thirty minute walk down to the Solheimajokull Glacier. It was white in the background but the face of the glacier was black and loaded with black sand and ash. There was a small area where the glacier had calved large chunks. Groups were walking on the glacier. The photos tell the story.

Driving on we came to one of the most famous beach areas in Iceland – Dyrholaey and Reynisfjara. This is like Lands End for Iceland. There is nothing between this amazing beach and Antartica. Because of this, freak tsunami like waves occasionally make landfall here making it a very risky place to walk. Added to this is the incredible black, volcanic sand on the beach. Totally different to any other beach you will ever see. The sea caves are made of columns of black basalt rock and this all makes for one very interesting place to visit and to photograph.

When we were at Drholaey Beach we walked up the soft grassy cliffs and there we found hundreds of Puffin birds nesting. It was so exciting because we have tried to see them in Scotland but they have always migrated before we arrived. They are so cute and really colorful.

Leaving the black sand beaches around the town of Vik we drove to Klauster where we stopped for the night at the Iceland Air Hotel. They served a yummy meal of Icelandic lamb and we really enjoyed it. The sights of Iceland were great today.

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