Blogs from Southwest, Iceland, Europe - page 7

Hello again, I hope that you are ready to continue following my weekly stories in this beautiful country called Iceland. After a nice good night sleep and a traditional local breakfast in Hrauneyjar, it was time to continue with my trip. Luckily for me, the sun was shining and the weather was nice outside, perfect for another day of driving and exploring. Today, I will be visiting another iconic spot called Landmannalaugar, a truly enigmatic place located in Iceland’s southern highlands. This place promises incredible naturals views of the many volcanoes, waterfalls and hot springs. You should know that there are two types of roads in Iceland, main and mountain roads. Learn more about the weather and driving here. The first ones are suitable to drive all year round with any type of vehicle, but mountain ... read more

Reykjavik Final Day The weather forecast for our final day in Iceland was calling for snow. Since most of the roads we had traveled on were treacherous enough already, we chose not to head out and tempt fate with more snow scheduled to fall. We decided to intentionally sleep in a little and spend another day exploring Reykjavik. We awoke to see snow beginning to fall. The sky was filled with dark gray snow clouds, which did not allow in the sunlight. This morning was the first time it was actually twilight at 10 AM. This is what we had expected all week. The temperature had risen a bit but was still a degree or six below zero. The main roads in Reykjavik are well prepared for snow. First, they are not smooth surfaced cement or ... read more

Iceland Road Trip Today, the plan was to get in the car and drive the Golden Circle around Iceland. If you do it right the entire trip is 140 miles and should take 5.5 hours. Not for us! It took nearly 8 hours and 195 miles. The plan was to get up at 7AM and hit the road by 8 AM. Best laid plans of mice and men… Last night we didn’t get home till well after 1 AM from the Aurora outing. We have been up nearly 24 hours, and, well, quite frankly, we were exhausted. The alarm went off as planned, but we didn’t move out of bed. At 10 AM we finally got up and prepared for the day ahead. As you may recall, we are driving around in a 2016 diesel 4 ... read more

Reykjavik Day One We arrived at the airport a little late, about 7AM rather than 5:30 AM as scheduled. For us, it was no problem as we were not traveling onward, to those, however, with connections it was near tragic. WOW Airlines is a budget airline, so there are no frills and no quick solutions to problems. There are some major advantages to a budget airline, COST; and some major disadvantages, if something goes wrong you are screwed. The folks going to Dublin from Detroit, made their flight, barely. Folks going to London and points further on in Europe, did not. Unfortunately for them, the next scheduled flight is tomorrow! The airline was responsible for overnight accommodations and feeding these folks so that was not bad, but what do you do while you are waiting for ... read more

Sloppy mess out there today..! Early flight out of Akureyri - it was a balmy 7C at 7am... that's one way to get rid of all their snow! Flight was quick and smooth. I really like Air Iceland - they have fun little quirks, much like everything else in Iceland I guess. For example, in each seat pocket is a book for you to write your "North Adventure" and see what others have done on their visit too. Anyway, once in Reykjavik I dropped my stuff off at the hostel and continued on my way. It was raining in Reykjavik, which puts a slight damper on the plan to explore. Nevertheless I ventured out towards the city centre and roamed about for a few hours. I went to Tjornin to watch some of the ducks and ... read more