Blogs from Iceland, Europe - page 138

December 5th finally arrived. With work over and our flat packed up and cleaned we got our bond from the landlord and headed to Heathrow with glee. It was a rainy gloomy day so typical for London and we were happy to be heading onto new places. The checkin line at Icelandair at Heathrow was a first, no one there! A record to be checked in within two minutes. Lanzarote looked busy...heheh. The flight to Iceland took 2.5 hours and was rather pleasant with an interesting meal of cold ham and potato salad. We landed at Keflavik into a treeless landscape of white snow. It was cold but not excessively so, about 0 celcius, as we boarded the bus to our complimentary hotel Loftedir. Nice little deal included with our flights was two nights in this ... read more

I decided to take the Thursday off instead of working, even though we were leaving from Heathrow at 8pm, I new it would be a late night. Cam wandered to Walthamstow, and we headed on the Tube thru central London towards Heathrow. After checking in and ensuring we had a window seat (at night). If any of you know me, one thing I’ve always wanted to see is the aurora borealis. (Aka, the northern lights). This was the closest I had ever been to the Artic Circle and therefore my best ever chance to see the lights, unfortunately even though we were flying into Iceland at midnight it was still dusk. They do call it land of the midnight sun during summer. On flying into Reykjavik, we land and find the quietest airport on earth. Cam ... read more

A week in Iceland, check. Our pocketboots are feeling a bit disheveled, but all in all, it was a lunar experience. Ana connected with her Scandanavian roots, surrounded by toehead blond Icebabes, you could imagine the Vikings ravaging the island, rampaging on the rocks, as you were stripped of your $$$! Being on the edge of 2 massive plates, seeing earth boil up through the cracks, watching geysers gushing into the air spewing steamy waterfall spurts, the lunar landscape is awe-inspiring. We were told Iceland is green and Greenland is ice...so we thought the late summer in Iceland would be not too cold. Our meticulous packing was quickly tested for warmth & dryness, and barely passed. Our first stop was in the Akureyri and the Lake Myvatan areas in the north. Grassy pseudocraters along the lakes ... read more

Hi again. After a couple of days of email deprivation we are now in Hofn on the south coast of Iceland, and trying to send a message before the local library closes. Driving is fine and amazing scenery in Iceland. Today has been mainly fiords down the east coast. Every place has its strangenesses in driving. Here, you have to have lights on all the time and maximum speed is 90 km, although ignored by many. When buying petrol they charge about 10 cents more per litre if you want driveway service so we have learnt to self-serve. They also charge for plastic bags in supermarkets. Still have not seen any Iceland poppies, but many, many horses and sheep. Not sure what they do with the horses except trekking, but it has appeared on a few ... read more

Hi all After 12 days on the good ship Academik Sergey Vavilov from Svalbard then Greenland and finally Iceland, we are now much better informed about glaciers, icebergs, Arctic wildlife including bears and history, and ready for a close connection with Iceland over the next week. Good group on the ship including quite a few Australians, but amazingly at least eight children among the 100 or so passengers -- Irish, Italians and English. Can only assume that the parents were pretty well heeled -- although the flights to get to these parts from the UK or the States are much cheaper than from Australia. One Australian in the party was the Ambassador to Mexico who reckons Mexico City is a great place -- he rated it five on a scale of one to five, compared with ... read more