Blogs from Iceland, Europe - page 7

Today's itinerary was the famous Golden Circle. We missed the first stop the Thingvellir National Park, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its historical, geological and cultural importance. Historically, in the year 930 AD, the Icelandic people established their Parliment and is the oldest continually operating parliament in the world. The cliff of the riff valley runs right through the Silfra Fissure which delves down through the Eurasian/N American tectonic plates. We caught up with the tour group at the geothermal hot spring area at Geysir (which is where we get our English word, Geyser). The Geysir Strokkur spouts a large steam of super heated water every 5-10 minutes. This geyser was amazing for its predictable timing of the spray. Due to the high rate of volcanic activity in Iceland, it is ... read more

On July 4th, Renee and I flew out of Baltimore for a 7 Day Arctic Adventure Tour. Iceland is a very unique place which I will tell you about over the next 8 days. You will find the narrative very interesting. We flew on Play Airline which was delayed in leaving for 3 hours. We missed our tour group on July 5th and needed to take taxi at the cost of $400 to catch up with our tour bus. Landing in Keflavik, we had bus tickets for the ride to Reykjavik, where we were scheduled to be pick up at the local bus station. It was strange to me that the International Airport was not in the capital, I thought I made a mistake and booked our flight to the wrong one. The bus ride is ... read more

Todays weather was set to be cloudy but dry but then the weather can change in five minutes here so you can never be totally sure. Ian is keen to visit the volcano crater and there is also a large lake which is said to be very scenic. It will likely be a shortish day but we are in no particular hurry. We have decided to stay another night at the same campsite and it’s good to get an early pitch as there are no reservations here and last night there was not a patch to be found. For once we have got up early…I suspect it’s because the sun is shining brightly. We make use of the excellent camp kitchen and start the day with bacon, eggs, tomatoes and fried bread. Breakfast done, we set ... read more

Nachdem wir 3 Wochen mit dem Wohnmobil die Insel umrundet haben, haben wir jetzt das Wohnmobil gegen einen geländegängigen Dacia Duster eingetauscht. Damit können wir auch mal Abstecher in das Hochland machen. Unser Hauptquartier haben wir nun in Selfoss, da man von dort aus die Highlights des Golden Circle und das Hochland gut erreichen kann. Also erst mal ab zum Geysir. Der große Geysir, der der Namensgeber für alle Geysire weltweit ist, ist leider in den Ruhestand getreten, aber auch der Strokkur, sein kleiner Bruder, kann recht schöne Wasserfontänen nach oben schießen. Und der mächtige Wasserfall Gullfoss ist einfach beeindruckend. Das Hochland mit seinen Allradpisten hat dagegen einen ganz anderen Reiz. Es ist im Wesentlichen Steinwüste, und so ähnlich stelle ich mir auch den Mond vor. Auf den Pisten ist die Steinlandschaft lediglich etwas plattgewalzter, und ... read more

It’s 4am and it’s raining again. It’s quite nice hearing it beating on the van…but not so nice when I need a dash to the loo block! We are staying in camp for a rest day today. The camp is right in the centre of town so the three things of interest, which we reckon will take all of five minutes, are all easily walkable. Taking advantage of the camp kitchen, we indulge in a full English breakfast courtesy of Ian…bacon, eggs, tomatoes, beans and fried bread. Yum. It’s stopped raining though the air is generally damp and the cloud is low. I’m glad we don’t have to drive over that mountain pass today! Tomorrow is set to be fair though anything can happen in an instant weather wise here. Our first stop is the ‘Avalanche ... read more