Iceland - South Coast

Wednesday we had breakfast in the hotel, and headed out to Iceland's south coast. When we got to the car I realized I forgot to prepay for morning parking (it's free overnight until 9 am) and found a parking ticket on my windshield. I went back to the hotel desk to find out how what to do about the ticket. I was told I could pay it at a nearby bank and that the fine would be less if I paid it the same day. So I found my way to the bank and paid my parking fine. Consequently we got a late start on our sightseeing.

Once we got on our way we went to see the Keldur turf houses which are some of the oldest houses in Iceland. When we arrived we were greeted by a bunch of cows. They mooed at us and I mooed back. We reached the turf houses and were given a brief talk about them then were allowed to walk around and look inside the old buildings. There was also a small chapel with a cemetery. We noticed many of these small chapels around Iceland's countryside. The graves in the cemetery were interesting in that they were all covered by a small mound.

After the turf houses we decided we would drive to our farthest point of interest and stop at the others as we worked our way back. So we drove first to the black sand beach at Vik. This beach was a little tricky to find, but worth it. It's a wide beach of fine black sand, bordered on one end by basalt sea stacks. It was a scenic spot for pictures.

We left the beach and drove next to the Dyrholaey arch and bird sanctuary. The area is supposed to be a good place to see puffins, but we were not fortunate enough to see any. We did see the amazing arch and plenty of other birds. A short distance away from the parking area is a high bluff with a gravel road up to the lighthouse. We saw cars going up and down so we decided to try it. The road was better suited to SUVs and not our Toyota Corolla, but we made it to the top and were rewarded with a fantastic view of the surrounding area, the Dyrholaey arch, and yet another black beach that stretched on for miles.

Our next destination was Skogafoss falls. The drive was amazingly scenic. We stopped at the Solheimajokull glacier and walked up the path to get a closer look. The glaciers are very old, and look dirty from all the volcanic ash they have collected over the years. You can book tours that let you climb the glacier. We saw some people returning from such a tour.

We proceeded on to the Skogafoss waterfall. Skogafoss is huge and you can get as close to it as you dare. I dared to go about 50 feet from the crashing water and got pretty wet just from the spray. After leaving Skogafoss we drove to the Seljalandsfoss waterfall. On the way we stopped near the base of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano that erupted in 2010 and stopped European air traffic for 6 days. We took pictures but the top of the volcano was not visible due to cloud cover.

We continued on to the Seljalandsfoss waterfall. At Seljalandsfoss you can also get very close, and if you want you can actually walk behind the falls. We saw a number of people do that, but the path behind the falls looked wet and slippery. Lacking good footwear we thought it best to stay on the front side. Although Skogafoss and Seljalandsfoss are named waterfalls that are popular tourist stops, we also saw many other beautiful waterfalls just driving down the road.

Our weather had been nice all day but it was raining by the time we got to Seljalandsfoss. We were getting hungry and worried that we'd get back to Reykjavik too late to eat so we stopped at a local restaurant along the way home. I had a cheeseburger that wasn't too bad. Janet's chicken nuggets however were pretty bad. Even I didn't like them. At least the fries were edible.

Friendly cows

Turf houses

Turf houses

Chapel

Mounded graves

Black sand beach

Beach and sea stacks

Not swimming weather

Looking back towards Vik from Dyrholaey

Small arch near the parking lot

Looking towards the Dyrholaey promontory

Note the huge arch on the left

Cliffs with nesting birds

Miles long black beach

Dyrholaey arch. Ships and small planes have fit thru.

It was windy at the top

Scenic drive

Scenic drive

Scenic drive

Roadside flowers

On the path to the glacier

Solheimajokull Glacier.For size, click the picture and
note the small humans near the water or on the path.

Glacier ice

Glacier Selfie

Skogafoss

Close to Skogafoss

Eyjafjallajökull volcano

Seljalandsfoss

Seljalandsfoss

Other waterfall

Other waterfall

Kanslarinn Restaurant

We didn't try the special.

Iceland - Snaefellsnes

Tuesday morning we had a buffet breakfast in the hotel restaurant. I tried some skyr, an Icelandic dairy product similar to Greek yogurt, but not the same. It was good. After breakfast we returned to the room and prepared for a day of sightseeing on the Snaefellsnes peninsula.

We headed out of Reykjavik and turned north toward Hvalfjörður (Whale Fjord). We opted to skip the 6km tunnel that spans the fjord and instead made the 60km or so drive around the fjord. The scenic drive was definitely worth the extra time.

After completing the fjord drive we continued north around the top side of the Snaefellsnes peninsula, stopping at our first 'named' waterfall, Kirkjufellsfoss. In fact we saw a number of waterfalls before even getting to Kirkjufellsfoss. Some impressive enough to be worthy of a name if they did not have one.

We stopped for fuel and lunch a little ways past the waterfall, then proceeded around the tip of the peninsula as we entered Snaefellsjokull National Park. Our weather had been good up to this point, but as we headed south along the western end of the peninsula a heavy mist pervaded the air. To our left was Mt. Snaefellsjokull, an active volcano capped by a glacier. This is the location that served as the entry to the subterranean world in Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth. I hoped to get a picture but it was shrouded in the mist. We stopped at Djúpalónssandur for some pictures of the black sand beach, then headed to the Vatnshellir cave. The hour wait for a tour turned us against staying since it was getting late and we had more stops to make.

Moving on we saw the Londrangar cliffs with hundreds of nesting fulmars. There were also supposed to be puffins, but we did not see any. We continued on to Arnarstapi to see more cliffs and the arch. We also saw the stone sculpture of the troll man Bárður. Finally we started back towards Reykjavik. This time we took the Hvalfjordur tunnel, saving some time but costing some cash.

We got back to Reykjavik in time for a late dinner at a restaurant next to the hotel. Janet enjoyed some fish & chips, and I had Icelandic meat soup with a salad. I washed it down with a mojito made with Brennivin. Tomorrow we visit the south coast.

Snaefellsnes Peninsula Pictures

(Click pictures for a larger view)

Distant waterfall

Faxafloi bay

Water cascade on the Hvalfjörður 

Water cascade

Water cascade on the fjord

Hvalfjörður 

Road hog sheep

Snaefellsnes peninsula

Unnamed waterfall seen from the highway

Kirkjufell mountain

In front of Kirkjufell mountain

Kirkjufellsfoss

Kirkjufellsfoss

Kirkjufellfoss

Scenic Snaefellsnes Peninsula

Scenic Snaefellsnes Peninsula

Djúpalónssandur black sand beach

Djúpalónssandur black sand beach

Snaefellsjokull shrouded in mist

Londrangar volcanic towers

Fulmars nesting in Londrangar clifs

Londrangar cliffs with basalt columns

Longrangar cliffs

Bárður statue

Bárður statue

Arch at Arnarstapi cliffs

Sunlight finally breaks through on the return trip

Sunlit mountainside

Iceland - Travel Day

Sunday we left for our Iceland trip. We had a 6:15 flight to Frankfurt on United, followed by a 12 hour layover before our connection on Lufthansa to Reykjavik, scheduled to arrive 11:30 pm Monday night. The United flight departed and arrived pretty much on time. Passport control in Frankfurt took a long time, but after that it was a breeze to collect our bag and exit the airport.  We had a room reserved at the Sheraton hotel connected to the airport and checked in for some time to relax and nap. We had lunch in the hotel restaurant.

We returned to the airport and checked our bag for the Reykjavik flight then went to the Lufthansa airline lounge to wait for the flight. About 20 min before boarding we went to the gate to find another flight was still in the gate and our boarding would be delayed. When boarding for our flight was finally announced we lined up and made our way to what we thought was a jetbridge, but were surprised to find we were boarding a bus to take us to the aircraft. There were stairways to doors at both ends of the plane for boarding. The plane was not very full so boarding finished quickly and there were no issues with overhead luggage space. In fact we were asked to relocate to the exit row because it was empty and there had to be someone in each exit row, so we ended up with extra legroom to boot.

In addition to the delayed boarding, the departure for Reykjavik was also delayed so we arrived in Reykjavik at 12:15 am, about 45 minutes late. We collected our bag quickly and made our way to pick up the rental car, then drove about 45 minutes to the hotel. The hotel is very nice although a bit tricky to find. We were given a nice room overlooking the main street and an arrival gift of sweets was waiting for us in the room. The room has nice amenities including bathrobes and slippers, plus a tea kettle which always makes Janet happy. We settled in quickly. It was a long trip and we were ready for sleep.

Travel Day Pictures

(click pictures for a larger view)

Skyscrapers poke above the clouds as we fly over Chicago

Midnight sunrise as we fly north toward Iceland

Super size 'roomba' in the Keflavik airport

We're here!

Looking forward to sightseeing

Outside Keflavik airport in the middle of the night

Complimentary sweets

Hotel room

Iceland Bon Voyage

We are about to depart for Iceland. It is the new hot tourist destination and United Airlines opened a new route there this year which piqued our interest. We're flying to Reykjavik (Rake yah vick) with a connection in Frankfurt each way. It's a roundabout itinerary, but it all adds to the lifetime premier status goal.

We'll have about four days of sightseeing, and have planned out the points of interest we hope to include. It's a new destination for us and sure to be an adventure.

Click for an interactive view

2018 Six Month Recap

It has been over six months since I've added anything new here. I mostly use this space for trip reports and I have had a few trips within the past 6 months. The first was to Maui in January. I don't usually report on our Maui trips since they've become an annual event, and anything I'd have to say would get repetitious. We did make this trip special by including a dinner at Mama's Fish House.

Maui Rainbow

Mama's Fish House

In February we made a quick trip to Las Vegas. This started out to be just a miles run, returning the same day without even staying at a hotel because the airfare was super cheap. However, weather turned bad in Chicago that weekend, and United posted a travel waiver which allowed us to re-book our flights for no charge so we actually ended up staying for 2 nights. To top it off I had a lucky streak in the casinos and came home ahead for a change.

Vegas Visitors

April was McDonald's biennial World Wide Convention which took me to Orlando for 2 weeks. While this was a work trip, and there was plenty of work; I also enjoyed company sponsored activities almost every night, including a visit to Universal Studios, and some nice dinner outings. After the convention was over we booked a few nights at a Disney resort and visited the Disney parks too.

Convention Visitors

Convention Visitors

In June I retired from McDonalds. Including my time as a consultant, I worked there in I/T for 25 years. McDonald's helped fuel my love of travel with business trips to Denver, Raleigh, Orlando and a number other places including international destinations like like Brazil, Germany, and Australia. The generous vacation allowance and the unique sabbatical benefit allowed for plenty of personal travel as well.

Soon we will leave for our first post retirement trip. It's refreshing to be able to plan an itinerary without concern for returning in time for work. As a result, some of our upcoming trips are longer than the 4-5 day overseas weekends we've done in the past; although the freedom to take advantage of last minute travel bargains may result in a few quick getaways. Watch this space to see what transpires.