So as many of you know, we mentioned it a few times before leaving, that we were renting a car on this trip and just driving around the island to check out all the sights. We have for sure spent our fair share of time in the car, driving hours in different directions to see everything that Iceland has to offer.
With that, came long drive times and this 2-day post as we were too tired to even try and write a blog post. So this one should get everyone caught up. (So many photos – this blog post is a little longer than normal – Enjoy!!)
Wednesday February 17th,
We headed East a chased as many waterfalls as we could. We started at Seljalandsfoss ( you can attempt to pronounce the names of places in Iceland, hopefully you have better luck than we do). There were a couple of waterfalls, one inside a cave and the other, too hard to miss from the road.
We continued down further down the road east, to check out a Hot Spring Pool that was about a 20 minute hike in and absolutely breathtaking – both the view and the chilly waters – sadly the hot spring pool was only supplied with hot boiling water from a small pipe in one corner. It was by far a once in a lifetime opportunity despite the chilly waters.
Once we dried off, and headed back to the car, we headed further east to another waterfall called Skogafoss. We many photo opportunities, we captured what we could with the diminishing light.
Our last stop for the evening, after an interesting drive – not sure if we were able to make it, as we saw others walking the 3km trip, we jumped into another crews SUV to attempt to make the trip down to the black sands beach where an old US Navy DC 3 plane had crash landed on the beach.
As evening started to fall, we headed back west to Reykjavik to grab some dinner and head to bed.
On that way back into Reykjavik, we were given the chance to check out the Aurora’s that the northern latitudes have to offer.
One fun thing we learned about the city of Reykjavik, is that if you want to go out for a sit down dinner, head out into the city before about 8pm. Everything closes so early, it was close to 1030 by the time we were in town and ready to grab food, but nothing was open so it was a struggle to find food. Thankfully we found a local pizza joint open and willing to take fresh orders. So we grabbed some to-go pizza and headed back to the hotel.
Thursday February 18th – Today.
Just like yesterday, today was another day of driving. This time we headed north and then west away from Reykjavik. We drove our way through a 5km tunnel, and out towards the Atlantic ocean. We found some cute little towns along the way, beautiful ocean side churches and steeples, and beautiful rock formations along the coast line. We found some spots, of iconic photos taken before us, and also found some horses who wanted to chill.
After getting back into town, we headed out down to the harbor to grab some “oh so fresh” fish and chips from a local shop, it turned out to be AMAZING! Best fish and chips I’ve ever had.
Back at the the hotel for the night, we are heading to bed early, as we have another long day of driving tomorrow, when we head further out east to the Glacial Lagoon, for our Ice Cave walk tour.
More photos and adventures to come tomorrow,
Until Next time
– Tracy