My daughter Andrea has been an avid traveler for some time. I have referred to her on numerous occasions. She has traveled with my wife and me to Spain & Portugal, Ireland, New England, Taiwan, Hawaii, and most recently Alaska. She is a second grade teacher living near San Jose so her summers have given her the opportunity to travel. I tell you this because this series is about our first father/daughter trip that we have taken. Last spring the two of us were supposed to go to the Netherlands to see the tulips in April. We all know what happened to that. So this year Andrea suggested Iceland as it was a country open to tourists, and I said, “Yes.”
After our Alaska trip we were home only two days before leaving for Iceland. There was more paperwork to do because of the COVID pandemic, but vaccinated visitors were welcome so it was just a matter of showing them our records when we arrived. In fact getting through the airport in Reykjavik was one of the quickest international arrivals I have had. I suppose it helped that we seemed to be the only flight arriving at 6:00 am.
From the airport we had to get a car and also a hot spot as WiFi seemed to be spotty. The local rental car company Andrea booked through required a $3000 hold on her credit card for incidental damage. I had never had that happen before, and she was not happy with that. (It was dropped after she returned.) The hot spot turned out to be a great investment. It really helped us navigate the area easily by keeping us connected to maps.
We found a bakery open that early in the morning and got something to eat with coffee, and then we were on our way. I had two first impressions of Iceland. The first was the abundance of lupine. As I looked out the window when we landed, I could see the lupine growing along the edge of the runway. And that was just the beginning. Everywhere we traveled on this first day we saw it, sometimes fields of it stretching for a great distance. It is really beautiful, but our car rental van driver told us it only blooms during June and July. We were there at the right time for it.
The other impressions was not so positive; the weather was not cooperating with us. It was a foggy day with low clouds so the views of nearby mountains were often obscured. It never helps when a resident tells you, “The last two days have been beautiful.” Despite the weather we were ready to make this a great adventure.
Our first stop was not the most beautiful of places. However, it was an interesting place geologically. It is the place where the North American plate and the Eurasian plates have been moving apart. A bridge crosses over the gap between the two geological plates. There are short rock cliffs on the sides with sand going down the middle of the gap. I had no idea such a place existed, but there we were.
From there we went to a place more reminiscent of Yellowstone. Here there was a large steam vent from underground into a small lake area. There were smaller steam vents around the area. What is interesting is that Iceland uses this heat to produce energy. Right on the other side of the lake is an energy plant with more under construction. We were not able to visit the energy plant, but it was not the only one we saw in this part of the country. It’s great to see a country take advantage of this kind of natural element to produce clean energy.
A short drive away was a lighthouse on a hill overlooking the water. Due to the fog we could not clearly see the lighthouse from a distance. Driving past the lighthouse we came to a section of the coast that was very obviously created by lava. The rugged coastline seemed to be quite popular with the birds as a place to live.
Our next stop was to check out something new, the eruption of a volcano in the Geldingadalir Valley. We were prepared to hike to see it, but we were not prepared for the crowd. When we reached the parking area, there were probably a hundred cars there. I got out my trekking poles, and we began the hike. The hike to the lava flows is only about a mile over a wide and well traveled trail. Toward the beginning there is a fairy steep decent where I started sliding twice. Thank goodness for trekking poles. Otherwise the hike wasn’t as challenging as I expected.
We reached the lava flows, and it covered a large area. It was all black and still steaming in places. Andrea got quite close to it, and said it smelled of sulfur and was still warm. From this spot visitors can’t see the crater of the volcano. However, if one climbs even higher up two hills, one might see the crater. Today was not a good day for that because of the fog, but many people were still climbing up the hills. While part of me wanted to go up, I remembered that I had slipped on the smaller hill earlier so I didn’t think it was probably the safest thing for me to do. The fog helped hold me back that day since visibility was hindered.
So we returned to our car and decided to leave this part of the country and head out to the area around our lodging for the night which was on the west peninsula. This meant we would go through Reykjavik to find some groceries. Along the way we found an IKEA and a Costco across the street from each other. We got gas at the Costco and great sandwiches at the bakery in IKEA.
Heading north required the constant use of roundabouts. We didn’t see many stop lights around, but we saw lots of roundabouts. When we got out of the city, we were enjoying the scenery we could see below the clouds. Eventually we came to a tunnel. We didn’t think too much about it, but it kept going lower and lower and going on and on. We later discovered that the tunnel had gone under the Hvalfjörður Fjord. It descends 541 feet below sea level, and it’s just over three and a half miles long. Having just been through the Whittier Tunnel in Alaska less than a week before, we couldn’t help remember that experience.
Our next stop would be to see some interesting cliffs. These cliffs are made of basalt and are very vertical in orientation. They are called Gerduberg Basalt Columns and extend for quite some distance. What I found interesting was the plant life struggling to survive at the base of the cliffs. There are a variety of flowering ground level plants that many people don’t even notice as they look over the cliffs. Despite probably being stepped on a lot, they just keep surviving.
Just past the cliffs is an old church building, I think. Andrea thought it could be an old schoolhouse. Either way, it is a well weathered building with an old cemetery not far away.
We were ready to find our lodging for the night. This night we would stay in a cabin with views of the ocean and nearby mountains. We were not near any major towns. The sky had cleared here, and the blue sky was out, but haze still kept us from seeing distant mountains.
After settling into our cabin. we decided to walk down to the beach. We needed to traverse a field to get there. The trail down was not as clearly marked as we expected, and we encountered some of the resident sheep along the way. More frustrating were the birds. They were very aggressive and seemed ready to attack us. They were certainly unhappy with our presence.
At the beach the sand was fairly coarse, and sea kelp covered the beach in spots, but it was nice to hear the waves and feel the cool ocean breezes. It wasn’t the prettiest of beaches, but we enjoyed getting out and moving around.
On the way back we again encountered those birds again. We think they were being protective of their nests, but we really didn’t know where those were.
After getting ready for bed, I noticed that there was some color in the sky. I went outside to check it out and discovered that clouds were covering part of the nearby mountains creating a beautiful sunset. We were far enough north that the night sky is fairly short so this was a limited photo opportunity.
Our first day had gone well. We had had a number of different experiences, and the clearing skies gave us hope for another day.
This is the first of seven posts sharing our journey around Iceland. If you haven’t subscribed, be sure to do so in order not to miss any posts. If you know someone that is interested in Iceland, send them a link. Our journey includes walking behind waterfalls, hiking up in the mountains, and boating around icebergs. It’s a unique journey, and I’m glad you are along for the ride. Feel free to write questions or comments in the comment box below.
Pretty much my daughter Tamra’s experience. Thanks for sharing.
I didn’t realize Tamra had gone to Iceland. I’m glad she had a good experience.