Land of Ice.....and Green

After 3 weeks of history, nostalgia and emotion it was time to switch gears and see the beauty in the world. Unfortunately our introduction to Iceland was the travel day from hell. I already posted the detail on Face Book so I won’t repeat myself but let’s just say that it took more than 16 hours and a boat load of frustration to get here but we made it relatively unscathed and started our adventure with a lot of anticipation. We had been told to expect everything to be expensive here, especially food but we really weren’t prepared for $20 hamburgers. They were really good burgers but….
After a quick bite and grocery shopping for breakfast and lunch food items we made our way to our lodging for the first night in Reykjavik, Iceland. This is the largest city in Iceland and is fairly spread out. We found the Maxhouse on the outskirts of town amongst all new housing with continued construction all around. Our room was below a private residence with 3 other rooms sharing a beautiful kitchen facility.
It was the perfect layout and we were very comfortable. So far so good, considering all of the difficulties with our travel. We left fairly early the next morning to start our Iceland experience. Since we arrived late we headed into town to see Reykjavik and visit the Tourist Information office. Although Iceland has become a major tourist destination there is really very little information about specific sites to be found online. We visited the Hallgirmskikja Church. Yes I know, get used to it. The next week will be full of names we can't pronounce with far too many consonants. Just put yourself in my shoes trying to blog with some semblance of accuracy.

Anyway this church is amazing and was constructed to resemble the volcanic basalt columns that dominate much of the landscape here. After walking part of the town and gathering some information we headed out to take the long road toward our accommodations for the next 2 days. I had scoped out a couple of waterfalls along the way but the scenery kept us stopping and gazing in awe for much of the trip. The roads are great and the driving was easy with minimal traffic and courteous drivers, a real delight after the traffic and rudeness that Scott has had to endure behind the wheel for the past 3 weeks.

We even drove 7 km under water. Yes a tunnel under the sea. A little creepy if you ask me. What we found out early on is that there are wonderful things to see around every corner so keep your eyes open and don’t just focus on the destination. We stumbled on the “Troll” waterfall next to a motel with a hiking trail with a lot of “Troll” lore. We are quickly finding out that this culture is based on mysticism, legends, mythical beings and Sagas (ancient stories we assume are based on truth.) We were really excited for the waterfalls and they are beautiful but we found out early on….don’t try to count them all. There are so many that we stopped counting the first hour.

Many are unique like the twin falls of Hraunfossar and Barnafoss. By the way…Foss is waterfall in Icelandic. Hraunfossar is unique that it is not a waterfall in what we consider the traditional sense. Although it is along a river it comes out of the side of the bank between 2 layers of lava from previous eruptions. According to geologists it has been flowing at its current rate since 800 AD. It is one of the coolest things we have ever seen. Barnafoss is just a little upstream and is more traditional since it is a fall in the river itself tumbling over the rocks on its way down the hill.

After a long day of exploring we headed to the Englesvadik Homestay to check into our lodging for the next 2 nights. I won’t go into any details but after a great first day in Iceland we were a bit disappointed with how rustic our lodging was considering the price of everything here is so high but we made do and took advantage of the shared kitchen to make dinner since $60-70 US per person for dinner seemed a bit extreme.
Day 2 we spent driving around the entire length of the Snaefellsjokull Peninsula. Once again we had a few “hot spots” that we wanted to check out and again we were more

enthralled with those sites that weren’t even on the radar so to speak. We stopped counting waterfalls at 50…no lie. Many were small trickles on the mountainside but a great deal of them were significant and visible from miles away. It was even sunny and warm at one point. The one common factor was the wind. Apparently there are more rental cars damaged by doors getting ripped open in the wind than anything else. Despite the wind the views were stunning and we had many “Oh, Wow!!,” moments along the way. We even stopped to feed some wild Icelandic horses some cucumber…which they loved incidentally.

What we have found the most incredible so far is that the scenery and topography is so diverse. Much of the area is tundra and gnarled volcanic wasteland but it is adjoined by high mist covered volcanoes, glacier covered rock faces melting down into rushing waterfalls, lush fields and rugged coastline with crashing waves. All of this is melded together into the beautiful, mystical place we are discovering here in Iceland.