Iceland! The land of fire and ice! And rain! And snow! And wind!
Are you ready for a fun fall trip featuring Iceland's island-sized roundabout—The Ring Road? How about a proper 21-day drive in every type of weather?
Alrighty then!
Grab a mug of your favorite invigorating Nordic beverage and settle into a cozy couch.
It's time to start this TourAlong ... It's time for an encore trip to ...
Iceland!
Let's begin ... Shall we?
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| Iceland. Blue Sky Happens! |
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The Route! The blue line marks our route, and the red dots mark places we stayed and used as homebases for day trips. Starting with the red dot at nine o'clock and moving clockwise, they were Grundarfjörður, Ísafjörður, Akureyri, Egilsstaðir, Höfn, and finally Reykjavik. In this TourAlong, I've used Icelandic spelling of placenames. So, here's a fun game to play: Say the placenames out loud as you read this post ... and use your best Nordic accent. Trust me, unless you're actually Nordic, there's virtually no way you can pronounce them correctly. It's still fun though. |
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| Roadblock I Guess* Iceland has a split personality: Half of the island wants to be North America and the other half wants to be Europe. It's literally tearing the island apart in a sometimes spectacular fashion. In the past year, fissure volcanos on the Reykjanes Peninsula (SW Iceland) have erupted seven times. Dormant for 800 years, this new active period may last up to 200 years. We made a detour after leaving the Keflavik airport to see the effects of these eruptions. Pictured above is a berm built to divert lava flows away from infrastructure that Iceland would rather not have covered by molten rock. The berms have done their job so far, but I wouldn't rush out and buy land on the peninsula for, let's say, 200 years. Mark that date on your calendar. *P.S. Kudos to anyone who gets the "Roadblock I guess" reference. |
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| Lava? No Problem! The volcanic eruptions have taken place near the Svartsengi geothermal power plant and the more well-known Blue Lagoon. The fact that both have not been consumed is due to two well-positioned large volcanic hills and the berms built in the past year. Still, the lava flows have come close ... and very close just weeks ago: The most recent eruption sent a river of lava to the west that completely covered the Blue Lagoon's parking lot. Amazingly, once the lava field has crusted over, the Icelanders will be quick to lay down new roads (like the one pictured here) and parking lots. They definitely have plenty of raw material for new roads! During our side trip, I pocketed a piece of fresh earth rock as a souvenir. I've since learned that (a) in Iceland, it's illegal to take rocks from protected areas (though this area is not one) and (b) it's illegal to bring rocks into the United States without having them inspected for microbes and such. Uh oh! The Blue Lagoon Sprayed Over Glowing Lava With Good Results. |
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| You'll Never See This Photo Anywhere Else! Ah, the solitude of a cold sunny morning near Grundarfjörður on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. Idyllic waterfalls and a pointy peak ... as long as you don't turn around. |
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| Oh! You Turned Around! The pointy peak in the previous image is Kirkjufell, likely the most photographed mountain in Iceland, made even MORE famous after it was featured as "Arrowhead Mountain" in the series Game of Thrones. The age of smartphones and Instagram has resulted in one thing for sure: crowds of people gathering to get the same shot. Fun fact: Natalie took this shot. You can find me kneeling near the top of the photographer scrum. |
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| Picture Perfect Stykkishólmur Not far from Grundarfjörður is Stykkishólmur. With just 1,600 residents, Stykkishólmur spent most of its existence as a sleepy port and fishing village. More recently, it gained notoriety as a shooting location for the 2013 movie The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. It's a fun movie featuring a number of locations around Iceland. And this notoriety leads to another new tourism pop-culture phenomenon ... |
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| Get Me My Costume! This is a weird thing. And it really is "a thing" thanks to Instagram, TikTok and other photo-sharing social media platforms. The young woman pictured here was with a vanload of young tourists all focused on getting specific shots at Stykkishólmur's harbor. In this case, we watched as a young man brought her an armload of various costumes to pose in. Others in the group used a drone to video themselves walking across a street, shooting the scene several times. We witnessed this phenomenon in Switzerland last year as well. Are the posers having fun? Yeah, I think they are. But at the risk of the pot calling the kettle black, it's annoying. Now, where's my black crime-fighter costume? The light's perfect! |
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| Road Trip! Driving is fun! Driving in Iceland is fun too! Well, except sometimes. The Ring Road's two lanes are narrow, with no shoulders to speak of, and often have drop-offs that would send a vehicle tumbling in style! Guard rails? How quaint. For excitement, add powerful buffeting winds and a rental car with lane assist that you can't turn off. Now, take all of that and add occasionally snowy conditions. The fun of the drive never ends on an Iceland Ring Road trip in October. Oh wait, here's a good one: The day we left Egilsstaðir (in the east) for Höfn (in the southeast), all I had to do was get on the Ring Road—literally just outside our hotel's front door. Instead, I drove out of town on a road I was already familiar with. An hour into the drive, we found ourselves on a 20-kilometer gravel/muddy slick and curvy road on a very cold and rainy morning ... and we weren't the only ones! It wasn't so bad, but still a bit unnerving when you're not sure how bad it might get and when it will end. Have a look here: Route 939! (Note: There's no sound on the video. Sorry, I'll bet it was entertaining). |
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| Wow! That Must Have Been One Giant Troll! The Naustahvilft Troll Seat. That guy left quite an impression ... don't you think? His seat was our destination hike near Ísafjörður in the Westfjords (Iceland's NW peninsula). |
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| Ísafjörður From the Troll Seat! Ísafjörður (pop. 2,750) is the Westfjords' largest community and has a surprising modern feel to it. The fishing industry is big here, as well as tourism. Fun fact: Ísafjörður's Wikipedia page shows that the town has produced 12 Olympic skiers for Iceland! |
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| Natalie in the Troll Seat! The trail up to the seat was steep and undefined, but the reward for an undeveloped trail was a pristine grassy boulder-strewn bowl. On the way down, Natalie slipped, got muddy, and broke her prescription sunglasses. I suggest the Troll Seat be on guard: One day Natalie will exact her revenge at a time of her choosing! |
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Wow! It's a Totally Cool 3D Crosswalk! The purpose of this optical illusion is to make drivers slow down. It most definitely did not work on me when we drove into town; I didn't notice it. But later, on a walkabout, we couldn't miss it. Today, the crosswalk is a tourist attraction. The result? Moronic tourists (us) step into the middle of the street to take photos! I guess it all works: Morons step into the street and cars have to slow down. Genius! To see it in action, view this brief video clip: Ísfjörðaur's Floating 3D Crosswalk.
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| Northern Lights, Finally! Can you believe seeing the northern lights during the day? Take a good look ... Because that's definitely NOT them! Pretty vibrant clouds though, right? With vertical bands and everything! Like our trip to Alaska last May, the aurora was on display multiple nights, but only when we were safely shielded from them by clouds. All the while, friends back home saw them several nights. Truth be told, we saw them one night ... for about five minutes in windy 19-degree weather. We weren't compelled to hang out to see if they came back. |
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Hvítserkur the Troll As the tale goes, Hvítserkur the troll was out late one night, determined to steal the bells from a nearby convent but, when caught by dawn's early light, was instantly turned to stone! According to one website, trolls, unlike elves, are terrified of Christianity. The site didn't elaborate why elves are Christian, but I'm guessing it has to do with Santa Claus. I prefer to think of Hvítserkur as a lumbering and very thirsty creature from Star Wars that can also shoot devastating laser beams from its eyes to destroy Imperial Fighters. Go Hvítserkur! |
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| Paul Bunyan Need Not Apply Iceland DOES have forests! Once upon a time 40% of the island was covered by trees. But then people (Vikings) happened, and it hasn't been the same since. Today, about 2% of the land is forested, but there's a massive reforestation effort underway. The goal? Have 12% of the land forested by the year 2100. I think they'll succeed. The 400,000 residents of the planet's 18th largest island seem to get things done ... in almost anything you can think of! |
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Akureyri The capital of the north, Akureyri, is Iceland's second-largest city coming in at a whopping 20,000 residents!* But don't let size cloud your thoughts—Akureyri is a thoroughly modern city serving as the hub for the north. It's comfortable there. *Technically, there are two other cities that are larger, but they're both part of the Reykjavik metro area. So yeah, Akureyri gets my #2 position. |
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Seeking the Smiley Face A fun game in Akureyri (and around the country) is the speed camera challenge. If you drive too fast, you get a red frowny face. If you slow down to the speed limit in time, you get a green smiley face! I often had to slow down quickly to get the smiley face, but there was true satisfaction in receiving the reward! |
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Why? Why? Why? Why, on every trip to Europe, do we encounter nude mannequins on parade in a store's display window? And why do I feel obligated to document these encounters through photos? The world may never know the answers to these compelling questions. One thing though: As long as store workers keep going home while mannequins remain "au natural," I'll keep documenting their work! |
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Oh, What a Difference a Day Makes! Four inches of snow announced winter's arrival in north Iceland. We had a good time watching a car slowly spin out of control down our street in Akureyri. The street was soon closed. The amount of snow caught everyone off guard, but the street crews were soon on the task of clearing it up. Oddly, shoveling snow from sidewalks seemed optional; some were soon sheets of ice. In the upper center of this photo, you can see hints of Akureyri's ski area, Hlíðarfjall. |
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The Queue! Faced with the prospect of driving the second half of the Ring Road in a car equipped with all-season tires on icy roads, I sent a note to our car rental company—Blue Car Rental—saying the tires weren't ideal.* To my surprise, Aron at Blue Car replied and told me to take our car to the Dekkjahöllin tire shop for a change-out to studded snow tires. Amazing! The queue at the shop that afternoon was so long that police were turning people away so the road wouldn't be blocked. The next morning I arrived at 7:00, an hour before the shop opened. I was number 21 in the queue. When they opened, it was clear the shop crew had their act together ... I had studs and was on my way at 9:10! *The Les Schwab Tires website says: "All-season tires are designed for varied but still mild conditions, offering balanced performance from spring to fall." Note, that leaves out that other season ... winter. |
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It's Beer Spa Time! The Bjorbodin Beer Spa is just up the fjord from Akureyri. The phrase "beer spa" conjures images of bathing in ... beer! And that's actually not so far from the truth. Here's how it works:
The Bjorbodin Beer Spa claims this all has a beneficial effect. It might be to our health. It might be to their bank account. Either way ... it was fun. |
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A Pool With a View You can find the Geosea - Geothermal Sea Baths out the edge of the tiny town of Húsavík, northeast of Akureyri. As you can guess, Húsavík is a fishing town. But, in Iceland's contrasting fashion, there's the PCC BakkiSilicon plant two kilometers north of town that produces silicon metal used in high-strength aluminum alloys for the automotive industry. The metal's also a primary material in the manufacture of photovoltaic modules. It's the low cost of electrical power that brought this German company to Iceland. Oh! Back to the Geosea Sea Baths ... They were superb! Featuring steamy geothermal water, views to die for, and a swim-up bar. On a sunny October afternoon with very few other bath goers, it was perfect. |
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Hverfjall Volcano Hike! Hverfjall, on the east shore of Lake Mývatn, is a volcano that erupted 2,500 years ago. Today, a 2.7-mile rim hike around the cone rim is a fun way to get up close and personal with this very cool geographic landmark. |
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A Rim With a View Looking across the Hverfjall volcano crater, you can see two people on the other side. |
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Fall Colors on a Rainy Day The river Eyvindará skirts Egilsstaðir (pop. 2,600), east Iceland's largest ... and modern ... city. Though there was a drizzle of rain during our hike, the fall colors on display were the reward! |
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What's That! You Ask? Well, it's a typical fall scene of the eastern fjords ... and included in the view is the Fjarðaál Aluminum Smelter ... yet another surprise of industry in Iceland. The island hosts three smelters because of the abundance of low-cost electricity (geothermal and hydroelectric power generation). Fun fact: Aluminum smelting consumes around 70% of the country's electrical power production! |
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Hengifoss At 420 feet high, Hengifoss is Iceland's third-highest waterfall. On a typically "variable weather" day, we were lucky to get to the end of the hike up to the falls before the clouds dropped down. |
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The Red Chair Why is there an oversized metal red chair bolted to a rock outcrop along Iceland's SE coast? No one seems to know for sure, but the Iceland Spots website says:
I'm not so sure about all of that. Our visit went like this: I turned into the small pullout, got out of the car and leapt into the wind-driven rain, took two shots, and rushed back into the car! Whoops! I forgot to "pause and reflect amidst nature's grandeur." Next time. |
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Disappearing Act! Vestrahorn and the Stokksnes beach are also visited by hundreds of people every day. Our day there maybe wasn't as picturesque as the websites show, but the sky added a dark and moody feel to the scene. Then again, we got lucky! The weather along the south coast changed dramatically—and quickly—during our three days there ... butVestrahorn stubbornly stayed cloaked in cloud the other two days. |
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Diamond Beach! Icebergs from the Glacier Lagoon flow out to Diamond Beach where the surf pounds them, leaving pieces of ice in all sizes strewn about. This one is the size of a truck. What you don't see in this shot are the dozens of people along the beach also taking pictures just behind me. What you also don't see are my very wet and cold feet. Yep! I was "that guy" who got caught by a small sneaker wave while taking WAY too many photos of this large chunk of ice. |
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Fjallsárlón Glacier The Fjallsárlón Glacier along the southern coast never disappoints. It looks like icy claws extended from a volcano dragon! |
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Mulagljufur Canyon! Mulagljufur Canyon is like an exotic Hawaiian canyon, only much colder. Getting there was a treat: Two miles on a road with a severe case of the potholes ... and then a stream to cross that we retreated from only to try again after watching others hop across with ease. Success! We overcame our whimpiness and were rewarded with this view! |
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Rudolph! Norwegians brought reindeer to Iceland in 1711, intending for them to be domesticated stock animals ... but WHOOPSIES! ... the reindeer had other ideas and went all feral on the Icelanders. Today, about 3,000 roam in the east/northeast of the country ... and we were lucky enough to spot a herd along the way. |
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Somewhere in Iceland There's Another Three-legged Lamb! Lamb shanks are delicious, and I've enjoyed one on each trip! I felt bad about Mary's little lambs, but she assured me that they regenerate limbs. That makes me feel better. I might order another. |
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Vidar Gylfason—A True Icelander! Iceland's tourist trail is a bit insular. Many of people working in the hospitality sector are EU transplants, so it's remarkable when you get to talk to a true Icelander. In the small village of Rif, on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, the Freezer Hostel is a funky hostel and art performance center. It's pretty quiet in October, but we got coffee and struck up a conversation with the nice guy above—Vidar Gylfason. Turns out, Vidar has an interesting backstory: He created a football pitch. The CINEMA APOLLÓ website summarizes the story here:
The fun thing is that Vidar and his son play themselves in the movie. If you fly Icelandair, you can watch the film in flight! We met other fun people along the trip too, like Eliska from the Czech Republic—our very helpful receptionist at Hótel Torg in Isafjördur—or Luis from Spain—our equally helpful receptionist at Berjaya Iceland Hotel in Höfn, or fellow photography buff Jerek and his dad, Dean, who we met in Akureyri when we overheard them mention Idaho, or the fun American couple we enjoyed happy hours with not only in Ísafjörður, but also in Akureyri and Egilsstaðir! They wish to remain anonymous, so I'll just call them Jim and Diane. |
Have we had enough of the land of fire and ice! And rain! And snow! And wind!??
Oh, I think it's a safe bet we'll go back to explore more of this magic corner of the world. Maybe we'll even plant some trees to help Icelanders reach their goal.
Trip photos? They're on the way. Look for a new post next week!
Until then ... Ciao!
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Nice Todd. We're visiting Iceland the first week of July on a 6-day stopover, returning from a month in Europe. Planning first and last nights in Reykjavik and four on the South Coast.
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