I’ve been wanting to go to Iceland for awhile: the land of fire and ice! I finally made it happen as a 5-day stopover on our way to Norway to visit family. Iceland Air offers free stopovers of up to 7 days. We flew out of Toronto because of good prices and a relatively short drive (5 hours). Iceland was amazing – both the scenery and the people! I can’t wait to go back again.
Day 1 – Reykjanus Peninsula and Reykjavik
We arrived at the airport in Keflavik at 6:30 in the morning; our checked bags arrived quickly. Our car rental was with Greenmotion, which is not located at the airport (most companies are). I dug out the rental car paperwork and used P’s phone to call the number for the shuttle. It did arrive fairly quickly, but having to take a shuttle was a hassle. The Greenmotion building looked sketchy and smelled strongly of cleaning solution or diesel. They really pushed the extra insurance, especially for rock chips in the windshield, showing graphic pictures of damages caused by wind and sand storms. The damage deposit was over $2500. Our first car had numerous warning lights on the dash, so we returned it after driving for about 15 minutes. We got the second car and went in search of breakfast.
We used my road map of Iceland and my Lonely Planet guide to guess where we might find a restaurant. We ended up driving south along the west coast on routes 44 and 425. We pulled off the road at what a sign about bird life said was Hafnir and Ósabotnar, and walked down a crumbling concrete pier. At 9:15 A.M., it was just starting to get light, and we could see the lights of a town in the distance. The black lava was such a nice contrast with the blue water and brownish-green moss. R was fascinated with the black rocks and insisted on collecting some. I relented with the understanding that we would not be carrying them home.
About 15 minutes later, we turned off the road again, following a sign indicating a point of interest. It turned out to be the Bridge between Continents, which I had been trying to get us to, but didn’t realize we had driven that far. Here, a bridge spans a fissure between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. It was worth the stop and the short walk was invigorating in the cool morning air.
A bit further on, we again followed a sign off the main road that lead us onto a gravel road. It turned out to be a hot spring and steam vent called Gunnuhver, named after a female ghost who was vanquished by being lead into the spring. It was a great place for photography, with the remnants of an old boardwalk that appear to have been destroyed by the geothermal activity.
We pulled into the small fishing village of Grindavík, where we drove around for a while before finding the Bryggjan, a wonderful little café coffee shop. We were a bit shocked by the prices on the limited menu, but discovered later that they were pretty normal for Iceland. We paid $32 for two open-faced fish sandwiches and a bowl of lamb soup. The soup was fabulous. I wanted to eat more because I was still starving, but my stomach was feeling the effects of jet lag and lack of sleep. The owner was incredibly friendly and told wonderful stories about the area, the harbor, and about the fishermen currently being on strike. Fishing has always been Iceland’s biggest industry, but tourism is fast surpassing it. He told a story about how construction on a building down the street had been altered to accommodate a rock inhabited by Huldufólk (hidden people such as fairies and elves). He even drew us a map, so we went to check it out. It was a grass-covered rocky outcrop in a parking lot, with just enough space to walk between it and the building. There was a garage door in the building that was inaccessible due to the location of the rock.
The owner of Bryggjan suggested that we take route 42 to Reykjavík instead of the more popular route 43, which passes the Blue Lagoon. It brought us past some spectacular scenery along Kleifarvatn Lake. P (who graciously offered to drive on this trip so I could take pictures) was getting really sleepy by now and we hit some slippery, steep roads, so we didn’t make any more stops. The traffic in Reykjavik wasn’t too bad and we easily found our hotel, Hotel Orkin.