03-09-16

Our last day in Iceland. I think we were all pretty sad to be going. But probably also quite tired and ready for a return to normality.

We enjoyed a simple, but pleasant breakfast at the hotel and then went for a quick walk to a shallow and wide river which ran close by. The boys seemed intent on letting off some steam play-fighting for a bit longer than I had patience for....

We took a bit of a drive along a track which would take us to some caves we could walk in, but the track was very bumpy and slow and I didn't know where I was going so we turned back and drove to Husafell Hotel where we'd be getting picked up for our last excursion - a trip into an ice cave on Langjökull glacier. I was relieved when the bus arrived because this was the last planned trip - I'd been concerned that we'd miss the pick up point for each one, but we hadn't - phew!

The bus (out of the 70's), made its bumpy way along the track which meandered  up to the glacier through Mars like slate grey boulder fields. We donned another set of thermal overalls and got into the ex-army people carrier which could drive onto the glacier.

We waited our turn for the tour of the Ice Cave, which was impressive, but as a man made construction, it left me feeling a bit cold (no pun intended). Overall it just failed to live up to some of the stuff that we'd done over the past 10 days.

When we got back to the car we went over to a small arts and crafts centre which Luca had seen in the distance and recognised as being somewhere that Muse had recently visited and shot a small video in - of them playing traditional instruments. Unfortunately it was closed and we were reduced to just looking through the windows.

We drove into Reyjavik and checked into the Hilton (usual thing really, it could have been anywhere in the world), and then walked through a cold and drizzly Reykjavik and had the least enjoyable meal of the holiday. Took some photos of the Viking Boat and returned to the hotel with a heavy heart readt for an early start in the morning and full of hopeful intentions of returning soon.

02-09-16

This was to be another big driving day, the biggest of the trip and the only one in the middle of the day. We stopped at a very nicely presented folk museum on the way (replete with turf covered houses), but Ellis was sleepy and frankly not in the right frame of mind to enjoy it, so he waited outside. Luca and I wandered round and Ellis had picked up by the time we got out.

Navigation became a bit more problematic once we left Route 1, but we found the hotel ok and went off to explore a bit. We happened upon a great little gorge and had a nice walk through some ancient lava fields and then set off in search of somewhere to eat. For the first time in Iceland we struggled to find somewhere, but eventually found this great little roadside diner which did a wonderful fish for me and burgers for the boys.... It also sold a handsome selection of bow ties!

We went back to the hotel and Ellis and I played chess in the lounge - Ellis' first time, but he still beat me.

The forecast for the Northern Lights was good, but the cloud cover was increasing. We managed to get a brief, but subdued performance before the cloud cover took over and we went to bed. I vowed to check during the night and wake the boys if the cloud had disappeared - I did, but it hadn't.

01-09-16

Ellis had now pretty much reverted to computer addiction and Luca seemed to spend most of his time wandering round the house staring at nothing. It was about midday by the time we left - today would be the Diamond Circle. Unfortunately, the amazing scenery was starting to wear a little thin on Ellis in particular, but with a bit of persuasion we walked round the volcanic formations of Vesturdalur, the Hverfjall crater, the other worldy geothermal plain of Hverir and the geothermal pool and chasms of Grjotagja cave (where Jon Snow was deflowered in Game of Thrones).

The area around Lake Mývatn reminded me of the Scottish Highlands where the land is breaking up into the sea and it seems like the earth has only just formed. Except it was prettier, but more populated. I found a phone which I guiltily returned to where I found it - worried I'd spend the rest of the day arranging to meet people in order to give it to them....

We finished off the day with a dip in the Geothermal baths and then another gourmet burger at  Hamborgarafabrikkan in Akureyri.

31-08-16

Today looked like being bad weather everywhere apart from Húsavík, which was where we were going to go Whale watching, so that's what we decided to do. First though, we spent the morning looking round the Art Galleries in Akureyri, Ellis entered into the galleries feeling unimpressed, and Luca left seeming a little uninspired by what he'd seen.

The boys insisted on having a Subway - I went for a more Icelandic lamb and yogurt sandwich from a shop. Luca then felt my wrath by leaving his drink sat on the seat next to him as we drove off only for it to fall over and spill everywhere,...

As we drove to Húsavík I kept expecting the weather to improve, but it never did. The air was damp, and cold. We booked in for the whale watching trip and had a coffee downstairs. The waitress gave me the wrong order, but I did the decent thing anyway. I then felt the waitresses wrath when it turned out that I'd taken someone else's order....

We got on the boat and put our overalls and long fisherman's mac's on and took a position on the boat. They warned us that the sea was a bit choppy and that we couldn't guarantee that it would be safe for us to stay out for the full 3 hours and that we might not see anything. But the sea had looked reasonably calm and we were in good spirits as we set off.

The sea soon revealed that it wasn't as calm as it looked. The boat rocked and reeled, we all stumbled around as the water splashed and sprayed over the bow. The boys lapped it up and wanted to stand at the front - I pointed out that we had 3 hours of this experience and we should probably see how we felt in 2 and half hours.

After a while Ellis started to look a bit subdued and I started to wonder how much longer this was going to be fun for and how much worse it would get before we turned round. Luca was still reveling in it though. The staff wandered around, stumbling and sliding without care, so as to make sure everyone was OK. She pointed out that Ellis looked like he was going to fall asleep and that this was a sign of sea sickness. I was starting to feel pretty rough as well by now - that lamb and yogurt sandwich really didn't feel like a great decision. She recommended that we go to the back where it was a bit more stable. Eventually we did - though Luca still wanted to go to the front.

The back of the boat was quite congested. But quiet. Before long vomit started to appear on floor of the boat. I wondered how long it would be before Ellis or I added our flavour to it. Ellis remained quiet, stoical and determined to man through it without a word of complaint.

It very much got to the point where if they'd spotted a whale no one would have been interested. Fortunately they decided that they'd turn round. Everyone breathed a sign of relief. It felt like a long while before we reached calmer waters, but we saw a couple of Porpoise on the way, which provided some light relief. And once we did reach calmer water it was surprising how quickly the sickness subsided. Ellis soon picked up and said that it had still been a fun experience, even though he had nearly been sick.

On the way back we went to the VinBudin in Akureyri, I entered through the double secure doors and chose a few beers from the paltry selection, got served in silence by the very officious looking staff. Felt like going to a sex shop.

We wandered round Akureyri that night looking for something to eat, but failing to find something which we all wanted. I really wanted an Indian, the boys just wanted to go back to the burger place. And I can't really remember where we ended up. The boys more than likely had burger though.

One shop we went in stuck in my mind - a book shop which had a cafe in it. I love those places. Quite bohemian. And with a good selection of books in English. I found one in particular called From the Mouth of the Whale by Sjon. For some reason I didn't buy it while I was there, but ordered it from Amazon when I got back. I now regret not getting it from the bookshop, for all the obvious reasons.

We spent the rest of the evening chilling at the house with crisps and popcorn. I had 2 beers and couldn't really drink any more!

30-08-16

I got up in the morning and did a bit of exercise downstairs (I decided to stop jogging because my Achilles tendon was really playing up. I also stopped wearing my boots and started wearing my walking sandals everywhere, replete with socks...). We set off without breakfast on a fairly misty and chilly morning and headed back through the mountains to the Eastern fjords - Seydisfjordur. The drive felt quite treacherous due to narrow roads, comparatively heavy traffic, poor visibility and heavy rain. It was a sham not to be able to see much of the landscape, but it held a menace and mystery all the same.

We arrived, parked up and got some pastries (the boys had taken a liking to cinemon rolls) in a small supermarket and sat down on a small table and chairs (in the supermarket), to eat them. Ellis also spent 10000kr on some sweets in the shape of a pizza! We strolled down the main street with it's multicoloured path and funny little artisan shops selling a mix of home crafted wares, nice, but expensive ornaments and high-class tat. Luca was initially quite taken with the shops, but seemed to grow weary of them when realised that they weren't particularly urban, and Ellis was weary of the place as soon as we stopped eating the pastries. Some of the shops were just in people's houses, mostly run by young people who had the air of having visited there several years ago and deciding never to leave. The buildings were all in a Dutch style, having been shipped over there by the settlers many years ago.

We stopped for a coffee and cake in a great little traditional cafe (I had a cake with apricot and pistachio - lovely). Then we set off back from whence we came and continued to the next house in Akureyri.

Along the way we stopped at Goðafoss falls, which were more in the Niagra style, but still compact enough to have some beauty and impact. Ellis took some slow shutter speed shots to capture the movement. On the way back to the car we stopped so that the boys could add to the collection of stone pillars that people had created with the crumbling, but very grippy rock.

We drove through Myvatn ( i was hoping the boys would sleep through this bit as we'd be returning in a day or 2), and carried on to Akureyri and straight to the house. It was a great little place, the location wasn't quite as nice as hoped (quite a few house littered the side of the hill), but the design of the outside and inside was very Scandinavian, cool, spacious, comfy (although the tele was in a very strange position on the wall and only had about 3 channels, all in Icelandic). It also had wifi access, and a Mac..... I'd still not managed to find a VinBudin when one was open, so I was relieved that there was some beer in the fridge. They also had some nice tea and great coffee.

The air was still quite damp and cool outside as we set off to Akureyri to check it out, go to the supermarket and get some tea. In search of decent sized supermarket that was still open at 7pm we went past the Masonic Lodge which sparked an interesting conversation about the Freemasons. The supermarket we settled on was fairly uninspiring, but had the basics. We got more cinamon rolls and I got a some rye bread and a couple of cheeses for breakfast.

We quickly settled on a grill for tea, which did a fantastic range of gourmet burgers - I had a surf'n'turf one which was ace. 

At the petrol station I finally saw some baseball caps with Iceland on the front - they were a bit chavvy, but they were all we'd seen. When Ellis saw them a few days later, he concluded they weren't for him. I couldn't convince him to get one of the traditional woollen, over the ears hats either.

We spent the evening chilling out at the house. I read my book on the history of British mountaineering and the boys took turns on the Mac.

29-08-16

I got up and went for a bit of a jog. I was pretty stiff though, didn't warm up and suffered from running on the hard paths and roads, so I didn't go far and in fact decided that I'd better not jog any more on the holiday because I was doing my Achilles tendon some damage! Either way, had an enjoyable(ish), run round the marshes and water towers of Hofn.

The breakfast was very compactly laid out, but was actually deceptively good - especially the small pots with muesli and Skyrr yoghurt in them and the small squares of carrot cake!

We had some time to burn in the morning so we went up to Husserl to go in some hot tubs. However we changed our mind when we get there and Luca and I took a small walk to a glacier tongue while Ellis read his book. We then travelled in the opposite direction to the Viking Cafe, which had an old viking village film set which you could walk round.

One the way we saw a deer which was probably a reindeer (I'm not sure). Luca was sleepy and somewhat underwhelmed, but Ellis and I tried to get close to it, as it slowly ambled off into the fields.

The walk to the viking village was along an small but impressive mountain and the village itself was intriguing, though falling to pieces a bit.

We then travelled in the opposite direction a bit to the starting point for the Snowmobile tour of the glacier. Ellis got himself tangled up in his coat and came out with probably the best utterance of the holiday (in my opinion), when he queried "Dad, where are my hands?" Given the boys' seeming inability to find anything up to that point without my assistance, that kind of amused the hell out of me!

The drive up to the start of the snowmobile tour was in one of those large vans on huge wheels that we'd seen through the week. As we gained height the views out to see were impressive and driving along the winding road was exhilarating and a bit scary.

When we arrived at the top we put on helmets and more overalls. We eventually got sorted where Ellis travelled on the back of my snowmobile and Luca travelled on the back of the guide's snowmobile (behind another girl).

The weather was perfect, blue sky interspersed with perfect white clouds. The snow surrounded us as we travelled at pace in a long convoy, I pulled the throttle and happily exclaimed "This is Fucking Awesome!!!". And it was!

We stopped a couple of times, high up on the glacier, before returning to the hut, where the boys had a coke and I had a bottle of Vatnajokull which is brewed using water from icebergs. It was crazy expensive though!

When we were dropped off back at the car park on Route 1 we then travelled back in the opposite direction again to our next destination on the east coast.

We stopped to eat in a very authentic feeling little fishing village (which I can't find on the map), in a fish and chip place which did wonderful fish in a batter which was seasoned with saffron. There were no seasonal staff here, it felt very Icelandic.

We continued our journey to Egilsstaðir through the mountains as the sunset and produced a magical orange and pink hue to the sky, the rivers and mountains. I hope I'll never forget it.

We were short on time, but stopped at Ellis strong request at possibly my favourite waterfall of the holiday (which, again, I can't find on the map). It was short and stubby, but powerful, fast and perfectly formed in the mountain side. The boys scrambled ahead and I struggled to keep up as we headed toward it. A few quick photos and then back in the car.

It got gradually darker and more enigmatic as we drove higher and deeper into the mountains, but I got gradually more stressed as it started to look like we might miss the close of reception at our next hotel and not only did we lack phone reception to give them a call, but my phone was running out of charge. And the road itself was pretty difficult and not something I wanted to be rushing or driving in the dark.

Through team work of Ellis trying to charge the phone (the car wasn't playing ball) and trying to phone the hotel, and Luca checking navigation on the iPad and my going as fast as I dare, we managed to get to the hotel on time. It was a shame to have to rush through such beautiful scenery.

We saw another bird trying to get itself killed on the road as we approached the reception and also ptarmigan (with it's furry feet), which was running like crazy to avoid the car.

The man on reception made us laugh by being very serious and officious when giving us the keys, but then doing a funny Mr Bean run outside immediately after.

The accommodation was kind of a cottage, but kind of a shed. It looked cool from the outside- like a silvery triangular shack, but was a bit drab on the inside (Ellis thought it was cool though).

There was a TV with about 3 channels on it. We watched The Flintstones for a bit and then went to bed.

28-08-16

I went for a jog before the boys woke. I ran through the bizarre, moss covered moonscape behind the hotel. I followed what looked like a motorcycles path for fear of getting lost. Eventually I came to track which I followed to the road and then ran toward some basalt cliffs before returning to the hotel. The boys were still sleepy, so I read my book (on the history of mountaineering), in the reception. An annoying asian american girl was talking to her boyfriend on the phone "Awwww, you're sleepy, you need a hug, I miss you, do you miss me?" etc....

We went to breakfast, there was a space where there should have been scrambled egg (Luca's addiction), which was eventually delivered, but wasn't to Luca's exacting standards. We packed and set off from probably the least inspiring hotel of the trip to go to Skaftafell national park, where hopefully we'd be able to do a walk to another glacier tongue.

We parked up and went for a walk to the tip of Skaftafellsjökull. It was another glorious day, but Ellis didn't really appreciate doing the walk (we'd seen glaciers before....). It was also a little disappointing when we got back and first saw a route which would have taken us to a glorious waterfall which I'd wanted to go to and second discovered that the other glacier tongue we could have walked to was the one used in Batman Begins. Dang it!

I'd been panicking mildly during the walk about my petrol levels which had suddently plummeted on the morning;s drive. But we soon found a petrol station, filled up and set off to Jökulsárlón lagoon.

As we travelled with awe inspiringly jagged arettes of the mountains on our left (like sharks teeth), we could see the weather closing in infront of us and before long we were under thick cloud. The cloud stayed with us and looked increasingly like rain as we parked up at Jökulsárlón. We went into the very congested cafe (like so many of these places, it was just a very basic portakabin - tourism seems to have taken Iceland by surprise), grabbed something to eat as it started to chuck it down. Luckily the rain had pretty much stopped by the time we were due to start our boat ride on the lagoon, but it was still pretty cold. Even more luckily, the guides gave us some thick waterproof overalls to put on. We looked pretty funny in them, Luca looked like a Martian Robot from a 60's Sci-Fi film, and Ellis looked like a TellyTubby - especially when he ran!

We got onto the Zodiac (one of those speedboats with inflated rubber around the edge of it), and sped off into the lagoon. We rode in between and all around the icebergs which had broken off the glacier. They were huge, much bigger than a house - and that was just what we could see, 90% of each iceberg was invisible under the water. And as they melt and their balance changes, they could tumble over at any minute. At first they are blue and glass like, but as they start to melt they turn white.

We went right up to the glacier and could see where the icebergs had broken away. Apparently, only a few decades ago the glacier had gone all the way up to the bridge. We watched some seals wallowing on the icebergs.

Afterwards, we went straight to our next hotel in Hofn. This one was a converted Dairy, but you really couldn't tell.It had all been done very recently - would have been a bit more impressive if they finished painting the outside, but the inside was great. Our setup was on 2 floors. Very cool.

It was pretty cold and dreary, but we went into Hofn in search of somewhere to eat. Everywhere looked a bit posh for us,but I read about somewhere in the guidebook which sounded like it would be a bit more suitable - a takeaway/cafe which did good burgers and also good (and relatively cheap), Lobster baguettes. It was pretty cramped, but quite cool in a really basic kind of way. We waited for ages to get some seats, but eventually did and it was well worth it.

we went for wander after and then went back to the hotel. We all read quietly in bed (poor old Luca has a Shakespeare play to read....), and I had a drink of the Icelandic Whisky which I'd bought at the airport - it was horrible (like licorice), and I haven't touched it since.