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.

27-08-16

We woke earlyish again (about 8), and had breakfast in the barn. Ellis made himself a cheese and ham sandwich, Luca just kind of picked at a few things, saying he wasn't hungry  (and surprise surprise, was caught red handed with his hand in a bag of crisps half an hour later), I made the most of the free food - particularly the muesli and sour milk and the oddly chocolatey rye bread.

Now that the visibility had improved (though it was still a bit drizzly), we could see mountains from our room. I later realised that the 3 points of light I'd seen the night before were from the sun setting as making itself visible only in the valleys between the mountains.

Today was going to be our biggest day in terms of things I wanted to cram in - a visit to Seljalandsfoss, the glacier walk (I was really worried that this would be too much for Ellis, particularly if it was raining), and a walk on Vik beach (I desperately, desperately wanted to do this, but was realistic that Ellis might be knackered after the glacier walk).

Ellis continued his habit of falling asleep nearly as soon as we started to drive somewhere. We made our way to Rte 1, which we would then continue on all the way round Iceland. The scenery here was somewhat typical of Northumberland - nice, but not massively impressive, I hoped for more drama later. I was however struck by how many horses there were in the fields, hundreds of them. Were they wild? I'm not sure.

I tried my damnedest to keep under the speed limit. At one point we passed a police car which was lurking at the side of the road. I was reassured by the fact that most other people seemed to be going faster than me. 90km an hour actually started to feel like a good leisurely pace.

The scenery started to get more dramatic(i.e. mountainous), as we approached our first stop - Seljalandsfoss. I stopped at the side of the road to take a quick pic. As I drove off I wondered why some hitch hikers were staring at me. We turned into the lane which would take us to the car park, there was a clatter at the bag of the car and Luca exclaimed that "The boot's open!". I immediately stopped, and jumped out the car, but without putting the handbrake on... the car rolled forward, the boys screamed (and laughed!), I jumped back in and put the brakes on. Luckily nothing was lost and only a small dent in one of the flasks was sustained. Phew!!!

After collecting ourselves we parked up, putour waterproofs on and walked toward the waterfall. This one was high and thin and you could walk all the way round the back and get a bit wet in the process. The water fell with a terrifying force and I wondered if anyone had ever tried to swim where the water hit. We walked around a little, Ellis took some more slow shutter photos and we set off for our next destination - the Glacier Walk.

On the way we stopped briefly at an exhibition about Eyjafjallajökull where the 2010 volcano eruption had been. I made use of the toilet (I seemed to need to go for a pee every 30 minutes). And then we stopped at a cool little road side cafe. I got the binoculars so that we could look at the impressive mountain sides to our rear. We argued about the correct way to set them up and then our food arrived. Luca had an Icelandic Hot Dog, with all the toppings (although they put all the toppings under the hot dog, which is actually a really good idea!), and Ellis had a pizza which was far too big for him (I ate most of it), and I can't remember what I had.

We got to the glacier (the Sólheimajökull tongue of Mýrdalsjökull nice and early. And the weather was in good form. I fretted that the guides weren't going to turn up, but they did. There were about 15 people doing the tour of mixed nationalities, ages and abilities. We got kitted out with crampons and axes (though we never really needed the axes), the guides commented on my boots (which were massively over specced for the walking we'd be doing on this holiday), and rucsac and we later had a quick chat about hill walking and mountaineering.

The walk was excellent. The glacier instilled a real sense of "sublimed awe and terror" in me. It was huge, cracked and broken, like the back of a large lizard it looked like Godzilla was slowly descending between the mountains. In small patches it was a perfect azure blue, but particularly toward the bottom it was scattered with lines of dark rock dust. We walked along lines of ice between the crevaces, gradually rising to nearly the highest point of the glacier. They pointed out how much higher the glacier had been about 20 years ago and it was pretty shocking. I'd been lecturing the boys about global warming that morning and was hoping that some of it was sinking in.

We dipped our heads in meltwater which ran in streams along the surface and drank from it - it had frozen 500 years ago, before polution existed in the world. We followed the stream and then walked into a large chasm it had created and through a small, narrow cave it had formed. Magic.

The boys loved it. Ellis said it was the most amazing thing he'd ever done.

We drove to Vik (Ellis had another sleep). We found somewhere to eat - the boys had a really nice pasta and I had the best lamb I've ever eaten.

I was really happy that Ellis had plenty of energy to go for a walk on Vik beach. Particularly as the sun was setting and it was a gorgeous evening. The beach really didn't disappoint. The sand was splinters of basalt, so was dark grey when dry, but rich black when wet. We scrambled on the columns which ran up the cliff edge (though I wouldn't let the boys go as high as they wanted), walked through a large open cave, bouldered on the cliff and then walked along the beach to the other end where there were more rocks to clamber on. Brilliant.

The drive to our next hotel was done first during dusk and then night. The dusk portion was beautiful, especially looking over the immensely flat landscape which seemed to continue for ever as you looked out to sea, but was cut short by the sudden introduction of mountains as you looked inland. It would have been lovely to pause here for longer and walk in the huge flatness, but it was also wonderful to drive through it, especially as we seemed to be the only people in the road. As we continued though, it was truly disappointing to have to drive through what was clearly beautiful scenery, littered with waterfalls, which you could tell were there, but not enjoy in the darkness.

We parked up at the next hotel, which was in the middle of nowhere. Grabbed our stuff and went to bed.

26-08-16

We got up reasonably early, packed our stuff and went to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast....!

We headed off on a circuit of The Golden Circle. First stop was Pingvellir, where the first ever democratic parliament was held. It's also a national park and place of beauty. We did a quick hike through a gorge/crevasse and up to a cliff top to take in the views. You got a real sense that the much of the scenery is still in formation, from the fact that the paths needed to be rebuilt frequently (we saw the same thing yesterday). In addition to the dramatic and majestic scenery, I was also struck by the amount of super-size 4x4 and camper vans. And also the number of American tourists. There were also a lot of Danish/Dutch/Norwegian/Germans. I was also struck by the portaloos...

The boys were up fo ra doing a decent proportion of what was on offer, but not exhausting all possibilities (i.e. checking out all the churches, all the cliff tops, all the lakes etc). We did add a nice waterfall to the hike though - Ellis was keen to do some slow shutter speed photography.

Next stop was Geyser. We grabbed some lunch (I was strictly rationing portions as the cost of everything was so high), and set off to find it. I insisted that we stare at a small bubbling pool for a while, mistakenly thinking that it would spurt large volumes of water into the air any minute - I was wrong. Luca pointed out that large volumes of water was spurting out from one behind us, so we went there instead... It was impressive stuff. I kept wondering if anyone had ever thrown themselves in it, or even worse, pushed someone else in! I encouraged the boys (and myself) not to fall into the trap of concentrating so much on the act of photographing it , that you never actually looked at it, so on the final spurt that we watched, we banned photography. Perhaps the most memorable bit for me, was the vivid blue of the water as it gave it's final bubble after it's spurt - I guess it was because the water was creating a convex shape at that point and therefore reflecting more light, but maybe not....

In other "geysers" you could see deep into the caves below the water. The water itself was very clear and seemed to refract the light well, so the inside of the cave was quite bright.

We continued on our voyage to Godafoss - a large waterfall which was something like Niagra Falls. First things first - we looked for where Matt Bellamy had sat when he vistied the falls (wht the rest of Muse), last week. Shock - it was in an area where we weren't supposed to go. The falls were impressive, but not as beautiful (in my opinion), as others that we'd see.

In the parking area I looked over the low mountains in the distance and was struck by the low cloud which hung beteween them. I then realised that it wasn't cloud, but was actually a glacier. Even from that distance it struck a note of terror in me.I found it strangely transfixing.

It was only about 4pm, but we drove to the next hotel and checked in. The accommodation was on a farm, it felt a bit being on a campsite, but the room itself was more like a small lodge, or at least in a terrace of lodges. Mainly because it was all wooden walls, ceiling and flooring - kind of Scandinavian. More cosy than the room we stayed in the night before. The reception area was built on the side of the cow shed and in fact the restaurant had windows which directly overlooked the space where the cows ate their hay. Nevertheless, for dinner we all had (another), burger - in fact we all felt that it was probably the best burger we'd ever had! And the cows didn't seem to mind at all...

As we started to walk back to the room I said that I didn't know what we were going to do now, but said there was another geothermal pool nearby which we could go to if they wanted. They were both up for it, so we drove into the nearby town. As we parked up we could see steam rising from outlets of water that went into the nearby lake. We tested them and the water was pretty hot. My intention was to go to the cheap pool, but it was closed, so I ended up forking out for the cool, spa pool instead. Luckily it was well worth it.

The boys got the giggles (visibly), as they walked past me and a bunch of other men showering naked, much to the confusion of the other men. There were a series of pools of varying temperatures, right up to "hot bath" hot. The nicest one had rocks in it and a "natural" feel to it.  In addition to the waterfalls, steam rooms etc there was also access to the lake outside. We figured that this would be warm because of the geothermal activity. WRONG! It was bloody freezing! Luca and then Ellis did a pretty good job of dunking themselves in, but I was decidedly more wimpy. A rather large local gentleman put us all to shame though by walking straight on the pier, jumping in and swimming into the centre of the lake.

Ellis got rather excited at one point as he pointed into the lake "Dad, Dad, seals!", but it was actually 2 ducks... Nice try though.

We were pretty tired on the way back to the hotel. It was pretty dark, but in the distance there were 3 patches of light, almost like 3 suns setting. I couldn't explain it and decided I needed to ask the reception staff what it was in the morning. and had another pretty solid night's sleep.

25-08-16

We had an early start to get to Manchester Airport. I figured that 4am should do it and in practice this worked out pretty well. We set off with printed itineraries and booking confirmations printed and placed in chronological order in an A4 binder (a middle aged level of organisation, but very effective). The journey was pleasantly uneventful until we arrived at Keflavik and had to wait 2 hours to get the car. I can't remember if I booked a 4x4, but that's what we ended up with and very suitable it tunred out to be - accept maybe for the annoying voice over for the Sat nav - I presume it was in Icelandic, but I'm not sure, all I know is that we couldn't turn it off!

Luca provided a comedy theme which ran for the duration of the holiday when he said that everything was very Artistic in the airport. But Ellis and I both thought he said "Autistic". So as a consequence, Ellis and i spent the entirety of the next 10 days commenting at how Autistic everything was. Which it was.

We were booked into the Blue Lagoon at 2pm, but had plenty of time to do a quick tour of the South West. It was overcast but visibility was OK,  the area itself  looked similar to expected - like Mars, crusty, fairly flat overall, but very uneven and broken structure where the lava had hardened and with a general covering of greenish moss over the dark grey rock.

We stopped at the Bridge over Two Continents (which spans the American and European tectonic plates and then drove on to Gunnuhver where steam came shooting through a vent and we got our first smell of sulphur. We also took a walk along the nearby cliffs.

The boys were suitably excited and engaged and the noisy and smelly vents were providing suitable amusement. Ellis also didn't complain too much about walking up the cliffs, which was also a good sign.

We arrived at the Blue Lagoon, took a walk round the blue sulphorous pools outside and then went inside for a dip. The boys were unsurprisingly freaked by the need for naked showering before entering the pool, but there were changing rooms for them so we were fine.

We had a good wallow in the pool, under the waterfalls, floating on foam things, under the cave, etc, etc - good fun all round.

By now Ellis had adorned himself with his Ibiza cap and new sunglasses. These stayed on for pretty much the whole trip. He was intending on getting an Iceland cap,but we never really found one. My only concern with the sunglasses was that they were probably changing the colour of everything!

The boys slept on the way to Reykjavik and I enjoyed the views through the lava fields. I wish I'd stopped to take pictures here because although I thought the terrain would be the same throughout, it was actually quite unique - even for Iceland.

It was drizzling when we arrive in Reykjavik. I struggled to find the hotel, so we parked up and walked to it. The reception wasn't run from the same building, so you had to phone them and then they'd give you a number to access a safe so that you could get your key, weird, but actually quite effective. The room was as funky as expected. The bar it was attached to was closed, and I was quite pleased because the soundproofing was little more than a curtain so I'm guessing that it would have been quite noisy.

Reykjavik was not as I expected. I giguredit was going to be very contemporary, cool and polished. In practice it very much felt like an outpost, a settler town, or the location where a bunch of hippies had had a rock festival and then decided that they liked it so much that they were going to live there and had thrown up a bunch of shacks and settled down. It was cool and interesting, different, unique, but not what I was expecting. Out of the centre there was a more of a modern feel, but the centre itself was quite different.

We found a funky little bar and got some burgers. The first girl that served us immediately spoke to us in English. I laughed and asked how she could have known that we were English just from looking at us, but she said that everyone just spoke English there - and she was right. In fact as we travelled around you would constantly hear people who worked in the bars and hotels constantly talking English to each other because they were all seasonal workers and English was their common tongue. I asked the waitress for the correct pronunciation of Takk (Thanks), which she provided but I soon gave up trying to use more Icelandic words because when I asked other people for advice they invariably told me that they didn't know, because they weren't Icelandic - and clearly didn't speak it either! This made communication very easy,but it would have been good to have felt a bit of pressure to learn and speak a few words.

The burgers were good. But horrifically expensive.

We wandered round for a while and checked out the buildings and the graffiti then we went back to the hotel.We watched a bit of TV - The Chase (!?!?!?!), and went to bed.