By this Author: kjbruno

Description

Arrived Keflavik Airport Iceland.
Went to top of Hallgrim’s Church.
Visit Art Museum of pop artist Erro.
Walked inside Harpa performing arts center.
Walked along the Reykjavik coastline.

Lodging

Hilton Reykjavik Nordica
Sudurlandsbraut 2 Reykjavik 108 IS

Details

We arrived in Iceland at 6am and made our way to the hotel to leave our bags. We were tired because the flight was too short to get much sleep! But we went out to start exploring Reykjavík. The weather got better and better as we walked around. We visited the Hallgrímskirkja and went to the top which had a great view of the city. The church is kind of modern and austere but it grew on me as we saw it from all over the city. We saw the Harpa performing arts center which is quite beautiful - green glass. We were pretty beat after our walk so we returned to the hotel and took a nap. We never got the gumption to go back out so we had dinner in our room and went to bed!

Photos

Keflavik Airport Mural

Keflavik Airport Figures

Keflavik Airport Egg + Tower

Description

The Settlement Exhibition Landnámssýningin.
Reykjavík Maritime Museum Sjóminjasafnið í Reykjavík.
Late hot dog lunch at Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur.
Attempt at ferry to Viðey island. Weekday service stopped as of 9/1.
Visited The Recycled House, Home to the director of the legendary feature: The Raven Flies.
Fish-n-Chips dinner at Reykjavik Fish.

Lodging

Hilton Reykjavik Nordica
Sudurlandsbraut 2 Reykjavik 108 IS

Details

We enjoyed a great breakfast at the hotel and walked back into town. We visited the Settlement Exhibition which told the story of Iceland’s settlement age. There were no indigenous inhabitants in Iceland so the Vikings (and I guess the Irish monks) were the first settlers. Their arrival is dated at 871 AD. Right in present day Reykjavik there were remains of houses and animal pens found. The museum was quite interesting but kind of dark which brought on the sleepiness so we chose a brilliantly illuminated place next! The maritime museum told the story of Iceland’s long history with fishing (mostly cod and herring). The economy has been dominated by fishing from the beginning, really until the recent tourism boom. We had to eat the famous lamb hot dogs for lunch (pretty good). Next we went to one of Reykjavík’s several art museums. The featured artist was Erro who was a pop artist in the 60’s. Hmm. Not our favorite. Then we took a bus out to the ferry port to try to go to the nearby island but service had stopped at the end of August. We walked back along the coast and enjoyed the brilliant sunshine! Dinner was fish and chips!

Photos

Description

Kevin drove.
Pick up Budget rental car, a Hyundai i30 Sw.
Hike Glymur waterfall, second highest in Iceland.
A little trouble finding the apartment.
Dinner of spaghetti.

Lodging

Private and peaceful one bedroom apartments
Address: 15 Skúlagata, 310 Borgarnes, Iceland
Phone: +354 861 2232

Details

We walked across Reykjavik to pick up the rental car. It was a beautiful crisp morning. Then we went back to the hotel, picked up our bags and embarked on our Ring Road adventure! First stop was Glymur waterfall. It was a challenging hike involving a water crossing on a log (fortunately the log was there as the water was deep!), a steep rocky hike up (fortunately there were ropes!) to the very high falls and finally a second water crossing above the falls. The water was about knee deep and REALLY COLD! We brought our sandals along for that. Then the hike down the other side was less steep and less rocky. We drove on to Borgarnes and our first apartment lodging.

Photos

Description

Robin drove.
Visit Settlement Museum in Borgarnes.
Hiked up to base of the Bjarnafoss waterfall.
Hiked Arnastopi to Hellnar.
Short hike out to the shore at Djúpalónssandur beach.
Dinner was spaghetti with glass of red wine.

Lodging

The Bookstore Family Apartment
Address: Snæfellsás, 360 Hellissandur, Iceland
Phone: +354 865 9432

Details

We visited the Settlement Museum in Borgarnes where we learned more about the settlement era and the famous saga of Egil. He was kind of a bloody fellow, making his first kill at age 7. He came by it naturally because his father was a guy who sometimes went nuts and killed lots of folks. Egil lived to a ripe old age and had lots of Viking style adventures.
Next we hiked our second Icelandic waterfall, Bjarnafoss. This was a pretty steep hike involving some heebie jeebies but all was well in the end. As we drove toward the Snaeffles peninsula we started to see very round sheep grazing. At first we thought they were white rocks because their heads were down and they were really round! We had been warned repeatedly not to stop on the road to take pictures but it was sure tempting! We did stop in a pullout to meet our first Icelandic horse!
Next we hiked along the coast from Arnarstapi to Hellnar in the early evening. This was amazingly picturesque and the evening light was perfect. We continued toward Hellissandur making a final stop at Djúpalónssandur beach where we took a short walk and saw the remains of a shipwrecked trawler, the Epinephrine Grímsey wrecked in 1948. Five of the nineteen crew were saved. We arrived at the charming and cozy Bookstore Family apartment and cooked dinner.

Photos

Description

Kevin drove.
Went to Ondverdarnesviti to see short and tall orange lighthouses and look out over Atlantic.
Stopped at Malarif Visitor Center.
Short hike below Snaeffelsjokull Glacier just North of road 574 outside the park.
Visit Kirkjufell (Witches Hat) mountain.
Dinner was hot dogs and freeze dried Pad Thai.

Lodging

Bjarg Apartments
Grundargata 8, 350 Grundarfjordur, Iceland
Phone: +354 616 2576

Details

We left the cozy bookstore family apartment (after talking to the owner who was the grandson of the couple who owned the bookstore in the 60s). WWe arrived at the Bjarg Apartment in grundarfjordur just before 7pm and ran down the street to the grocery store with 3 minutes to spare.
We spent a very pleasant night in the apartment which was an old captains house. The current owner has remodeled and decorated it perfectly. Indeed it was like a captains quarters on a ship with everything in its place. We also appreciated the Bluetooth speaker and the comfortable bed (memory foam). We had to eat all the ice cream because there was no freezer!e drove back around the snaeffels peninsula to Ondverdarnesviti where we saw the first of two orange lighthouses. We had a nice walk on the shore and saw an ancient well. We continued around the peninsula and saw the second orange lighthouse and the place where Icelanders collected bird eggs off the cliffs. They really wanted those eggs! We drove to the Snaeffels park visitor center and center and talked to the ranger about how to get a better view of Snaeffels jokull (glacier) which was the setting for Jules Verne’s Journey to the center of the earth. He recommended we just walk toward the glacier just outside the park boundary without benefit of a trail. So we did that. It was fun and a different experience. It was evening so we drove to grundarfjordur where we planned to stay the night. On our way into town we stopped at the famous Kirjufell (witches cap mountain).
We arrived at the Bjarg Apartment in grundarfjordur just before 7pm and ran down the street to the grocery store with 3 minutes to spare.
We spent a very pleasant night in the apartment which was an old captains house. The current owner has remodeled and decorated it perfectly. Indeed it was like a captains quarters on a ship with everything in its place. We also appreciated the Bluetooth speaker and the comfortable bed (memory foam). We had to eat all the ice cream because there was no freezer!

Photos