London to Reykjavik - 4th August

After two weeks of upheaval because of Nora's brain haemorrhage, we are finally on our way to Iceland. We left home half an hour earlier than planned because of the RideLondon event, which had closed many of the bridges across the Thames. Our driver, Audley, collected us at 9.30am and we went via the A3 and M25 to Terminal 1, where our Icelandair flight was leaving at 1pm.

The flight was uneventful and we landed at Keflavik Airport on time at 3pm.

We had booked on-line to take the Flybus from the airport to our apartment in Reykjavik. The walk from the plane to the baggage claim was quite long and by the time we reached the carousel, our bags had arrived.

We boarded the bus and took the forty minute ride into Reykjavik. As we drove out of the airport, we went past this weird sculpture which we later learned is called The Rainbow. It is by an Icelandic artist, Ruri. Apparently the sculpture, which is 24 metres high, reflects the colours of the rainbow as you move around it.

On the road into Reykjavik, we went past the Pearl, which brought back memories of our previous visit in 1994, when Wendy sang with the World Festival Choir. We reached the bus terminus on the outskirts of Reykjavik where we had to change buses.

It was then a short journey to the Rey Apartments which were located in the centre of the city.

Our apartment was on the ground floor which made it easy to handle our luggage, especially Wendy's, which weighed 21 kgs. It was quite a spacious room with a large sitting area/kitchenette and the bed and bathroom in an alcove.

As soon as we had settled in, we sent a text to Craig and Joy, who are also staying at the Rey, to let them know we had arrived. They texted back to let us know they were out in their rental car and wouldn't return until 8pm. We decided to start our sightseeing of the city.

We walked to the centre and had tea and coffee with an excellent berry tart at a cafe called Solon. Here are a few photos of the main shopping street in Reykjavik.

 

 

 

 

We walked to an open grassy area which overlooks the port. At its highest point, there is a statue of Ingolfr Arnason, the first Viking to settle in Iceland during the 10th century.

Close by, outside the old 18th century prison building that is used as the current prime minister's office, is the statue of Hannes Hafstein. He was the first native Icelander to be appointed to the Cabinet as Minister for Iceland. In the background is Harpa, the amazing concert hall and convention centre, only recently opened. We will make a special visit to see it tomorrow.

As we needed food for making our breakfast, we walked to the supermarket recommended by the man at the apartment, which happened to be close to the main church, the Hallgrimskirkja. After shopping, we visited the church, a most impressive building made of concrete, but so different from the gaunt South Bank buildings in London. This is a very beautiful, simple and extremely graceful piece of architecture. It took thirty-eight years to build and was completed in 1986.

We walked back to the apartment and then met up with Joy, Craig and Jessica for a very good Italian meal in the main street. It was good to catch up on all their news. It was then back to the apartment at the end of a long but very enjoyable day.

Reykjavik - 5th August

Today was the first of our two full days in Iceland before we board Silver Explorer at 1pm on Wednesday.

We prepared our breakfast of boiled eggs, toast and tea. It was very good indeed! Then we walked down to the port where, against an incredibly stiff wind, we struggled the last few hundred yards to reach Harpa, a concert hall and convention centre.

Harpa opened in 2010 after years of struggling to raise the finance for the building because of  the Icelandic economic meltdown. It is a truly breathtaking piece of architecture. It was designed by a Danish firm of architects in conjunction with the Danish/Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson. In 2003 we had seen a really impressive example of his art at Tate Modern; a giant sun, which was part of his Weather Project exhibit. The glass exterior of Harpa appears to change colour as you move around the building and, inside, all the walls and floors are at different angles. After spending a good hour there, I had the sensation of being slightly tipsy!

A couple of exterior photos....

 

...and the some of the interior.

 

 

 

We walked back into the town and stopped for a light lunch at Solon.

We then walked up the hill to the Hallgrimskirkja. In front of the church is the statue of Leif Eriksson, the Viking explorer, who in the 10th century discovered Vinland, now accepted to have been America.

With the wind blowing quite strongly, we took the lift inside the church to the top of the bell tower for wonderful views over the city. The tower had open windows, so the wind howled through the viewing room. We took some photos of Reykjavik from its highest point. The first is looking down on Harpa.

Looking towards The Pearl.

 

In the distance, the volcano Snaefellsjokull with its snow-capped peak.

The Nordic house just beyond the small wetlands park.

We didn't stay very long in the tower before we walked down to the bus station to book a rental car from Budget for the next day. We arranged for the car to be delivered to the apartment.

Across the main road from Budget was the Nordic House, which we reached by walking through a small wetlands bird sanctuary.  Here I am making my way through the wetlands, with the Nordic House to my right.

The Nordic House was a cultural centre, designed by the Finnish architect, Alvar Alto, and it now houses Dill, an upmarket restaurant.

Looking back across the wetlands to the Hallgrimskirkja.

We then returned to the apartment, having booked a table at a fish restaurant for the evening meal with Craig, Joy, Jessica and their Californian friends, Brion and Laura, who they met on the Silversea cruise to Antarctica in 2009.

We all met at the restaurant at 8pm for a great dinner and Craig picked up the bill!!

Reykjavik - Vik - Reykjavik - 6th August

We woke up to a beautiful sunny day. The cloud and strong winds had gone. We had our breakfast of boiled eggs, toast and tea, then went for a walk down into the centre. We decided to go to see the Town Hall, where we had been told there was a giant model of Iceland on display. On the way, we went past a shop called Nora!

It was on the edge of Austervollur, the main square in the city. In the centre of the square stood a statue of the founder of the Icelandic independence movement, Jon Sigurdsson. The struggle for independence took place in the 19^th century.

Next we visited the Lutheran cathedral, or Domkirkjan, a small unprepossessing building, but with an attractive interior.

 

We reached the Town Hall via a walkway that took us over the edge of Lake Tjornin. The Town Hall is a modern building which houses this very large model map of Iceland, that took four years to build.

 

We left the Town Hall and walked back to the centre where Wendy bought a sweatshirt. I looked at some sweaters but couldn’t find one that fitted me. Opposite was Solon, the bistro where we had enjoyed a couple of good light meals.

We returned to the apartment to wait for Budget to collect us and take us down to pick up the hire car. They arrived at just after 1pm and we collected the car, a VW Golf, and set off on a drive to see the southern coast of Iceland, aiming to get as far as Vik, a small fishing town about 200kms from Reykjavik.

The road was quite free of traffic and we made good progress. Shortly after leaving Reykjavik, we came to large lava fields with steaming vents on the sides of the surrounding hills.
 

A car overtook us and came up behind a truck, when suddenly there was a huge explosion at the rear end of the truck. The car managed to swerve to avoid a large shredded tyre that we realised had come from the truck and had just burst. It was pretty dramatic!

After about a couple of hours, we stopped on the edge of a town called Hella for a bite to eat at a roadside café. Toasted ham and cheese sandwiches, French fries and coffee were the order of the day.


The roadside cafe and our rental car.

 

The road had numerous speed warning signs and cameras. This photo is to show that I can keep to a speed limit! I should add that on several occasions, the cameras did flash, but I have heard nothing since we returned to London. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!!

We drove on and reached our first large waterfall, Seljalandfoss. As the photos show, it is a beautiful sight, made even more so by the brilliant sunshine.
 

I liked this close-up of the 'sheets' of water falling towards the pool at the base of the waterfall.

One of the many rainbows caused by the spray at the bottom of the waterfall

We spent about half an hour taking photos and then we went on to the volcano that erupted in 2010 -  Eyjafjallajokull which caused so much disruption to air traffic in Europe. The road towards the volcano ran alongside the sea at several places. It was lovely driving through beautiful scenery.

 

We reached the farm that lies directly below the volcano. In front of the farm was a lay-by where there were descriptive signs describing the events of March 2010.

 

The volcano was hidden in cloud, but we could see the edge of the ice cap that covers the summit. We visited the information centre set up by the owner of the farm and watched a very good twenty minute film about the eruption.

We continued our drive to see our second waterfall, Skogafoss. It was much larger than the first but, in my view, not so pretty, especially as the sunshine had gone and the first spots of rain were falling.

For those with good eyesight, I am second from the right, trying to take some up-close video, but I was frustrated by the spray from the water plunging into the pool, which was just a few yards in front of me.

We spent about fifteen minutes taking photos and then left. As we drove out of the car park, Wendy noticed this coach with the name 'Grimmson' on its side. We both laughed at this, because whenever I have a 'rare' instance of frustration while driving due to the ineptitude of other drivers, I refer to it as a 'grimmson' moment!

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We drove on and went past the only glacier of the drive, coming from the Myrdalsjokull icecap.

 

The remainder of the drive to Vik was, at times, in heavy rain, which was such a contrast to the start of our journey. We reached Vik at about 5.30pm. It was a pretty drab town, with a black sand beach and some impressive rock stacks offshore.

 

 
We started our drive back to Reykjavik along the same road and, as we went past the farm below the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, the clouds had lifted slightly, so we could just see the icecap that covers the mountain.

It was an uneventful journey and we stopped once to see geysers at a town called Hveragerdi. We spent ten minutes trying to find the springs and finally, owing to Wendy’s perseverance, we located them in the very centre of the town. Unfortunately the park was shut, so we had to look at the bubbling springs and steaming vents through the wire fence.

We continued on for the final hour’s driving back to Reykjavik. The drive was not helped by the setting sun being directly in our eyes. We were both relieved to arrive back at the apartment at about 8.30pm.

We had been told earlier in the day by the Silversea agent that the Explorer would dock at 5pm, so we walked down to see if it had arrived. It was nowhere to be seen. We came back into the town and had a very good dinner at Le Bistro, a French restaurant near our apartment.