Regn, snjór, sól og vindur

Today we took a trip around the center of the city today. Walked in the rain and wind. We were going to go to Cafe Loki today but it was packed and no seating was available so we decided to make our way back. We stopped in at a little shop and browsed through some cards and mugs. Ended up getting a few things. One included this amazing book!

Right as we were getting ready to leave it began to snow! 

In Iceland just wait five min and the weather will change!

We are going to take it easy for the rest of the trip. So not much to update with. The first few days were busy and active. Not that these last few days have not been active. 

We will be leaving on Saturday around 4-ish and arriving sometime around 6pm in MSP.

Well!

That is all for now!

-Tveir Ferðalangar-

Hálfleikur

Today is break day! It is the 5th day of Iceland and it has been full of adventure and great weather. So naturally one needs to take a slight breather from all the excitement. Today´s post will just be a recap summary of general things weather etc.

The weather her has been chilly and windy. The wind has generally been coming out of the north which in Iceland is the coldest wind. Though it has been chilly, overcast at times and windy, it had not rained until yesterday. It is better not that you look at the forecast cause it changes every 20min. The few days before we came over I was looking at the extended forecast and one day it would say sun and warmth everyday but the next day it would change to raining everyday. I have just decided that you can look at it as a reference. That it could be rainy, it could be cloudy and that is about all you can do in regard to the weather.

The location of the hotel is great. It is in the business district and so the weekend when we arrived it was not busy and peaceful. It is also right by the bay so you can walk out and see the water and islands easily. The hotel is also not too far from the center of the city which makes walking there much easier.

People of Iceland. Icelanders are very nice and welcoming. There has been no real language barrier, all the places we have been thus far have spoken english.

The plans for today are to relax go to a cafe around noon and then go to a restaurant for dinner. So very relaxed indeed.

I am sure I will do a secondary post this evening of the events of today.

-Tveir Ferðalangar-

Seltún, Kerið og Öxarárfoss

Like every morning we woke up at 6:30am and went down and had breakfast. This morning on the other hand was a hard one. We were both super tired and exhausted from a Sunday of lots of walking and a Monday of getting sick at sea. 

 

We walked to the BSÍ which is just the central bus terminal where many rental car places are. Before we left the US we went through RED car to rent a car for the day. We set out in the small car and with GPS in hand we started driving to the first destination. The geothermal fields of Krýsuvík are only 30 minutes outside (south) of Reykjavík. We took rout 42 to the geothermal spot of Seltún. Before we made it to the sulfurous bubbling spring we had to get this little car up this gravel Mountian and we were very worried we wouldn’t make it up!  Brian had to switch down to first gear and we just barely made it. Lol. We don´t know why this small section of road was gravel, because right after it was paved again. We swung around the biggest lake in the area, Kleifarvatn and then arrived stepping out and instantly knowing that you were there with the smell of rotten eggs. 

 

I got Brian to climb this larger hill (i guess it could be a mountian) with me. It was steep and at the top was another sulfurous spring. 

 

We made our way back down and left Seltún and headed the hour to the next spot. The lake crater Kerið.

 

Along the way we took the costal road and saw lots of small homes. The landscape is very mossy in southern Iceland. The wind picked up and clouds started to get dark as we arrived at Kerið.  The crater is aprox. 3000 years old and is located in the Grímsnes area of south Iceland. Volcanologists seem to think that the most likely cause of Kerið is that there was a cone volcano and after the magma chamber was emptied the volcano colapsed under itself. We walked around the lake and enjoyed the high winds that could probably  have been knocked over. After we ate a small bite to eat from the lunches we packed we headed to Þingvellir & Öxarárfoss.

 

The national park of Þingvellir was only about 30 min from Kerið. It started to rain a little heavier. After fighting wtih the GPS and seeing many camp grounds we ended up at the amazing sight of the waterfall.  

 

Öxarárfoss is on of the main attractions of Þingvellir National Park and it was apparent. There were more people here at the waterfall than at Kerið or Seltún. The waterfall flows from the river Öxará over Almannagjá. The rock walls were beautiful. 

 After this we decided to take the trek back to Reykjavík. We followed Esja, the mountian that you have probably seen in many of the pictures from the bay. Because of the weather and tiredness we just opted to head back. 

Esja and I will meet at one of her peaks someday!

 

Over all the day was great. We will come back and have dinner at the hotel. Tomorrow we are going out to eat for dinner and will just chill. So I probably will not be posting many pictures.

Always!

-Tveir Ferðalangar -

Hvalir og sjóveiki

Breakfast was the same this morning not bad. We are thinking that it will be the same every morning which is still not bad!

Today was whale watching day! We were both so excited. We got picked at around  8:15am. Elding is a great company super friendly and they really do their best to make everything a great experience. We got there and they suggested we put overalls they had on the boat. VERY smart to do so. The wind was coming out of the north so it was super cold on the water even more so as we got further out. 

We made it into the middle deck and tools seat and enjoyed the wind and weather as we made our way out of the harbor.

Let me pause here and say we both though that whale watching was going to be less of an adventure interms of physically taxing companies to the13+ miles we walked. We were dead wrong.

Taken from the boat leaving the harbor

We did end up seeing a whale but so the bottom of barf bags. The sea was rough and most of the middle deck got sick. Lol over all we were happy with the experience.

We came back and walked from

The harbor to our hotel drained frozen and dead. We came back and napped til 4 pm we then got up

And had dinner downstairs.

We decided to go in a walk to Harpa Concert Hall.

It was a nice sunny walk and though chilly nice and refreshing.

Tomorrow is the driving day!

Will get great pics!

-Tveir Ferðalangar-

Í bíó og kvíði

The evening went very relaxed and low key from the prospective of the morning/day. We decided to take a little relax until about dinner time but instead of dinner (cause we were not sure of what to have) we went to see Pitch Perfect 2 at a movie theater close by. Over all the movie was ok (first one was better) but it was nice to sit and enjoy ourselves. 

That is one thing I struggle with. My anxiety makes me very uptight and I struggle relaxing even on a trip that the only purpose is to relax it is hard for me. The I feel bad about not being spontaneous etc blah blah and it turns into a cycle. Good thing I have some one that can help and put up with it. 

Tomorrow will include whale watching and a walk to a light house. 

Things are great and Reykjavík is a great little city!

Brian and myself í bíó (at the theater)

-Tveir Ferðalangar-

Hvítir dagar og hvítar nætur

The sun rose at around 4:00am this morning.  I woke up a bit before that out of normal sleep problems. I fell back asleep and woke up at 6:00am. We got dressed and made our way down to have breakfast. The breakfast buffet was small with ham(s), cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, hardboiled eggs with bread and yogurt. They had oranges and some fruit and granola for the yogurt and also had jams and peanut butter for the bread. The coffee was eh but did the job. There was cereal of some kind (looked liked frosted flakes) and also juice. Over all the breakfast was satisfying. We left around 8:15am and walked to the coast to see the island Viðey. Viðey is the largest island of the Kollafjörður Bay in Iceland. After we walked down a little way to a higher spot to get more pictures of mountains across the bay.

My bfast

Brian's bfast

We then made our way to Hallgrímskrikja. It is the largest church in Iceland. Near the church there is a statue of Leif Eriksson. The statue was a gift from the United States in honor of the 1930 Alþingi Millennial Festival, commemorating the 1000th anniversary of Iceland's parliament at Þingvellir in 930 AD. 

Hallgrímskirkja

From Hallgrímskrikja we made our way toward to Nauthólsvík. It is located over by the Reykjavík airport and Reykjavík University. We took a small detour up to Perlan. Perlan is located on the hill Öskjuhlíð where there had been hot water storage tanks for decades. In 1991 the tanks were updated and a hemispherical structure placed on top. After the trek up to Perlan we took a few photos and made our way through the wooded area to the main road so we could head to the water.

Perlan

The wind decided to pick up, we could barely hear each talking when we were walking. After we made it to Nauthólsvík we sat and watch the water and some ducks swimming. We saw a woman taking a swim and then while we were walking on the sandy beach she was heading to the hot water to warm herself back up.

Brian and Nauthólsvík

We started the trek back to the hotel learning that we were both already tired and ready to relax (LOL). We made are way back to the church and through the center of town and back up to the hotel.

Plans for the evening are still up in the air. Most shops and things (that we saw) were closed on Sundays. There is a movie theater not to far from us that we might decide to go to and watch a film.

All in all a great day so far.

-Tveir Ferðalangar-

Komutími og Svefn

At 6:10am (Iceland time) we arrived at Keflavik. It was a long 5.5 hour flight. I did not get any sleep and my butt decided it would go numb after the first 3 hours. All in all Keflavik is a smaller airport but very direct. We made our way to get to the baggage claim and then to exchange some USD for ISK. We caught flybus and by 6:58 (after the first bus failed to start) we were heading to Reykjavík. At this time Brian was dead, eyes blood shot and red. I was very tired and we had decided that we were going to crash hard when we got to Hotel Cabin. We checked in early (will have to pay a small fee upon checkout) which we both were thrilled they had availability for. We struggled opening the odd door to our room. I eventually had to go to the reception and ask for assistance, which in turn the receptionist struggled with us to open the door. After figuring out that the lock was just stuck (old, weather? Idk) we managed to get in to our small, quaint room. From 8~8:30am we napped until about 12. This is where it gets interesting. We both are hungry and still exhausted so we decide to walk over to a KFC (yeah yeah Brian wanted it lol) and there was also a grocery store close by. We make the long-ish trek (well it felt like it cause we were tired) to KFC and then got nervous and scared that there were no numbers for ordering (like on the menu, no I would like a number 1 please) so to avoid the likely embarrassment we decided to go to Bonus (the grocery store). There I picked up some bread and jam and some peanut butter and a few apples just to tide us over for a bit and Brian got a noodle dish that was in the cooler. Let’s pause here and say that we have not eaten since dinner at the airport. There might have been a fruit snack or two had between but nothing really. We are sarcastic, grumpy and hungry. We get back to the Hotel with our groceries and eat in bliss. We then this is about 3:00pm by now decide to take another nap. I wake up at 6~6:30pm and we head across the street to get coffee and Brian found a hotdog… HAHA J It was a gas station yes. We walk along the coast and head by Höfði, the house that the Reykjavik Summit took place in between Regan and Gorbachev. Just at a glance the landscape is so interesting. The volcanic sand and rocks and the flat areas that then have mountains that jet out along the horizon. We are at the moment relaxing blogging and reading in the Hotel. Lots of things to do and see!

Free mason building?

Höfði

Kaffi and me

Brian and the Greenland sea

-Tveir Ferðalangar-