Day 1 - Icelandic Road Trip: KEFLAVIK to VIK

Day 1 - Icelandic Road-Trip: KEFLAVIK to VIK

We landed in Keflavik International Airport early in the morning after a rough 5 hour flight from JFK.   We booked an evening flight thinking that our daughter would sleep during the night.  We were mistaken.  Silly us.  Instead, she stayed up all night, leaping between my lap and my wife's, alternatively crying like wounded wildebeest to talking and/or yelling incessantly to the poor fellow sitting behind us.  We brought a portable DVD player with us for her to watch movies, but the batteries died within an hour of the flight.   It was Daddy's job to make sure the batteries were charged before we left and obviously I failed at my task, an error everyone on the plane regretted as much as we.   Eventually she fell asleep.  Twenty minutes later, we landed.

We picked up our SUV (a full size Isuzu) and fitted in our rented car seat. We weren't exactly happy with the car seat selection.  I would recommend bringing your own for your own peace of mind.  It is worth the extra luggage fee.  Some airlines will not count a car seat as a checked piece of luggage.  Read the fine print or call the airline to find out their policy regarding both car seats and strollers.  If they do not charge make sure you have with you the airline's printed policy saying as much.   When you are checking your bag the airline staff at the ticket counter may still try to charge you an extra fee.  This annoyance happened with US Airways when we flew out of Montreal.  I showed the airline staff their own policy and they begrudgingly waved the "required fee".  US Airways is a terrible company to fly with in our humble opinions. 

Car rentals in Iceland are very expensive but due to the crazy spring weather and occasional white-out road conditions, you don't want to skimp and try to make it around the island in a tiny budget European make.    I think they actually make their economy cars out of cardboard.  One big Arctic gust and you would be blown into the North Atlantic! 

I downed 3 giant espresso coffee drinks, strapped our daughter in the back seat, loaded our bags, kissed my wife, and got us on the road to start our Icelandic adventure!  FYI - We use maps as opposed to GPS.  GPS ruins the chance of an unexpected (mis)adventure!  Maps are so much cooler. 

Our day 1 plan: Keflavik - Reykjavik - Þingvellir National Park -  Kerió - Hengill volcano - Geysir - Gullfoss Waterfall - Brekkur near Vik.

We zoomed through Reykjavik, Iceland's capital, and pushed towards the famous Golden Circle which includes Þingvellir National Park, Geysir, and Gullfoss Waterfall.  This natural wonder trifecta is one of Iceland's most famous tourist attractions and during the summer it can be mobbed.  Although it is still cold in late March and early April, we loved having these sites practically all to ourselves.   It was usually just us and a few other brave souls on day trips out of Reykjavik.  It seems that must visitors to Iceland don't travel much further out of Reykjavik than the Golden Circle.  Their loss was our gain! 

Dad on the fissure Almannagja!

Þingvellir National Park was starkly beautiful yet eerie and lonely.  It straddles the North America tectonic plate and the European tectonic plate.  It is literally were Europe and North America are being pulled apart, albeit at a slow 2mm/year rate.   You can walk along the great fissure Almannagja, crossing over from North America to Europe along the way.  Our daughter slept through most of our time in the park.   She needed the rest after the sleepless nighttime flight but my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed the striking natural beauty.  We could have done without the bitter cold and biting Arctic wind though.  Brrr!  Of course, since our daughter was sound asleep in the truck, we had to go out on little hikes one at a time since we couldn't leave a 2 year old alone by herself for fear of drunken Vikings.  That is just one of the sacrifices you make if you want to travel the world with little children. 

Þingvellir National Park

As the day went on, the wind became fiercer, until it got to the point where it was difficult to stand up straight.   We were fighting wind gusts of up to 70 mph!  I've never experienced such weather in my life.  When we got to Geysir, the original hot water sprout after which all the world's geysers are named, it was almost impossible to walk up the path from the parking lot to the viewing area without getting knocked down.  It was way too windy for our daughter, so while one of us waited in the Geysir Tourist Center with her, the other attempted to brave the winds to see the mighty Geysir.  After practically crawling on all fours and getting knocked on my butt more than once just to get up the path to see the supposedly 15m to 30m plume, I was greatly let down.  The wind was so powerful, that when the geyser erupted, the wind flattened out the plume!  I barely witnessed anything more than some mist coming out of the ground.  Quite anticlimatic for sure.  It was funny watching people (including myself!) get blown all around though.  At least I got a laugh to go along with a bruised behind.

My wife was worried that our entire trip was going to plagued by weather like this and asked one of the workers whether this weather was normal.  She misunderstood his answer (which is easy to do with their accents) and thought that he said that the wind that day was typical!  She almost cried.  We came to find out that he said that the wind that day was TERRIBLE, not typical.   It was about as typical as a cyclone in your bathtub.

Gullfoss

We hopped back in the truck and took off towards Gullfoss, Iceland's most famous waterfall.  It was AWESOME!  It is a huge double cascading waterfall that drops about 95 feet into a ravine.  Because of the time of year and the temperature, the steps and path were covered in thick, extremely slippery, I-am-going-to make-you-fall-on-your-butt, ice.  It made it impossible to take our daughter anywhere near the waterfall for fears of her falling and sliding right over the edge.  That would have really put a damper on the rest of the road-trip.  So again, we went one at a time while the other stayed behind to entertain our our little elf.  We made sure we brought lots of kid's music and fun toys for her to play with during the drives.  It was still insanely windy and I thought that if the killer ice didn't send one of us plunging over the edge, the wind certainly would!   My wife got a little nervous when I didn't come back promptly, but the waterfall was so beautiful, I couldn't rush away. 

Gullfoss

On the way out of the Golden Circle back towards the Ring Road we crossed the deep blue Þjorsa River and also stopped by Kerió, a 3000 year old explosion crater with green lake in the middle.  Björk once played a concert while on a raft in the middle of Kerió.  She is SO weird, yet oddly normal for Iceland.  We also passed by Hengill volcano.  Occasionally Icelandic volcanoes like to erupt when you least expect it.  One is going off right now as I type this.  Don't let that little fact dissuade you from visiting Iceland though!  It just adds to the excitement!

Myrdalur Mountain Range

Our first farm-stay was right next to the Myrdalur Mountain range at Brekkur right outside of the town of Vik.  The farm was up a long, steep, driveway.  This is just another reason to rent a 4-wheel-drive vehicle.   You never know when you will be going off-road.  The setting sun turned the Myrdalur mountains pink.   It was a nice way to end an incredible day.  We had the entire place all to ourselves minus the staff and a young Scottish couple.  We missed dinner but we were so tired after our long day exploring Southwest Iceland, we didn't care.   We fell into our bed and slept very soundly that night. 

Day 2 to follow...

Þjorsa River