Where to start with Reykjavik? It’s certainly not a place that had appeared on my “To-Do” list of destinations but when my good lady wife thought it would be a great place for us to see the Aurora Borealis, or the Northern Lights, it made perfect sense. Also, spotting that British Airways had recently resumed flights there too, all of a sudden a four day half-term adventure gelled and fell in to place.
Mrs Young has a really good nose for sniffing out unique and quirky places to stay and during this adventure we holed up in the wonderful Reykjavik Treasure Bed & Breakfast, a small guest house nestled cosily amidst a residential area not far from the end of the main shopping street. Quiet, a really convenient location and perfectly hosted by Sunna and Sigfridur who made us incredibly welcome, it was pretty much perfect.
Iceland? Well, like I said, not a place I’d ever thought of visiting, but it’s a place that I fell in love with pretty much instantly. Despite it’s freezing February weather, the frequent snow showers, frozen ice covered roads and the biting wind, I truly felt that I could actually live there. Not many places I’ve visited have left me feeling like that and I was truly sad to leave.
Against our better judgement, and pretty much all of our travel principles, we chose to use organised trips to enable us to see the sights that we wanted to see on Iceland, mostly due to the snowy conditions and thinking that it would be a safer option than renting a car and having noticed that some of the sites we wanted to see were off limits on the car rental agreements.
Before heading out on our first ‘organised’ coach trip, we popped out for a stroll just to get our bearings, finding a frozen lake where like two excited school children we took to the ice, standing on what should have been water and scooting across to the island in the middle.
Within a few hours of landing in Reykjavik, we went to the coach stop just a shot walk from the B&B to pick up out first ‘organised’ trip, heading out in an attempt to see these elusive Northern Lights, our thinking being that if it turned out to be a failed trip we could re-book to continue our quest another evening until we finally saw them. While waiting for the coach in the chilly Reykjavik evening air along with hundreds of other tourists, not all on our trip but headed out in all directions with a host of similar tour operators, I happened to glance up at the sky to see a bright green band of light stretching across the sky! WOW! Nobody else appeared to notice this amazing spectacle right above them as they all seemed far too preoccupied with looking out for their coach and spotting their tour operator. Both of us hoped that this wouldn’t be our last glimpse of these elusive lights. Our coach duly appeared, the last one as it happened, and off we went out into the pitch black wilderness surrounding the city. As our coach wove its way out of the city to its first viewing spot we caught several glimpses of the lights from our window. Our guide and driver didn’t stop though, being very keen to take us to spots deeper in the wilderness with better viewing opportunities. Pulling up in these obscure and totally unknown locations we knew our descision to use a coach tour had been a sensible option as there was no way we could have ever found these locations on our own, let alone find our B&B again afterwards. Now at around 11:30, stood in the freezing cold in total darkness drinking hot chocolate and eating Icelandic doughnuts, we were treated to an amazing spectacle that is the Aurora Borealis. Mission accomplished!
Day two we had a slower start to our day with our The Golden Circle Tour not due to pick us up until around midday, this gifted us some of the morning to explore a little of Reykjavik on foot heading first towards the Hallsgrim Kirke, the stunningly simple but incredibly beautiful concrete church atop of a hill. We were blessed with perfect weather the sky being cloudless and blue giving us spectacular views from the bell tour, this incurred a small charge of ISK900, about £5.00, but was well worth it. Seeing the city spread out in all directions below us with the mountains and sea skirting it was simply stunning.
Our coach arrived as scheduled picking us up along with a couple of Danish guys, swiftly dropping us off again at a gas station rendezvous on the outskirts of town for us to pick up a bigger coach and join the rest of our group. Some delay in setting off due to the late arrival from the airport of a couple of Japanese girls but once safely onboard we headed out to our first stop the Pingvellir National Park, where you get to clearly see the edges of two of the earths tectonic plates butting up against each other. Quite simply stunning scenery with huge mountains, lakes and volcanoes surrounding you and stretching as far as the eye can see. All of this stunning scenery, dusted with a coating of snow and perfect clear blue skies above was simply breathtaking. Our driver, Sverin, dropped us off in one car park, and with very clear and very precise instructions picked us all up again 45 minutes later in another car park on the opposite tectonic plate. Sverin was in charge all the time, polite, very informative, just so long as it was him that was doing all the talking, quickly stopping his chat to tell off anyone that dared to talk while he was.
Next stop on our tour was Geysir a small park of gurgling and spouting hot water geysers. Some of them are active, some not and some are just puddles of boiling water. With lots of smelly steam and some moderate geyser activity it was ok, but only ok. I guess it does what it says on the tin! Once again Sverin gave us forty minutes to view this spectacle with which we could walk through the geysers and also grab a bite to eat in the cafe where we indulged in a real good mushroom soup and roll.
So, fed and watered it was back on the bus for our penultimate stop, Gullfoss, the amazing waterfall, which at this time of year is also stunningly frozen over too. But with the sun starting to sink, a sharp wind and icy spray from the falls it was bitingly cold here. Again, the regulation forty minute time slot was issued by Sverin and we walked off to the brink of the falls to witness the stunning beauty below us. With more water flowing than Niagara, it was quite simply stunning. Part of the walk was closed off due to ice on the path, so we couldn’t get too close to the lower part of the falls but we enjoyed the middle section and the view from the top was spectacular.
Back on our coach Sverin informed us it would be a drive of about two hours back to Reykjavik, with just a quick stop off at a huge crater lake by way of a treat for us on route. The crater, Kerid Crater, was indeed huge and pretty spectacular, but with only an allotted two minutes to enjoy the spectacle before us it was indeed just a quick peak in to the crater before we had to dash off in to the darkness again.
Safely returned to our B&B after the now familiar circuitous drop off of our fellow tour party members, we nipped around the corner to the Icelandic Fish and Chips restaurant which was simply great. Really good food at a great price. What a perfect end to our Golden Circle Tour.
Strolling through town after our fish and chip dinner we were once again treated to a view of the Aurora snaking across the night sky right over our heads.
Day three and it was back on the bus for a trip to the Blue Lagoon. Chaos is one word that best describes the coach pick up and all the hanging around that we endured. A small coach appeared, picked us up and then wound its way to a few other stops before parking up just off the high street without a word from our driver. Fifteen minutes later we drove off with no explanation eventually arriving at the Grey Line depot to change coaches once again where our confused new driver counted us all several times before finally pulling out of the car park fifteen minutes later. Baffling and such a waste of time. This put us off ever using organised coach trips ever again. On arriving at the Blue Lagoon again, it was chaos with us joining a long queue to get in. Once inside it was very nice. Bobbing around in the near boiling water was delightful. But it was obvious that it is just for tourists and floating around surrounded by chatter from all over the world, it was obvious it was a place that the locals avoid like the plague. Sadly the Blue Lagoon is not quite as ‘natural’ as it looks and is in fact entirely man-made and nothing more than the run off from the Svartsengi geo-thermal power station over the road that has to dispose of the hot water it’s used.
After our communal ‘bath’ at the Blue Lagoon we headed out to find a bite to eat deciding to try the raw food restaurant GLO. The food here was exemplary and well worth tracking down if you’re in town.
Clean plates at GLO…
With all of our major sightseeing now done and dusted, Saturday, our final day in Reykjavik, was going to be a quiet one, just strolling the streets of Reykjavik and enjoying whatever came our way.
Breakfast was lazy and slow at the B&B then we headed out in to the city, shops were shopped, postcards were bought and sent and truly scrumptious chips were eaten at Reykjavik Chips
Having passed this isolated white house a couple of times on coaches, we bumped in to it again on our walk and were amazed to discover that it was the Hofdi House and was where Reagan and Gorbachev held the Reykjavik Summit in 1986 that kick-started the end of the Cold War.
This was followed by a visit to the Reykjavik Photography Museum where there are some great local artists on display with some great photos to enjoy. And it’s FREE !!!
Late afternoon we stopped off to enjoy the happy-hour at Konsull Kaffihouse, a living room sized coffee house/bar fitted out with a few comfy sofas and a couple of dining room tables and chairs that was warm, cosy and very welcoming after a busy day sightseeing.
And then it was all over and we found ourselves checking out of our cozy B&B and once again waiting for a coach, only this time taking us back to the airport and home.
Reykjavik, from having never even been on our radar is now a city that I would return to in an instant. We had a tremendous short break there and we were blessed to have seen the elusive Aurora Borealis in all it’s heavenly glory.
We used the following tour companies:-
- Isango for our Blue Lagooon Tour.
- Bustravel Iceland for our Northern Lights and Golden Circle Tours.
mrandmrsyoung 