Iceland

My favourite photos from the trip!

To finish, here are our best and worst things from the trip: Best things… Keith – Easy, the volcano, which was coincidental to our trip. Otherwise it’s hard to pick. Probably the visit to Dettifoss, to the spot where the first scene was filmed. Jo – too much to pick from. The volcano was amazing,…

Invertebrates Broom moth caterpillar (marmite Caterpillar!) – spotted by Mila on the path between the car park and the waterfall at Gullfoss. Birds Gyrfalcon – seen flying along the road between Reykjavik and Geysir. I am assuming it was a Gyrfalcon by picture reference and the fact it was too big to be a merlin.…

Whilst in Iceland we filmed a few videos. Far from professional quality, but should give the idea of how impressive the natural sights were!!

The alarm went off at 4.30am. Rooms checked out of, we collected our breakfast bags from the nice (tired) receptionist and we were ready to go home. The taxi arrived at 5.15am which was terrifying because we expected it at 5.00am. The taxi driver needed a wee when he arrived, but then entertained us all…

Breakfast was exactly as we have come to expect, except with many more biscuits than usual and “oatmeal” that tasted like rice pudding. We were collected for our excursion from the bus stop outside the hotel by minibus and then swapped to a coach at the city bus station to get to the Lava Tunnel…

When you travel around Iceland by car you soon appreciate that not all four-wheeled drive cars are equal (actually, you learn the same living in Yorkshire in snow). When we booked, we upgraded our hire car from a regular 4×4 to a “Discovery Sport or equivalent”. Clearly the Icelandic use of the word ‘equivalent’ has…

It was a very early start as we were planning a 2 hour journey, a 5 hour hike and a hire car drop off by 3pm. We collected our hilarious packed “breakfast” from reception and were on our way by 7.00am. All we saw for a while were deserted roads apart from the odd car…

There was a metal squeezy tube of caviar laid casually on the table for breakfast – this is a super-shmancy hotel! An American lady was in the bar being all 80’s yuppy on a work call at 8am. She mentioned lobbying qualifications in various states (yes I was listening deliberately to see what she did!)…

There was a new biscuit at breakfast, so obviosuly I had to try it. Someone once told me that every flock of geese has one that is better at taking risks than the others. The children have nominated me risky-goose as far as new food testing is concerned. It was a bit like a custard…

After a disturbed night due to a room party that finished about 2.30am (and everyone else slept through!) We got up, destroyed another Fosshotel breakfast and got on the road. There were no weird food experiments today, so we just filled our bellies with goodness. We backtracked a bit first of all as the weather…

There was a queue for a table at the buffet breakfast  but we employed a boy-child waiter to tell us when a table for four people became free. I wasn’t as keen on the chia porridge today, but I enjoyed the beetroot and ginger shot enough to give it a three word review: spicy purple…

Another hotel, another buffet breakfast! I felt bad for not trying the chia seed porridge the other day, so I started there today and was pleasantly surprised. They had make your own oatmeal as well, but the expected me to make it with water and add salt. Grandpa would have been happy but no thanks!…

Breakfast was yummy and uncomplicated. We all have a buffet routine now and watching everyone collect their food is like a beautiful ballet! Today was a big driving day – 6 hours altogether, but we had a few stops planned along the way. The first was our last glacier tongue this holiday, called Flaajokull. To…

With a 10.30am activity to get to today, we went for an 8am breakfast. It went much more smoothly than dinner. We got a lovely window table with views right down to the sea as the skies were clear. We are not taking for granted our Icelandic buffet and I am still following the policy…

We were up early with the intention of being first into breakfast and then heading back to the beach for some tourist-free photos but when we got up, Keith spotted 3 coaches outside reception and switched the plan to go to the beach first. It turned put to be a good plan. The roads were…

Breakfast today was a HUGE improvement on yesterday: donutty pastries, good eggs, proper natural yoghurt and black bread. I will let Mila tell you about the jam that wasn’t jam…. As we had a nice quiet day planned, were staying literally opposite a Kronen and had foul weather, we bought ingredients and made lunch to…

We had a more relaxed start today as we had a whole day to do as we wished with the only constraint being where we got to by bed time. Sadly this resulted in a substandard breakfast as three coaches worth of locusts had already eaten. No plates, no cups, no glasses, no fruit juice,…

A Super Jeep is basically a customised vehicle designed for use in snow in Iceland. Icelandic petrol heads love a variety of vehicles, and our guide talked about the different vehicles he would like to own…the problem being the cost. The one we travelled in was 25 million Icelandic Krona – that’s £150,000 – but…

I have decided that breakfast buffets are the best way to get two teenage children up and out for an 8.30am departure! It was nice not have to repack everything this morning as we were staying in Hella for two nights. We decided that we would have to leave the waffle machine for today and…

Breakfast was unexpectedly competitive – Italians again – but delicious and varied. Half the hotel was queued outside the restaurant by 7.30am when it opened. The yoghurt and rye bread were my highlights, but the others seemed to appreciate the bacon and pancakes. Sadly, the sky was not the blue Keith was hoping for to…

Well, that felt almost like a normal pre-covid journey… barely any masks, no hand sanitiser in sight and an aeroplane. It wasn’t until we were moving down the runway that I realised I had never actually expected to go- so many of our plans have been cancelled that I suppose I hadn’t got my hopes…

Not too difficult getting through the airport – 90 minutes from arriving to being airside. No plane photo as there were insufficient windows, but as we got to the plane the pilot was looking at volcano pictures on his phone!! We caught him doing it… However, once on the plane there are always things to…

The Icelandic volcano that last erupted in March 2021 is erupting again! Our agents are going to find out if we can visit when there. In the meantime, have a look at a couple of reports which have detail and videos. Breaking news: Volcanic eruption in the Reykjanes peninsula The eruption in Meradalir could be…

We’re getting ready for another trip, this time to Iceland. Flying into Reykjavik, we will be exploring the Icelandic landmass over a couple of weeks, driving c1,300km anticlockwise whilst visiting a variety of attractions and staying in varied accommodation en-route.