We’ve been talking about how we’ve seen so many waterfalls here, but all of them have been different. It was also one of the most crowded places we’ve been - we’re definitely noticing the difference it makes being within day-trip distance of Reykjavik. The beach had towering basalt rock columns (perfect for climbing) and intricately shaped caves. The sky was full of hundreds of wheeling birds - graceful ones that glided smoothly through the air, and madly flapping puffins with their short wings and red feet. Our next stop was the spectacular Reynisfjara Beach, with its pebbly black sand, amazing rock formations, and abundant bird life - including a colony of puffins nestled in the rocks high above us. We were rewarded with lots of wildflowers and another remote iceberg lagoon. It was a raining for much of our drive today and threatened to start again anytime, so we contented ourselves with a short and easy hike to get up close to one of the tongues of the glacier. Relieved of our worry that we might need to hitchhike to Reykjavik, we were able to enjoy our visit toSkaftafell National Park. (There was a little difficulty about the shared payment kiosk and Bob accidentally paid for the gas of some French person, but luckily the French person was nice about it and handed him a wad of cash to compensate.) Fortunately when I was finally able to get phone reception and ask Google, Google managed to materialize one literally about a quarter mile down the road. As we set out today down the lonely road, with mile after mile of nothing but mountains, ocean, and the occasional sheep, we started to get a bit worried about where we might next find a gas station. Last night we stayed at a guest house in a pretty remote area on the southeast coast - our room even had a view of the chilly, gray ocean. It’s been a lot of driving, but the scenery has been so incredible throughout that we don’t really mind (despite the unnerving lack of guardrails). Making it all the way around the island has made for a pretty busy schedule, but our Rick Steves Iceland book has not led us astray and there’s really nothing we would have skipped or done differently. It’s hard to believe it’s already our last full day in Iceland. This entry was posted in Iceland on Augby Jen. (We intended to stop at the Lava Center museum at the end of the day - Rick Steves claimed it was open late - but found that it unfortunately had closed at 4.) Fjallsárlón Iceberg Lagoon boat tour on Zodiac raftĭay 7: South of Hofn to Hafnarfjörður (Reykjavik suburb).Stroll around Seydisfjordur town & lagoon.The Old Hospital was the loveliest place we stayed. It was just as well, since we encountered a fair amount of rain in the afternoon and ended up not having a lot of extra time (partly due to our kids’ chronic inability to get up early in the morning). I was originally hoping to do this by bike, but we were daunted when we saw the narrow, shoulderless road and fast-moving traffic. Akureyri – botanic garden & walk lunchĪll the attractions below except the nature baths are on a loop right around the lake.We’re not sure if this is because we were in the more populous capital area, or because the state of things had worsened during our week. But in the last couple of days, we saw a change - more masks and more caution. Other than hand sanitizer prominently displayed at the entrances to many hotels and restaurants, there didn’t seem to be many precautions in place. We spent the vast majority of our time outside - for the most part, we were only indoors in our hotel room (we even ate mostly outside) - so our exposure risk was low in any case.įor most of our trip, we were able to almost forget about the pandemic. To get back to the US, we had to present a negative Covid test, but Iceland simplified this by having a rapid test site (15 minute results) right next to the airport. Vaccinated Americans (as of this time) can enter the country without needing to test or quarantine. Iceland’s vaccine rate is very high and Covid rate was low (though this was starting to change towards the end of our trip). This was an excellent destination during Covid times.
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