Iceland

It’s been almost a month now since my trip to Iceland in January and I’m still suffering with the holiday blues. I think overall Iceland has easily become one of my favourite holiday destinations, the scenery truly is something else; it almost feels as though you’re in another world.

We flew from London Gatwick at midday on the Thursday with Iceland Air which was very comfortable. We arrived just after 3pm and we were not prepared for what hit us on exiting the plane. The winds were gale-force; the rain was horizontal as we had to walk the short distance from the aeroplane to terminal. Slightly bemused and more than just a little bit windswept we got ourselves together and headed to the bus terminal. The journey from the airport to Reykjvaik is around 45 minutes, we booked with Grayline and they took us to our hotel – the Fosshotel Reykjavik.

On entering the hotel we were very impressed, it looked very well-kept. The receptionists were friendly and accommodating and the room sizes were perfectly adequate, with views overlooking the rooftops of the city. I received an email informing us that our Grayline Northern Lights tour had been cancelled that evening; it was expected considering the awful weather. We rescheduled for the following evening, after our Golden Circle tour.We unpacked and decided to go to the bar for a drink, luckily for us it was happy hour, meaning all beers were only 1000ISK, roughly £7- Iceland is expensive, it’s certainly no myth. We decided to brave the storm and head out for dinner, our hotel was very close to the main street in Reykjavik with all the restaurants, shops and bars. We settled on an Italian restaurant, two pizzas and a garlic flatbread to share cost us roughly £49.00. Nicely stuffed we headed back to the hotel for an exceptional night’s sleep.

The breakfast the next morning was equally exceptional. The choice was superb, even for the two of us, both being vegetarians. There were the usual cereals, fruits, yoghurts (Skyr of course), a great selection of pastries, rolls and hot breakfast with pancakes. We filled up and got wrapped up for the short walk in the rain to the centre of Reykjavik. We’d deliberately left ourselves a day free so that we could book a tour when we arrived depending on the weather. We found the Tourist Information office and had a look at the discounted tours on offer for the next day. We decided on the small group tour to Southern Iceland to see the waterfalls and black sand beach. Grayline do offer a similar larger group tour on their website, which is slightly cheaper, but we thought we’d take advantage of the smaller group this time!

We walked back to the hotel and got ready for our Golden Circle Express Tour with Grayline that afternoon. Luckily for us the bus stop was right outside our hotel; we got picked up promptly and taken to the depot, where we boarded our coach for the afternoon. Our first stop on the tour was at Pingellir National Park, which sits between two tectonic plates meaning you are literally standing between two continents! The next destination was the glorious Geysirs & hot springs, it really was exciting waiting for the next eruption, for the very active Strokkur Geysir, this usually happens every 6-10 minutes on average. Last stop on the tour was to see the magnificent Gullfoss Waterfall, I do wish that we had seen this waterfall in the daylight, however when you go to Iceland in the winter, daylight hours are in short supply. Luckily my camera captured Gullfoss in all its glory.

We returned back to the hotel and had a quick meal in the bar before getting ready for our northern lights tour at 9pm that evening. We wrapped up in many, many layers and got on the Grayline bus, full of anticipation for the night ahead. We headed out in convoy with many other buses to a rural area on a hillside. It was absolutely freezing, we all huddled together, cameras at the ready and waited...and waited. Finally the clouds parted and an orange glow appeared around a star, it brightened and then it disappeared. Not exactly the miraculous display we were hoping for but unfortunately that’s the way it goes with nature. With Grayline you are allowed to rebook the tour within 2 years for free, so at least that gives us an excuse to go back!

Once again we had a comfortable night’s sleep and an excellent breakfast before being ready nice and early for our Southern Iceland tour. We were picked up in a small minibus by our guide Piotr, who was friendly, funny and informative. Our first stop on the tour was the Seljalandsfoss Waterfall; this beautiful waterfall is 130ft high and was breathtaking even in the cold of winter, I can’t imagine how impressive it would look during the summer months. Next was the Skogafoss Waterfall, even higher than Seljalandsfoss and much wider too. To get a better look there are 370 steps to climb to take you to the top of the waterfall, offering a completely different perspective and incredible views of the surrounding countryside.

We had a brief stop for lunch at a shopping/eating complex in Vik and ventured onto our next destination, the Black Sand Beach Reynisfjara! The beach is home to some fascinating basalt columns, lava formations and cliffs and caves. We were warned on exiting the minibus not to get too close to the shore, as for every 10/20th wave there will be a huge wave that covers an enormous amount of beach. Unfortunately a lot of people choose to ignore this advice, which ultimately results in fatalities most years. When we were on the beach we saw a lot of people ignoring this potentially life-saving advice. Low-and-behold, we were watching the waves from a safe distance (or so we thought) and a mammoth wave rose and fell on the beach, everyone ran for their lives with the sea at their heels, many getting wet shoes but fortunately that was the extent of the misfortune this time!

Our second to last stop on the voyage was at a glacier. This was the highlight of the entire trip to Iceland for me. It was absolutely magical. The scenery was out of this world. We trekked along the snowy path through the mountain to the entrance of the Sólheimajökul glacier, absolutely stunned by the beauty of this place I honestly needed time for my surroundings to sink in, it was mesmerising. I think that moment will genuinely stick with me forever. Our last stop on our tour was to a traditional Icelandic farm, here we were warmly welcomed into the home, given refreshments and were given the opportunity to ask questions about Iceland and life on the farm.

After a two hour drive back to the hotel we were shattered after our long but incredible day. I’m ashamed to say we didn’t make it out to dinner that evening; instead we opted to get a Dominos, delivered straight to our hotel room. We were grateful that our plans for our last full day were a little more relaxed! We awoke in the morning to a full blanket of snow! Very exciting for us southerners as it is a very rare sight for us. We had a lazy breakfast and took a walk into Reykjavik to visit the impressive Hallgrímskirkja, the largest church in Iceland.

It's rather striking with its gothic architecture and is the tallest building in Reykjavik. There is a lift inside that takes users to the top of the tower for panoramic views across the city- unfortunately we went on a Sunday so it was closed for service! We headed back to the hotel and got ready for our afternoon trip- to the Blue Lagoon. We were both super excited about having a relaxing afternoon bathing in the warm waters- and it didn't disappoint. The free face mask and the Lagoon bar were a definite highlight- the hail stones not so much! We ended our day with a fantastic dinner at Svarta Kaffid, where they serve soup in a bread roll!

We enjoyed our final nights sleep in our lovely hotel and made the most of our last breakfast the next morning. We boarded our Grayline transfer back to the airport in rather low spirits, both sad at having to leave this fantastic country behind. It's somewhere I would certainly come back to, a summer trip to see the puffins, go whale watching and to see the Icelandic ponies is already on the cards! 

☡↬