We took off Friday afternoon to start making our way up to NJ – we have a wedding to attend, so we booked our flights into and out of Newark, NJ. Autumn slept most of the car ride (yay for coordinating car trips with nap time), and we stopped for a picnic dinner at the most AMAZING playground we’ve ever seen in Harrisonburg, VA. (For those interested, it was called “A Dream Come True” playground. The weather was perfect and we had a blast on the slides, ramps and kick bikes they provided for the children.
We drove an hour further and took a break for the night in Winchester, VA. We then drove the remaining four hours up to Union, NJ to visit Audrey’s great Aunt Terri. She hadn’t seen Autumn in a year and was amazed at all the cool new tricks she’s learned since our last visit. We went to a good old-fashioned Jersey diner for a monstrous dinner before our flight. Terri’s neighbor was kind enough to shuttle us to the airport, which was a relief, given we were managing two weeks’ worth of luggage plus a hiking backpack and car seat.
The flight to Iceland was ~5 hrs overnight. Air Iceland is definitely a budget carrier in terms of on-board amenities – the seats were crammed in much like a short domestic flight, so it wasn’t the most comfortable of experiences, but hey, we made it to our destination safely and fairly inexpensively, so we can’t complain too much. The airport at KEF is super tiny; we were through passport control, bag claim and customs within 15 minutes.
Off to get our rental car and start the Icelandic adventure!
We collected our rental car – the Dacia Duster! – and started off on our trek around the famed “Ring Road” (Hwy 1) in the counter-clockwise direction (there’s much debate about the best direction in which to do the loop, but you can’t go wrong!)
First stop was a gas station to buy a SIM card for JD’s phone and some milk for Miss Autumn. We were so tired, however, that Audrey managed to buy Autumn buttermilk instead of regular milk (yes, that had that much milk selection in the gas station!). We drove a little ways and then the lack of sleep (1 hr nap on plane) started to hit us. We saw steam coming up from the ground off the side of the road and a big fancy building. We drove towards it and uncovered our first happy surprise of the trip; it was a geothermal energy exhibit/museum that was actually open (despite it being 9am and a holiday “Whit Sunday”. We were so relieved to have a place to take a moment and get our bearings. We freshened up in the bathroom, changed clothes, got a coffee, and toured the exhibit, which turned out to be really fascinating. (Plants like this produce 300+ megawatts of geothermal energy and provide heated water to Reykjavik, where 2/3 of the country’s population lives.
We carried on knowing that a nap was in our future and found a scenic overlook that allowed us all to take a 1 hour midday nap in the car. Refreshed would be too strong of a word, but rather slightly recharged, we stopped at Selfoss waterfall. This would be the first of the MANY waterfalls that Iceland is known for. This one is of particular note, however, because you can actually walk behind it (while getting quite wet in the process). Next up was Skogafoss (“foss” = waterfall), which you can view from the bottom as well as the top, after ascending 500+ steps. Autumn particularly liked when daddy bounced her in the hiking backpack. At this point, the weather started to get cold, windy and wet (a trademark of the South Coast as we’ve learned), so we turned in to our B&B in Vik. We were so worn out at that point. The B&B was a lovely farm stay with views the black sand beaches that Vik is know for. The following morning we were greeted with farm-fresh eggs and bread, cheese, jam, fruit and meat spreads plus coffee. So delicious! Autumn even got to visit with some of the barnyard animals, which she thought was great! First stop of day 2 was the black sand beaches of Vik, with sea stacks, columnar basalt and the Dolhaney arch from a distance. Truly a must-see.
We had a lot on our agenda for the day with the final destination of Hofn. Along the way, we say some really cool scenery: mossy lava rocks, rock cairns, desolate tidal flats that are remnants from Jokalhaup washout from the infamous Katla (which is ready to erupt any day now!). We took a slight scenic detour to see the Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon, which was surprisingly picturesque. Came across a few more waterfalls that weren’t even marked on the map and then arrived at Vatnajokull National Park (Skfatafell). It was already 4pm – there had been so much amazing stuff to check out along the way. We took a short hike up to the glacier face and enjoyed the massive glacial valley that had been carved out by Europe’s largest glacier that has so many glacial tongues it’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen (and will ever see!) in our lifetimes.
Last stop of the day was the Jökulsárlón iceberg lagoon, where the Vatnajokull glacier actually calves off “mini” icebergs into a lagoon then make their way out the sea. Some of these icebergs end up on the black sand beach; the opportunity to hold millions of years old glacial ice is truly remarkable. We also saw seals and some sort of gull that were fishing in the lagoon, but also had hawks chasing after them. It was a Nat Geo moment for sure! We didn’t make it to the B&B in Hofn until nearly 10pm; that’s how full of a day it was! The fact that we’re on east coast time and that the sun never sets here this time of year makes it very difficult to sleep, but we’re hoping to become adjusted to that!
