Monthly Archives: April 2013

We hired a car in Reykjavik and took a day trip into the Interior. After driving around in circles for about 20mins, we finally managed to get on the right road out of Reykjavik and were heading for the Gullfoss waterfall, Geysir and the Þingvellir National Park (This trio of destinations is more commonly known as the Golden Circle tour/daytrip). In total we did about 550kms of driving (the car we hired was brand new, when we got it, it had only done 130kms 🙂  ). About 20 mins out of Reykjavik we were driving through lava fields covered in snow with mountains on both sides, first stop Geysir –

The wind here was aboluestly freezing, the car told us it was only 4C outside, but it felt more like it was in negative digits. My hands were frozen from standing in the cold waiting for the geyser to erupt.
Did you know Iceland gave the world the word “geyser” after their own Great Geysir. This is what’s called an ‘eponym’—something or someone that gives its name to everything of its type. Another example is, every volcano on Earth is named after the volcano ‘Vulcano’, off the coast of Italy.
After several minutes I finally managed to get a video of the geyser ‘Stokkur’ erupting and quickly hurried inside for a warming cup of hot chocolate to help defrost my hands before continuing our journey onwards to the Gullfoss (translates as “Golden Falls”) waterfall –

It was even colder here than at Geysir and it also started to rain so Freya sat in the car whilst I went down to the waterfalls. It was quite spectacular and would have looked even better in sunshine. Next we went onwards to the Þingvellir National Park –

This is the ancient site of the Icelandic Parliment (the Alþingi which translates as [the] all-thing) which first meet here in 930AD and held meetings here until 1799, before moving to Reykjavik. This makes it the oldest existing parliamentary institution in the world. This site is part of the Þingvellir National Park (translates as Thing Fields National Park) which is Iceland’s 1st national park. The park has the islands largest natural lake – Þingvallavatn.
The Þingvellir National Park also sits on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where the edges of the Eurasian Plate and North American Plate are pulling apart at a rate of about 2.5cms a year. This has formed the clearly defined ridge/canyon you can see in the two 360s I’ve put above and below and is frequently the cause of earthquakes in the region –

The wind here was freezing and my face was frozen. Freya had a headache by this time in the day (probably from the cold winds and some dehydration) so she stayed in the car whilst I went for a walk along the fault line. It was a really spectacular place with the lake and mountains surrounding us. Apparently it’s very popular with Icelanders in summer for picnics, but I couldn’t quite picture it getting warm enough for this.

We then continued on our way back to Reykjavik for a nice warm shower and bed. It would have been nice to have had some more time in Iceland as there is so much to do, I could have booked myself onto a Glacier walk tour or visited some places in Northern Iceland, but this will need to wait for next time

Bless

We’ve landed here in Reykjavik, Iceland (Island is how you spell Iceland in Icelandic, but it’s pronounced Is Land). After the 40mins bus trip from the airport to the city, we checked into our apartment, and went for a walk down to the shore. Here’s the view (It was windy and cold so the image might be a little blurry) –

Our apartment here is very nice, only 5 mins walk from the centre of town. It’s very spacious, has cooking facilities, excellent heating and hot-water that smells likes sulphur.(The Icelandics drill for hot-water like some nations drill for Oil. The entire of Reykjavik is heated with hot-water from a nearby geothermal power station, making Iceland one of the greenest countries on the entire planet) Our apartment also has an excellent Internet connection, even better than at work/home. (Edit: Out of all the hotels so far up to/including Sweden, Iceland has had the best Internet connection in terms of speed, reliability and ease of connection)

We attended a concert at The Harpa (it’s the large building by the sea in the 360 above, and is their main entertainment building here, it has 4 concert halls) of traditional Icelandic songs introduced in English which was very nice. We’ve been up to Pelan (a revolving restaurant and observation deck on top of the city’s hot-water storage tanks). We also went up Hallgrímskirkja (this is the main church in Rekyavik and is located on top of a hill, giving a good view over the city from the top of the bell tower, pictures included below).

Iceland is very cold and I somehow managed to lose my scarf and gloves in the hire car in England, so one of the first stops was a bit of shopping to purchase a new pair of gloves (with touch sensitive fingers so I can use my iPhone with my gloves on) and a scarf. Freya also told me the beanie I had brought wasn’t very stylish, so a new beanie was also required. Iceland have a tax free shopping scheme for visitors so most of our purchases entitled us to a VAT refund at the airport which equalled about $40 – 50 AUD total, which we then converted straight away into Norwegian Krone ready for our next stop.

Reykjavik is a nice little city and the Icelandic people are very friendly and most have very good English which helps to make you feel more welcome. We hired a car and went for a drive into the Interior (covered in my next post) which was very exciting and interesting to see some more of Iceland.

On our last day in Reykjavik we went for a drive out to the Blue Lagoon and took a dip. Apparently the silica and minerals in the water are suppose to have good healing and rejuvenation properties for your skin. After a thorough soaking, it was back to Reykjavik for one last night before we headed off to Bergen, Norway on our 8am flight.

Bless

Back in London after our travels around the English countryside. I’ve had a great time, and the weather has been really good, it’s only just started getting cloudy/drizzly this afternoon before we fly to Iceland tomorrow.

I’ve been using an app I’ve had on my phone for a while but never really used called “360 Panorama” to make the 360’s in this blog. It’s really easy to use and helps to capture the “whole” picture.

I’ve been to the London Eye, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Oxford St, Regent St and the Tower Of London. I’ve walked, cycled, bused, tubed and ferried my way around London. The cycle hire scheme in London (Barclays Cycles) is very handy for making quick trips around London and getting a bit of exercise in, it’s also nice way to see Hyde Park.

I also visited the Tower Of London and saw the Crown Jewels (Sorry, no pictures allowed   🙁   ), visited Tower Bridge and ate some very yummy Italian food –

Did you know there is free public WiFi spots all over London. I was able to connect to a service provided by O2 and access free constant WiFi all the way down Oxford and Regent street whilst travelling on a bus. They’ve installed WiFi antennas on every 2nd/3rd lamppost all the way down the street.

360 of Trafalgar Square –

Only 1 1/2 weeks till Eurovision. We’re heading off to Iceland now hopefully we’ll have some nice weather, possibly snow.

Cheerio

Today is the end of our 2 day driving trip around South West England. We left yesterday morning from Heathrow and after navigating out from the airport, we got onto the motorway and started heading south. We then spent the next 2 hours trying to work out English speed limits, road signs and why the car keeps beeping.

Eventually we managed to get to Brighton and it was a nice sunny morning –

After a brief walk along the pier, we had some of the “best” chips in England (they were pretty good) then onto the local shopping centre so Freya could check out the local TopShop for a dress she was looking for. Alas no joy, so the TopShop locations in Salisbury and Bath were noted down for future stopovers. Then back into the car and onto Salisbury for the night.

We had a really nice meal at a local pub in Salisbury and had our first Benoffe Pie, which was delicious.

Next morning, a short journey to Salisbury Cathedral which has the tallest spire in England. The spire is so heavy that the marble supporting columns inside the church have actually bent under the weight of the spire. I also saw the Magna Carta and the oldest working clock in the world from 1386AD.

Then onwards to Stonehenge (and as promised I’ve included some pictures below of Stonehenge for you, Michelle, with more to come when I get back) –

Finally onwards to Bath for lunch and a visit to the Roman Baths, followed by a drive back through the English countryside back to Heathrow. It total we drove about 400 miles (about 650kms).

Cheerio

Here’s a quick 360 I did of London on our first full day here –