Iceland
1st March 2019
So let me set the scene first. This wasn’t one of my great adventures, it was never mean to be. It was five days away with hubby seeing the sights of Iceland and keeping everything crossed we saw the northern lights! Which we didn’t but more about that later.
We stayed at a nice hotel in Reykjavik centre and our booking agent had included a couple of tours for us. Knowing so little about the island I went along with the suggestions and hoped to see all the awesome images you see on Instagram (just put in #Iceland you’ll see what I mean) We landed Friday morning and got a bus to the hotel – so far so good! Went for a super long walk to discover the city and really enjoyed it – had a coffee and cake x 2 which was only £16.00 – “Only” you say but I’d done enough research to know Iceland was CRAZY expensive. I didn’t think that £16.00 was that bad – the cake was awesome! The walk along the water front was stunning with snow on the mountains and a few excited tourists around.
We’d got our Northern Lights tour booked that evening and to say I was excited was an understatement but my 5 different Aurora apps on my phone (I know over kill but I REALLY wanted to see them) said it was pretty slim… we were down to a “chance” (number 2 on the aurora scale) at 6pm as the wind got more than a little crazy… Then the tour company emails started coming in to say they were all cancelled. Oh well, we get to try again tomorrow.
We stayed at a nice hotel in Reykjavik centre and our booking agent had included a couple of tours for us. Knowing so little about the island I went along with the suggestions and hoped to see all the awesome images you see on Instagram (just put in #Iceland you’ll see what I mean) We landed Friday morning and got a bus to the hotel – so far so good! Went for a super long walk to discover the city and really enjoyed it – had a coffee and cake x 2 which was only £16.00 – “Only” you say but I’d done enough research to know Iceland was CRAZY expensive. I didn’t think that £16.00 was that bad – the cake was awesome! The walk along the water front was stunning with snow on the mountains and a few excited tourists around.
We’d got our Northern Lights tour booked that evening and to say I was excited was an understatement but my 5 different Aurora apps on my phone (I know over kill but I REALLY wanted to see them) said it was pretty slim… we were down to a “chance” (number 2 on the aurora scale) at 6pm as the wind got more than a little crazy… Then the tour company emails started coming in to say they were all cancelled. Oh well, we get to try again tomorrow.
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So because the lights tour was cancelled we had dinner out and it was lovely – until we got the bill! A bowl of soup, a small side salad, 2 pizzas and a glass of wine was £81.00!!! Jeeze £81.00 – so maybe double what you’d pay here. We probably wouldn’t be doing that again!!
The following day was the Golden Circle tour which is a visit inland to Gullfoss (Gull meaning Gold – hence the name) also calling into a geo thermal area with a very active geyser, a “canyon” – (their description not mine – the “Grand Canyon” it wasn’t!) and to my surprise green houses where they grow tomatoes AWESOME!!!!
The first stop was the tomatoes – this pretty much felt like padding out the day. It was a green house that got the heat from the geo thermal activity. To be honest me and Gaz sneaked out and went for a walk like naughty school kids! The next stop was the geo thermal area. This was pretty cool – think small scale Yellowstone. A very small area that you couldn’t leave with a huge cafe and tat shop built there for all the tourists to spend their cash (call me cynical) By the time we left (1.5 hours later) there was 38 tour buses in the car park all with 52-69 people on board – do the math! The amount of people was just insane! I’ve never experience tourism on this scale before and never want to experience it again!
The following day was the Golden Circle tour which is a visit inland to Gullfoss (Gull meaning Gold – hence the name) also calling into a geo thermal area with a very active geyser, a “canyon” – (their description not mine – the “Grand Canyon” it wasn’t!) and to my surprise green houses where they grow tomatoes AWESOME!!!!
The first stop was the tomatoes – this pretty much felt like padding out the day. It was a green house that got the heat from the geo thermal activity. To be honest me and Gaz sneaked out and went for a walk like naughty school kids! The next stop was the geo thermal area. This was pretty cool – think small scale Yellowstone. A very small area that you couldn’t leave with a huge cafe and tat shop built there for all the tourists to spend their cash (call me cynical) By the time we left (1.5 hours later) there was 38 tour buses in the car park all with 52-69 people on board – do the math! The amount of people was just insane! I’ve never experience tourism on this scale before and never want to experience it again!
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So Gullfoss water fall was cool – it was a huge fall, super pretty – would love to see it it summer but if it was this busy in Feb I can’t imagine what it’s like in the summer.
You need to look at the large version of this pic – just to show you how many people were there at the same time! There’s probably another 1000 or so back at the cafe and walking the steps that you can’t see.
From here we went to the “Canyon” – I can’t even show you a picture as Gary and I sneaked off again and found this fantastic waterfall that our whole bus missed – we walked back through the canyon to the carpark but it was so not a canyon we didn’t realise!
The following day (after the disappointment of the Northern light tour getting cancelled again!!!) we’d booked a small mini bus with only a few folk – totally different to the day before. Chatty happy Americans that we had fun with. We went to explore the south coast and the first stop was a glacier! The car park had been built 200yds from the glacier 10 yeas ago and now the glacier was a good 20 min walk from there! Crazy how quickly we are losing these things
The rest of the day was a little insane! The Icelandic weather moved in, it was so windy I couldn’t stand up! It was fun though – I quite enjoy extreme weather – we visited a black beach with the biggest waves I’ve ever seen! Check out the video to see how crazy it was!
The last few images from that day – and the only time we saw some sunshine! The whole bus was drenched! My waterproof jacket turns out not to be so waterproof in Iceland! hahahaha
I’m afraid to say the Northern Lights tour was cancelled the next two nights too – Oh well I’m going to Scotland soon – you never know!
I’m afraid to say the Northern Lights tour was cancelled the next two nights too – Oh well I’m going to Scotland soon – you never know!
All in all – if I had shipped the Landy over and got away from the main tourist sights this would have been a very different holiday! I still had fun with Gaz and loved a fabulous swim in the geo thermal pools on our last day as well as the sights I saw.
Thanks for stopping by – please leave me a little comment if you read the blog
Paula xx
Thanks for stopping by – please leave me a little comment if you read the blog
Paula xx
