AIM: Our Time in Iceland, Part I

AIM: Our Trip to Amsterdam, Iceland and Munich
Iberia Business Class Between Chicago and Munich
The Kimpton DeWitt, Amsterdam
AIM: Our Time in Amsterdam
The Sheraton Amsterdam Airport Hotel and Conference Center
The Radisson Blu 1919, Reykjavik
The Center Hotel Plaza, Reykjavik
AIM: Our Time in Iceland, Part I
AIM: Our Time in Iceland, Part II
AIM: Our Time in Iceland, Part III
The aloft Munich
AIM: Our Time at Dachau
AIM: Our Time in Munich
The Hilton Munich Airport

A week is a long time to try to condense into a single post, so I've split our time into several posts to help prevent brain overload.

If you sign up for a tour of Iceland that's based in Reykjavik, just be aware of what that typically means.  Reykjavik is located in the southwest corner of the country and is the only city of any substantial size.  Not that there aren't hotels and guest houses around the country, but if you're going to be touring by motorcoach there's pretty much one choice.  And because the city is not centrally located it means you'll spend a lot of time on the bus.  I'm not criticizing our tour operator, just trying to set expectations.  Some of the buses may have USB ports for charging your phone or camera but many do not.  So if you have a charging pack it wouldn't hurt to bring it along.

Map made with Google Maps

The tour as a whole was billed as a Sunday-Saturday trip and we thought it was very reasonably priced.  Of course, after being gone for 3.5 weeks to China, a week-long trip certainly would seem cheap by comparison!  But when you break down the price it does seem like it's not *quite* as advertised.  First there was the hotel, which as I've already discussed was not great.  Then the first day of the trip, Sunday, is the day you fly from the US overnight to Iceland.  The flight lands mid-morning (if there are no delays) and you reach the hotel around noon.  So of the first 2 days of the trip you're only in Iceland for one half-day of it.  Of course the last day, Saturday, is the flight home.  That leaves Tuesday - Friday and they've actually scheduled a day on your own.  So now your week-long tour is really only 3.5 days of guided tour.  Granted, if you want to go even further afield from the city than we did it would likely involve an overnight somewhere but if you're planning to take a tour, just realize what it entails.

If you want to go on your own, I don't think you'd have any problems - especially if you've got a second person along to help navigate.  The Icelandic language has some non-Roman characters and some of their place names are very long so if you're trying to look at printed material to follow driving directions against posted signs it could be a challenge!  But at least in Reykjavik we had no problem with folks speaking English and even out in the country all the signs were in several languages including English.  C and I have even discussed maybe going back some day in a warmer month and renting a car to see some more of the country.

Now, on to our trip!


You've heard the saying "if you don't like the weather, just wait a moment for it to change".  I've never been anywhere that's more true than in Iceland.  On our first afternoon we had rain, sun, fog, partly cloudy skies, sun and perhaps a little hail or snow.  I've also never been anywhere that I've seen so many rainbows.  I think I saw more in that one week than I see in the US in probably a 3-4 year timeframe.  At one point I mentioned to our guide that several of us on the trip were part of a ski club and that while I thought downhill skiing wasn't big there I assumed cross-country skiing was a big deal.  She told me that in fact people don't venture on cross-country skis in Iceland unless you're on a set track, like in a park, or are skiing from one farm to another.  The weather changes so quickly that you don't want to get caught out in a snowstorm!

Here are a few of the things we saw on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning.

Hallgrímskirkja

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland (aka the Church of Iceland or the National Church) is the official Christian church of the country.  Hallgrímskirkja ("church of Hallgrimur") is one of the tallest structures in the country and sits on a hill so it's visible from a number of places in the city.  Construction began in the 1940s with the tower completed first but the whole building was not completed until 1986, 41 years later.  It's named after 17th century Icelandic poet and minister Hallgrímur Pétursson.

The first thing you notice about the building is its striking exterior.  We only had 15 minutes at the church so C and I split photo-taking assignments and several of these photos are hers.

Inside is a lot of the light-colored wood I like along with the white walls and ceiling and it makes the auditorium feel very large.

C and I paid to take the elevator up to the top of the tower to get photos of the city.  I'm glad we did that because this was one of the few times we saw the sun this week - and even then you can see how different the clouds are on the various sides of the tower.  Click the photos for larger views if you wish.

Seljalandsfoss

On Tuesday the highlight was Seljalandsfoss, which is pronounced pretty much like it's spelled if you skip the "j": Sel-ANDS-foss.  We came to realize that "foss" on the end of the word meant "falls".  The falls are 197 feet high and the water is fed from the Seljalands River.  That river, in turn, is fed from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano glacier.  Perhaps you recall in 2010 when that volcano erupted and threw a wrench into flight patterns anywhere in the region.  It disrupted travel plans for days as airlines had to work around that airspace.

Behind the waterfall is a cave so you can actually walk all the way around it.  Fortunately we came prepared with water-resistant clothing to put on over our street clothes.  Boots and water-resistant shoes are a great thing to have if you tour Iceland.

Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach and Reynisdrangar

NatGeo named this beach one of the top 10 non-tropical beaches in 1991 and it's easy to see why.  I'm sure it's gorgeous in the sunlight too but the gloomy weather really gave it a sense of danger and mystery.  The beach runs along the south side of the island near the town of Vik and is known for its deadly "sneaker waves", so-called because it's very easy to underestimate how dangerous they are.  They have a deadly undertow because there are no significant land masses between this beach and Antarctica so they have many thousands of miles to gather force.  It seems every year or two someone gets too close and is pulled out to sea, never to be seen again.

The cliffs near the sea are made of basalt columns and are quite cool to look at.  There are a number of shallow caves set in the cliff.

A few meters out in the ocean are the Reynisdrangar.  Icelanders love their stories and legends and this one says that one evening trolls tried to drag a three-masted ship to the shore.  When they had not reached the shore by sunrise, the trolls and the ship were all turned into basalt columns.