Iceland - 2019

Scenic Iceland and the Northern Lights Tour
Insight Vacations

I had an 8 hrs layover in Dallas after American Airlines chose to change my flight to one 4 hours earlier than originally booked. I joined Geneviv and Lou at the gate and our plane left and arrived on time without incident. When we arrived Lou informed us that the trip did not include the transfer to the hotel so she found a SUV taxi to get us to the hotel, Icelandair Hotel Reykjavik Natura. We had to wait about an hour until noon to check in or pay an additional fee. Finally they let us check in, so we went to our rooms, cleaned up and then ate a really good buffet at the hotel.

Afterward we took a free shuttle to the Perlan Wonders of Iceland Museum. It was pretty interesting. It was built on top of hot water storage tanks that provide heat to the city from the hot waters associated with the volcanic activity of the country.

It includes a planetarium show about the Northern Lights that was better than we were actually able to see this trip. Also an ice tunnel exhibit similar to the one we did in Switzerland.

There was a section devoted to showing the receding of the glaciers and more detail about the volcanic activity of the region. Not sure my pictures explain too well, you may have to go there or investigate further at their site linked below.

We were also able to go outside on the higher level and get good views of the city. Even got a got photo of our hotel from there.

It was difficult to get the group back together to take the shuttle back in time for our dinner introduction to our tour group and guide. The shuttle driver then took a 10 minute break at the concert hall so I was able to get some shots of the building and surroundings. We were confused by his insisting we exit the bus while he took his break? We arrived back at the hotel just in time for our 6:15 orientation and dinner. Got some photos of the Harpa concert hall with all its glass walls.

We met our tour guide, Robert Lintott and had a glass of wine before his talk about the upcoming adventures and the timing for tomorrow's trip. Then we ate dinner. The dinner was basically the same choices as lunch and was still just as delicious. We left at 9pm for northern lights search. We didn't see anything even though it was pretty clear so we returned about 1am.

Perlan Wonders of Iceland Museum

Monday, October 7^th :

We got an early morning start because it was over 2 hours ride to first stop. I got another photo of the Perlan Wonders of Iceland Museum from the bus leaving the hotel. Then before we left Rekjavik we first made a stop at the Sun Voyager sculpture. It is one of the most popular selfie spot in Iceland, so we had to do one there too. Rob became the Camera Man for several groups there in order that we could do our group "selfie" unobstructed.

Sun Voyager

We then headed toward Vik. I got a few photos of the scenery on our way to geothermal power station at Hellisheidavirkjun. Our first stop was at a thermal power plant that also feeds hot water to Rickyveck. The power station is amazing. They use the hot water from underground to make steam that turns turbines to generate Iceland's power and to provide hot water for heating the homes. I got a photo of the pipe they use for transporting the hot water.

Hellisheidavirkjun Thermal Power Plant

Our next stop was at the Lava Center Volcano Museum in Hvolsvollur. They have lots of models of the area's volcano's and murals that explain the volcanic process for the area. Iceland has a lot of active volcanos.

Lava Center Volcano Museum

Then we traveled to the Seljalandsfoss waterfalls. This was a big one and we could walk behind it.

Seljalandsfoss waterfalls

After spending some time at the falls we travelled on to Skogafoss falls. We passed a fence where some woman who was elected to a government office protested her treatment for being a woman by hanging a lot of bras on the fence.

This is somewhat larger of waterfalls. Here you had the opportunity to climb a path to the top of the falls. Most of us chose not to do that part.

Skogafoss falls

Since so many requested the visit to the black beach, Robert said if the weather wasn't too bad we would go, but they hadn't put the stop on the itinerary because the weather doesn't often permit the stop. Apparently the area was featured on Season 7 of the HBO Series Game of Thrones We stopped at the black sand beach of Reynisfjara and it was too windy and wavy to go very close to water. Robert went ahead to see how high the water was and he saw a family of 4 almost get swept out to sea when a sudden high wave came up. So he limited us to higher ground.

Our dinner at the hotel had lamb chops as the main course that were very good and had way more fat than the one we get in the states.

Reynisfjara

Tuesday, October 8^th :

Our first stop was at the geothermal bakery, Fontana. Our local guide took us out to the beach area where he identified the spots where various locals and Fontana shared the boiling sands of the beach for cooking rye bread. He then dug up the pot he had buried there about 24 hours ago and proceeded to show us the results of the cooking in the sand. We followed him back to the resort where he proceeded to cut the bread and provided lots of butter to spread over the bread whilst we tasted it. It was pretty good, but anything smothered in that much butter is likely to be tasty.