“From Lava to Love: Our Windy Iceland Adventure on the Way to Paris”

Mike surprised me with a trip to Paris for our 40^th anniversary. This was terribly exciting as we have not travelled to Europe except to meet a Mediterranean cruise 3 years ago and we did not have a great experience getting there due to airline delays.  Therefore, we decided to try and get a connecting flight anywhere except in the US.  Mike found that Icelandair connected in Reykjavik, Iceland and only had an hour layover.  Much better than the typical 3-5 hour layovers in the US.  As we were booking the flight we discovered that you are allowed to use up to 7 days as a “layover” and still consider it the same flight.  We then started researching Iceland and what there was to do there and made a mini side trip for 4 days before heading to Paris.  Iceland is the land of waterfalls and volcanoes so we decided to rent a car and chase and hike waterfalls for 4 days, which we did.

Iceland is beautiful when you are driving along the coastline or through the hay fields or by lakes and waterfalls, all plentiful.  But most of the interior is lava, there are very few trees (due to the volcanos?) and it is the third windiest place in the world, the other 2 being the North and South poles where no one can live.  So, we were in for a windy and beautiful adventure.

The next challenge was sticking to our Paleo diet in foreign countries and in airplanes and airports.  No gluten, no milk and hopefully nothing processed.  We were able to stick to the first two but eventually had to eat processed ham and turkey for lunches.  I brought a package of gluten free wraps from home which lasted us the 4 days in Iceland perfectly.  We were able to pick up ham and cheese and spinach at the store and keep it in our little soft-sided cooler we packed.  

The next challenge was the Viking/Nordic language with mostly consonants (14-20 per word) and very few vowels.  This made it difficult to verbalize where we were going, especially since I was the navigator while Mike was driving the crazy roads.  We found our way to the rental car shuttle upon arriving on time in Keflavik at 6:30 am, no sleep.  Extremely windy and cold standing outside waiting for the shuttle after leaving a very hot Denver.  The rental from Sixt was a 2-hour ordeal.  We overheard other customers dropping off the cars and getting charged $100-$300 Euros for “damage”.  Since many of Iceland’s roads are not paved they were looking under the cars with a mirror, checking the “windscreens” for chips and testing the door hinges since the wind apparently whips car doors beyond their intended capacity.  This caused us to inspect our car, taking dozens of pictures and waiting for an attendant to write up the damage on our contract.

So now we are off to find a map, some food and hopefully make it to our first stop, the Blue Lagoon and then our first hotel.  We had read that the Blue Lagoon, the thermal heated, artic blue in color, bay set in and around heaps of lava was the place to go for jet lag.  It was close to the airport and easily visible with the constant steam rising in the cold air. 

We ventured into the parking lot full of rental cars and tour buses in our flip flops ready to jump in.  Not so fast, first we were hit with long lines and the only signage we could understand was for pre-bought tickets. Our first Ooops. It did look interesting though, nothing like that eerie blue artic water against the black lava fields and yes, we were cold, so decided we had to plan for the last day when we would be back this way.

Now we are on the highway that apparently has 3 names, one on Google maps on my phone (that was downloaded from the Blue Lagoon WIFI), one that was on their map and one that is posted on the highway.  The first of many “We’re lost” scenarios.  We drove for hours to find our hotel North of Selfoss.  Had to stop several times to get WIFI at the gas station/fast food stops and map a leg on the phone and then stop and do it again.  I had also downloaded and printed maps before we left home, but these names did not match up and were only helpful for the general direction.  That was tough too since our car was not equipped with a compass or GPS and we had no visual guide such as the mountains to determine our direction.  The sun is always up so that wasn’t helpful either.

On our way to Selfoss, east of the airport we saw hundreds of Icelandic horses, very short, long manes and tails and very sturdy looking standing against the constant wind.  Every farm had 20 or more and we passed farm after farm that looked the same.  It appears the only “farming” is to grow endless acres of hay to feed all of the horses.  Can’t see what they use the horses for but they work all day and night to feed them.

We finally found our Inn Fosshotel Hekla after several hours, out in the middle of nowhere, no town, store, gas station or point of interest except farmland.  

We checked in and ventured off to our first waterfall

which was back in Selfoss which we just came from, disappointed our hotel was not in the town.  Found the Skullgefoss waterfall easily since you could see it for miles from the road as you approached.  We set off to hike up behind it.  I was glad we had our ponchos in the backpack or we would have been drenched.  After going up, behind and around the double waterfall we climbed up the green cliff next to the falls to get a different view.  It was a beautiful day, sunny and about 60 degrees, perfect for hiking and we didn’t notice the wind up under these cliffs so much.  We were down to shirt sleeves in no time and just tried to absorb the beauty.  We were very impressed with our first successful stop.

By now we had been up for 24 hours and headed back to the Inn for dinner.  Restaurants are non-existent.  We did head to a market while in Selfoss to get our lunch for the next few days, but we were unable to buy any ice, so that was going to be a challenge….to find ice in Iceland.

After breakfast the next morning I took my little quart-sized zip lock bag and knocked on the kitchen door and asked for ice in English, hoping the chef would understand.  He nodded and took my bag, closing the door behind him.  While I waited I could hear a lot of chopping and hammering, apparently, they only had block ice.  He returned with my quart bag only half full of ice and very full of holes.  Well so much for keeping my cooler food dry.

We headed north to Gulfoss Falls and then to Geysir National Park. Next we are heading to Lavgartvatn and Dillinger National Park. Mike almost fell asleep driving and I grabbed the wheel to keep us on the narrow road and avoided a ditch.  We found the visitors center after about an hour and parked and hiked 3500 kilometers between the tectonic plates where Eurasia and North America collide pushing up cliffs on both sides. This was the Viking meeting place for all the tribes for their annual meeting. There was an old church, a large field for their meeting place, a “Judging Rock” and Drowning pond (for the women criminals) and a Hanging rock for the male thieves and rapists (mostly incest). Murder did not warrant death in 500. Several small waterfalls on this path and interesting cliffs along the tectonic plate eruption.

The third day we decided to go and find Glymur, another famous waterfall we learned about from our waitress last night at dinner. We knew this would be a very long drive according to the map but this was the only day we would be anywhere near this far interior on the island so we decided to go for it. We stopped at Kerid on the way, a turquoise pool at the bottom of a volcano. This is considered an explosion crater formed by a magma chamber. A beautiful sight and worthwhile stop.

I had my phone programed for Glymur so we didn’t venture anywhere else off the agenda which was a good thing as we went on many dirt roads in many different directions with almost no signage to find the trail head. It was a beautiful drive along an eternal lake that eventually led to the ocean. We drove on dirt, gravel, the dam and finally the national park paved road. After about 1 ½ hours we found the trail head. The sign on the gate indicated “the log is down” which is good. We had read that you could not cross the river if it was too high and the log to walk across was not in place. Since it is quite a hike, about 2 ½ kilometers before you even got to the river, they post whether the log is in place or not at the trail head. The lupine fields along the trail were in full bloom and spectacular.

The hike up to the falls was intense. I had to put on my gloves I had with me for warmth to use to protect my hands and fingertips on the rock climb. We took off our boots and hung them around our neck to cross the river on the log as we could easily see we were going to get wet navigating the slippery rocks approaching the log. We needed both hands free to balance on the log with the guidewire alongside. Once on the other side and socks and boots back on our feet we started the significant climb in elevation, another 2 ½ kilometers and about 1000 vertical feet. Some cliffs had ropes to help pull you up the very steep and rocky path. 2 hours later we arrived at the top of the 1000’ waterfall. The only thing that kept us going was the occasional glimpses of the falls from a distance and the constant roaring sound as we got closer.  

The view of actually 2 falls was spectacular as the water plummeted into a narrow canyon, hence all the noise.

We could see people hiking down on the other side and it looked easier so we hiked for an extra 2 kilometers to find a shallow enough place to cross the river. Too close to the falls would spell danger if you fell in the river and took the ride down so we hiked back further and further finding the river kept getting wider and split into 3 in some places. Soon we determined we could not keep going, we just had to take the plunge and run across the river and get down. It had started to rain and we were hungry and tired. We tried stepping on rocks that Mike carried and dropped into the water. Mike made it across the first river, Pat slipped on the rocks and fell in. Now wet and cold, I didn’t care about getting wet anymore so I started trudging across the second and then third river, water up to my thighs. Mike, who was still dry at this point was not happy about my decision. He tried to roll up his jeans and started in after me. Now we searched for some kind of a trail thinking we could get down quickly as it had started to rain and we were the only people as far as we could see as it was late in the day.

It turned out to be extremely difficult, no definitive trail on this side, several patches of almost jungle like foliage and the rain and our wet boots were turning everything to mud. In some areas, we had to climb down rocks backwards like a ladder to keep from tumbling off the cliff in the loose rock. This was a category 5+ climb and we wished we had stayed on the other side or at least had ropes or crampons with us. My gloves were in shreds by now and we were covered in mud from sliding down sections of cliffs where there was no trail.

We finally made it down the “path” that we forged and had to guess how to get back to the car. Luckily, we had another pair of shoes at the car as we had all our luggage with us. We figured we hiked about 12 kilometers.

Now onto the big city of Reykjavik!  We were looking forward to a hot shower and nicer accommodations. We drove along the coast into the capital city. No GPS left on our phone at this point but there was decent signage.

Our last full day in Iceland.  We are still trying to dry our boots and socks from Glymur but not very successful with the hair dryer before we had to pack up.  We asked about a laundromat and went on a wild goose chase and only found a commercial one with no one speaking English and obviously no self-service.  Luckily we had water proof vacuum bags for packing we put all the wet clothes in.

Drove to Keflavik on a real highway with real signs. I had programed my phone for the Jazz Hotel before we left our hotel that morning. This was a good thing as it was hard to find even though the town is quite small. It was a small place but very efficient. They had a shuttle to the airport, free breakfast (yes at 4:30am) and we unpacked easily as we were on the first floor. We set out our boots and socks to dry once more.

We headed to the Blue Lagoon for our 6pm reservation a little early.  It was mostly sunny but cool.  We hoped we could get in early since we did have reservations, which worked.  Stayed in the pool about 1 ½ hours.  Mike got a beer from the swim up bar (11Euros) and Pat got the free silica paste for the self-facial (let me know if I look younger). The was an otherworld experience. People wading in the artic blue steaming water with white paste on their faces, drinking beer and lounging next to piles of lava rock.  We decided to get out just as the weather was turning windier and colder. I quickly discovered my towel that I stole from the Hotel Edda for this very purpose had been taken so had to go inside and beg for one dripping wet and cold.

Glad we got an early start as now we had to dry our swimsuits too!  We ate dinner at one of about 3 restaurants in town called Rain at a table overlooking the water front and ordered the catch of the day. There was no activity here either inside or outside in this very quiet town that existed only for people coming from or leaving for the airport.

Got up at 4am – no sleep again.  Very hot and too bright outside.  We had asked last night about the breakfast and they said there would be toast and coffee and the traditional European breakfast of boiled ham and some cheese.  We asked if they had hard boiled eggs which they agreed to provide. We made our way into the dark kitchen and looked in their fridge and sure enough, 2 hard boiled eggs!  It’s amazing to get so excited about simple things.

Once on the flight we settled in for a real breakfast and we were served, guess what?…..fish!. Decided we were really being good about our paleo diet, all whole foods, high protein, so we dug in. At this point we could not tell if it was day or night anymore so it didn’t much matter and it was a lot better than the chicken they served on the way over.  Paris here we come. We were finally able to dry out our clothes on our balcony as it was 103 degrees.