Day 16 - 11 Dec 19
Reykjavik
The wind is still blowing quite strongly today. We expect it to drop off this afternoon and I have been monitoring the roads. We were hoping to drive some of the sections of the golden circle but the roads were closed. We went for a walk around the suburb down to the water. The lack of locals walking should have been a clue for us as it was bitterly cold in the wind. It is good to feel alive but the cold drains the energy!
I neglected to mention the automated window closer in the room. When we arrived in the room the window was open and closing with the breeze which would have been a problem with the storm winds and blowing snow. The window was about 3m up so I climbed up on a window ledge and tied up the window with parachute cord which we always carry for a clothes line. Vanessa then found a remote control for the window. We tried it but it didn’t work so I climbed up again and found that the chain was not connected nor was the unit operating. I substituted some of our AA batteries and got the unit working to pull the window closed then swapped the batteries back. They then worked so I can only assume that they were installed incorrectly. Seems to be a bit of a design fail to me to have a window closer that requires AA batteries at 3m about the ground…
Iceland seems to be the land of the long lost glove. We have seen a single glove in lots of locations and even a beanie. I will put it down to losses to wind having watched one of my gloves disappear into the distance in blizzard conditions on a past trip. It could also just be carelessness. Pockets make good gloves anyway.
Why are we not looking around Reykjavik? We are moving into the city tomorrow so it will be easier.
Day 17 - 12 Dec 19
Reykjavik
It is a about time to mention shower controls in Iceland. There are two controls one at either end of a horizontal cylinder that may be clearly labelled by not for me without my glasses. The one on the left is for flow control and the other is for temperature control. It is a good idea to make sure that the temperature control is at least mid-range before attempting to turn on the flow control as it prevents screams from the shock of cold water hitting your head. Often the showers are combination with another outlet that is usually pointing towards your face which can also triggers screams. Direction control is important. It is easy to have the shower flow running but the temperature a little low but be cautious as rapid change of the control for the unskilled tourist can also lead to unintended freezing cold water hitting your body and more screams. Rather complicated for the early morning although the cold water does tend to help waking up.
The weather had mostly cleared up although the wind was still blowing to some extent. The roads had been cleared for most of the local tourist routes so we decided to visit some of the tourist attractions near Reykjavik. We checked out of Iceland Comfort Apartments before heading off to look at Þingvellir national park, Geysir geothermal area and Gullfoss waterfall. We could see that we were back on the tourist conga line as we turned off towards our first stop. It was clear that the road had only just been cleared of snow and there had been deep cover in locations. Only a single lane had been cleared in places of deeps snow.
It was the coldest that we had felt in Iceland today. The temperature was -10degC but the windchill made it feel at least -13degC. We had dressed for the weather but it still was not enough and we should have worn out balaclavas. One issue that we need to solve is keeping our winter coat hoods on our heads when facing the wind.
We decided to bypass the Þingvellir national park stop as we could see the continental divide from the road. Iceland is divided by the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates and they cross Þingvellir national park.
The next stop was Geysir. The stop is for the active Geysir which was supposed to occur every 8-10 minutes although Vanessa timed it at approx. 5 minutes. It was quite a slippery walk from the car to the geyser and there would have been hundreds of people, some in a hurry to slip over, some dressed for summer, some dressed for arctic conditions and most inside in the warmth of the tourist shops and eating areas. It was cold and icy.
The last stop was gullfoss waterfall. The wind had picked up and it was icy. We decided to pull on our micro-spikes to minimise the chance of slipping over. It turned out to be a good choice as quite a few were slipping over on the ice on the path. The waterfall was quite frozen and it was difficult to take images as our fingers were getting quite cold. We retreated to the car and I drove down to a lower level and went out to take a couple more photos. It did not take long before my fingers were extremely cold and I decided to give up. The burning feeling of my fingers warming in the warm of the car after letting them get too cold was a reminder to be more careful. It is easy to forget that -10degC is still cold.
We drove back to Reykjavik past a couple standing next to their car, sitting in a ditch off the side of the road in the snow, with perplexed looks on their faces. They were fine. We were not sure what had happened but it looked like they had lost control on the icy surface. Apparently this is not uncommon. It also was surprising how many 2wd vehicles were on the road driven by tourists even though the roads were slippery. There really needs to be some training or evidence of driving in these conditions.
Vanessa is like a rally car navigator now. I just yell for instructions and most of the time we are getting it right now. Reykjavik city is quite a challenging drive in from the countryside. The drivers , as typical city drivers , attempt to get from point to point in minimal time. We, as tourists, are inconvenient learner drivers, we are novices, needed a little warning horn encouragement.
Our new accommodation was inner city. The booking has parking but in reality it was there is free parking on the road on top of the hill a street away. It was an apartment that could be called retro. When the toilet light was turned on it also started a small exhaust fan that sounded like an outboard motor. It was loud! What also was not advertised was that it was in the flight path for the inner city airport and something in the room would vibrate when an aircraft flew over on approach. It actually was a comfortable room. The beds were comfortable and the heaters warm.
We slept well until about 430am when the enthusiastic couple on the floor above us created enough knocking on the floor to wake us. The enthusiasm was short lived then silence again.
Day 18 - 13 Dec 19
Reykjavik
We wandered around Reykjavik today. The accommodation was only about 100m from the outdoor ice skating rink where school children with orange bike helmets where skating and pushing reindeer beginner supports even though they didn’t need them. We watched for a while then moved on.
I had mapped out a list of waypoints but we decided to just wander around and discover. It is not the most effective way to see a city but we like it. We didn’t like the icy footpaths and especially those on slopes.
We needed to pack but there was a problem. The car was parked a couple of streets away on a hill and we needed to take the suitcases that we had left in the back to the room for repacking. The paths and roads were slippery and the idea was that we were going to move the car to local parking which was not paid after 6pm. One problem was that it was Friday night and lots of people were parking in town. The next problem was that if we moved the park that we were using for the car may be gone. We took the risk and found a park about 50m from the accommodation. It was slippery and we had to be very careful but managed to get the suitcases to the room and repack. I am not overemphasising the risk as when I put the suitcases in the car ready for the morning someone slipped over walking down the street we were parked.
We also refitted the rear windscreen wiper that had come off with all the ice and cold temperatures in Myvatn.
Day 19 – 14 Dec 19
Reykjavik to Bergen Norway
This was our last day in Iceland. We got up early to get to the airport. The usual arrive 3 hrs before at the airport for international flights. The temperature was the coldest we had in the Iceland trip. It reached -13DegC! There was no problem with the car as expected. There was one last ice hazard to cross as we walked to the airport from the car hire location. It was only about 400m. I was relieved when we got inside the airport and there was no more ice.
Iceland has been more than we expected. It is a small package with a lot of interest that will need to be visited again in another season. We absolutely loved the experience and while the weather prevented us exploring the west of the island it also gives us another reason to visit again. The country hospitality has been great and even the city people have mostly been warm.
We found that check in was only 2hrs before flight but it didn’t matter.
The flights were from Reykjavik to Copenhagen then Copenhagen to Bergen. It was a bit odd as we flew 3.5hrs on the first leg and then back 1.5hrs to Bergen. We didn’t need to go through customs again at Copenhagen. If only we could have flown directly to Bergen!
We had a few challenges with automated tram tickets at Bergen airport. A bit of guessing to get the tickets and then a bit more guessing for the direction of travel as the information had a windows blue screen of death. The tram ride was 45 minutes as started empty but filled very quickly to the point where we were trying to work out how we could get off the train. Luckily the numbers thinned by our station and we were able to get off. We had a short walk to the Terminus Hotel aided by the GPS which tried to get us lost. We had to simplify our approach and use the GPS as a compass.
