Half-Term Holiday: Iceland Day 1

(Note: I wrote this diary at the time, but am typing it up later! I barely had time to write the diary some of the days)

11th February 2018

Finally, another trip! I woke up on Saturday very stuffed up – I have quite the cold, it seems. We didn’t fly out of Heathrow until 8.30pm, so we packed on the day and headed out around 5.30pm for the airport. We had a pub dinner in the airport, which was pretty good, during which we found out our flight was delayed 15 minutes. In the end, we didn’t get on the plane until almost 9, so we landed a little later (2hr 40min) than expected around 12am. Customs in Reykjavik was quite quick, and we picked up our hire car at 1am. We seem to have gotten a free upgrade, as we’re driving a Dacia Duster 4WD SUV rather than the Swift we’d ordered. And it has studded tyres  too!

First of all, we needed to get to the hotel, about 50km away in Reykjavik proper. Richard did really well given he was adjusting to a left-hand drive car on the wrong side of the road, and despite the snow on the side of the road, the road itself was clear. We got in at 2am.

Our travel agent had warned us there was a storm due today (Sunday), and that we should eave early to head to Vik (our next overnight stop). So we got up at 6am after very little sleep, and had breakfast. When the road map was updated at 7am, the second half of our journey was closed. So we decided to stay in Reykjavik for the day until the road cleared, and call the travel agent around 10 to get a plan B hotel in Reykjavik in case we couldn’t get to Vik at all. We had a brief nap until about 9.30, then checked the map again. It looked clear, so we double checked with reception, who said basically ‘go now, and go straight there!’ So we did (almost).

We made one stop along the way, a gorgeous waterfall called Seljalandsfoss which was only a short walk from the carpark. It wasn’t even super cold, especially not with my layers on! We took photos, bought a snack and used the looks before heading on. The roads were listed as ‘slippery’ on the map which meant less that 20% ice, and blowing snow. Both of these were accurate and totally manageable. Richard didn’t seem to have any troubles.

We arrived in Vik around 1.30pm, but couldn’t check in yet, so we walked across the road to the Icewear store. They had advertised a free tour of the factory – however, that turned out to be just looking through the window at the machines (which weren’t on, because Sunday(. The souvenirs weren’t quite what we were looking for, either, sadly. We did get sandwiches for lunch from the supermarket though.

The weather did seem worse when we arrived, but the snow flurries cleared so we went for a walk along the beach – black, volcanic beach! In fact, in some places the sand caved away to reveal white snow underneath! Very cool. It was so windy though! 60+ km/h winds, so I had my hood pulled super close to my face… I didn’t see the ocean coming! A wave got me and splashed into my show. Luckily my shoe and pants are waterproof. We were basically blown back to the hotel in the end, where we just chilled for the rest of the afternoon, watching the Winter Olympics and the snow out the window.

We had dinner in the hotel restaurant (Berg), where we had scallops with seaweed, lamb rack and chocolate cake. I even had a gin and tonic with Icelandic gin! We want to head off before 9 tomorrow – we’re staying at Skaftafell, but want to go sightseeing further east, so have a bigger day ahead tomorrow.