My Nordic Adventure Part 1 - Iceland - Day 2

We officially start our “round the island” road trip on day 2! On average, we drove about 4 - 6 hours every day, so we tend to get going as early as possible to hit as many attractions as possible. On day 2, we drove to the southernmost part of Iceland and started to get a glimpse of what this country looks like.

Kerið Crater

This is supposed to be part of the golden circle. We did not have the time yesterday, and this is on the way out to the “Ring Road”, so we decided to stop by. The red slopes and the aquamarine color of the lake are part of the appeal of visiting this crater.

On our way to the southern coast, driving on the main road around the island, we saw beautiful mountains, massive green grass land, dozens of sheep and horses everywhere. The combination of them creates such an incredible sense of freedom and tranquility.

Seljalandsfoss

Beautiful waterfall right off the main road. The short trail leads you to the back of the waterfall as well.

Skógafoss

This is one of my favorite waterfalls and also one of the biggest. It is so big that you can see it all the way from the ring road. There is also a stairway that leads you to the top of the waterfall.

Skógar Museum

This is right next to the Skógafoss. There are three parts to the museum: the folk museum (artefacts), the open-air museum (turf houses, see picture below) and the museum of transport. It looked like an awesome museum to visit, however, due to time constraints, we decided to skip this, but we were able to see the turf houses from outside.

Sólheimajökull

This is one of the many glaciers in Iceland, and there are day tours offered to tourists if you want to do glacier walks and/or climbing. We will be doing a glacier walk on the largest glacier on Iceland - Vatnajökull on day 3, so we just took a short walk for this one.

Dyrhólaey Viewpoint

Dyrhólaey is basically the arch with the hole. It might sound like something that you are not sure you want to make a detour for, but it turned out to be a nice ocean walk. There is the upper and the lower part, depending on how much time you want to spend here, it could take you 2 hours to walk around the whole area. You can see from the pictures below that the walk offers some stunning views, and we were totally blown away by the scenery and even more so by the WIND!

Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach

Last stop of the day, the Reynisfjara black sand beach. This is not the type of beach that you would see people sunbathing and swimming. However, it has a panoramic views of the Atlantic ocean, and you can also see the large basalt columns.

On day 2, we drove about 240km / 150 miles and this day is considered one of the easier day for driving. In the coming days, we had to drive so much further in each day that we actually had made some tough decisions in choosing which attractions to go and which to skip. To be continued….

My Nordic Adventure Part 1 - Iceland - Day 1

We arrived in Reykjavik early in the morning, and of course we are not going to waste the day! We decided to squeeze in the golden circle for our first day in Iceland. I was worried that it would be too rushed at first, but thinking back, it was a perfect warm-up for the rest of our time in Iceland and I probably wouldn’t spend more than 1 day because I felt like it is slightly overrated and the rest of the country has so much more to offer!

Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park - This is the first national park in Iceland and a world heritage site. The whole area lies on top of a huge fissure caused by multiple volcano eruptions, which creates a unique and interesting landscape. Besides the nature, Thingvellir also has cultural significance to Icelanders because this is where a lot of the important meetings were held and where important decisions were made.

Efstidalur II - This is a farm restaurant, which offers fresh meals and delicious ice-cream from their own livestock.

Brúarfoss - There are countless waterfalls (or foss in Icelandic) in Iceland, and this is one of the bluest ones (so I have heard). It is about 3 miles round trip to the Brúarfoss and on the way, you will also pass by a couple smaller waterfalls as well. I would recommend going earlier in the day, as the angle of sun could affect the “blueness” of the waterfall. When you searched the waterfall online, people are calling it the secret / hidden waterfall in the golden circle, but I think enough people have gone there (thanks to the internet) and now it is just one of the many waterfalls people go to. To be fair, there are fewer people compared to the other attractions but I think it is simply because this is a longer hike. We definitely saw quite a number of people and the signs / path are very developed.

Friðheimar - This is our lunch spot of the day. It is one of the 2 big tomato green houses in the country. As you can imagine, the climate in Iceland is a little harsh, and therefore it is very difficult to grow anything. Icelanders built their own eco-friendly green houses to grow things like tomatoes and cucumbers, and the products are mainly for domestic use. We ordered tomato soup and ravioli with tomato sauce to taste their delicious tomatoes!

Geysir - This is a geothermal area where you can see water sprouts out of the geysir 30 meters into the air! It is pretty cool!

Gullfoss - Another amazing waterfall, and it is only a short walk from the parking to the actual waterfall.

Faxi - It is also called the Vatnsleysufoss. We originally thought that we would be sick of seeing waterfalls after a while, but each and everyone of them are so unique in its way that I can’t seem to get tired of the waterfalls!

Fish Company - This is an amazing dinner spot that closes pretty late, highly recommended! We recommend either getting seafood or beef/lamb because those ingredients are local and fresh. Dairy product is also one other must-try around here (think about all those grass-fed sheep and cow)! We ordered two dishes (lobster and fish) and one dessert (whipped milk chocolate ganache & toasted hazelnuts, caramelized puff pastry & noisette ice-cream), and we are blown away by the food here! We always thought in Europe, if we are not in France, Spain or Italy, the food is so-so, but the food in Iceland is surprisingly good (and expensive!!!).

See below for a midnight view from our Airbnb. It looks like the sun is setting, but the sun comes up before it sets completely. So if you are not tired, you can literally be out there 24/7 to explore this beautiful country!

My Nordic Adventure - Iceland and the Faroes

This summer, Guai Lo and I decided to visit the northern European islands - Iceland and the Faroe Islands. I have seen thousands of photos trying to capture the beauty of these islands, and as beautiful as the pictures are, I know for a fact that it is nothing like experiencing it with your own eyes and feet, so we went! We took advantage of the 24-hour sunlight to explore as much as we could, and the islands are everything we imagined and more. I am very excited to share our adventure with everyone in the next series of posts!