Iceland 2022

July

Day 1

ZURICH - KEFLAVIK - REYKJAVIK

Back home!This time I am quite surprised nothing happens to “destroy” our plans, so after a direct flight we land in Keflavik.

And while my husband picks up the rental car I order something to eat for me and the kids in Icelandic 🥰 I was super nervous and I probably did 10 mistakes in 1 single sentence but who cares, the guy got what I had to say 😉

After we drive to our hotel in downtown Reykjavik, stopping by a Netto to buy some vital stuff like milk (with 2 kids we need at least 2L of milk a day, even if they are not babies anymore!)

Day 2

SILFRA

I booked a snorkelling tour in Silfra for myself alone, so after breakfast I go to the bus stop where they are supposed to pick me up at 11.

As I come, perfectly punctual, they seem to be waiting for me since a while, even get a call while walking towards the little bus in front of me.

We then pick up the rest of the world in Reykjavik (it takes us an hour 😳) and head to Thingvellir National Park, where Silfra is.

Silfra is a rift between the Northamerican and Eurasian plate with water coming all the way from Langjökull, been filtered through porous lava rocks, which makes it incredibly clean, so that you can see all the way down to the bottom.

The temperature is not ideal (2 degrees even in summer!) but with a dry suit and all the rest, the only thing I'm scared of is that the lower part of my face will die!

The guide instructs us not to move too much the arms during the snorkeling tour, since in this way there is more probability of water going in between dry suit and gloves and moreover because in this way the water in contact with our body keeps being exchanged with cold one and we may freeze to death...

In the photo left below I give an ok sign but I am actually scared, but extremely fascinated, I would like to do it again in the future, now that I know that I won't die ;)

The point is that as soon as I go in, after the shock of half my face freezing, water starts going in the dry suit in the right arm...I try not to move it, but yeah, now I'm wet and hope it won't get worse (it will!).

Moreover the dry suit keeps me floating so well, that it's an huge effort to have my feet in the water to push me forward.

All in all: it has been an incredible experience and I will do it again in the future, because I did not enjoy it as much as I should have been (being scared).

Day 3

REYKJAVIK - HELLA

Late start as usual, we leave Reykjavik after 1 pm (so for us on holidays basically after breakfast) and drive to our next little home for the next few nights, a summer house near Hella.

We spend the afternoon in the whirpool outside, enjoying the fantastic and peaceful landscape and listening to the birds singing.

A cozy relaxing day, just what we needed!

Day 4

TRYING TO GO TO LANDMANNALAUGAR (and getting stuck because of a hole in a tire!)

Yeah! Landmannalaugar! (or so we think)

The weather is cloudy/sunny so the perfect mix for going to Landmannalaugar and shoot some phantastic photos!

Almost there when all of a sudden the tire preassure on the back right keeps going down astonishingly quickly: a hole in the tire! More than a hole, it is a fissure, no idea how this happened. So we stop and want to change and use the spare tire but discover that, having a hybrid car, we do not have a spare tire, just a kit to kind of repair and pump the one we have. So we try, we pump and start going back to Hella. In the meanwhile we start calling the car rental (which I will not mention, although I probably should since they really messed up) and nobody seems to know what to do. In the meanwhile we have to stop every 500m and pump the tire, it will be a long way back to Hella....

We are super lucky to cross the car of Landvördur Rangers (national park rangers) and they have a much better kit, so that they repair our tire in a way, that we then "only" have to pump every 10 km or so.

In the meanwhile I am on the phone with the fuXXing car rental and car garages nearby to see if anyone has the tire we need. In the end we arrive to Hella, and the car garage guy let us notice that the profile of another tire is really bad.

The car rental promises to bring the right tires (they will change 2) to Hella the next morning and that we will pay for the transport and 1 tire 600 euro!!!

We just want to go on with our vacation, but afterwards we think: wait a second, they should have brought the second tire (the one who wasn't yet down, but had a bad profile) anyway, so why should we pay for the transport?! (which was like to 2/3 of the sum).

After a lot of emails and complaints (after the holidays) we managed just to pay for 1 tire.

This experience will stay with us, we will check tires and takes photos of them in the future when renting cars!

Day 5

LANDMANNALAUGAR

Next morning my husband brings the car to the car garage and I wait in our splendid summer house with the kids.

At 12 we are ready to go! Yuppy! (lucky we have planned an extra day, if not this tire problem would have really messed up all our journey plans!) After the"usual" stop at Lekafossar, which is still pretty unknown, we arrive to Landmannalaugar camping site.

We walk just half of the short loop and go back the same way, since the second part is a bit difficult for our brave little 3 and 1/2 years old daugther.

We end the walk with a bath in the warm river: amazing!

Where else can you experience something like this??

Love you Iceland!

Day 6

GJAIN, HJALPARFOSS

Today we take it more relaxed and just go not to far, first to Gjain, what I call the equivalent to a japanese garden but the icelandic way, and later to Hjalparfoss.

Gjain is a small valley with volcanic structures, with ponds and waterfalls. We observe the plants, jump over stones to reach the other side of the river and just enjoy the scenery.

Later that day we visit Hjalparfoss, which is kind of a small version of Godafoss.

We go back to the hotel, and while my husband and son enjoy a bath in the hot tub, my daughter and I observe the horses around. Early sleep today because tomorrow we will have to wake up earlier than usual, since we booked the bus to bring us to Thorsmork for the first time, so excited!