3.5 Days in Iceland

Hello, and happy Wednesday! I feel like I’ve been gone forever, but maybe you feel like I’ve been loitering around online as always since Naomi and I teed up plenty of posts for the last 1.5 weeks while I was away frolicking around Iceland and Scotland. Sam and I got back on Sunday, and I thought I’d jump right in with a post about our adventure. Originally I planned to do just one post about the whole vacation, but then I realized that was madness given how much we saw and did. So instead I’m going to break this up over five (!!) posts in the next few weeks: today I’ll share about what we did in Iceland, then I’ll share about our time in Scotland, then I’ll share a post specifically about the tips I have for traveling in Iceland and Scotland (which is long enough for its own post), and then I’ll wrap up with a post on each of the two Airbnbs where we stayed as well as the castle where we stayed in Scotland (some international house crashing if you will, since this is a home improvement blog afterall).

All of this will be trickled over the next few weeks, so if you don’t like travel posts or don’t think you’ll ever travel to either of these places, feel free to skip them! But if you’re my parents or parents-in-law, here’s all the info you’ve been asking for 🙂

So first up, Iceland: the land of ice and fire.

We had just 3.5 days in Iceland, and only 2 full days if you don’t count the day we arrived and the day we left – so we really had to make the most of a short visit, and obviously didn’t see even a fraction of this beautiful country. In this post I’m going to prattle on about the amazing things we did, without much of the how we did it. But the logistics of travel are such an important part of a trip, so that’s why I’ll be back with a separate post full of tips if you’re ever planning your own trip to Iceland – things we’re glad we did, and things we could have/would have done differently. Also rather than keep saying “I’ll explain that more in my travel tips post,” I’m just going to put “(tt)” after things I plan to share more about, so when you see that shorthand you’ll know what it means.

So here we go! FYI, we were sure to take a bad selfie for each day, so I’ll start off the day’s recap with that.

Day 1: Arrival, exploring Reykjavik, and napping

We arrived in Iceland at 6:30am after a red eye (tt) from Boston, and picked up our rental car (tt). We had originally thought we’d head straight to a hike or something since our Airbnb (tt) wasn’t ready for us until 2pm, but we were pretty tired from the overnight flight so we decided to stick close to home and just walk around Reykjavik instead. The drive from the airport is about 40 minutes, and then we found street parking and just started walking.

First we needed some food, and were relieved when we stumbled into the “C is for Cookie” where we enjoyed a lovely latte and two tasty breakfasts. It was also nice and warm inside, which was welcome since our bodies were in shock from going from 80 degrees in Boston to 40 degrees and rainy in Reykjavik (tt).

We really had no idea where we were, but once we left it quickly became apparent that Reykjavik is tiny and we could walk pretty much anywhere. We started with Hallgrímskirkja, the iconic church in the city:

It’s a Lutheran church that took 40 years to construct (from 1945 – 1986), and it’s absolutely gorgeous inside.

I love the austerity and simplicity of it, so different than the more ornate traditional church style I’m used to. Plus the artwork was very interesting, not at all the common religious iconography that never really resonates with heathen me.

The one part that stood in stark contrast to the simplistic style was the organ:

No, not that organ. That’s just a normal organ.

This organ:

And the pipes accompanying it:

Watching the organist play was incredible, and it was awe-inspiring to see the pipes taking up an entire wall of the church.

You can also pay 900 krona each (~$8) to go up to the top of the tower, where you have a full 360 degree view of the city. First you take the elevator up to the level of the clocks:

And then climb a few flights of stairs to the very top:

The view is incredible, and it’s such a good way to get oriented to the city.

It’s also a great place to take your first terrible selfie of the trip, as featured at the start of today’s recap.

The doors to the church are stunning in their own right:

And as a home improvement enthusiast I was unnaturally intrigued by the construction they were doing on the side of the church. They seemed to be blasting away the surface to get at the metal rods reinforcing the structure.

After Hallgrímskirkja, we just wandered the streets and window shopped for awhile. Don’t worry, I was able to confirm that coloring books have made their way to Iceland:

And I was dismayed to discover these in pretty much every store:

The tiny bloggers would be so happy. Apparently these originated in Iceland in the 1970s, so we have Iceland to blame for this horrible trend. They come in boxes, and they cost a very reasonable 64,000 krona.

Just how much is that? $557. Yes. I have no words.

With this discovery and the merciful striking of noon by the clock, we decided it was time to get a drink. We spent the next two hours drinking beer and playing solitaire together (yes, together) on a cell phone at “Bravo,” a cozy bar where they didn’t seem concerned about two tired Americans drinking at noon.

Then at 2pm when the Airbnb was ready for us, we eagerly stumbled our way there (it was literally one block from Hallgrímskirkja), brought in our luggage, and then did what any normal exhausted human being would do: snapped copious photos of the amazing interior.

I’ll do a whole separate post on the Airbnb where we stayed, because it was just the best.

Next, we napped. We napped for many hours. It was dark when we got up. It was wonderful and so needed. For dinner we went to a local noodle place recommended by the Airbnb owners (they weren’t there, but they left a guide to the city), which we brought back to the apartment and gobbled down.

So ended Day 1.

Day 2: Seljalandsfoss, Gljúfrabúi, and Skógafoss (drive down the southern coast and waterfall)

Despite our 5-hour nap, we slept soundly our first night and awoke ready to see the sights. Say what you will about the red eye, but it does seem to have thrown off our sleep cycle enough that we pretty much avoided jetlag. Before hitting the road, we grabbed breakfast and sandwiches from a bakery down the block, Sandholt, which was amazing. However, the coffee was tiny (recurring theme in Iceland – tt) so we made a number of additional stops along the way for more coffee.

Because it was rainy and chilly, we thought the best approach for our first day was to do some sightseeing by car. We had packed for cold and rainy weather including fleeces, rain coats, rain pants, hats, and gloves, but we just weren’t quite up for heading straight out into the wilderness on foot right away.

Instead, we headed south from Reykjavik to see some of Iceland’s most famous waterfalls. Our first stop was at Seljalandsfoss, about 1.5 hours from Reykjavik. While driving, we got to see a truly amazing landscape. Below are some photos I snapped – sorry for the questionable quality, but these were all taken through the rain-covered window of a car going 60-miles an hour, so I did what I could.

The countryside is mountainous with igneous (volcanic) rock formations, which is so different than the mountains we have in New England (duh).

There’s a fair amount of agriculture as well, especially horse breeding.

There was also a parking lot full of turquoise buses, which obviously I photographed frantically.

Seljalandsfoss is impossible to miss from the highway because it’s a giant waterfall with hordes of cars parked nearby. We quickly joined the fray.

I’d read that a short walk from Seljalandsfoss is a lesser-known waterfall called Gljúfrabúi, so after admiring Seljalandsfoss we wandered down the path to the left. I knew we were on the right track when we saw this sign:

Sure enough, about 550 meters down the path and around a bend, we peeked into a cave and spotted Gljúfrabúi.

You can walk into the cave to see the waterfall in full. The spray off of it is incredible, so pardon the terrible pictures – my lens got covered in spray almost immediately. But it was very cool to be so close to such a powerful waterfall.

Plus walking back from Gljúfrabúi, you get another great view of Seljalandsfoss.

And a smaller waterfall with sheep frolicking nearby. What could be more bucolic?

As we reached the parking lot, the sun peaked out and we were treated to an incredible rainbow.

Next we headed another 30 minutes south to Skógafoss, another of Iceland’s most famous waterfalls. It’s much wider than Seljalandsfoss.

You can climb up the side and look down from above, which we did.

With our hankering to see the waterfalls that Iceland is famous for satiated, we headed back to Reykjavik for the evening. As we drove, we got a glimpse of blue sky.

I took a quick run through the city, and it was fun to see a bunch of neighborhoods off the main drag. When I’m in a new place, I love to run through residential neighborhoods and imagine what it would be like to live there. And the great thing about Reykjavik is that Hallgrímskirkja is visible from pretty much anywhere, which means it’s easy not to get lost.

Day 3: Reykjadalur (hike and hot springs)

On Day 3, we were ready for another one of Iceland’s famous staples: hot springs! While the Blue Lagoon is the most popular destination because it’s easy to access and is a magical blue color, it has the downside of costing $50 per person and being pretty touristy. We were more interested in an off-the-beaten path experience, so we headed to Reykjadalur hot springs, about 40 minutes south of Reykjavik. I won’t say Reykjadalur is a hidden gem because it’s pretty well know at this point (I found out about it after all), but the tour buses don’t seem to go there and it requires hiking up a mountain for about an hour so it’s less accessible and thus less frequented.

To get to Reykjadalur, you just take Route 1 south from Reykjavik and then when you get to the town of Hveragerdi, you take the round about to the third exit and get on Breidamork. You follow that all the way to the end of the road, and end up at a parking lot where the hike starts. It was incredibly foggy and rainy, making for some eerie views as we drove from the city.

For a day when it was pouring rain and cold, we were surprised how many like-minded people were hoofing it up the mountain with us.

Despite the rain (which was pouring when we arrived, let up as we started hiking, and then came on and off for the next few hours), it was a lovely hike.

The fog was thick in places, but we still got some pretty amazing views of the Valley.

After about an hour of climbing, we arrived at the hot springs. There are wooden boardwalks along the banks to protect from erosion, and a series of descending pools just waiting to warm you up! Here’s the photo I snapped as we arrived:

And a photo of the same place from the blog Happy Campers taken on a sunny summer day:

What a difference! As much as the sunshine would have been nice, the cold and rain made it a very memorable experience. We had worn our bathing suits under our hiking clothes, so promptly stripped down and jumped into a section of the river as quickly as we could. The water gets hotter the further upstream you go, so we tried to find an area upstream that was still unoccupied (it was a bit crowded, but not terrible – the river forms into a lot of individual pools spilling from one to the next, so it’s easy to find a small pool for yourself). There aren’t many photos of this part since we were basically just wallowing around in hot springs trying to keep out of the rain and wind. It was really very nice, and such a cool experience to have hiked up there and braved the elements for a dip.

I did coerce Sam into getting out before me and taking one photo, though, because I wanted a photo of the springs and it seemed weird to take a photo of strangers. So here I am in all my hot-springs-loving glory:

Then it was time to get out, which was incredibly painfully cold. The temperature was in the 40s, the wind was blowing pretty fiercely, and the rain was fairly persistent — so it was a race against time to get stripped out of our wet bathing suits, toweled off, and dressed into semi-dry clothes as quickly as possible, all while trying not to reveal too many body parts to strangers walking along the boardwalk around us. At least all us strangers were in this together – there were people wiping out on the muddy banks, and some incredibly unhappy children who must be super intrepid to have gotten up the mountain in the first place but had just about had it when they were stripped down to their bathing suits just as a new wave of torrential rain came through. Sam and I couldn’t help but just laugh and laugh at our collective misery.

The walk down was easier in some ways because it was downhill, but the wind was in our faces and we were a bit wet (though our rain coats were champions) so we were definitely getting pretty cold by the time we made it back to our car.

Of course we had to snap one last triumphant selfie when we made it back to the car.

By that time we were starving, and so we pulled off at a nearby restaurant called Kjot & Kunst where everything is cooked using geothermal heating.

We didn’t know what to expect, but famished we ordered curried chicken and meatloaf. And oh my goodness was it good – so hearty and filling, with incredible flavor. This restaurant is Sam and Sage approved, and highly recommended. It was by far the best meal we had in Iceland.

From there we headed back to Reykjavik to clean up and get warm.

Day 4: Mt. Esja and departure

On our final day in Reykjavik, we needed to be at the car rental dropoff by 1pm to give us plenty of time to return the car, shuttle to the airport, and be on time for our 4pm flight. We could have cut it a lot closer in retrospect, but as a nervous flier and obsessive planner, nothing makes me feel worse than worrying about being late to the airport.

That left us with about 3 hours in the morning (we aren’t early risers while on vacation), which we decided to spend hiking Mt. Esja, one of Iceland’s most popular climbs and just 20 minutes north of the city. Mt. Esja gives a full view of Reykjavik, and its iconic profile is visible from Reykjavik. Here it is in one of the city photos I took from the top of Hallgrímskirkja.

Because Mt. Esja is north and the airport is 40 minutes south, we knew we needed to leave Mt. Esja by 12pm to return the car, so that gave us just 2 hours for Mt. Esja, closer to 1.45 hours once we drove there and got our gear on.

Mt. Esja is really easy to get to, you just take Route 1 north (instead of south like for the waterfalls and Reykjadalur) and the parking lot is right off the side of the road in Mogilsa. Even the short drive to Mogilsa had some stunning views.

By the time we arrived, it had stopped raining for the longest continuous time since we’d landed in Reykjavik, though some heavy fog definitely obscured the higher peaks.

We parked at the Esjustofa parking lot, and from there we started hiking on the left-most fork toward Bjarkarlunder. As you can see, it’s a big mountain (Mt. Esja is actually a range of peaks). The most popular route leads up to a peak at Steinn (“stone”).

The climb was doable but relatively steep, and almost immediately we had incredible views of the mountains in front of us and the city behind us:

Unfortunately with about 15 minutes more to go to Steinn (the summit where most novice climbers stop) we had to turn back given time constraints. I really think we could have made it there in 15 more minutes, but that would have required another 25 minutes to account for the corresponding going down time. The point was to see some great views, get some exercise, and enjoy a last hurrah in Reykjavik without worrying about flight logistics, so mission accomplished.

As we drove to the airport, we got some final views of Iceland, this time with the sea just barely in view:

Then we returned our car, shuttled to the airport (Keflavik) and got ready to head to Scotland! I must say, Keflavik is a pretty cool airport (which we were too tired and overwhelmed to appreciate when we arrived there). First of all, it has beautiful architecture.

It also has free wifi, is covered in phone and computer charging stations, you can get a beer and take it to your seat in the boarding area with you, and – get this – they actually care if you have a positive experience.

Can you imagine the TSA putting up a feedback station like this? The options would have to be a series of faces starting at pink and getting increasingly more red and purple.

Our departure was almost derailed when 10 minutes before boarding one of us realized they had lost their boarding pass (I won’t throw the offender under the bus, it was either me or Sam and you’ll just have to guess who), but Icelandair printed up a new one for him/her very quickly and we were on our way.

And that was Iceland! 3.5 days was way too short – I would have loved to spend time in the eastern and northern parts of the country where it’s much less touristy and there are even bigger hikes, mountains, and waterfalls, but for an originally unplanned stopover on the way to Scotland I feel like we got a full and fulfilling experience. I highly recommend Iceland, and look forward to my next travel post sharing my tips for traveling in the country regardless of what specific sites you choose to see.