Iceland Trip: our travel in one picture

The map above summarizes, and puts into perspective our travels through Iceland.  Tiny trips around Reykjavik have been omitted, as they are impossible to see at this scale anyway, but all major destinations, and all detours are there.

Reykjavik. On three of the ten days, (Day 1, Day 3, and Day 7) we stayed pretty much within greater Reykjavik (except for the trip from the car rental place on Day 1).


Long day trips. On three days: Day 2 (Golden Circle), Day 5 (Diamond Circle), and Day 8 (trip to Vik and back) we did long day trips with multiple destinations. 

Short day trips. Twice, on Days 9 and 10, we did short day trips to a single destination (and then spent the balance of the day in Reykjavik). 

Change of location. Finally, on two days: Day 4 and Day 6 we changed locations, while doing some limited sightseeing along the way.

For a trip that is largely based in a single location, it appears to me to be a reasonable balance. Some people we met in our travels did the Ring Road trip, where they would travel from location to location along the circumference of the island. The latter is a good trip for either the young who can stay in hostels along the way, or the adults without kids, who can plan accordingly.  With kids, having a base of operations is important, as packing and unpacking every day gets tiresome, takes a lot of time and effort, and also - requires a car that can comfortably fit everyone's stuff in the trunk. 

This itinerary, incidentally, wound up being similar to our trip to Ireland, where we did one two-day trip with a sleepover in a different place, spent three days in Dublin,    had a couple of long day trips (one to Kilkenny, one to Newgrange and Trim), and took a ferry to Wales to spend a day there.

Intuitively, it is clear why this is so. Despite kids being five years older each, they still tire from constant movements in the car, and for every two days of activities, they want an "easy" day.  And, of course, Ireland and Iceland are somewhat similar in size.

Coda: Getting home is not that easy

I was fully expecting to be done with documenting the play-by-play of the Iceland trip, and was going to switch to some overview posts. But since the main reason for this blog is documenting what happened for my own sake, the circumstances of our return home qualify for a separate description.

It all started pretty benign. On Day 11, we woke up at around 6am, as planned, and by 7am were pretty much in the middle of cleaning the apartment, and moving the bags to the car. Kids being who they are, and us being who we are (I almost forgot my Chromecast in the TV set - Olga remembered about it at the very last moment), it took us one more hour to be completely done, and by 8:05am we were on the road to Keflavik.  We got to the hotel that acts as the home base for mycar.is  - our rental agency - around 8:45, just in time for their 9:00am shuttle to the airport (the picture above is our bags waiting to be put on the shuttle).

We checked into our flight, got decent seat assignments (three window seats and one middle seat next to one of our window seats), paid for the bags, returned VAT (first time in our life we actually got a VAT refund!), got through Iceland's security, went into the terminal, and hit duty free stores with plenty of time to spare. Here, the kids went to spend some of the remaining Icelandic kronas (there are plenty of donation boxes in the duty free/terminal areas of the airport, but we were not tempted) on drinks, while I investigated alcohol prices. Turns out that when you subtract Iceland's alcohol tax from the price of booze, the booze becomes cheap, so I bought two half-liters of Brennywin, a small bottle of Icelandic schnapps, and a bottle of rhubarb liquor that I noticed in a few places before.  Olga, in the meantime, finally got to the Blue Lagoon-branded store and looked at some cosmetics.

The first plane ride was excellent - we got out on time, I was able to squeeze three movies into the flight time (by starting the first movie immediately upon finding my seat).  Choice selection: Mortal Engines, which is essentially a Star Wars remake; Alita, which somehow is missing the second part of the movie;  and Captain Marvel, who is so OP, she pretty much obviates the need for Avengers.

That's when good things ended, and bad things started. We got to Newark around 1:40pm local time, in the middle of  heavy rain. Apparently, the rain was accompanied by a thunderstorm, because first we simply sat for about 25 minutes on the tarmac, then drove to the gate and sat in front of the gate waiting for a ramp to be extended for another 15-20 minutes. In the meantime, the announcements inside the cabin were all about the inability of the airport to disembark us because lightning!

Eventually, we got off the plane, went through passport control (pretty quickly), but then, got stuck for good at the baggage claim. Apparently, the pause in the thunderstorm lasted just about sufficiently long to let us disembark, but not long enough for the baggage to be unloads. So, the next two hours we've been waiting for the carousel to start working.

There, we received first, and then second of the eventual 14 messages announcing the delay of our LAX flight. The first delay we benign - about 40 minutes, and actually worked well for us, since we were stuck waiting for the baggage.  The second delay already made it impossible for us to connect to San Luis Obispo upon arrival to LAX.

With this in mind, we picked up our bags when the carousel finally started spitting them out, went through customs, dropped them off again, took the train from terminal B to terminal C, and headed for our gate.  

At this point in time, Newark has been delaying and cancelling flights for about three hours, and no flight has left the airport for just as long. The earliest flight was scheduled to leave at 6:30pm.

At 5:00pm, we reached our overcrowded gate, found two seats, dropped of kids and bags, and went looking for customer service.  

Now, Newark is a United Airlines hub.  Terminal C where we wound up is a United terminal. There are easily 60 gates on that terminal.  One of those gates was converted to customer service, with 8 customer service stations. Which is probably good enough for when one or two flights get cancelled, and one or two flights arrive late and some people miss their connections.  When half the flights out of the terminal get cancelled, while the other half gets delayed long enough for almost everyone to miss their connection, eight people is not an adequate number of customer service representatives to deal with it. The line, when I joined it stretched pretty far out, and turned out to go for five and a half hours - about the same time it took us to get from Reykjavik to Newark.

At the tail end of my five-and-a-half-hour-long wait in line, during which I all but befriended a young German filmmaker working in Mexico city, and a Connecticut landscaper heading also to Mexico City to visit his family (as well as a father of two kids who lives with his family in Frederick, MD - about two hour drive away), Olga and I finally got to talk to the customer service rep, who informed us that there are no tickets for continuing flight to  SBP for the next 24 hours, there is no way he will allow us to rent a car in LAX, and our best bet is to be put on standby (four people, on a standby in a 50-seater plane? yeah, that's real customer service for you).  I had a minor meltdown, told him to shove it and walked away.

By this time, the LAX flight has been delayed another five or six times, the plane we were supposed to fly in was diverted to Pittsburgh, and the gate was changed. At around 11:30pm the plane arrived. At around half past midnight we were allowed to board the plane. At around 1:30am, we were escorted back off the plane. Apparently, United Airlines could not find anyone to pilot the plane. I have never seen flight attendants so ashamed.  One dude upon exiting the plane had a major meltdown - with cops eventually called to calm him down. He was rude and loud, but he was not wrong - United f-ed up big with our flight. By 2:00am, they have successfully cleared out the airport, sending out most of the other flights (including at least three LAX flights), but we had to overnight at the airport with no more "compensation" from United than a couple of blankets, a pillow, and $10 worth of food vouchers per person. The latter, given restaurant prices at the terminal is a completely ridiculous sum of money.

The older kid took our vouchers and scored some food. The younger kid felt asleep. So have I for a couple of hours. Around 4:00am I woke up and did a walk through the entire terminal - totaling somewhere around 3500 steps.  Around 8:30am - the next announced departure time, we were told that the plane still has no crew. At some point - the plane has one flight attendant, and no pilots. Then the captain showed up. Around 10:30, some planes arrived, and we finally got the full crew.  Around 11:00am we boarded the plane. The captain cheerfully told us that we will be getting out of the airport in no time. Then he attempted to taxi the plane to the landing strip... Then the plane stopped. A minute later - and I kid you not - the captain announced that there is a helicopter on the tarmac blocking his path, and someone from a different flight is being hospitalized.  

Right before boarding, Olga and I played a game of "figure out the next reason for our delay". We had some ideas - plane being diverted to Miami; captain realizing he should be on vacation; a threat of tornado; a broken ramp.... One thing we did not think of was "a helicopter lands right in front of the plane and blocks its taxi progress."  That ate another 30 minutes out of our time.

I got to watch two full movies on this plane: Avengers: Infinity War  and Avengers: Endgame.  After that I started watching Ocean's 8, but the plane landed with about 10 minutes left in the movie.

We got to LA around 2:20pm local time on August 8 - 16 hours after we were supposed to arrive. Went to customer service.  Here, things were much calmer, the line had about 10 people. The customer service rep realized our problem, looked up tickets, confirmed that no seats to San Luis are available for the rest of the day, made a phone call, and eventually suggested that (a) we get refund for the remainder of our trip, and (b) rent a car and drive home.

The latter suggestion was exactly the one the Newark rep explicitly denied us. These guys clearly know what they are doing.

Turned out, Budget and Avis are HAPPY to rent us a one-way car to SBP. Prices are quite cheap. I order a full-size car from Budget, we get out of the building, and wait for 15 minutes for Budget shuttle to materialize. All other rental places had their shuttles pass us in troves. When the Budget van appeared finally, it was packed. I was the last to enter it, which carried with it the benefit of being the first out, and therefore, essentially not waiting in line at the counter.  

We got a Ford Fusion hybrid - a nice car - with great mileage.  Drove out of the airport area, got onto 405, and right before I-10 drove into a traffic jam, which, on-and-off, but mostly on  lasted until Ventura city limits.

Stopped at Goleta for some Chicken Ranch chicken. Everyone was really hungry.  Then finally headed for the final leg home.  We got out of the Budget parking lot at 3:50pm. We arrived home around 10:35pm.  One of the longest drives from LA we have ever had.

The final round was the trip to SBP Friday (August 9) morning to pick up our baggage, which arrived way ahead of us, and drop off the car. That completed our trip to Iceland.

Take home message.  United really does not care about customer service in their airports. With 60 gates in the terminal, it is easy to distribute the workload by putting an agent at every gate, and processing 40-50 people in parallel, instead of the paltry 5-8 people in the customer service line. That line was NOT shorted by the time we finished our stint in it.   

The second take-home message is that Newark airport sucks. Twice I visited Newark in my life (the first one was for a light to Brussels in 1997, where I was meeting my dad for the first time in two years at ICLP'97 in Leuven).  Twice I had to overnight it there. In 1997 the flight was moved to morning and I was sent to the hotel. This was before cell phones, so letting people in Belgium know was very difficult.   In 2019 incompetence took its toll.

Day 10: Last Day. Akranes Lighthouse.

Overview. Our last day in Iceland. To keep ourselves ready for the trip back, we picked one easy-to-reach location,  Akranes, went there, returned back, and spent the rest of the day souvenir shopping (if what we did can be called that).

Akranes: the old and the new lighthouses.

Weather. Continues to please.  It was a bit cloudy and dark in Akranes, so, for example, mountain views from the lighthouse were hard to obtain (as seen from the picture of the Akrafjall mountain below). But by the time we were back to Reykjavik, it was sunny. 14-16 degrees Celcius.  Overall, it's been pretty stable throughout our stay.

Akranes. View of  Akrafjall mountain - the weather is not quite cooperating on this shot.

Akranes. We woke up late, and had a lazy morning. Unlike previous days, we made zero plans last night, so we had to improvise on the spot. We wanted an easy thing to do, nothing strenuous, which, for example invalidated some of the hikes near Reykjavik. Eventually, from the various suggestions for a day trip from Reykjavik we elected to go to Akranes. We have never actually been inside a lighthouse before and the lighthouse in Akranes is easily accessible.

Akranes. The easily-accessible lighthouse.

It is only a 45 minute drive to Akranes, although, "only" is somewhat relative, since as the crow flies, Akranes lighthouse is only 16 miles away according to Google maps. We took the Hvalfjordur Tunnel across the fjord, and turned left toward Akranes.  

Akranes, as seen from the top of the lighthouse.  Industry, old houses, new highrises - all are interspersed.

Akranes is interesting. Old village interspersed with all sorts of industrial buildings.  The lighthouses - the old one, and the new one are on a spit behind some metal sheds and oil tanks.  We parked, got out of the car, bought the tickets to visit the lighthouse and went there.

And homage to Pink Floyd.

There are two lighthouses in Akranes. The old one is only 10 meters tall and is no longer operating. It is right at the tip of  a small cape filled with tidal pools full of dead sea urchins.

Akranes. The Old Lighthouse.

 A bit closer to the parking lot is the new lighthouse, which is (a) operational, and (b) open for visitors.

Akranes. The new lighthouse from the sea side.

The inside of the lighthouse is an exhibition of a photographer - for a mere $155 you can buy a large photograph of somewhere beautiful in Iceland.  The top floor is open, and affords some really nice sights. In good weather, one can see Reykjavik and Keflavik to the south, and Snaelfensnes peninsula to the north. In the sort of weather we were having, the visibility was significantly less, but the panoramas were still impressive.

View from the top of the lighthouse - looking north.

View from the top of the lighthouse. Looking west.

A panoramic view south from the top of the lighthouse.

A panoramic view east from the top of the lighthouse. Akranes, with  Akrafjall at the back. Hvalfjörður on the right, Borgarfjörður on the left..

After visiting the lighthouse, we went for a walk on the spit, reached the old lighthouse, walked around it and took some pictures.

Akranes. The two lighthouses.

 Following that, I drove to a small industrial site where an old ship, Höfrungur AK 91 (which apparently means "Dolphin" in Icelandic) is moored in abandonment. 

Höfrungur in its full derelict beauty.

The lighthouses, as seen from the Hofrungur site.

Höfrungur, moored and abandoned.

Höfrungur: another shot.

We took a few pictures there, and went for some coffee and pastries at a local bakery.

After that, we drove back to Reykjavik.

Reykjavik. The rest of the day was spent visiting  a variety of stores in Reykjavik that various members of the family wanted to visit earlier but could not because of the hours of work for the stores (Monday, August 5 was something called "Commerce Day" in Iceland. Apparently, very little commerce is actually taking place on commerce day).

We visited Nexus, a large board game store occupying the basement of a small shopping center,  Markadur, a thrift store close to the center of Reykjavik, and Kringlan, a large shopping mall with a computer game store, and a bunch of other stores in it.   After that, we drove downtown, and went along Laugavegur, in search of last-moment souvenirs.  

Around 7:30pm, we went back home, had dinner and packed.

Our last Icelandic sunset, as seen from the place we are staying in.

This is pretty much it for us in Iceland. Tomorrow, the flight is at 11:55am, at 9:00am we need to return the car back to where we took it, which means leaving the house around 8am.

Driving. Around 100-110 kilometers.  I will need to get a bit more gas tomorrow before we leave.

Walking.  10,536 steps according to Google Fit.  A lot of them were probably at Kringlan, but I'll take all of them.  Of the 10 days in Iceland, only one involved fewer than 10,000 steps, and on three days we did over 15,000.  Also, a lot of those steps on different days were vertical....

Day 11 plans. Get home by 11pm Pacific time.  I, then, have to drive to San Jose 4 hours later.

Day 9: Reykjadalur thermal hot spring river.

Overview. Unlike all previous days, when we tried to do a lot of things and visit a lot of places (Day 8 being the most extreme example of this), today, we did one thing - hiked the 3km trail up to Reykjadalur - the thermal hot spring river - and spent two hours lying down in its hot waters.

A map showing the trail to Reykjadulur hot springs.

Weather.  Collaborated. Nice and sunny, in fact, best day in Reykjavik.  It was about 14-16 degrees Celcius in Reykjavik and at the Reykjadulur parking lot, but up on the trail it felt warmer at times. It was nice and cool at the river site itself, which helped a lot, given how hot the water was.

Up the Reykjadalur trail: the sun is out, the sky is partially cloudy.

Reykjadalur.  Reykjadalur is a hot river fed by geothermal waters, that flows just outside  the village of Hveragerdi - only a 30minute drive from our house in Reykjavik.  It is a popular attraction. When we arrived to the parking lot, we thought it was full - but parked cars spilled over onto a large chunk of the road leading to the lot when we left.

View from the parking lot. We had to climb to the top of that ridge, and then some.

Reykjadlur: starting point of the trail has some geothermal activity going on.

The actual chunk of the river accessible for bathing is three kilometers up the trail, and "up" is the operative word here. The first kilometer is a very steep climb.  I made a huge mistake of not pausing to catch breath somewhere midway along the climb, when I started getting out of breath. By the time I finally stopped - a couple hundred meters from the end of the climb - I was barely functioning - no breath, heart rate topping 200, and left leg, really tired of compensating for the bum right knee, which I try not to put too much weight on when climbing or going up the stairs.

Reykjadalur valley. A waterfall taking the Reykjadalur river a few notches down into  a canyon.

The hike was fine after one reached the top of the climb at the end of the first kilometer - from there, it's relatively modest ups and downs for the remaining two km. Walking back was more or less a breeze, although one has to be very careful descending - the road is quite steep, and one wrong step and you can twist an ankle.

View from near the top of the trail.

The final approach to the "beach" goes through a very active geothermal area, frequented by sheep, who apparently like it hot even in the summer, and despite a really thick coat of wool. 

Reykjadalur valley. Sheep like it hot.

At one point on the path, the geothermal pool next to the path emits so much steam smelling of sulfur, that it is impossible to see where one is going. 

Reykjadalur Valley: a lot of geothermal activity.

Reykjadalur valley: steam covering the path.

But once we got past the geothermal pools, there was the hot spring part of the river. It goes for about 200 meters I think.

Reykjadalur river hot springs area. A panoramic view. To the left (upstream) the water is hot. To the right (downstream), the water is somewhat more tolerable. The confluence with a small cold stream is at the  bottom right.

Upstream, the water is scalding hot. Olga chose to go there first because there were fewer people there. Turned out, there were fewer people for a reason - very few people can stand water that is scalding. 

Reykjadalur river hot springs. The hotter part of the river. We camped across (on the other side of the river) from the changing booth (so to say) in the top left corner.

After some attempts to establish ourselves in the hot part of the river, I started blacking out, and decided to move downstream.

Reykjadalur river hot springs. The cooler (downstream) side.

There I found a place where a small cold brook joined the hot river. At their confluence, the waters were mixing in complex patterns (that, among other things depended heavily on whether there were human bodies in the way) and created a wonderful mix of really cold, and fairly warm water - often times withing centimeters of each other. Olga and I spent about an hour and a half in that one spot until a large group of people figured it out as well and overcrowded us.  

Reykjadalur river hot springs. The location where we spent most of the time (and the people who eventually "chased us" from it).  I was mostly at the confluence on the right side, and Olga -- on the left side, where the man is sitting.  The water where the closest to us dude is sitting is really-really cold.

This trip featured only three of us - the older kid stayed home. The younger kid hiked well, and joined us in the water for about 15 minutes, after which he went back to guard our stuff and promptly fell asleep.  At 2:30 pm we decided to head back, packed, took some pictures and went back.

On the way back: Reykjadalur river flowing down a canyon.

As mentioned, the way back was much easier and only require careful stepping during the final descent.

Reykjavik Old Harbor. Visited it looking for ice cream.

Driving.  105 kilometers according to the odometer, including some evening driving around Reykjavik.

Walking.  16,070 steps according to Google Fit. Plus a few hundred at the hot springs when I was walking without the phone in the pocket.  About 12 thousand steps were in Reykjadalur, the remainder, downtown Reykjavik.

Plans for Day 10.  I have no idea. Our last full day in Iceland. I know we will be packing at some point.

Day 8: Driving South East

Overview. This was the longest day in terms of driving and sightseeing. We took route 1 southeast to Vik, visiting along the way the Keldur turf house (the longest detour we had), Selljalandfoss and nearby waterfalls,  Skagafoss,  the Dyrholaey peninsula, and the nearby black sand beach Reynisfjara.  We saw a lot of other things we could have done, had the day included double the hours: the hike to the crashed plane, a trip to a glacier, and an opportunity to visit a hot spring pool chief among them.

Weather. Hard to call it a bad weather day, but we've certainly seen better. Reykjavik and the vicinity started with grey skies, and the sun did not show up until afternoon, and even then, largely hid itself behind the clouds. This affected photography in a few places. Temperature was stable 14-15 degrees Celcius throughout the trip, with only Dyrholaey, with its harsh wind making us feel cold.

Keldur.  This was a late addition to the itinerary.  I got inspired to check reconstructions of Viking longhouses. Found one in Stong Valley, but it was about an hour detour each way. Keldur - which is not a reconstruction, but a real farmer's turfhouse lived in and maintained until 1946, when it became a museum, was much closer.

We left around 9:50, and had to get gas along the way, so, we got to Keldur close to noon. 

Panorama of Keldur, including the turf house, the church, the river and Mount Hekla covered in clouds.

There is a tour that lasts around 50 minutes, the three of us took it (the older one sat out) after a short wait. 

Keldur. The turf house part of the farmhouse.

The tour includes the building which consists of the old, turf house part with three rooms: pantry, sleeping room (former sauna), and the main room; and the newer annex made out of wood, that contains three more rooms downstairs (formal living room, guest bedroom and workers' bedroom) and a large bedroom upstairs, designed to house more than ten people, and used for everything from sleeping to working.  There is also a newer attic in the turf house that can be seen from one spot in the tour, but it was used for storage, not living.

Keldur. In the pantry.

Keldur. The turf house attic.

Keldur. The secret passage to the river from the main room of the turf house.

Keldur. Formal living room in the new (wooden) part of the farmhouse.

Keldur. Back room (workers room) in the new part of the farmhouse.

Keldur. Part of the upstairs bedroom in the new farmhouse.

Turf houses are an interesting phenomenon, quite unique. At the same time the guide's description of the difficulties of living in harsh Icelandic climate, and the general "civilization did not come here until very recently" gist of his conversation reminded us a lot of life in rural Russia, which sometimes, even these days, involves pretty much the same sorts of challenges the Icelanders experienced.

Keldur. View across the river. The sheep shack.

Seljalandfoss.  From Keldur we drove to Seljalandfoss  - which is just off route 1 and is perfectly visible from a few kilometers away. Unlike Keldur, where there were maybe 10 people at a time, Selljalandfoss is a huge attraction, with a large and completely full parking lot, and a campground for overnighters.  The waterfall itself has one big defining feature - you can walk behind it and circle it 360 degrees.

We did what everyone else does and walked around the waterfall. It was very wet (raincoat is pretty much a must),  but offered a really cool set of views of the fall.

 First, here is the straight up view.

Seljalandfoss. View from the bridge across the river it is feeding.

Here is the view as one gets approaching from the parking lot.

Seljalandfoss. Approaching from the parking lot.

A three-quarters view as the trail around the waterfall starts.

Seljalandfoss.  The 4:30 view.

The sideways view looking (roughly) north.

Seljalandfoss. The 3:00 view.

 Now, we are starting to move behind the waterfall.

Seljalandfoss. The 1:30 view.

Finally, we are fully behind the waterfall. At this point, everything that can be wet is wet, the water dust is everywhere, and I had to wipe the camera lens after every series of shots I took.

Seljalandfoss. View from behind (12:00).

We are now moving from behind the waterfall, and are facing (roughly) South.

Selljalandfoss. 9:00 view (looking south).

A little bit further out, and here is the "Yep, I was there" shot.

Seljalandfoss. 8:00 view. Yep. I was there.

And, one last shot to complete the loop, from the outbound trail.

Seljalandfoss. 7:00 view.

After Selljalandfoss, the kids went back towards the parking lot, while Olga and I went a bit further along the cliff face. There are some secondary waterfalls there, but the real gem is hidden behind the camping ground. 

Following the trail north of Seljalandfoss. A few secondary waterfalls can be seen. Here is one.

One more waterfall,  Gljufrabui, is hidden behind a large rock (which also has a name that escapes me at the moment). Its top is visible from the path,  just like this:

Gljufrabui, outside view.

But the fun part is to follow the shallow riverbed (there is a path of stones and boulders barely clearing the surface of the river) around the rock to get behind it, where a round clearing about 20 meters in diameter serves as the landing for the waterfall. 

Gljufrabui: the insider's view.

The view from there is quite spectacular, despite wet.  With no sun around, and with a half-naked dude running around the riverbed right under the waterfall and waving his arms, good pictures did not happen, but the ones I have give some impression of what it was.

Gljufrabui: I was there (right before being photobombed by a half-naked dude).

Skagafoss. Just down the road from Seljanlandfoss is Skagafoss - also visible from the road. The parking lot was even more crowded than at Seljalandfoss - next to Skagafoss is a small tourist village full of hotels, hostels, and tourist amenities. 

Skogafoss: approaching from the parking lot.

The waterfall is quite powerful generating a lot of mist at the bottom. 

Skogafoss.  A rainbow underneath.

Skogafoss. Full power.

In addition to gettting to the very bottom of the fall we also hiked up the 400 step ladder leading to the top of the cliff, and went up the river for about a kilometer. 

Skogafoss. View from the top.

Skogafoss. It's a long way down.

There is a secondary waterfall there, and the views of the high valleys and meadows are beautiful. The sun was the most visible during this part of the day, making West-facing pictures somewhat complicated.

The waterfall upstream of Skogafoss.

The river, as it approaches Skogafoss.