Reykjavik, Iceland is one of those relatively new hot destinations following on the tail of such Eastern European cities as Prague, Tallin and Sofia only at probably ten times the cost! With a population of just over 100,000 Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, is the hub of Iceland and despite how relatively small it is, surprisingly caters extremely well for all the tourists.

Sandra and I booked our holiday to Reykjavik almost ten months ago to take advantage of super-cheap flights so this extended long weekend holiday was certainly a long time coming and the wait was well worth it.

When?	Early July 2007
Why Go?	Pylsur, beautiful nature, all night partying, 24-hour daylight in the summer, great food (if a bit salty at times)
Weather	All sorts but warmer than expected
Hint	Try and book flights which will allow you to either do The Blue Lagoon on the way into Reykjavik or even better on the way out to the airport (to save on travel time to and from the Blue Lagoon.)

The Experience

A feature of Reykjavik is its walkability with many streets to explore and most sights and attractions inevitably within walkings distance of your accommodation. Although there is a public transport system (the bus) it tends to be kind of expensive and unless you live way on the outskirts of the city you are unlikely to need it.

As a city Reykjavik doesn’t have all that many attractions – its more of a wander around and absorb the city kind of place. The key SEE attractions are:

• Tjörnin. The giant pond in central Reykjavik which is always filled by all manner of birds. It makes a beautiful setting as a backdrop and also lies alongside the city’s Town Hall.

• Hallgrímskirkja (Hallgrim’s Church). This church is the tallest building in Reykjavík and offers great views over the City.

• Faxafloi is a small square in front of the Tourist Centre which is the heart of the City. This seems to be the local hang out and is surrounded by quite a few restaurants and bars. The funniest aspect are the drive by’s that people made around the squares in their cars.

• There is also another square which is located out the front of the Althingi (Parliament) but this is green square and is great for a lie down in the sun.

• Laugavegur Street is the main shopping street and is lined with loads of interesting stores plus is host to the main nightlife of the City with coffee bars and restaurants turning into night clubs after midnight on Fridays and Saturdays like Cinderalla in reverse.

There are also a whole host of museums and galleries to visit if that’s your kind of thing. We spent a lot of our time on tours and day trips and so didn’t get to see such attractions as Nauthólsvík (a geothermically heated beach) and Perlan (a glass dome resting on five water tanks) but I’m sure these are also good attractions in their own right.

The best feature of Reykjavik is the availability of things to DO. We took advantage of this by taking the following tours:

Golden Circle Super Jeep

Let me just start by saying that although this tour was a bit more expensive than a bus tour it was definitely the better option to take because we got to really bond with the people on our tour. Our Super Jeep was a giant vehicle and it certainly got its fair share of admiration during the day. It could hold a maximum of 12-14 people (depending on how cozy people were willing to get) and Sandra and I were lucky enough to end up on a tour with some very cool people – 3 boys from Chicago (Berg, Dom and Charlie), Michelle from DC and 2 lads from the UK (Shane and Mark) and we had a kickin’ time right from the get go. Coincidentally there was another Super Jeep that was also doing the same tour with us (and in fact our tour guide was on that Jeep and broadcasting his speech to our Jeep via the radio) and although I’m sure they were nice people in no way were they as cool as the people in our Jeep. LOL.

The Golden Circle, as I’ve now discovered, is a popular tourist route in South Iceland (thanks wikipedia) that takes in the following trio of sights:

• Þingvellir National Park. Historically significant as the sight of Iceland’s first parliament but more interestingly for us the location of the where the rift between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates exist. Apparently these plates move about 2cm annually. Seeing them in person the mind boggles to think that such land/rock masses can move in such a way. It was a little freakish walking between the plates that’s for sure!

• Gullfoss. Officially this should have been our third stop of the day but due to some mis-communication with our driver, who had actually stopped only to let out the tires and allows us a restroom pitsop, we ended up doing some exploring of our own to find this amazing waterfall. A great photo stop and lots of nooks and crannies to explore.

• Our penultimate stop was to the Haukadular valley which contained the geyser that all geysers are apparently named for – Geysir. Officially Geysir (sometimes known as The Great Geysir) is an infrequent erupter so we turned our eyes instead to the Strokker geyser which was only a few feet away. Even though it erupted (up to a height of what was about 15-25 metres) only ever 5-7 minutes I could easily have sat there and watched it all day. Absolutely fascinating and although some people reported the smell to be a bit eggy I didn’t really notice it myself.

• Our final stop was the Kerið volcano crater. Interesting but we were there for only about 5 minutes to take some group photos.

In the midst of all this we also took a detour to do some snowmobiling (!!) on the second largest glacier (Langjokull) in Iceland. Now I’ve been ATVing before but it didn’t prepare me at all for the snowmobiling which at all times felt much faster and much more dangerous than my adventure in the red rock desert of Las Vegas. However it was equally fun and beautiful in a whole other way. Sandra volunteered me to drive our snowmobile first (yikes!) so I was afraid I was going to embarrass us by tipping us over at the first turn but thankfully I didn’t. I did probably take less risk than I ordinarily would have conscious as I was that Sandra was behind me gripping on for her dear life! It was totally amazing to make the trek over the ice. My drive was over all too soon.

Being a passenger on the snowmobile was a completely different experience. I know that Sandra said she struggled to hold on so I adopted the tactic of holding on with one arm like I was riding a mechanical bull (and it felt like that as well – I don’t know how many times I nearly came off!) and using my other arm for shooting video and still footage of the experience. It was a lot of fun!

Take a walk on the Ice Side

The following day saw Sandra, Berg, Dom and I tackling a walk on the Sólheimajökull glacier tongue which comes off the Mýrdalsjökull glacier, the fourth biggest in Iceland. It was quite a drive out from Reyjavik but definitely worth the adventure. Its always more fun to go on tours where they supply you with equipment so you feel like you’re really going on a real adventure and the crampons and ice axe certainly made us feel the part. Although at first I felt a bit leery of my crampons I learned by the end of the walk that you just had to trust your equipment. There were lots of ridges and ice cones and deep crevasses to explore and our tour guide certainly seemed to know his stuff.

Although we didn’t actually go into any of the crevasses themselves we did do a little ice-climbing. Not everyone in the group indulged but instead was vastly entertained by those that did. The wall was only actually about 15-20 metres high but darn it was a good work out! The one rule I learnt was that make sure you have a good grip on the wall with your crampons! I think I must have slipped about two or three times near the top of the wall before I finally got a good jab in with my crampons.

My ice-climbing on the glacier:

On the way back to Reykjavik we also made some stops at two distinct and picturesque waterfalls, Skógafoss and Seljalandsfoss. Skógafoss is one of the biggest in Iceland and the hike to the top was an absolute killer. I could see why Sandra had the good sense to turn back at the bottom! Apparently you can see a double rainbow on sunny days but although I looked I didn’t find it. The views from the top were amazing however. Seljalandsfoss is another popular waterfall and had the added attraction of having a path that took you behind it. Very cool.

Whale Watching

Out of Reyjavik there are a couple of whale watching companies that do tours morning and afternoon. On our first day, and admittedly the most beautiful and sunny day of our stay, Sandra and I opted to take an afternoon tour to see some whales (we later found out that Michelle was on the boat with us.) Disappointingly yet again I didn’t see any whales but I think I’m getting ever so close to seeing some – this time around I at least to got two see two spouts of water! I’ll get them one day!

Viking Horse Riding

One our tour guides talked about how easy it is to fall in love with the Icelandic horse and seeing them dotted all over the landscape I could see why. The horses, though pony-sized, are extremely strong and have the stockiness that I love seeing in animals. I couldn’t leave Iceland without taking a ride on them so for a couple of hours Sandra and I rode them over some strange area about 30 minutes drive from Reykjavik. My horse was clearly hungry because when it wasn’t trying to surge past all the other horses in the line it was trying to head off to the side to chomp on the vegetation! Still, it was a lot of fun and surprisingly I felt little pain from the ride.

The Rest of It

Now there are two things that really define Iceland and both must be experienced: The Night Life and The Blue Lagoon.

Reykjavik is a very expensive place and therefore you’ll find that most people, locals and visitors alike, stay at home or in their apartments consuming, in rather large quantities, their store bought alcohol before they head out to the clubs (normally after midnight at the earliest.) This is to avoid paying the upward of £7-£8 for a bottle of beer in the bars/clubs! I’m not sure what its like in winter in terms of the social scene but with 24 hours sunlight in summer its hard not to realise just how late it is when you’re out and about. The American lads were nice enough to invite us back to their apartment for pre-going out drinks to get well and fully lubricated before heading out. Bear in mind that the night life is fairly limited to Fridays and Saturdays so its fair to say that the Icelandic people really party hard. I must admit though that due to a combination of a hectic schedule leading up to our trip to Iceland and all our tours I was almost too tired to really enjoy it all. Almost. It was fun whilst it lasted.

Finally, Sandra and I thought we’d save a visit to The Blue Lagoon until our last night to ensure that when we headed back to London we were as relaxed as we could be. It truly was other-worldly! The water is apparently very rich in minerals which great for people who suffer from skin diseases and also otherwise good for your skin. And its nice and toasty warm though I was hoping that it would be much warmer than it was. There a lot of facilities there including massage therapy, mask therapy etc. but I like the fact there was also a steam room and sauna. Beautiful. Truly relaxing. Re-energising. The only down side was the fact that the water was more green than blue but hey you can’t do much about nature and we did see some blue water on the outside of the facilities.

The Food

I have to have a little blurb on the food because I have to say food in Iceland is great and in particular we had three really good (if expensive and slightly salty!) meals:

Lobster Feast
	Lobster Bisque	Trio of Lobsters	Ice Cream Dessert
Puffin Feast
	Marinated Puffin Starter	Grilled Puffin	Orange Sorbet and Mocha Creme Brulee

It was all really good quality seafood/birdfood (ha ha) and very tasty. A nod too the service given by the waiters and waitresses – considering you don’t need to tip in Iceland they were extremely efficient and friendly.

Oh and of course, lets not forget eating from the legendary Baejarins Beztu Pylsur (Best Hot Dogs) stand in Reykjavik … mmmm…. and tasting whale … not so mmmm ….

Some of our Icelandic adventures captured on video:

And if you still haven’t seen enough there are photos here.