8 August -Moving Day
Leaving Bath just after 7am we drove to Heathrow, now that's always fun, dropped the car off, went to the correct terminal and joined the short queue at the Icelandair check-in counter all without any problems. The traffic was relatively light thanks to school holidays,I missed everyone and everyone missed me so AVIS was happy to take the car off us and refund our deposit and the airport was relatively quiet for the manic place it always is.
We are spending 10 nights in Iceland on a HF Walking Tour - the first we have done with this company. We identified a fellow traveller in the queue just in front of us,said hello and then lost sight of Malcolm from Margate near Dover as we went through security. All the buffer time we had allowed us to get to the other side of security and allowed us time to linger longer in airport cafes enjoying coffees and lunch. During one of the coffees we decided to get out the itinerary for our time in Iceland only to find out that when we arrive we are going for a walk or even a soak in a natural warm spring wonderland before being taken to the hotel. That would have been good to know before leaving home five hours ago.
The gate announcement for our flight didn't occur until 20 minutes before the posted boarding time. Finishing off our coffees the flight board ticked over and there was our gate. Off we set looking for Gate B35. The first sign we saw for it had a sign under it "15 minute walk". Off we cantered at the common speed in an airport of someone running late for their connecting flight. Our walking tour had started early. We arrived there in enough time to catch our breath and at the same time, unbeknownst to us, qualifying for the Team GB track and field team for Rio.
The flight over was good - just under three hours. A lot of people were transiting through Reykjavik going to the USA as this is a far cheaper option apparently - so file that one away.
On landing we were met at the airport by the tour company, HF, and our friends, Mark and Pam, who had flown in from Norway. True to our newly discovered itinerary we were taken for a walk and to the famous Blue Lagoon. Around 20 years ago someone was drilling for geothermal heating purposes and found hot rock. Putting water on the hot rock produces steam which is used to produce electricity and space heating for homes. The outflowing water is chock full of minerals which, when pooled, produce a build up of the minerals and sky blue coloured water. The result is the Blue Lagoon which, apart from being chock full of minerals is for 18 hours a day chock full of humans. The place is now in the top 25 places in the world to visit so get in quick as there are a lot of humans out there.
I need to get all the superlatives in one sentence up front so that at any point if I mention the place was good it could mean any or all of the following: unbelievable, outstanding, spectacular, unique, incredible and/or amazing. This will save a lot of writing time and, for you, reading time which would be better used looking at the photographs. Also, Iceland is full of volcanic activity in all its forms:- lava fields, craters, active volcanoes, steam and gas vents, under glacial eruptions - you name it, it's doing it, done it or about to do it. When we travel these are the things that most often fill our views out the window. So away we go.
Iceland has a population of 300,000 of which over 100,000 are based in its capital, Reykjavik. The population is growing and tourism is rapidly expanding in the country. The locals speak Icelandic and most speak English and Danish - foreign languages they learn at school from about 10 years of age. There are about 107 swimming pools in Iceland. They have their own breed of horses - no imports allowed and no exported horses are allowed back into the country so they keep their bloodlines intact.
Our first full day started with a drive from Reykjavik east to one of many locations in Iceland that is ridiculously impossible to spell correctly let alone say. However we did spend the day walking below Eyjafjallajokull, the 2010 erupting volcano that grounded 1000's of planes for days and dirtied the washing of all those living in Scotland. Our bus is a high clearance semi off road, go almost anywhere vehicle. We need it because just to get to the start of our walk today we crossed the fast flowing waters of a glacial fed flood plain over 10 times.
There are 16 walkers on the trip plus a very good local guide (Dorothea who teaches Icelandic culture etc to 16 - 20 year olds as her normal day job although she is guiding during these summer holidays) and bus driver (Christian - who was a paramedic). We have a 50 seater bus so plenty of room to spread out and keep all our many warm and wet weather clothing layers on the seats around us. There are walkers from Australia, Great Britain (given HF Holidays is a GB company), Canada and USA in the group. All are keen and experienced walkers and range in age from us to 84 years old and most have done many walks with HF previously.
We had lunch before setting off on a great walk with views to a number of glaciers tracking down into the valley below us. The area was greatly affected by the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull leaving impossibly contorted landscape still settling down from the impact.
On the way home we did a short walk up a the Stakkholtsgja gorge before setting up in our new, rural hotel. Our days are longish - leaving "home" at 9.00 am then returning after 7.00 pm for dinner at 8.00 pm.
On landing we were met at the airport by the tour company, HF, and our friends, Mark and Pam, who had flown in from Norway. True to our newly discovered itinerary we were taken for a walk and to the famous Blue Lagoon. Around 20 years ago someone was drilling for geothermal heating purposes and found hot rock. Putting water on the hot rock produces steam which is used to produce electricity and space heating for homes. The outflowing water is chock full of minerals which, when pooled, produce a build up of the minerals and sky blue coloured water. The result is the Blue Lagoon which, apart from being chock full of minerals is for 18 hours a day chock full of humans. The place is now in the top 25 places in the world to visit so get in quick as there are a lot of humans out there.
I need to get all the superlatives in one sentence up front so that at any point if I mention the place was good it could mean any or all of the following: unbelievable, outstanding, spectacular, unique, incredible and/or amazing. This will save a lot of writing time and, for you, reading time which would be better used looking at the photographs. Also, Iceland is full of volcanic activity in all its forms:- lava fields, craters, active volcanoes, steam and gas vents, under glacial eruptions - you name it, it's doing it, done it or about to do it. When we travel these are the things that most often fill our views out the window. So away we go.
Iceland has a population of 300,000 of which over 100,000 are based in its capital, Reykjavik. The population is growing and tourism is rapidly expanding in the country. The locals speak Icelandic and most speak English and Danish - foreign languages they learn at school from about 10 years of age. There are about 107 swimming pools in Iceland. They have their own breed of horses - no imports allowed and no exported horses are allowed back into the country so they keep their bloodlines intact.
Our first full day started with a drive from Reykjavik east to one of many locations in Iceland that is ridiculously impossible to spell correctly let alone say. However we did spend the day walking below Eyjafjallajokull, the 2010 erupting volcano that grounded 1000's of planes for days and dirtied the washing of all those living in Scotland. Our bus is a high clearance semi off road, go almost anywhere vehicle. We need it because just to get to the start of our walk today we crossed the fast flowing waters of a glacial fed flood plain over 10 times.
There are 16 walkers on the trip plus a very good local guide (Dorothea who teaches Icelandic culture etc to 16 - 20 year olds as her normal day job although she is guiding during these summer holidays) and bus driver (Christian - who was a paramedic). We have a 50 seater bus so plenty of room to spread out and keep all our many warm and wet weather clothing layers on the seats around us. There are walkers from Australia, Great Britain (given HF Holidays is a GB company), Canada and USA in the group. All are keen and experienced walkers and range in age from us to 84 years old and most have done many walks with HF previously.
We had lunch before setting off on a great walk with views to a number of glaciers tracking down into the valley below us. The area was greatly affected by the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull leaving impossibly contorted landscape still settling down from the impact.
On the way home we did a short walk up a the Stakkholtsgja gorge before setting up in our new, rural hotel. Our days are longish - leaving "home" at 9.00 am then returning after 7.00 pm for dinner at 8.00 pm.
