Day 9 - 10.8. Fight with Hekla and Landmannalaugar

We started the day with fresh eggs breakfast.

Fresh eggs

After some time on the road we finally found a way to the top of  Hekla. I think we can say that day wasn’t really a good day to reach Hekla. The weather was normal at the bottom of the mountain (even rainbow) but with each meter up the situation was getting different. After some time it was clear that under current circumstances we cannot continue by car to parking in the middle. We couldn’t see anything.

Road to Hekla, shortly we had to stop, we couldnt see where we go

Really nice weather

Jirka and I left  the car (and Ivo) somewhere around 800 meters above sea level and tried to walk up to the hill. They made only 200 altitude meters and had to come back, totally wet. Not even with almost all clothes on us we couldn’t resist Icelandic weather. We faced very strong wind and snowing. We had to say goodbye to Hekla and gave up. Maybe next time. The next stop was Landmannalaugar, one of the most famous spots in Iceland. On the way we stopped at Ljotipollur to see the beautiful blue lake in red hill (colored by iron).

Ljotipollur lake

Ljotipollur lake

When you reach Landmannalaugar camp you have to make decision. You can leave a car on a dedicated parking slot or you can go directly to the camp but you have to wade challenging rivers. There was no question for us we decided to go. Iit was funny like everybody looked at us immediately  whether we could make it. We made it through (and later also back). We were little bit behind schedule so we had time only for a few hour trek in neighbourhood to see colorful mountains here and of course huge lava field above the camp.

Landmannalaugar hut, permanently full by groups

Mountains behind the camp

Active area around Landmannalagar

Colourfull mountains

and green ones

We were lucky again the weather was perfect and we saw blue sky for few hours. But it changed quickly on the way to our last stop in Iceland – to Eldgja. Under heavy wind we took only snack here and continued back to Road 1.

Inside Eldgja

View to the Eldgja from the road

Leaving Eldgja

Shortly we were reached by rain and later also by fog. Let me say that nothing changed regarding weather for next two days.

Nice way to Reykjavik

same way in 20 minutes

We used all our good luck. At 8 p.m. we came back to our start and end point – Radisson 1919. Our rooms were ready and even bigger ones then before, but we had different issue the next day (on Saturday). Reykjavik hosted Gay pride and our hotel laying directly in the center was affected by this so we had to park little bit far away (not very good while it was heavy raining). Anyway at the end we managed to get our staff into the rooms and at around 9 p.m. we left the hotel to take some good dinner. Our selection wasn’t good we believed the guide and chose gourmet restaurant Einar Ben.

Einar Ben

Small portions, high prices and the most terrible service. It was a big disappointment. On the other hand we had dinner quite cheap, because they  made some mistake in calculation, no objections about that. As dinner left us little bit hungry we aimed for more to close bar Dubliner for some Guinness beer. After Guinness we felt all the kilometers we made in last 10 days and decided to save some energy also for our last day in Iceland.

Driving 380km, road 26, Landmannaleid road, F208, road 1

New trip, new technology

This year I will try new thing - track the trip with iPhone application. I picked up from app store application TrackMyTour, which should work quite ok. You will be able to find photos, notes and other news from our traveling. At the end complete map with snapshots will be stored.

So for those who want to track our progress almost online is the map from TrackMyTour red link below. We start 2.8. 2012.....

Iceland Expedition on TrackMyTour

Day 10 - 11.8. Goodbye Iceland

We woke up later than usual there was no rush, rain behind the windows wasn’t really tempting. We took hotel breakfast and picked up few points to visit during our last day: a famous church, the biggest local shopping mall, a Museum of Saga and a Marine museum. First stop was the Marine museum close to a harbor. It was andinteresting exhibition describing fishery and marine life in Iceland from the past till now.

Marine museum

The rain was so mentally devastating that we decided to change topic and headed to the biggest Icelandic shopping mall Kringlan. Of course no big surprise everything was so expensive that it was impossible to find anything for a reasonable price. At the end I bought only some tourist staff there (including a puffin) and some shopping also happened in ZO-ON shop – Icelandic outdoor wear. Being hungry we decided to go back to center and checked a monumental church Hallgrimskirkja which you can find almost on every postcard from Reykjavik.

Hallgrimskirkja

We just met a wedding there so instead of waiting outside we took lunch in close Loki restaurant. Local menu was a little bit wild consisting of mostly local specialties. Most of the food was ok and eatable but the fermented shark was something hard to swallow. From the center we moved through the rain to Perlan - geothermal place on the hill above the city.

Perlan building

There is an interesting building here where you can find the most expensive restaurant and also Saga museum – our destination. Here we got mp3 players and earphones and took audio tour through the wax figurines.

Nice wax lady

After 30 minutes of listening we were totally destroyed and tired. Outside there was still raining it was too late for cinema, gay pride was still in the center, so last choice was small shop called Volcano house – café, shop and mainly mini cinema showing two short movies about Heimaey island and its Eldfell eruption and new one about Eyjafjallajokull eruption in 2010. After cinema time we took last dinner in Reykjavik at a restaurant with simple name Steakhouse. Food was good and we were sad we found this restaurant so late.

Vine menu powered by Kindle at Steahouse

After steaks and vine we took drive back to Keflavik airport. Car handover was smooth, I would even say that nobody really checked the car properly (good for us). At the airport we had plenty of time thanks to flight delay.

Keflavik airport

Ivo invited the whole crew to a small champagne closing party and around 1 a.m.local time we left Iceland heading back to Berlin. The whole trip was ok, mainly thanks to Jirka who was still able to drive at 6 a.m. back to Prague from Berlin. That’s it, end of story, only one thing I can add that Iceland was worth visiting and we will definitely come back again.

Last toast at Keflavik

Driving 60km, road 41

Cars, CARS, cars !!!

Car is the key tool on Iceland, you can read many different articles which car, when and where to use. We dont want to make compromises so we go for 4WD car in order to get anywhere.
I found basicaly several options where to rent car:

• pick one of many global rentals (Sixt, Hertz, Budget, Avis etc.)
• use local Czech travel agency Periscope
• use Icelandic agency http://www.carrentals.is/

First option is out almost immediately, prices are totaly out of bounds. For 8,5 days rental you can pay anything between 1800 and 3000 euro. Forget that your loyalty card will help you, savings are insignificant. Final choice had been made between Periscope and Carrentals.is. Prices were almost the same, arround 1200 euro. Be ready that each extra service means extra fee: pick up/drop off at Keflavik airport, extra driver etc.
Final decision has been made, we should drive Suzuki Grand Vitara provided by Nordic Holidays Car Rental (via carrentals.is). Price is 1300 euro including SCDW, pickup and drop off v Keflaviku and gravel protection.

Driving on Iceland

This trip was a lot about driving, here is the summary and amount of kilometres we made:

Day 1	55
Day 2	210
Day 3	334
Day 4	366
Day 5	33
Day 6	450
Day 7	320
Day 8	340
Day 9	380
Day 10	60
Total	2548km

Costs for petrol: 83.500 ISK = 555 EUR

Although it looks like easy its not. Maximum allowed speed on Iceland is 90km/h and its valid only for Road 1. Most of the time we traveled around 60km/h, so make in 1 day 300km meant to drive 4-5 hours. For example last 40km to Askja took 1 hour. Vitara was our second home.

Day 1: A-Keflavik airport, B-hotel Radisson SAS 1919

Day 2: A-hotel Radisson SAS 1919, B-Bonus, C-Thingvelir, D-Geysir, E-Gulfoss, F-Hveravellir camp

Day3: A-Hveravellir camp, B-Glaumbaer, C-Akureyri, D-Godafoss, F-Hverfjal, G-Jardbodin, H-Myvatn camp

Day 4: F-Myvatn camp, B-Dimmuborgir, C-Husavik, D-Krafla, E-Detifoss,Selfoss,Hafragilsfoss, F-Gas station, G-Herdubreid camp

Day 5:A-Herdubreid camp, B- Dreki hut, Askja camp

Day 6: Red-Dreki hut, Askja camp, AB- road, C- Egilsstadir, D- Borgarfjodur, F- Seydisfjodur, G- Djupivogur hotel Framtid

Day 7: A- Djupivogur hotel Framtid, B- Joklasel hut, C- Jokulsarlon, D- Skaftafell national park, E- Kirkjubaejarklaustur camp

Day 8: A- Kirkjubaejarklaustur camp, Red - Laki vulcano, B- Vik, Reynisdrangar, C-Dyrholayey, D- Skogafoss, E- Rjupnavellir camp

Day 9: A- Rjupnavellir camp, Red- Hekla, B-Landmannlaugar, C- Eldgja, D-road, E- hotel Radisson SAS 191

Day 10: A - hotel Radisson SAS 1919, B-Marine museum, C-Kringlan shopping, D- church Hallgrimskirkja, E- Perlan Saga Museum, F- Keflavik airport

Costs and money

Here is the summary how we spent our money

Spend	Amount	comment
Rental car	174 748	Suzuki Grand Vitara
Gasoline	83 478	fueling 10 times
Accommodation	142 844	2x Radisson, 2x tent, 4x huts, Framtid hotel
Eating	144 760	Lobster 40k, Ein Bar and Steak house 20k each
Food shopping	22 100	mainly fruits, bread, chees, salami, water
Attractions	96 275	snowmobiles 51k, Jardbodin 10k
Total ISK	664 205

Spend	Amount
Flight tickets	916
Whale watching	162
Fuel to Berlin	160
Red Baron dinner	123
Parking Berlin	167
Total EUR	1 528

664 205 ISK = 4 410 EUR + 1 528 EUR = 5 938 EUR for three people

In other words we spent 1980 Euro per person for 10 days in Iceland.

Video library

Here you can find few interesting videos, ordered in chronogical way: