Faroe Islands & Iceland

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Iceland

Iceland

Approaching Iceland and the harbour at Seydisfjördur. In Husavik we went on a whale safari, photos on the town, see videos. I also had breakfast duty and made omelette outdoors for the group.

Hverir, geothermal region.

Grjotagja, where you can see the tectonic plates shifting apart.

Hverfjall a crater from an old volcano. Hiked up and saw the views.

Dimmuborgir with lava formations, rocks.

A waterfall, which one? Many waterfalls in Iceland 😉

Akureyri town photos, I went swimming at the public swimming pool and took some people from the group with me. I highly recommend the swimming pools as these are good facilities with sauna, thermal pools, good locker rooms, showers and swimming pools for adults and children apart. In Akureyri I also saw these beautiful yellow and orange poppy flowers.

On the road through the vastness to Blanda area, very interesting how they utilize a hydroelectric power station uses the drop of the river to generate up to 150MW of power.

Passing through the landscapes and saw Kaldidalur, Hveravellir with natural geothermal pools. I bathed together with the group. We also did an experiment boiling an egg however it should have been in the water some more minutes. The thermal water was around 40 degrees or more depending on where you stood in the pool. The weather was cold and around 10 degrees celcius with some rain showers.

Geysirs! We stayed at a camping site next door, which meant that I had the possibility to see the geysirs and geothermal eruptions when we first arrived although it rained and first thing next morning before we drove across Iceland.

Vatnajökull area, we stayed at a camping site at Skaftafjell with views of Svartifoss. When we arrived it rained heavy and I went for a short hike and got totally soaked. Unfortunately the camping site did not have so many facilities to drying clothes and shoes. Many people in queue at the camping site in the laundry room. I was lucky as I wake up early in the morning to dry my jacket then. However my hiking shoes were wasted since they leaked in water 🙁 But I went on a long hike the next day, doing a hike for ca 15 km. Due to the heavy rain, it was very cloudy and foggy, hence the glacier was unseen. I am sure the views are spectacular but I only managed to get som glimpses.

The next day we saw Jökulsarlon, iceberg in the lake and amazing colours.

Skogass is an area for hiking, with a hiking paths that crosses many hills and waterfalls, the river flowing down to the sea. I did a short hike there and would have liked to explore this area more.

We also visited Thingvellir for a short time, just to get an idea of the area, the old “parliament” of Iceland and the rift.

Finally the last days in Reykjavik, the last activity we did as a group was to visit the BLUE LAGOON. This geothermal place is amazing and I could easily spend a few days in the spa and hot pools here. I love bathing, hot water and this particular mineral composition definitely has an effect on the body. My felt wonderful the next day.

Site-seeing in Reykjavik, visting the church, museums, art sculpture and interesting architecture. The mandatory cat in a café showed up too.

Art museums and the exhibitions and pieces I found interesting.

The trip was over and I got back home to Stockholm, Sweden filled with impressions but also exhausted from poor sleep during 2 weeks, cold, damp weather conditions.

If I ever visit Iceland again, it will not be with a group. I will also try to find a season when it does not rain and hope that snow feels better than rain? I also would have liked more interactions with locals but had very little contact with icelandic people on this trip.

My biggest MINUS is the poor standard and facilities at the camping sites, since we literally only stayed at camping sites with Rosabussarna. All of these sites were packed with tourists and very few had indoor kitchens or warm spaces to hang out when it was raining and cold. Toilets were not well kept either and the laundry room if existed were always occupied and filled with tourists doing their laundry.