Our last night in Akureyri was once again spent chasing lights. We grabbed a bite to eat and soon after met up with our tour guide. The conditions were much better than the previous night, next to no wind, but it was a little cloudy.
We headed much further out of town at least a 45 minute drive before stopping up near a river and waterfall. We all got out of the mini bus and walked a few minutes before setting up base of operations for the evening, camera tripods mostly 😏. We waited and waited, but after just over an hour, it had become too cloudy and it was time to move on to an other location.
Heading back towards Akureyri we stopped at a mountain pass and our driver pulled over on to an iced over parking area. We all got out again, but now we were walking on ice, it was funny watching everyone sliding around in almost complete darkness. Our guide insisted we move towards the snow, which was almost two foot deep. So there we are, up to our knees in snow, staring into a cloudy sky, freezing cold – waiting.
I’d like to be able to say that all this effort was worth it, but unfortunately, there was no light show. It’ll have to wait for an other time.
The following morning we packed up, grabbed some breakfast and hit the road for the five hour drive to Reykjavik. Once on the outskirts of Akureyri the road continues up into the mountains. It was a clear morning, sun shining and still loads of snow cover all around. It’s this part of Iceland where scenes from Game of Thrones were filmed.
With a few stops for photographs and one for lunch we arrived into a very overcast and wet Reykjavik. It was also rush hour so the traffic was busy. We eventually got to where we were staying and after checking in we hit the town.
Reykjavik is much bigger than expected which was evident on the drive in and the city centre. Despite its size it’s a very walkable place with most of the bars, cafes, restaurants and shops all very close together. For a drink we went into the Lebowski bar, themed after the movie The Big Lebowski. For dinner we just grabbed a casual bite to eat in another bar.
The following morning it was time to hit the road. We grabbed a quick breakfast and headed off, our plan for the day was to drive the Golden Circle. The Golden Circle incorporates a multitude of attractions ranging from mountains, waterfalls, geysers, sinkholes etc. Two of the main highlights were the Pingvellir national park and Geysir.
Pingvellir is where the tectonic plates of North America and Europe meet. Very interesting to walk through and on a side note it’s where the Vikings set up the worlds first democratic parliament 🤓. Geysir as the name suggests is an area dotted with dozens of hot gushers and geothermal pools, too hot to bathe in though. One of the main geysers shoots boiling hot water up to 30 meters in the air every 10 minutes or so, it’s pretty impressive. There’s also a decent choice of restaurants here where we had lunch
Despite the rain it was a very enjoyable day although the drive back to Reykjavik was very slow due to very thick fog and heavy rain.
We pushed the boat out a little for dinner and had a very nice meal in one of the fancier places in town 😉. We also came across a very cool bar called Vinyl where we stopped for a drink.
So today, we’re doing a walking tour of Reykjavik which kicks off at 10:00 and lasts about 3 hours. The plan after is perhaps visit the Harbour area of the city and later if it’s a nice evening maybe go looking for those lights……again 🙄.
J
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