Land of Fire and Ice

I embarked on a journey to Iceland with my family for three days, where there is a lot to in this magical place.  We booked a boat trip to see the whales and also explored Reykjavik on a sightseeing bus tour.  

We travelled in August, so the weather was relatively mild, and the flight was just over two hours.  A fifteen-minute walk from the bus, and we arrived at the Hotel Fron, our accommodation for three nights.  Our one-bedroom apartment was equipped with tea and coffee making facilities, tv as well as a fridge and a cooker.  On the first evening we dined in Bastard, a gastro pub, situated around the corner from the hotel, the menus listed burgers, fillet of cod, camembert cheese as well as flat bread and the wonderful taste of the local Icelandic beer, Gull.  We enjoyed the food so much that we returned on the last night of our stay.  The breakfast in the hotel was adequate the next morning, with plenty of fruit, homemade bread, croissants, cereals and hot beverages. 

After breakfast, we went on a tour to see the whales.  We consumed a lovely lunch of French toast, hot chocolate and homemade soup, before boarding the spacious Amelia Rose yacht.  I would recommend staying outdoors for most of the journey as the waters can be choppy, and you can get seasick.  Minke whales and Humpback whales swam quite close to the boat, however, in order for us to see these magnificent creatures, the engine was switched off, so as not to frighten them.  Humpback whales body mass can reach up to 40 metric tonnes, and they jumped quite high into the air before diving back down into the water showing their big tail fin.  After the amazing boat journey, we did a little shopping in Laugavegur street, where the shop Icewear can be seen everywhere, but way too pricy for my pocket.  Also, near us was Rainbow Street, lined with lovely cafes, the street is painted in all the colours of the rainbow.  After a little shopping, mainly for souvenirs, we dined in another lovely gastro pub, more like an expensive restaurant, and ate €60 steak and the local lamb with a bottle of wine.  To finish off the night we listened to music in the Bookshop (pub) and drank the local Icelandic beer called Gull.

On our final day, we bused it around Reykjavik, we hopped on at the Hallgrimskirja Church (the largest church in Iceland, reaching up to heights of 244 feet).  Standing next to this church was a statue of Leif Erricson, the explorer of North America, approximately 500 years before Christopher Columbus.  Our next stop was the Perlan museum, famous for Iceland’s exhibits of glaciers, northern lights and volcanoes.  We watched a video of the eruption of the volcano in March 2021, where many people had to evacuate their homes.  Following on from that, we experienced a 4-D ride into the depths of the volcano, and then it erupted as we were brought back up to the surface.  With the heat of the volcano, we cooled down in the Ice Cave, with just a temperature of about 5 degrees.  This cave was made from real glaciers and sculpted to fit into the Perlan museum.  After viewing the spectacular Northern Lights, the sightseeing bus tour picked us up from the Perlan Museum, and we got off at the next stop, Kingsland Shopping Centre.  We ate our lunch, and shopped for a little while before hopping on the bus bound for our hotel.  Our last stop was the harbour, and we purchased some records in the local store, we dined that evening in Bastard pub and was entertained by the bands in Bookstore.  On the day of departure, we took a taxi to the airport, organised through booking.com.

If I was to return to Iceland, which I plan on doing, I will bathe in the Blue Lagoon, go and see a real volcano and experience the wonderful Gullfoss waterfall, but there was not enough time to see everything.  This trip for me was an experience of a lifetime!

Travel file:  Flights, accommodation and return transfer was booked through booking.com.

The bus to the hotel from the airport and the sightseeing bus was booked through Cityguide.