Iceland: No one place like this one

Iceland reminds me a bit of Alaska, a little bit of Colorado and a part of old Austin, Texas from twenty years ago. And so far, it's our favorite adventure of all of our recent travels. As Stephen Markley says “The problem with driving around Iceland is that you’re basically confronted by a new soul-enriching, breath-taking, life-affirming natural sight every five goddamn minutes. It’s totally exhausting.” We decided to pace ourselves and just take on part of the island. It was still beautifully exhausting.

We arrived in Reykjavik on a Saturday night. We shuttled into the city and checked into our rented house for the
week. It was formerly a rectory from the church next door - an old house with a bunch of character on a lazy street next to downtown Reykjavik. Our daughter Erin and her husband Seb had already arrived and unpacked after their 3 day hike in the middle of the country. They greeted us with hor d'oeuvres and drinks and photos of their hike. We relaxed that evening but couldn't wait to get started with the city the next day.

The weather was warm (for Iceland) as we hiked around Reykjavik. We walked to the harbour and easily found the Hofdi House - a historic place that is not open to the public. It was formerly a home of the French consul, then the British ambassador - until he moved out due to a ghost called "the white lady." Most importantly, this is the location when Reagan and Gorbachev met to try to dissolve the cold war in 1986. No agreement was made in 1986, but it was the start of talks between the two leaders which lead to the destruction of the Berlin wall. This house was ordered from a catalog in Norway. Iceland has very little timber therefore wood is not used in construction of buildings. We passed the many unique tourist shops and restaurants on our walk and the vibe of the city was vibrant, quirky, interesting, and friendly.

We came to the church that is a famous icon of Reykjavik - the Hallgrimskirkja. There was a wedding going on so visiting the inside of the church was not possible. We rode the elevator up to the tower to get a view of the city however. We also played with the mirrors outside
that resulted in some funny looking selfies. We walked back toward the harbour toward Harpa - the town's concert hall and convention center. We went crazy taking photos of this building, both inside and out. The angles of the glass gave us some fun photos. We
could find ourselves in the sections of glass the light reflection gave us some great photos. We noticed a large yacht off the coast near Harpa the music hall. Larry Ellison was parked out there and we saw his helicopter come and go. We bought tickets to Pearls of Iceland - a concert with original Icelandic songs and we relaxed for a bit while listening to the music. The language of Iceland sounded like Russian to me. Erin and Seb cooked dinner that evening in our house - Icelandic cod and a nice salad.

Monday we were to drive the famed Golden Circle, the 300km loop towards the center
of the island. We woke up to a call from the rental car company that "our car" had been involved in an accident the day before and we would be delayed by 3 - 4 hours to begin our drive. The sun doesn't set until 11:30 at night, so we were trying to be patient about our timing. Around 1pm we got our car and we drove to the  Thingvellir national park when the east and west continental plates meet. It's like a deep divide between the two sections of land. We hiked for a bit and then drove to Geysir. Geysir is the original geysor and is the namesake for all erupting hot springs. It was pretty reliable, spouting every five minutes or so. The action of the bubble before eruption was mesmorizing.
We continued to Gullfoss - the waterfall of all waterfalls. Since the sun was out, we experienced many rainbows there - we felt like we were wearing them in fact. We captured over 400 photos of our day's adventures.

We arrived back at 8pm and went to a restaurant that Erin and Seb had tried a few nights
earlier that is so hip it doesn't even have a name. It goes by it's address Hverfisgata 12 or "Pizza that has no name". There isn't a sign outside either exhibiting unique marketing. We entered and felt like we were in Austin, Texas. The staff was extremely helpful. I couldn't decide between the beet pizza or the Etruscan Elite with rocket and walnuts. The Etruscan pizza was amazing.

Tuesday was our day for a hike near Skogafoss - the tallest waterfall in Iceland. Erin and Seb decided on the 10 hour hike from Skogafoss across the glacier to Thorsmork. We opted for a shorter hike so we could take our time with photos and avoid the technical hike near the end. Our plan was a good one as we passed over 15 waterfalls in succession on the side of the volcano Eyjafjallajokull  that disrupted airplane travel five years ago. It's hard to describe the feeling that day as we hiked. It was "soul-enriching, breath-taking, life-affirming" for sure and made me emotional in appreciating
the opportunity to be there. We returned to the city to eat at Icelandic Bar, known for the fish and chips. The cod was the best I've had and the sweet potato fries substitute for the chips was a great choice. Erin and Seb arrived home around midnight from their hike and Paul walked downtown with Seb to grab a late night hot dog made of lamb at the stand near the harbour.

Wednesday was our day to indulge. As required, we bought our entrance
tickets to Blue Lagoon before we arrived. We showered naked before entering the hot mineral pool to adhere to the strict health requirements. I lathered up my hair in conditioner as well to keep the minerals from drying it out. Our entrance package gave us a drink, a mud pack and mask. The combination of warm mineral water, a glass of champagne, and our facial mask gave us an odd combination of giddiness, relaxation, and tranquility. What fun we had! We took a group photo of ourselves with our mud masks on. The minerals really do make your skin soft and the mud masks make you laugh at yourself. We had been afraid the experience might be too touristy at first, but later decided that it was one of our favorite days.

That evening, we had reservations at the world-renowned Dill restaurant. We discovered that the owners of Dill also owned the pizza restaurant we had eaten at a few nights before. We were finding the restaurant scene in Reykjavik  fairly remarkable. We knew it would be an expensive night, but we opted for the 7 course dinner with wine pairings (how often do you get to go to a famous restaurant, right?).
The first course was a pickled carrot sandwich.  It had cream cheese and caraway sandwiched between the two pieces of carrot - about the size of a dime.  Another course was a beet flower. The vegetarian version of that had tarragon seeds in the center with roasted yeast. The meat version had liver. The next course was a potato chip with toasted peppers with seaweed. My favorite course was the beet quinoa dish with cheese and lava salt. The dessert of burnt bay leaf ice cream was remarkable as well. The wine pairings were also varied, combining fermented beers and white and red wines to our delight. My body was treated to tastes and mineral immersions that day to both excite and soothe.

Considering the advice of friends who had visited Iceland, we decided to
undertake the 5 hour one-way drive to go visit Glacier Lagoon, locally called Jökulsárlón near the Vatnajökull National Park. The drive there was long but scenic. We saw many horse farms for which Iceland is famous. The horse there has a particular stride that is different than any other horse in the world. We were close to the coast several times but resisted stopping as the day would be long just to reach the lagoon. We had to gas up whenever we saw a station because there were not cities on this part of the island. We saw bright green mountains along our way. Then the terrain changed to barren tundra fields covered with volcanic ash and lava. In the distance, we could see the

glacier. Unexpectedly, we crossed a one-way bridge and the glacier was right before us. On the other side of the bridge was the Atlantic Ocean with chunks of glacier floating in it and covering the beach. We spent several hours taking in both sides of the highway, near the glacier itself and then near the lagoon with the beach. We ate our packed lunch on top of lava rocks over looking the ocean with chunks of ice breaking off and floating away as we ate. After we exhausted the photographers in the group, we headed back home with a couple of stops along the way near beaches that had rock formations, caves and the exotic puffins flying along the rocks. We arrived back in the city and quickly grabbed a bit to eat to finish the day.

Friday was our last day in Reykjavik. We were definitely not interested in getting back in the car after our travels the day before. We indulged in a brunch at the Coocoo's nest near the harbour in an area that we not previously visited.  Interestingly, a sign along the way pointed us to a Texas restaurant offering "Texasborgarar", which we assume were burgers. The Coocoo's Nest also screamed hipster, but it was low-key, organic, quirky and fresh. The homemade bread itself looked worth the visit alone. The music playing was blues and soul.  I had a salad with walnuts and cranberries with a piece of the homemade bread. The open faced sandwiches looked hearty and tasty. We left to walk off lunch and got lost on the way back. We came across a park filled with locals, mothers with children and older people feeding birds and sat and people watched for a while. We meandered home and relaxed for the afternoon.

Around five, we met Erin and Seb at Slippbarinn - a trendy bar in the lobby of the Austin-esque Marina Hotel prior to our dinner reservation at the GrillMarket - a place to celebrate our last night in Iceland. The cocktails were very creative and it was difficult to choose. I chose a Pippi Gonzales - tequila, dill, cucumber, lemon, and dill-infused olive oil. Paul chose the Borderline -  a stout liquor, vodka, cream and roasted hazelnuts. His drink was like dessert. They had several interesting drinks, including ones with bacon-infused brandy, birch,  and mezcal. The Grillmarket was close by.  Most of their menu items were grilled meats and fishes, but the sides were tasty for the vegetarians. Before we left, we toasted the adventurous week with our daughter and son-in-law, celebrating Iceland and it's beauty. We each commented on our favorite days and it was noteworthy to see that we all chose a different day's adventure.

Iceland Air allows travelers between Europe and the US to stopover at no additional cost on airfare. It is definitely a place to which I would return.There is no one place like this one.