Nice Land, Part One

Waterfalls, Volcanoes, and Wrecks

There are many places on Earth that inspire; Iceland is one of them. Rather like Ireland, only one letter away, it is an island of varying evocative landscapes, easily crossed by car in a day, and full of welcoming people. (I would say New Jersey is similar, except it is a peninsula).

Thingvellir National Park

I spent a week there with Sarah, exploring the western side. We took it easy. In a week we could have traversed the “ring road,” and circled the country; but I wanted to relax. We walked around Reykjavik, visited hot springs, waterfalls, volcanoes, beaches, ruins, museums, churches, caves, elfstones, geysers and a brewery. Some of these visits will get their own posts. I think the Phallological Museum and the Museum of Sorcery and Witchcraft both deserve their own; also the ruins of WWII bunkers and fuel depots in a park in the center of Reykjavik.

Lava fields and sulfur vent of Fagradalsfjall, an active volcano

The entire island is volcanic, much like the big island of Hawai’i, and has a similar landscape in places; fields of crushed lava rock. This is the desolation you see as you leave Keflavik airport, a small but well-designed hub. While sheep and horses graze here—and please don’t pull over to pet them, this isn’t a petting zoo, they are working farms—it isn’t lush like Ireland, but has a similar feel, especially near The Burren, the desolate rock near the Ring of Kerry.

Kvernufoss falls

Iceland’s Ring of Kerry is called The Golden Circle, and begins at Thingvellir national park, home to the eponymous glacier. You can walk on it, or go into a tunnel they bored into it. I decided to do neither, as glaciers are becoming an endangered species. I watched one calve in Alaska a few years ago; I don’t need to walk on one. It is quite beautiful enough from afar.

A panoramic shot of the wrecked DC3 outside Vik

I also didn’t drive up Mauna Kea on Hawai’i when we last visited, because Hawaiians view it as sacred and don’t want you gallivanting up there. We did watch the lava hiss into the ocean, after trekking across lava fields in the dark. That was awe-inspiring enough. We stopped by a volcano on the way to Blue Lagoon, a man-made hot spring spa where we relaxed for a few hours. I had originally planned to hike up the volcano, but Sarah wisely dissuaded me. The last time I planned a Big Hike on the first day of a trip I was sore for the whole week and cranky about it. Maybe next time…

The DC3 out on the black beach

We paid for a ride out to see the wreck of a DC3 plane out on the black sand beach, which was the most “touristy” thing we did. The influencers were well-behaved at the waterfalls and geysers. Speaking of which, here’s Geysir shooting its load:

The Blue Lagoon is pretty bougie, with a nice restaurant and a swim up bar. The public hot springs are nice as well, with snack bars instead, and next time we visit—there will be a next time—we will make use of them now that we know about them. There’s also Sky Lagoon, which is even bougier than Blue Lagoon, and damn right I will go there. Sarah gets embarrassed like “we don’t belong” because her parents were teachers; Hell, I’m the first person in my family to go to college, a fourth generation immigrant, and my parents were a hairdresser and a construction worker. I will be the Rodney Dangerfield in Back to School at every high-class scumbag event and dare you to tell me I don’t belong there. And then I’ll fart through silk at you and tell you your father smelled of elderberries.

We got bumped to Saga Premium for the trip home, which is IcelandAir’s name for first class, and their Saga Lounge had some of the best food I’ve had at an airport. The whole island knows how to eat. The “sorcerer’s seafood stew” at the cafe of the Museum of Witchcraft and Sorcery, which I fully expected to be tourist trash, was one of the best meals I had there.

The pubs tend to cater to tourists, so you need to take care. If you want to drink and eat well but inexpensively (in comparison) I recommend the Posthus Food Hall, which has a dozen mini-restaurants and shared seating. It’s in a former post office building, and has everything from poke to pizza to ramen and fish and chips, all done well. The local beer is very good, leaning towards crisp lagers and German styles; my favorites were the Sorti black lager by the new Galdur microbrewery in Hólmavík, and the smoked Lava Stout by Viking. Unlike many American brewers, they don’t overfeed the yeast and leave extra sugars. I didn’t have a hangover the entire trip. First time I got home and drank a lazy hazy IPA or cloudy craft beer, I felt it.

There’s a hot spring on the Golden Circle where you can bury dough and come back a day later to dig your ryebrød out of the dirt. As much as I like black bread, I didn’t want to wait for the next session. We had just spent a day soaking in a mineral lagoon, so the hot spring was not as enticing as it would have been. I did eat some of the bread:

I may have said this before, but waterfalls in Iceland are like castles in Ireland or Scotland; a first it’s like you’ve seen a unicorn. By the time the eleventh one comes around, it’s like stepping in unicorn shit. You wish you’d kept driving.

We saw three waterfalls; Gullfoss is the massive one; the one you can walk behind is Seljafoss; and the wide one is Kvernufoss. The Geyser is conveniently named “Geysir.” The crater lake is Kerid Crater, not caused by a meteor but by a volcanic cone collapse. Here is a video taken behind Seljafoss. Sarah was smart enough to buy waterproof pants. I was not.

We visited in early May, a month before the tourist season gets heavy, but after winter. So, we didn’t see the Northern Lights. But we didn’t even try! Sundown wasn’t until after midnight, and we were exhausted from walking and hiking all day. Here’s a smaller waterfall near Seljafoss, that you can walk nearly under. I got soaked taking this picture.

Most of these falls are free to visit but the parking is not. However, Iceland has a countrywide parking app that’s simple to use. It costs about thirty bucks to park in Reykjavik center all day; less overnight in a parking deck, closer to ten. Lots at tourist attractions vary from 3 to 5. It adds up, but at least they make it easy to pay. I was impressed with how easy it was, after using multiple apps in the U.S. and Vancouver.

Kerid crater

I also used my phone to rent an e-scooter in Reykjavik and I can see why douchebags ride these all over the sidewalks. They are fun. But they are very fast and there’s no room for them on sidewalks or streets in some neighborhoods. I stopped to let a dad and kid cross the street, then had to brake hard again when a cat with a bell on her neck decided she was going to make me stop for her. I lost my phone around that point. I mentioned before that it was smashed, and that I found it left on a standpipe with my credit cards intact in the case. (I no longer use one of those cases.) That ended my fun; I spent ten minutes on the app on my iPad getting my ride refunded. The good thing is that those few days without a phone have made me less dependent on it.

Next time, I’ll write about an elfstone, WWII ruins, and a cave. Or The Penis Museum. Or the Witchcraft museum. Or the Recycled House owned by a filmmaker and now inhabited by geese. Or the rockstar, whiskey wizard, and drunken sailor we spent a night with in Reykjavik. I want to go back already. Just not in winter.

There’s an island where the people rescue fledgling puffins. An iceberg lagoon. So much more to see. Iceland inspires adventure.

Iceland also inspired one of the greatest rock songs of all time. “Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin was written after the band played in Reykjavik, and was first played in Bath a few months later.