Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,
…and now, the thrilling conclusion to our trip to Iceland.
Day 5 – Drive back to Reykjavik
The morning was composed of waking up early and driving across the Northern region of Iceland… so I don’t have a lot of pictures of that, being the driver, but we did stop in Orlygsstadir where there was this monument and some beautiful landscapes…
Our next stop was Sjavarholar which is where a volcano ran off near Reykjavik back in the day… and into the ocean…
Around lunchtime, we went back into downtown Reykjavik and wandered around a bit… with some of the sights including the Harpa Opera House…
Today was also the day that we hit up some bars for some Icelandic brews. We drank some at The Dubliner as they had fairly inexpensive Viking on tap, but our next stop was Micro Bar where we had a sampler of some of the best Icelandic & Greenlandic beers available. It was pretty sweet… and the beer was delicious.
Dinner that evening would be a sampler at Tapas, where we tried traditional Icelandic dishes like Smoked Puffin, Minke Whale with cranberry sauce (kinda tastes like a mix of sushi & beef as odd as that sounds), Icelandic lamb & sea trout, lobster tails, all kinds of great stuff!!! Highest of recommendations.
We spent that evening back at the campground from the first two nights… and it was still pretty amazing! Slept like babies…
Day 6 – Reykjavik
The next morning, we headed back to the Golden Circle to see Þingvellir (or Thingvellir) National Park! This historic site and national park is known for the Alþing (Althing), the site of Iceland's parliament from the 10th to 18th centuries, and is on the site are the Þingvellir Church and the ruins of old stone shelters. The park also sits in a rift valley caused by the separation of 2 tectonic plates, with rocky cliffs and fissures like the huge Almannagjá fault. So that mean… awesome rock formations… and this magnificent waterfall in the middle of it too!!!
Our next stop was Reykjavik 871±2 which a settlement exhibition where some of the earliest inhabitants of Iceland lived over a millennium ago… and an amazing look into how they lived back then. It encircles a home foundation… and has some incredible videos & interactive portions that really bring you into the research… then again, I’m a HUGE nerd when it comes to this stuff. Here are some pictures though…
Next was the Icelandic Punk Rock Museum… and it’s located in a former underground public bathroom, but transformed into another interactive exhibit with LOTS of information about Icelandic Punk Rock (on the walls of the bathroom stalls & everywhere else) and there’s even an area where you can work out on a drum set & a variety of guitars, all while listening to some of the greatest punk rock music ever made!!! It was pretty awesome… and the guy running it looks EXACTLY like you would expect him to…
Next up was the Arbear Open Air Museum which is an open air museum with more than 20 buildings taken from all over central Reykjavik and relocated to form into a town square, a village and a working farm. It’s basically like a pioneer museum… but in Iceland. Here are some pictures…
Our next stop was an exhibit called Whales of Iceland! Unfortunately, due to the timing (and the fact that for some reason the Whale Museum in the Northern city of Husavik ISN’T OPEN ON THE WEEKEND???) we didn’t make it up to Husavik to go whale watching or even the museum… but there was this interactive exhibit back in Reykjavik where you can walk around life-size models of the whales & learn all about them with their presentation app or headset… and they even had tea & coffee and various snacks there for you. We even made nice with the French intern guy running the place & had a great time hanging with him and scoring some free soup when they were closing up. Here are some pictures…
That afternoon we finally took advantage of the public swimming pool next to the campground… and it was f**king fantastic!!! Slept like a baby…
Day 7 – Heading Back Home
The next day, we were to return our camper van and head back to reality… but not before we spent a few hours in the morning at the Reykjavik Zoo where we got to see all kinds of animals (mostly farm based like horses, goats, etc. that we’re used to) but they also have an area with seals… and those seals LOVED posing for us!!! Here are some pictures…
The flight back home was pretty uneventful… but essentially the whole time we were already missing Iceland. It’s a truly magical place that we hope isn’t ruined by the emerging market of Tourism… but we’ll just have to make sure that we at least enjoy it while we can. From all the wonderful museums, landscapes, great people we met along the way, and finding a new happy place… the stay was just magical!!! I offer Iceland as my highest of recommendations!!! It’s up there with breathe in, breathe out as something that I think everybody should experience!!! Hopefully the past few blog posts have helped you to gain a little understanding of this land that… I’m not going to lie, a few months ago I just knew it as that bad guys from “D2: The Mighty Ducks” but… yeah, now I’m thinking about buying a little farmhouse at the base of a glacial waterfall and… I don’t know, doing some online business or something. Anyway, more on that on future posts I guess… but in the meantime, have a wonderful journey everybody!!!
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