Iceland: A Danish “Kit-Kat”

continued from: Bring Your Own Bun (B.Y.O.B.) and You’ve Been Dusted…

On Easter Sunday we had an 11AM Ice Cave Tour scheduled from the Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon car park, so we once again set off early to squeeze in a visit at Diamond Beach. The weather was looking quite ominous on this day, but as we have learned, there is no bad weather in Iceland, just poor clothing choices. There was a light rain when we arrived at Diamond Beach, but it didn’t stop us from seeing some diamonds. Sure Greg was a little disappointed as he expected to see REAL diamonds, but still obliged to have his picture taken amongst the shards and orbs of ice, making their way to the beach, from the nearby Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, that sparkle as clear as diamond.

Directly across the road from Diamond Beach is the parking lot for the Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon. Prior to our tour, we checked out the luminous blue icebergs of the lagoon from the parking lot, in case the weather wasn’t cooperating after our trip to the caves.

The Ice Cave Tour had a minimum age requirement of eight. I didn’t think much of it, until the guides kept repeatedly asking me if our kids would be able to walk for the full forty-five minutes out to the cave. Are you kidding? Of course they would be able to …. or so I thought.

The journey to the ice cave began with another ride in a super jeep. After parking the jeep, we started the 45-minute hike out the entrance of the cave. At this point the weather was okay. The others in our group walked at a brisk pace, much faster than most walk back home, but the kids were doing a good job keeping up. Then we arrived at a “home-made” bridge suspended over a raging river…okay, not really something that would have cut it in litigious California, but both kids crossed it without issue. We descended into the cave via a set of “ice steps”, wearing our crampons. No biggie.

The cave itself was impressive as most Iceland sites tended to be.

It was on the way back to the super jeep from the cave that the minimum age thing really came back to bite us. You see it started to drizzle about five minutes into or walk back, at fifteen minutes the winds picked up and it was very hard for our kids to keep up with the group. None of the others had any intention of slowing down as they were wet and cold at this point as well. Doug stayed with Roy while I walked in the back with Greg trying to keep him moving forward. When one is eight, and only weigh about 55 lbs, the winds are whipping around at forty miles and hour, and the sleet and snow is pelting you in the face, and again, you eight, well it spells a recipe for disaster.

With just ten minutes left on the trek Greg lost his mind. Then because of the wind (on top of the crying) he started to panic because he couldn’t breath. Good times. We finally got within feet of the super jeep, but because I didn’t want to subject the rest of the group to the wailing, I stood outside with him until we got it down to more of a sob. Luckily when we finally boarded the jeep and squeezed into the back row, two lovely (and really cute) Danish gals asked Greg if he would like a Kit-Kat. Suddenly all was right in the world again as he gobbled down that “Danish” Kit-Kat. I on the other hand, felt like a horrible mom for subjecting my kids to such a tenuous return hike.

Total Cost: $500

The rain picked up so we headed for the Vik Apartments – our place for the night. The Vik Apartments do not look like much from the outside, but were very modern and spacious on the inside. We unloaded our suitcases and then headed across the street to try the legendary Black Crust Pizza at the Black Crust Pizzeria. It did not disappoint. Doug, Greg and I ordered the No. 1 – Icelandic Langoustine (I think that is a crawfish), and truffle infused cream cheese, and the No. 6 – Salami and Red Onion. Roy had the No. 9 – Cheese with a Gluten Free crust. Maybe we were just desperate for something that wasn’t a sandwich, but those black crust (and sourdough) pizzas were absolutely incredible. The best meal in Iceland, or anywhere for that matter, hands down.

The sun was shining again, so we walked across the road from our Apartment to explore Vik and visit a Black Sand Beach. This beach seems to be different than the Black Sand Beach, Reynisfjara Beach, that we will get to in a minute. Anyway, we walked along the beach and contemplated walking up to the church, but opted to drive instead as it would just be easier for all involved. Víkurkirkja Church was built between 1931 and 1934 when the population of Vik was growing and no one wanted to travel to the neighboring village to attend mass. Vik is considered the warmest place in Iceland, with an annual mean temperature of 41.5 degree. So kinda like Miami Beach, but not really.

Reynisfjara Beach is widely considered to be the most beautiful example of Iceland’s black sand beaches. So magnificent that In 1991, National Geographic voted Reynisfjara as one of the Top 10 non-tropical beaches to visit on the planet. (I want to emphasize the NON-tropical). As visitors to Reynisfjara we had been made well aware of the potential dangers — specifically the unexpected and highly dangerous sneaker waves. There are no significant landmass between Arctic Circle and the shores of Reynisfjara, so the waves have thousands of kilometers to grow in size and strength. While we visited there were still plenty of tourists tempting fate.

Both Greg and Roy savored the beach time, building “civilizations” and then racing back up the beach to watch the waves wipe them out. After getting our fill of black sand, and taking plenty of pictures of rocky sea stacks sitting off the shoreline — known as Reynisdrangar, we resumed our trip with the hope of seeing an “early bird” puffin (April is not quite nesting season) on the Dyrhólaey Peninsula.

Dyrhólaey’s most recognizable attraction is a massive rock arch, known, surprisingly, as the Dyrhólaey Arch. We started a hike down to the beach to get a better view, but after walking downhill for over twenty minutes, and appearing no closer to the beach, we selected to turn around and head back to the car park.

I had read mixed reviews about the abandoned DC Plane on Sólheimasandur and so considered skipping it as it wasn’t like it was a 757 or something, but Roy wanted to check it out. There are two options to get to the wreckage. One can take the shuttle at $20 a person, or you can walk the hour or so out there. We chose the latter – it was flat and the weather was nice.

Over halfway there, an older gentlemen called out to us (in a think British accent) that our boys were just going to LOVE this attraction. He was right. With the wreckage in site our kids started walking at a pace we had not seen before. Roy and Greg were so excited to climb all over the Douglas C-117, identifying parts of the fuselage and getting pictures taken on the wing. They were so excited they didn’t stop chattering the entire walk back, never once acknowledging that they had walked for over an hour. I highly recommend this stop if you have kids.

We continued to make the most of our sunny day by squeezing in a few more waterfalls. Did I mention that every single house in Iceland seems to have its own private waterfall?!? They are literally everywhere. Anyway, our next stop was at Skógafoss, yet another big and beautiful waterfall in Iceland. The land underneath this waterfall is very flat, allowing us to get up close and personal (and a bit wet). We were also lucky enough to catch a rainbow. We climbed a number of precariously placed stairs to get a view from the top as well.

Seljalandsfoss was our last official waterfall stop in Iceland and we lucked out with another rainbow. The most distinguishing feature of Seljalandsfoss is a pathway that stretches around it allowing tourist to fully encircle the waterfall in the summer. April was not summer. Oh well. To the north we could hear Gljúfrabúi, a hidden gem of a waterfall partially hidden behind a rock face, but didn’t feel like getting wet so just left it at that.

Our room for the night was at The Garage in Hvolsvöllur. This was a luxurious guesthouse with heated floors in the bathroom. The kids were able to run around and play fetch with the owners dogs, which they enjoyed until another family with young kids tried to take over. Then it became a bit of a turf war. The nasty weather returned in the middle of the night and we listened to the rain pounding the roof and the windows rattling all night. The “Go Big then Go Home” took its toll on me that night as I came down with a bug.

Our final full day in Iceland. After saying goodbye to the dogs, we travelled next door to the Skalakot Manor Hotel to ride some horses. This was one of few locations that accepted a child as young as eight. Other places considered it as he had ridden before, but not English style. I guess that is a thing. This was basically a private tour that lasted an hour and a half, thirty-minutes longer than any of us wanted to be on a horse — Icelandic or other. I am always concerned that my horse will go rogue. Instead we trotted out to a waterfall, took some pictures and headed back to the Manor in one piece. Horseback riding + cold + a slight bout of the flu is not a great combo.

TOTAL COST: $120

On our way back to Keflavik we stopped at Reykjadalur. The Reykjadalur Hot Spring Thermal River hike claims to be an hour long hike to a hot river. This could be true if our kids were not involved. The hike starts from the parking lot, where you cross a bridge over a river and then walk on a gravel trail up the Rjúpnabrekkur Ptarmigan slopes. The first 1.75km of this trek is very steep. Still sensitive from the Ice Cave experience two days prior, Greg was on the verge of another meltdown. Thankfully, the hot springs and mud pools along the way distracted him. When I originally planned our itinerary I had images of all four of us, in bathing suits, relaxing in a river. We were on day seven and we were tired. So instead we admired all the other people bathing in the river.

The return trip was exponentially easier as it was all downhill and the kids were excited to retire all their snow clothes for good. Maybe a tad passive aggressive, Greg made it a point to step in each and every mud puddle he came across so that by the time we got back to the car, both his boots and ski pants were caked in mud. I was prepared to throw both away, but was overruled.

Before checking into our final hotel, we grabbed a bit to eat in downtown Keflavik. We decided to try a Greek Restaurant where both Roy and Doug ordered a lamb and chicken platter, and Greg had hamburger. Roy’s fear of eating something with gluten overwhelmed him and so he wouldn’t touch the lamb or the chicken, and Greg was concerned that the hamburger was actually a horse-burger (it very well could have been as there are no cows in Iceland) and wouldn’t touch it. Not sure why we even bother eating out.

Our final hotel was the Hotel Keflavik and it certainly left an impression on us. Our suite resembled a dance club. We had LED lights a plenty, funky background music, and a television, shower, and toilet with so many buttons to push (all controlled via an iPad) that we didn’t know where to start. Greg decided to just push them all. As a result, when one went to sit down on the potty, their buns were all sorts of toasted and then said buns were sprayed with both water and hot and cold air. A unique stay that we could have done without.

One final bit of useful information is that we did select to drive out to the airport and check our bags the night before our fight. Not sure how this happened, but I scanned my passport (only), and managed to check all four of us in with all of our bags. We then walked over to a counter where a robot scanned our bag tags and sent them happily on their way back to the United States. Again, all on my passport.

We had an early morning flight from Iceland to Copenhagen. Security was not a problem, and we made sure to fill our water bottles with that wonderful Icelandic tap water for our flight home. When we arrived in Copenhagen, Doug, Roy, and Greg had yet to show any form of identification. They would not be asked for their passports until boarding the flight for San Francisco. I guess we just look innocent enough. Well, that and Danish, don’t forget that we are practically locals.

The flight from Copenhagen to San Francisco seemed to go on for eternity. The only point of interest was that it was a very clear day and we were able to see all of the snow and ice of Greenland and Northern Canada. I’m pretty sure I even saw a polar bear from 35,000 feet.

Per the usual, the kids fell asleep about ten minutes before we landed in San Francisco. And, as they tend to do, were in such a deep sleep that we were going to have to carry them off the airplane. Being that they are both 8 and 11 respectively, we had no problem repeatedly poking them until they finally got up to use their own legs to exit the aircraft.

I have yet to mention this, but Iceland was the safest country we have ever visited. We were able to continually leave our backpacks (with our wallets and passports) in the front seat of the car without the concern of anything ever happening to them. We could send the kids on errands, or to the bathroom, with no trepidation. Not so when we were waiting on our bags at San Francisco Airport. Greg had to use the bathroom and initially we were like “yeah, go for it”, but then immediately remembered where we were and I sent Doug to accompany him. Ah, it is always so nice to be back in the good ‘ole U.S.A.!