Iceland 32: Epilogue

The hearty man ate a condemned breakfast, or so the saying goes.  Such was our experience at the "Cabin" hotel...

As expected, neither of us had a particularly restful night's sleep.  Harriet was disturbed in the early part of the night by lots of door banging, but then managed to sleep soundly until 9:00.  Meanwhile I managed to sleep at the beginning of the night, but woke up about 05:00 with coaches revving up outside the window and, from 06:30 onwards, lots more door banging.  We went up to breakfast about 09:30, hoping that it would be reasonably peaceful and that there would still be some food left.  Astonishingly both were true.  The breakfast was almost as poor as the first day, but the bread selection was slightly better.  The muesli was still like horse-food, and the jams were red, orange or brown (take your pick, but they all tasted the same).  At least it was all part of the package, although an officious notice warned us that if we attempted to take any breakfast food out of the room as a packed lunch, we would be charged 15 euros for the privilege.  I think this says everything we needed to know about the type of clientele at which this hotel is aimed.

Speaking of which, we discovered a bit more about the door-banging culprits, courtesy of a label on the front of their coach.

Harriet packed while I went back into the centre of Reykjavik in order to buy a couple of presents.  It was dull, grey and humid, and the area in which I walked wasn't exactly picturesque.

This is the very last fire hydrant of the entire trip.  Promise.

By accident I entered a rather nicer area of the city, although one of the local moggies decided that it didn't like the look of this strange foreigner with a camera, so came to give me the once-over.

Even corrugated iron can be made attractive with the correct colours and a few plants.

A couple of places along the sea-front: one a modern "steel and glass" building which housed a coffee shop; and the other a more traditional building which looked like it was associated with something nautical.

The final picture of the trip is of a shop at the airport entirely dedicated to "Ice-Tat": mainly the same stuffed toys and wooden gifts which we'd found on sale all over the island.  Not that there are many polar bears in Iceland, of course, but clearly they have an "ahhh" factor (unlike a stuffed whimbrel, for example, which I would happily have bought).  As for the wooden artefacts, they all seemed to have been imported from Norway!

In summary, with the obvious exception of the "Cabin" hotel, our visit to Iceland was a truly magical experience.  The combination of breathtaking scenery, fascinating history and abundant bird life was difficult to beat.  Also, the simple tranquility of the island - outside the two cities and tourist hot-spots - was exactly what we wanted from our holiday.  Will we go back to Iceland?  Definitely, although probably at a different time of year in order to experience some snow and (hopefully) the aurora borealis.  It's just a matter of saving some pennies...

Iceland 31: A night to remember...

We knew we had to stay in the "Cabin" hotel again, and were bracing ourselves for the inevitable anticlimax.  This time we were put in a "Superior" room on the top floor, which seemed reasonably good apart from a rather "drainy" smell in the bathroom.  More of this later...

The people at the car hire company were very efficient, and asked us where we wanted to be dropped after giving the car back.  We decided on the Central Museum as a way of killing some time, but we discovered that this was closing in 40 minutes.  Instead we walked into the centre of town for a wander around some shops and the old harbour.

Harriet wanted to go to the Vikin Maritime Museum, but it was closed.  Typical.  We then walked back towards the Harpa: Reykjavik's Concert Hall and Arts Centre.  I promised you some more pictures from this amazing building after our brief visit at the beginning of the holiday, so here they are.

By this point we were tired, hungry and running out of steam, so decided to go for a bite to eat and then walk back to the hotel.

The "Superior" room was fine, initially, and I started to download my pictures from the day.  When we opened the bathroom door, however, the "drainy" smell had become significantly worse.  Less "drainy"; more "sewagey", in fact.  I went to talk to the reception people who offered us two choices: move to a different room (only "De-Luxe"); or attempt to get rid of the smell by running lots of water down the drain and spraying the room with a powerful de-odoriser.  The bathroom had become worse still by this point, so we decided to move rooms.  It was tedious packing up and moving all our stuff, but at least we ended up with a room in which we could breathe.

It seems that our anxieties about the "Cabin" hotel were well justified.  In addition to a room stinking of raw sewage, we had the third rate breakfast to look forward to the following morning.  Yummy.  This, combined with a lack of Internet service and the constant banging of doors by a large group of Scouts and Guides (English) on the same corridor, it was certainly a night to remember.

Iceland 30: Back to Reykjavik

The journey from Hveragerdi to Reykjavik was a short one, so we had some time to kill before returning the hire car.  As a result we decided to go to the Natural History museum.  First problem was finding it, because Icelandic maps seem to work in a strange way: turning the page forwards takes you west, and turning it backwards takes you north (for example).  We did manage to find the location - after much searching and cursing - and parked outside what should have been the correct address.  Unfortunately it was a private house and we were on the wrong street!  There was quite an impressive church at the top of the hill, though, but sadly it was shut.

On the second attempt we found a Concert Hall which appeared to be in the right location, but still couldn't find the museum.  Eventually we asked and were sent to the basement.  Bingo.  Not a big museum, but apparently they are very proud of their collection of molluscs.  Enough said...

I just had to take a picture of my favourite bird from the Iceland trip: the ubiquitous, and rather charming, whimbrel.

We still had a bit of time to kill before we could check into the hotel, so headed north of the city to a headland where it is possible to catch a ferry across to an island which has no cars.  There we watched the fishermen and some very enthusiastic gulls and Arctic Terns who were attempting to steal their bait.

Eventually we bowed to the inevitable and took our trusty hire car back.  The 2 litre VW Golf Diesel had taken us 2,590 kilometers (about 1,609 miles) at the astonishing average of 58 miles per gallon.  That's a proper honest-to-goodness UK gallon too!

We were then dropped back into the centre of the city for an evening's walkabout.  Watch out for this thrilling (and penultimate) episode in our grand odyssey.

Iceland 29: Hveragerdi

I started the day with a steaming hot bath - wonderful, and not a whiff of sulphur to be found (unusual for Iceland).  It was grey and raining, as predicted, so we had a leisurely breakfast and decided to potter around Hveragerdi for the morning.  The town was full of greenhouses, lit and heated by the abundant geothermal energy on tap.

We decided to go back to the Information Centre and earthquake "museum".  We duly paid our 200ISK each to go into the earthquake simulator, which was an amazing experience.  It was done in the dark and felt very realistic.  There were also still pictures from the event in 2008 and video footage from security cameras.  These were astonishing, with wine bottles leaping from shelves and people running for cover.  We then attempted to get into the "Bonus Pig", but it was closed until 11:00 so gave up.  Instead we went to the cut-price department store which, according to a guide book, was "an Aladdin's Cave which also offered free coffee".  In fact it was a rather seedy store full of what looked like seconds, damaged, bankrupt or just plain awful stock.

A quick look was all that was needed, and we soon headed to the bakery next door to pick up some sandwiches for lunch.  We'd hoped that it would have stopped raining by now, but unfortunately this was not the case.  Nevertheless we headed for the thermal spring area in the middle of the town for a look around.  Interesting, although less impressive than either the area around Myvatn or Geysir, but wonderfully free of people.

The following panorama give some idea of the size of the cracks in the ground, as I've carefully positioned Harriet for scale on the far right!

The hole pictured below is known as "the killer" because it swallowed, then gently poached, someone who was walking through the geothermal area at night after a heavy drinking session.  Not a nice way to go.

It's clear that the earth moves in Iceland, in more ways than one.  I'd no idea that vulvanic eruptions were quite that rare, though...

The boiling water was home to mosses and grasses, as well as mats of bacteria.

The only other family there were taking advantage of the "boil your own egg in the hot water" facility, which involved dangling the aforementioned oeuf in a muslin bag at the end of a long stick into a bubbling sulphurous hot spring.  I'm sure the eggs were very nice, but we decided to have a cup of coffee and a piece of cake instead.  Typical unadventurous Brits.

At this point, given the weather, we decided to head back into Reykjavik.  For the first time in a fortnight we were on "real" roads: i.e. dual carriageways with central reservations and proper junctions.  I for one did not welcome the thought of being back in "civilisation", and would much rather have been somewhere quieter.  I also find that there's something depressing about the day before going home after a particularly good holiday, and this was no exception.  Still, the scenery on the journey was pretty spectacular, even if the weather left a certain amount to be desired.

Next stop Reykjavik, where we dispose of our hire car and return to the awful hotel from day one.  This time it was even worse...