Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon & Ice Cave Discovery Day 1

Today was the ultimate in touring of sites with unspellable and unpronounceable words...we were picked up from our hotel for a 2 day adventure with Hidden Iceland (Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon & Ice Cave Discovery 2 Day Tour) covering the south of the island but primarily to see Vatnajökull, Europe's largest glacier and the surrounding sites. 

We expanded our collection of photos of frozen waterfalls with Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss. The former gets its source of water from the infamous Eyjafjallajökull glacier capped volcano, which was the cause of our 2010 travel woes and never to be forgotten! Curse you volcano. It also has the famous walk behind it which has the popular shot that one might see if one were to visit in summer...Fortunately for us, the path was closed because of ice and our social media pressures were relieved. The latter was all power, and we had to brave icy and slippery surfaces just to take a photo to make it look like no one else was there! Most visitors were respectful and took turns, except for one obnoxious tourist who ventured into everyone's shots and then decided to stand there and have a video call! Curse you tourist.

Seljalandsfoss Falls. No behind the waterfall photo today

Stark nothingness around it

Mmm refreshing glacial water

The stunning Skógafoss Falls

Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach was next with its hexagonal basalt columns. We were warned that in winter rogue waves might wash us into the cold Atlantic Ocean, so like the good law abiding citizens that we were, we dutifully stayed clear of the wet sand line. Mal had already pre-warned the family that this was where one of the scenes from Rogue One was filmed and we made sad attempts to recreate the scenes. Hopefully those footages would never see light of day. 

Reynisfjara

Basalt columns

One of the better family photos

One of the not so better family photo

Lunch at the nearby cafe. Surprising good! Fish and chips better than that in England

Skyr cake. Icelandic version of blueberry cheesecake

We continued driving east past the seaside village of Vík and Fjaðrárgljúfur gorge before finally arriving at our overnight destination of Branholl. Our lodging was on a farm with simple but super clean and comfortable rooms. Dinner was surprisingly decent, no fermented sharks yet in sight. We dined on lamb and burgers and home made dandelion ice-cream. The early promises of a good northern lights showing (dark night and clear skies tick!) never eventuated. We braved the cold a few times in the evening but to no avail. We did see a lot of shooting stars though! We later found out it was the Geminid.

Fjaðrárgljúfur gorge. Seriously we had no chance of even pronouncing this

View from the top

Basic but comfortable

Superclean

Our northern lights capture attempt

Golden Circle

Gullfoss, the Golden waterfall giving the route the name the "Golden" Circle

Our subtle shifted preference to choice guided tours appear to continue as we commence a whole series of them with Hidden Iceland. Our reasoning for this leg was our lack of experience driving in snow, wind and ice. And so it was that we found ourselves being the last 5 out of a small group tour of 12 to be picked up for the Golden Circle Platinum Tour. At 0845, it was still pitch black and we were off with our geologist guide Holly to our first stop The Secret Lagoon, dubbed Iceland’s oldest swimming pool.

Dotted with seemingly endless geothermal areas, The Secret Lagoon is one of many pools in Iceland.  Without the silica, it didn't have the "blue" of the Blue Lagoon but instead had crystal clear water. It was also much smaller. We were the first to arrive, and after the mad dash through the -11 degree open air it was bliss to soak in the hot water. Whatever was not in the water hurt! It was definitely a great way to wake up. The sun had finally popped up into the sky just as we got out at around 11am.

We saw an orange glow at around 930. This would hang around for a long time before the sun finally came out just after 11!

The first ones there

Crystal clear water. The boys hair were hard from the frozen water and Lara's hair...

was given a special style!

You can see the popping sun just as we got out

With bodies now warm it was time to fill the belly at Friðheimar Tomato Farm Greenhouse. Geothermal greenhouses are big thing in Iceland and it was incredible that anything could even be grown in such a harsh environment. Lots of figures were given to us about the volumes of tomato produced here but we were mostly hungry and impatiently waiting for the famed tomato soup...it didn't disappoint but what was even better was the bread! Lash generous amounts of butter on top, add on some amazing cucumber pickles, add some tomato soup on the side with fresh basil and you've got yourself and incredible carb loaded meal. Everyone went back for multiple helpings, thank goodness it was a buffet. Conveniently for us, the farm also had Icelandic Horses which they breed and train to compete, it was a short chilly stroll to go say hello before hopping back onto the warm and wifi-enabled van.

Greenhouses growing tomatoes. 4 different varieties

Supersweet tomatoes

On the vine. Everything had a sickly yellow hue because of the artificial light

The tomato soup and bread buffet. Seriously one of the best breads ever

Non hangry kids are good kids

Tomato ice-cream anyone?

Icelandic Horse, never call them a pony...

Gullfoss Waterfall was spectacularly frozen. It was a sight to behold but by this time, complaints of the cold were starting to surface. Geysir was next, apparently where the word geyser originated. The OG of all geysers. Waiting for it to erupt resulted in freezing fingers!! But we completed the challenge of obtaining a Geysir selfie.

A closer look at Gullfoss and the Glacial river water feeding into it

Don't be fooled by the soft orange light. It was cold!

Stokkur the most active geyser in Geysir

Selfie. Tick.

The highest point of the sun for the day. Geysir

Our final stop of the day was Þingvellir National Park, important for 2 main reasons The first being the site of the first Viking parliament, the second being where the American and Eurasian tectonic plates separate. Here's where a geologist guide came in handy! We got the low down on all things geothermal, volcanic and tectonic. By this point though, the wimpy Australians were always the first to get back onto the bus! We made our way back to Reykjavik in the dark and was dropped off at our hotel where we indulged in our lounge food and drinks. Better add on an extra layer for our adventures to come!

 

Freezing at the end of the Eurasian tectonic plate

Oxarafoss Falls

The last photo they would pose for me. Right at the edge of the American plate

The Blue Lagoon

Iceland's Blue Lagoon

We were on a mission. 

We had booked a 3pm entry to the Blue Lagoon because we couldn't fit it in any other time. Our entry leeway of an hour was decimated by the de-icing in Frankfurt. Fortunately we made it there at 4:05pm and were allowed in. Nobody really knew if they really were that strict...but we were relieved nonetheless!

The Blue Lagoon was a geothermal bath, so called because the silica reflection of the sun made it look blue. We were there with not enough sunlight to see nor capture the instagram worthy "blue" but we had a great time regardless! You'll read many complaints of the Blue Lagoon being "touristy". I would agree but I would also say that it doesn't take away from the beauty nor the enjoyment and that it was well done. The facilities were fantastic and spotlessly clean. We opted for the "premium" package and the children had fun trying the various face masks as well as the novelty of a drink from the swim up bar. More importantly the warm waters soothed the bodies from the long flights and kept us awake and enforced a total body shower! Our 2 hours there flew by and we returned to our transfer to take us to our base for our stay here in Iceland. We chose the Hilton Reykjavik Nordica as Mal's status gave us free breakfast and lounge access. It wasn't the closest to the city centre but there was a shuttle that would take us there.

Our transfer was with Snaeland Travel which included a 2 hour stop at the Blue Lagoon. Car was clean and driver was friendly!

Surrounding lava rock covered with frost/snow

We got it with just enough light left

The pools itself was large with various areas

The light faded pretty quickly

Can you spot our algae mask in the dark?!

Hilton Lobby

Hilton Louge

Nice freebies

We're off to Iceland

Goodbye Sydney!

This was our first overseas trip together as a family of 5 and everyone was excited. Destination...Iceland. 34 hours of flight and transit stood between us and our destination. It was hard to know how much time we needed at the various airports. All we could do was hope for the best. Fortunately Sydney airport immigration and security was smooth and fast. Immigration at Frankfurt was efficient taking less than 10 minutes (we wasted time getting lost and wandering around but that's a different story...) and it took us less than 15 minutes from exiting the plane in Reykjavik to getting into our transfer. We had a minor glitch in Frankfurt waiting for an hour for our plane to be de-iced and for our luggage to be loaded but otherwise the journey was relatively smooth and our luggage made it. Wahoo!!

A few random thoughts and observations...

• The Lufthansa flight attendant's look of horror when he discovered that we would knowingly turn down a cheese platter in lieu of sleep was gold
• What was with the boarding and disembarkng in sub-zero temperatures!?

If you would prefer to follow Mal's musings (and a condensed version of our daily adventures), follow along on FindPenguin 

Our first plane from Sydney to Singapore

The older 2 have decided to vlog...watch this space

Happy to do his own thing

Reconnecting with old friends! What a coincidence to be on the same flight!

No business seats for kids 😂

Singapore to Frankfurt

Roaming Frankfurt airport

Our last plane - Frankfurt to Reykjavik

First views of Iceland

Sun beginning to set on arrival at Reykjavik 3:20pm...