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Honeymoon in Iceland: Two week road trip
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After celebrating our wedding ceremony with family and friends in Innsbruck,
we did a road trip across Iceland for two weeks for our honeymoon. During our
wedding celebration we asked our guests to contribute towards our honeymoon
instead of buying gifts that we most probably won't need. We planned a two
week road trip across Iceland in a rental camper van. By now, Kathi was 3
months pregnant with our first child. We did a lot of planning and we were
excited to go on this adventurous honeymoon trip. Here are some things we did
during our two week road trip in Iceland.
Day 1:
We took a bus from Innsbruck to Munich (
Flixbus) and took a direct flight from there to Iceland. The airport was in a small
town called
Keflavik. It was about a four hour flight and we arrived at
Keflavik International Airport around 11:30pm. The airport was very busy even during this time of the night.
There was only one company called
Flybus that ran
buses from Airport to the capital city of
Reykjavik 30-40 minutes after each flight arrival. Reykjavik being a small city
compared to other cities across Europe, the bus dropped individual passengers
at their destinations which was very convenient for passengers to reach their
destinations. We bought our bus tickets and asked them to drop us off at our
hostel called
Galaxy Pod Hostel.
It was a hostel with many capsules with double beds. The toilets, kitchen, and
living areas were shared. We arrived pretty late at night and quickly went to
bed to start our road trip the next day.
Day 2:
We woke up in the morning and ate quick sandwiches with the bread and cheese
we carried with us. Iceland is one of the most expensive places in the world,
so we wanted to be thrifty with everything in Iceland. There were not many
local buses in the town, so we took the Flybus back to the Airport where our
camper van rental company (
Touringcars.is)
scheduled a time to pick us up. After all the formalities and signing papers,
we got our van. It was a mini camper van with front seats that could hold
three people, and a double bed spreading across the rest of the vehicle. The
rental company also gave us all the utensils we would need for cooking, a
small stove with replaceable cylinders, and a separate heater to heat the
sleeping area at night.
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The van we drove during our road trip
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Frequently, the renters of the vehicles bought groceries that they couldn't
finish before they returned the vehicle. They also couldn't take the leftovers
with them on the flight. So they dropped them off with the rental company for
the future renters. We picked up a few sauces, salt, and a few other grains.
We drove around a bit and also bought some groceries and vegetables for the
next few days of our journey. Parking is allowed almost anywhere in Iceland.
So we drove to the nearby lava fields and setup our kitchen near a public
dining table and cooked our first meal. It was wonderful to cook a meal and
eat in the open lava fields with fresh cool breeze gushing around us. We setup
the bed, took a small nap and then headed to the nearby
Blue Lagoon which
was a natural geothermal spa. Being a popular place, tickets were already sold
out for the entire day. On our way out of the ticket counter, we met a person
who said that he couldn't make it to his scheduled time, but he wanted to sell
his tickets to us at a cheaper price. The only catch was that the entry time
was at 11pm. As we had our own vehicle to sleep anywhere, anytime, we happily
bought the tickets from that person and saved about €30 on our tickets. After
spending a few hours in the water, we headed back to the
lava fields, parked our car next to the road and slept there for the night.
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View of Blue Lagoon from outside
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A view of Blue Lagoon
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Day 3:
We woke up to a beautiful sunrise with light slowly spreading across the lava
fields. As we didn't have a toilet in our van, we had to find toilets every
time we had to relieve ourselves in places with human activity. In places
where there were not many people, we were able to freely find spots in nature
to relieve ourselves. As we were close to the Blue Lagoon, we went to the
public toilets there and used their free facilities and got ready for
the day.
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Keflavik lava fields where we slept in our van for the first time
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We arrived in the evening and found a spot close to the Geyser to sleep for
the night. We cooked our meal next to our van. We could hear the Geyser
shooting up every few minutes all night. It was a surreal experience
sleeping close to a Geyser and listening to explosive sounds all
night.
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Kathi cooking our dinner with the view of Great Geyser steam rising behind her
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Day 4:
We woke up in the morning, had a quick breakfast and went to see the nearby
Great Geyser.
It is believed that this is at least 10,000 years old natural Geyser. The
eruptions don't have a rhythm, and sometimes can go up to 70 metres (230ft)
high. We spent a few hours at the Geyser and spent some time hiking the
nearby hill with panoramic views of the Geyser and nearby terrain of the
area.
From there we headed towards
Gullfoss, a beautiful waterfall on the river
Hvítá. On the way to the waterfall, we stopped next to the road, setup
our stove and cooked our meal watching the view of a glacier
nearby.
Gullfoss was beautiful with large water volume with the drop ranging between
11 metres and 21 metres. We spent some time hiking at the waterfall and
enjoying the views.
From there we drove towards
Seljalandsfoss waterfall and also to find a place to cook our dinner and sleep for the night.
We drove by the waterfall but we decided to find a place to sleep before it
went dark and come back to the waterfall in the morning. We drove around
quite a bit but we could finally find a small spot on a side street. We made
a quick meal with barriers around our stove as the winds were picking up. We
left our vegetables and fruits box on top of the van as the outside air was
cooler at night compared to inside temperature. This was the most windy
night of our stay. The winds were so strong that our entire vehicle was
swaying side to side all night. We even felt that our van might trip over at
some point. Luckily, we survived the night and managed to catch a bit of
sleep.
Day 5:
We woke up in the morning and decided to have breakfast next to the
dramatic
Seljalandsfoss waterfall. We parked our car close to it, made our sandwiches, and ate them
looking at the beautiful waterfall.
It has been a few days since we took showers so we decided to go to a
nearby camping ground and shower there. It was refreshing to have a warm
shower after many days. From there we drove towards
Skógafoss Waterfall, another beautiful waterfall with 60m drop. Before we arrived there we
also passed a site where a volcanic eruption occurred in 2010 that
interrupted most of the air traffic across Europe. We spent some time at
the visitor center and then headed towards the
Skógafoss waterfall. It was a dramatic waterfall. We were also able to hike up the hill next
to the waterfall to see the waterfall from the top. It was a difficult
hike, and by the time we arrived at the top, our legs were shaking.
We spent a few hours at the waterfall and made our way to our next
destination, a glacier that we could walk up to, called
Sólheimajökull. Before we visited the glacier, we tried to cook our meal in the parking
lot but the winds were extremely strong. We tried to cook inside the van
but it didn't feel safe. So we drove our van around and found a spot next
to some other vehicles and found a small corner where we setup our stove
and made our meal. After eating and resting a bit, we hiked to the glacier
and spent some time next to the glacier admiring the beauty of
nature.
The winds were picking up around the glacier and the clouds were coming
over the area and brought slight rain with them. We hurried from there so
we could find a place to cook and then sleep for the night before it got
dark. We drove towards a nearby village called
Vik, filled our gas there and drove around to find a spot to sleep for the
night. We had to drive around quite a bit that night to find a spot to
sleep. We finally found space in the parking lot of an office building and
slept there for the night.
Day 6:
We woke up in the morning with people on the street next to us and
employees working in the office whose parking lot we used to sleep for
the night. It felt funny to wake up late in the morning in a parking lot
of an office when people were already in and working :) We found a gas
station nearby and did our shopping for groceries and gas cylinder
there. We drove around a bit to enjoy the area and took some pictures of
the area. From there we headed towards our next destination,
Skaftafell National Park.
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Black beach near the village of Vik
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Mushroom like fields near the village of Vik
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On the way to the park, we stopped in a wide open area to cook our lunch
with views of a huge glacier and peak called
Hvannadalshnúkur. As the terrain was open and flat for 10s of kilometres around that
area, it was very very windy. We somehow managed to create a barrier
around our stove with box covers and cutting boards. We could finally
make our lunch and eat it with beautiful views around us. From there we
drove by the massive glaciers and reached the
Skaftafell National Park.
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Hvannadalshnúkur peak and glacier rising high next to tiny cars and vans
passing by
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We walked around the park and found a small hike to a nearby waterfall
called
Svartifoss. This is one of those rare waterfalls with beautiful basalt columns in
the backdrop. It was a short hike and the views of the waterfall were
stunning. We came back to the parking lot of the national park and found
a spot with views of the glacier to cook our dinner.
After having our dinner, we drove around a bit to find a spot to sleep
for the night. Before it was dark, we parked next to the nearby mountain
peak called
Hvannadalshnúkur, which happened to be the highest peak in Iceland. We setup our
bed, left the vegetables outside the van to stay cool, and went to bed
not knowing what was in store for us that night.
It was extremely cold outside our van as we were literally sleeping next
to a huge glacier, and to make things worse the heater in the car broke
down. We tried to turn it on many times but it did not work. We decided
to just cover ourselves with blankets and try to catch some sleep. It
was a harsh night, we slept just a few hours.
Day 7:
We woke up to a crisp and sunny day. The sun on our skin warmed us up
and it felt great after a cold night. We found a nearby picnic bench
to make our breakfast and spent a bit of time admiring the views. As
Kathi was pregnant, we did not do much physical activity during the
first trimester of the pregnancy. As we entered the second trimester
by now, we decided to go on a hike to a nearby hill. We walked up for
about two hours to reach to the top and it felt great to hike after a
break of few months. As always, the views were stunning from the
top.
We came back and had lunch at the same spot where we slept the
previous night. From there we drove towards
Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon. It was another magical place with black beaches and a glacier lake
with large pieces of glaciers floating on the water. We also saw a few
seals swimming along with the glaciers.
From there we drove along a fjord called
Berufjörður which was about 20 kms long and 2 - 5 kms wide. The drive was
beautiful and we took a lot of breaks along the way to take pictures,
just sit and relax and admire the beauty of this fjord. This place
reminded us of
Kotor
in Montenegro
where we met for the first time.
Day 8:
We woke up and drove to a nearby town called
Egilsstaðir
which had about 2500 inhabitants. We stopped at a campsite near the
town and cooked our meal. Our van company sent us a message with the
contacts of the mechanic store who could fix the broken heater. We
drove to the mechanic and they spent a few hours trying to fix the
heater. They finally made it work. We drove away with joy not knowing
that it would stop working again at night. Our next stop was the
Dettifoss
waterfall which is one of the largest waterfalls in Europe with a
width of 100m and about 40m drop. We went up close to the waterfall
and it was extremely windy and cold standing next to it.
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Kathi standing in front of the huge Dettifoss waterfall
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From there we drove towards the sulphur fields called
Mývatn Geothermal Area near the the
Mývatn lake. These were large open areas with colorful sulphur oozing out of the
ground. The smell of sulphur was intense. After spending some time
here and taking a few pictures, we drove further along our path to
find a place to sleep for the night. We found a location on top of a
nearby hill with views of the sulphur fields. We cooked our meals and
went to bed.
Around midnight someone knocked on our door to let us know that we
were not allowed to sleep there as it was a private property. We
probably missed reading a sign somewhere that the place we parked was
not a public but private property. We got ready and drove for another
30 minutes on a side road and found a spot in some agricultural fields
and went to sleep.
Day 9:
Early in the morning, while we were having our breakfast, a group of
9 young people from Russia knocked on our door and asked us to help
them as their van had a flat tyre. We tried to help them by giving
them our phone to call their company to get some help. But they were
all in their own world arguing and debating with each other that
they were not interested in calling their van company. After
chatting with them for some time, we came back to our van. From
there we headed to a beautiful campsite called
Bjarg near a town called
Reykjahlíð. It was a few days since we took showers and it felt amazing
to have hot showers. We drove around the nearby lake and we were not
in the mood to cook that evening. So went to a town called
Blönduós
and had hotdogs and french fries. As the town was close to the
beaches the winds were very strong, so we decided to drive a bit
inland to find a place behind the hills to sleep for the night. We
found a spot next to the highway 744 and slept there for the
night.
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Sleeping next to the highway 744
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A small waterfall we saw along highway 744
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Day 10:
We woke up in the morning and went back to
Blönduós
and freshened up there and again ate some fast food. From there we
drove towards a nearby basalt field, cooked our lunch, and spent
some time walking around that area. We came back to our van,
rested a bit, and decided to make our way towards South of Iceland
back to our starting point of the trip. We drove until it was
evening and found a spot on a steep hill next to Highway 60 and
slept there.
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Cooking next to the basalt field near Blönduós town
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Day 11:
We woke up in the morning, walked around that area, ate our breakfast,
and drove towards the South of Iceland and spent some time in the
towns of
Borgarnes
and
Glymur. We cooked our meal along the way and rested a bit. Instead of
heading further south, we changed our minds and went to a hiking trail
near
Borgarnes and hiked for some time. We then found a place next to Highway
54 and slept there for the night.
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Cooking next to highway 54
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Calling it a night next to highway 54
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Day 12:
We woke up late and enjoyed a lazy morning with bright sun outside.
We cooked next to a water stream and rested there a bit. From there
we drove towards
Reykjavik. We drove through an underwater tunnel called
Hvalfjörður Tunnel
to get to
Reykjavik. It was about 5.7kms long and at some places went as deep as
165m under water. It was exciting to drive in a tunnel under the
sea. In
Reykjavik, we walked around the downtown and watched a live show called "
The Vikings Sagas - Greatest Hits". It was a comedy show with highlights from the
42 Icelandic Sagas. After the show, we walked around the town a bit and then headed
towards the lava fields next to the Blue Lagoon. Incidentally this
was also the same place we slept our first night in our van.
Day 13:
We woke up to a nice sunny day and went to Blue Lagoon and
freshened up there. We made our breakfast there and ate in their
parking lot. From there we drove towards the nearby town of
Keflavík
and took a walk along the shore. After a long time eating our own
meals, we decided to treat ourselves with a pizza. So we went to
Dominos and had pizzas for lunch. We stopped our car next to a
supermarket, cleaned the car, packed our bags, and went to our van
company and dropped off the van. As the heater did not work during
most of the days, they did not charge us for the internet use and
the cost of filling gas on the last day. They later dropped us at
the airport. Our flight was about 6 hours later. So we ate some
hotdogs at the airport, played card games, and looked back at our
wonderful road trip from the past two weeks.
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Sleeping next to the same lava fields on the last night
where we also slept on our first night in the van
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Day 14:
We took the flight from Keflavík to Munich. And from the airport
in Munich we took the Flixbus to Innsbruck and arrived in the
afternoon. Our hearts were a bit heavy coming back to Innsbruck
knowing the fact that it's going to be a long time before we can
take another long trip. We felt nervous about settling down at
one place for the rest of our lives. But we were happy that we
wanted to give it a try to live here for a year and then decide
if this is what we wanted in life.
Overall it was a memorable and wonderful honeymoon road trip. We
were deeply grateful to all our friends and relatives who
contributed in cash towards this honeymoon trip of our lifetime
instead of giving us material gifts for our wedding celebration.
We are excited to see what comes next in our lives in
Innsbruck.
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