Iceland day 15: Reykjavík

66° North makes the best outdoor gear in Iceland, but it is expensive. I wanted a new rain shell because the one I brought to Iceland wasn’t working; it soaked right through. So we sought out the nearest store. They had the most amazing rain shell I’d ever seen; all the seams were taped, every bit of the fabric was rip-stopped, and it had a Gore-Tex layer. Even the cuffs were shaped to give a little more protection over the back of the hand. But it cost 89,000 ISK = $704. I passed.

Remember when (in the day 14 blogpost) I said that the Hellisheiði geothermal power station pipes hot water to Reykjavík with only a 1°C temperature drop to the city storage tanks? Here are the 6 tanks, with a museum and restaurant on top. These are on a hill (so that if power cuts out, the heating water can still flow by gravity). Iceland doesn’t just have geothermal, they positively celebrate it.

Nice views of the city. Did I mention that it’s hard to miss the Hallgrímskirkja?

There’s a huge mirror ball in the ceiling. Dead & Company should play here. 🙂

A bit later, I had lunch at Nauthóll while Carol hiked to a thermal pond nearby and had a soak.

The Nauthóll’s Deluxe sandwich was a bacon burger with beef ribs, Icelandic cheese, caramelized onions, and mushrooms. The fries were good but only came with truffle mayonnaise.

Nauthóll was right next to Reykjavík University

the pool

The rest of the day was driving to a campsite near the airport, so we could drop off our van at 05:00 the next day and take a taxi to the airport.

Iceland day 13: Golden Circle

After packing up on Heimaey, we had a ferry ride back to the mainland, and then a moderate drive to get into the “Golden Circle”. Our first stop was for lunch at the tomato farm of Friedheimar, which is geothermally heated, artificially lit, and hydroponic. It produces over half of Iceland’s tomatoes. They also have a famous restaurant emphasizing tomato dishes.

one of the greenhouses

They have to import bumblebee hives as pollinators.

The all-you-can-eat tomato soup and bread buffet is the best deal.

The garnishes included sour cream, a shredded cucumber relish, and a live basil plant with scissors so you could cut off and chop up fresh basil leaves.

For dessert, we split an apple and green tomato crisp with whipped cream.

We didn’t try the green- and red-tomato beers.

Next we stopped at Hraunalaug hot springs. It was originally developed as a sheep-washing station.

Next up was the mighty Gullfoss (“Gold Waterfall”) that gives the Golden Circle its name. It was putting out a lot of spray and you couldn’t get within a hundred meters without getting drizzled on.

The upper part of the falls is a series of gentle drops. Almost looks like it would be fun to raft.

But the last drop is gigantic, into a narrow slot canyon.

On to the famous Geysir hot spring area. Geysir itself, the source of the English word geyser, has been dormant for years and only erupts occasionally. But its neighbor Strokkur erupts every 5-10 minutes.

Strokkur in action. It actually goes about twice this high, I just caught it in mid-spurt.

The one and only Geysir

By now it was 20:55 and most restaurants closed at 21:00. We were looking at possibly no food until breakfast. I managed to find one 5-star luxury hotel (Grímsborgir) that was open until 23:30, so we made a beeline for it and were able to order dinner off the very expensive menu. There was a jazz guitar duo playing instrumental versions of standards like Days Of Wine And Roses; they made me miss Tago-san. Carol ordered duck and I ordered the lamb filet. Both were stunningly good, easily the best cooked meal we had in Iceland, so maybe worth the price tag. The wine list was massive with over 60 wines, but we were too tired to try anything.