Goodbye Reykjavik

While the kids slept I got up and out early, putting our suitcases in the car and then walking in the light sleet/hail across town to buy breakfast – pastries from the Brauð & Co bakery, with its colourful exterior. It opened nice and early at 7am on a Sunday.

I had my fill of croissants, pain au chocolat, raspberry and custard squares (I have no idea what they were called, but they were scrumptious), and a good sourdough. Their infamous cinnamon buns weren’t ready yet.

I headed back, but swung by the closed Hallgrímskirkja church to take a closer look at this distinct and famous landmark, and its stature of Leif Erikson which sits in front.

Golden circle

We were checked out and on the road by 8am – a long day ahead of us – we’d be attempting the trio of golden circle sights – Þingvellir national park, Geysir and Gullfoss waterfall – as well as then driving north to the Snæfellsnes peninsula in the north East of Iceland. We’d clock about 7 hours of driving today.

Our two days of non-stop rain were letting up, giving us some friendlier but still overcast weather to tackle the circle, on our last opportunity before leaving the area. And obviously it was when we were at the bleakest, snowiest, furthest from anywhere point that our boy asked for a toilet stop.

We decided to tackle the attractions in an unusual order – starting with Geysir and Gullfoss, perhaps attempting the Kerid crater lake, then heading back up to Þingvellir on our way north.

Geysir

We got to the Great Geysir at 10am, just as the visitor centre was opening. By now the back of the car was covered in flakes of croissant, so too were the children’s coats. A nearby redwing bird hoovered up the bits that fell out the car.

Under duress, youngest screaming, oldest just wanting to watch things on the iPad in the car, we dragged the boys around to the active geyser, Strokkur. Not as impressive as the old great one, which stopped being active a few years back, Strokkur still performs every 10 to 15 minutes, launching huge jets of water into the air, each time a different height. Psssh, up into the sky, the air punctuated with a sulfurous aroma. We watched it go a couple of times.

It was essential that Conway tour the large gift shop, he tried out the plastic viking swords and axes, but refused to don the helmet for a full outfit. And the disabled loo was the perfect place to wrangle everyone into their thermals, wet weathers off then on again, coats doing the hokey-cokey, so is the way.

Gullfoss

Gullfoss waterfall was a similarly brief trip, once we’d got there, each parent did a reccy, then we attempted the walk with the kids. This was the coldest, bitterest, windiest bit of Iceland we encountered. From the car to the river (via a great off-road coach with giant wheels) we walked head on into buffeting winds, we wore face masks just to keep our noses warm.

Gullfoss itself is a huge, thunderous, multi-layer waterfall, and it’s beautiful. But our boys weren’t much interested in the beauty as the freezing wind pulled the water from their eyes – they quickly retired for hot chocolate (or a nap). I hung back to take some photos, I wore gloves, but couldn’t feel my finger tips – I took an obligatory “this is pleasant” selfie.

We left Gullfosskaffi around 2pm, and still with 4hrs of driving ahead of us, we decided, with a heavy heart, to skip the crater.

Þingvellir

We returned along route 35, 37 then 36 back to the Thingvellir (an anglicised spelling) visitor centre. This time around Conway was asleep when we arrived, mummy read her book with him while I took Forrest out in the buggy.

Thingvellir is a national park and UNESCO world heritage site. It is steeped in history as the site of Iceland’s first parliament, since the year 930, where it continued until 1798. It is also an amazing geological site – sat between the great European and American continental tectonic plates, there are great fissures and valleys caused by continental drift.

With Forrest in his buggy, we took the path through the Almannagjá gorge, which marks the boundary of the Mid-Atlantic Rift. He pointed out all the places where holes and caverns had formed in the walls, and suggested we tiptoe, because there might be bears in there. Each clump of ice and snow was just as exciting.

We also greatly enjoyed the little pool and waterfall, where we marvelled at the noise of the falls, and great chunks of ice that floated about in it. It’s called Drekkingarhylur, which translates to “drowning pool”, and is an old execution site – I’m glad I only found this out now. It’s still very pretty.

Once Conway was awake he and mummy visited the viewing platform, with views out across the lake and distant mountains, and when they joined us we showed them where all the bears live and the waters flow.

Of all the golden circle sites this was our favourite, it was warmer and less windy, there was lots to see, and we had a lot of fun messing around up and down the main path, or slipping on the snow to get to lower paths for a spot of landscape photography. We’d have liked to spend more time here, but it was time to go.

Our return saw us reach the visitor centre too late, it had closed by 5pm, so in the back of the car we gathered together the food morsels we had into some sort of meal – jam and crisp sandwiches in the backseats, what could possibly go wrong.

To Stykkishólmur

Once the boys were settled, we put on Encanto on the iPad and set off for our final long drive, about 2h30 north. We followed Route 1, through the Hvalfjörður tunnel, beneath the fjord, up to Borgarnes, where we took route 54 then route 56. Thankfully it was still light as we travelled the riskiest leg of the journey, through the Snaefellsnes peninsula mountains – where webcams had showed snow and poor visibility – but today it was all clear, and it would stay that way throughout our stay.