Summer in Iceland - 1 - Trip introduction, map, fact sheets and a few previews of trip images
Sep 30, 2020 12:02:03 #
I recently finished posting a rather lengthy tour to the Arabian Peninsula and embark today on a presentation of an environment far from the sand and heat of Arabia, but see some common ground. To start with, I did the Arabia trip in the first weeks after the birth of our second grand child, while my wife was helping our daughter along in London. Likewise, I did the trip to Iceland in similar circumstances after the birth of our first grand child. While these two places are worlds apart as far as the climate is concerned, they both contain major empty and forlorn segments surrounded by water and endowed with some great mountains.
I assume that Iceland is better known to our members here than the more exotic Arabia. It is also rather easy to access: its national flag carrier Icelandair offers some great deals with stop-overs en-route from North-America to and from Europe, which I have known for ages but finally took advantage of this past winter for the first time. On the trip that I will present, my flights were from London to Reykjavik and return again to London, for the stated family reasons. My self-drive trip around the entire island lasted 13 days and was made up of two segments: the general 10 day drive around the island on the "Ring Road", plus the additional 3 day extension to the "Westfjords". I booked the trip with a company called Icelandic Farm Holidays which has since morphed into "Hey Iceland" and still offers similar tours, mainly self-drives. They provided the car equipped with GPS and arranged for the "farmstays" including breakfast. About half of these were in actual operating farms and half in small boutique hotels or B&B's. Nothing fancy, but in all cases well equipped and with very friendly people. Driving was very easy in Iceland, they drive on the right side just like in North-America or most of Europe and, except possibly directly in the Reykjavik capital city area, the roads are very empty and in reasonably good shape, maybe a tad less so in the more remote parts of the Westfjords. Most roads are paved, but expect to drive on some gravel stretches on minor roads or to reach off-the-main-road viewpoints. In fact once out of the Reykjavik area and the "Golden Circle" route, the roads were so empty that I sometimes just put the car diagonal to the road to shoot straight out of the window without exiting the car. As I knew and it was certainly confirmed, life is quite expensive in Iceland, just about everything has to be imported, local distances are substantial and the population density is very low and this has to show up in the prices, particularly also in food and gasoline prices. But by opting for a self-drive, I could reduce the costs and was a total master of my own time and routing - and since this was a solo drive, I even picked up a couple of young hitch-hikers (from Italy, Belgium and Germany) to have some company.
A few introductory words about Iceland in general. Being surrounded by the rather "warm" waters of the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean, the climate is considerable more clement than the name would suggest. As a matter of fact, Iceland boasts of being warmer in winter than New York City! Nevertheless, it is an near-arctic country and traveling there outside of the greater vicinity of the Reykjavik capital region is not recommended in winter, as roads might be closed due to blizzards, etc. Most self-drive tours were offered from May to September, though I did notice recently a couple of version offered for the winter. I am not sure I would be game for this version. In the summer, the road conditions are absolutely no problem and of course you get the additional bonus of very long daylight hours (while in the winter you would drive a major part of the day in the dark). Iceland prides itself of being one of the last "lands" to be settled on earth, but at the same time having one of the oldest democracies, reaching back to the year 930. It was mainly settled by Vikings and Celts. I will not go deep into history here, but if you are interested, I recommend to access Wikipedia or other sources online and look at the history references.
I will present a rather lengthy series on this trip in chronological order - and hope that you will enjoy the experience of riding along with me, similar to the good trip I had with quite a few of you down on the Arabian Peninsula.
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PLEASE NOTE: These photos were taken 7 years ago with my then aging Nikon D90 with a half-frame sensor and a 18-200mm zoom lens. At that time I was just settling into digital photography, was shooting jpeg and did rather minimal processing on Picasa. This processing did not include level or perspective adjustments and only rudimentary adjustments for lighting and contrasts, and thus some of the images might look a bit crude compared to what can be achieved today with more sophisticated processing tools - and I for myself am at this time certainly still very much in a learning phase in LrC as well. Also, while the weather was overall quite good, the first few days were periodically overcast, and sometimes misty with a bit of rain, so this will show up in the earlier images.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In this first post, I provide my customary overview of the trip with a map, the album introductory title shot, a couple of "fact slides" on the trip and on Iceland and close off with a couple of random taster shots from the photos that I will post in orderly fashion over the coming weeks.
I am excited to start this new venture with you, recommend viewing the downloads and look forward to your comments and questions.
.
I assume that Iceland is better known to our members here than the more exotic Arabia. It is also rather easy to access: its national flag carrier Icelandair offers some great deals with stop-overs en-route from North-America to and from Europe, which I have known for ages but finally took advantage of this past winter for the first time. On the trip that I will present, my flights were from London to Reykjavik and return again to London, for the stated family reasons. My self-drive trip around the entire island lasted 13 days and was made up of two segments: the general 10 day drive around the island on the "Ring Road", plus the additional 3 day extension to the "Westfjords". I booked the trip with a company called Icelandic Farm Holidays which has since morphed into "Hey Iceland" and still offers similar tours, mainly self-drives. They provided the car equipped with GPS and arranged for the "farmstays" including breakfast. About half of these were in actual operating farms and half in small boutique hotels or B&B's. Nothing fancy, but in all cases well equipped and with very friendly people. Driving was very easy in Iceland, they drive on the right side just like in North-America or most of Europe and, except possibly directly in the Reykjavik capital city area, the roads are very empty and in reasonably good shape, maybe a tad less so in the more remote parts of the Westfjords. Most roads are paved, but expect to drive on some gravel stretches on minor roads or to reach off-the-main-road viewpoints. In fact once out of the Reykjavik area and the "Golden Circle" route, the roads were so empty that I sometimes just put the car diagonal to the road to shoot straight out of the window without exiting the car. As I knew and it was certainly confirmed, life is quite expensive in Iceland, just about everything has to be imported, local distances are substantial and the population density is very low and this has to show up in the prices, particularly also in food and gasoline prices. But by opting for a self-drive, I could reduce the costs and was a total master of my own time and routing - and since this was a solo drive, I even picked up a couple of young hitch-hikers (from Italy, Belgium and Germany) to have some company.
A few introductory words about Iceland in general. Being surrounded by the rather "warm" waters of the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean, the climate is considerable more clement than the name would suggest. As a matter of fact, Iceland boasts of being warmer in winter than New York City! Nevertheless, it is an near-arctic country and traveling there outside of the greater vicinity of the Reykjavik capital region is not recommended in winter, as roads might be closed due to blizzards, etc. Most self-drive tours were offered from May to September, though I did notice recently a couple of version offered for the winter. I am not sure I would be game for this version. In the summer, the road conditions are absolutely no problem and of course you get the additional bonus of very long daylight hours (while in the winter you would drive a major part of the day in the dark). Iceland prides itself of being one of the last "lands" to be settled on earth, but at the same time having one of the oldest democracies, reaching back to the year 930. It was mainly settled by Vikings and Celts. I will not go deep into history here, but if you are interested, I recommend to access Wikipedia or other sources online and look at the history references.
I will present a rather lengthy series on this trip in chronological order - and hope that you will enjoy the experience of riding along with me, similar to the good trip I had with quite a few of you down on the Arabian Peninsula.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PLEASE NOTE: These photos were taken 7 years ago with my then aging Nikon D90 with a half-frame sensor and a 18-200mm zoom lens. At that time I was just settling into digital photography, was shooting jpeg and did rather minimal processing on Picasa. This processing did not include level or perspective adjustments and only rudimentary adjustments for lighting and contrasts, and thus some of the images might look a bit crude compared to what can be achieved today with more sophisticated processing tools - and I for myself am at this time certainly still very much in a learning phase in LrC as well. Also, while the weather was overall quite good, the first few days were periodically overcast, and sometimes misty with a bit of rain, so this will show up in the earlier images.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In this first post, I provide my customary overview of the trip with a map, the album introductory title shot, a couple of "fact slides" on the trip and on Iceland and close off with a couple of random taster shots from the photos that I will post in orderly fashion over the coming weeks.
I am excited to start this new venture with you, recommend viewing the downloads and look forward to your comments and questions.
.
1 - On our Icelandair flight with silver clouds above and below us and a slim golden sliver at the horizon
(Download)
2 - Map plotting the entire trip and indicating some of the highlights
(Download)
3 - Screen shot from the (return) flight, as an interesting point it is indicating the location of the sinking of the Titanic in the lower left corner: I never before realized that this happened that far south
(Download)
4 - Trip Details: Daily record of drive components, major visits and distance covered
(Download)
5 - Interesting facts about Iceland
(Download)
6 - Preview taster: Eruption of the giant hot fountain "Strokkur"; the now dormant neighboring "geysir" fountain actually coined the word "geyser" in the English language
(Download)
7 - Preview taster: Spectacular coastline and wave action at the foot of Krossanesfjall mountain
(Download)
8 - Preview taster: Mud pool with mud bubbles at Namafjall geo-thermal area
(Download)
9 - Preview taster: Hörga river in the Öxnadalur valley
(Download)
10 - Preview taster: Solitary home on a rocky plain on Snaefellsnes peninsula
(Download)
Sep 30, 2020 12:13:56 #
Love six, seven, and nine.
I was there this past December. Not so much green, but still a totally amazing place!
We want to visit again, in the "summer" next time.
Sep 30, 2020 12:15:15 #
Joe, it is time to buckle up and enjoy the ride. Looks like another wonderful tour of some place I will never see otherwise.
Sep 30, 2020 12:17:07 #
Longshadow wrote:
Love six, seven, and nine.
I was there this past December. Not so much green, but still a totally amazing place!
We want to visit again, in the "summer" next time.
Love six, seven, and nine.
I was there this past December. Not so much green, but still a totally amazing place!
We want to visit again, in the "summer" next time.
Thanks Bill - I was there this past February also, definitively a different vista, but a very interesting contrast. Joe
Sep 30, 2020 12:17:49 #
NMGal wrote:
Joe, it is time to buckle up and enjoy the ride. Looks like another wonderful tour of some place I will never see otherwise.
Thank you Barbara - I am very happy to have you along for the long ride again!
Sep 30, 2020 12:25:54 #
Sep 30, 2020 12:35:07 #
Just Fred wrote:
I love Iceland, and I love your photos. Thanks!
Thank you Fred for looking in on the new tour. I am happy to hear that you like Iceland and my images - plenty more to come over the coming weeks if you feel like tagging along. Have a nice day - Joe
Sep 30, 2020 13:23:28 #
Sep 30, 2020 13:29:16 #
Sep 30, 2020 13:38:14 #
RichardTaylor wrote:
Good, and interesting, set.
Thank you very much Richard, I am happy to have you along! Joe
Sep 30, 2020 13:38:45 #
angler wrote:
Excellent set Joe.
Thank you very much Jim for your kind comment! Joe
Sep 30, 2020 15:06:31 #
Excellent introduction and teaser photos to whet our appetite, Joe...looking forward to more of this trip and the adventures you experienced!!
Sep 30, 2020 16:07:36 #
Sep 30, 2020 16:42:30 #
jederick wrote:
Excellent introduction and teaser photos to whet our appetite, Joe...looking forward to more of this trip and the adventures you experienced!!
Thank you Jim for coming in on the starter day - it's great to start out with comments from a nice group of friends!
Sep 30, 2020 16:43:59 #
UTMike wrote:
Good start, Joe! This will all be open book on the exam, right?
Thank you Mike, good to have you along again - and yes, definitely an open book - but you better start honing up your Icelandic scripts and words!
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