On the 13th July we departed from the UK after a fabulous 3 weeks of catching up with everyone. We packed our bags full with warm gear and a pair of new walking shoes each.
At 1.30pm we left for Iceland! By 5pm English time we were out of the airport and we ‘found’ our rented car- rented from someone we weren’t even staying with on air bnb. The car was left in a hotel car park with the key hidden on top of a tyre. The car was much bigger than expected! John had to quickly adjust to right sided driving- luckily the car was automatic too.
We arrived at our air bnb apartment 30km later. The host wasn’t overly welcoming but the room was pleasant and we were only staying for one night.
We survived our first night of constant daylight! We felt like we were taking a nap at 1pm rather than going to bed for the night.
First we took a drive to Reykjavik and went exploring by foot. The city centre was a little underwhelming and grey but we had a nice walk and managed to see a few views. For lunch we shared a pack of £2 crisps, the supermarkets were extremely pricey, for example a box of cereal for £10, £27 for beef mince and a bag of grapes for £9.
We then popped to the petrol station where a man decided to fill up for us (despite not doing it for anyone else?) which unfortunately meant we had to pay £45 (5p extra per litre) this was a bit of a sting to the £100 budget.
Later on we reached our new accommodation, another air bnb apartment. The apartment was new and was owned by a young man who worked nights meaning we would be able to have plenty of time to ourselves.
The following day we decided to take the Golden Circle drive, a 140 mile round trip looping from Reykjavik to the southern uplands of Iceland.
The drive to the Golden Circle was beautiful, the sun came out and the green views were spectacular. We even managed to see wild Icelandic horses on the route.
The three primary stops on the route are the pingvellir national park, the Gullfoss waterfall, and the geothermal area in Haukadalur which contains the geysers Geysir and Strokkur.
Though Geysir has been mostly dormant for many years, Strokkur continues to erupt every 5–10 minutes. Other stops include the Kerio volcanic crater, the town of Hverageroi, Skalholt cathedral, and the Nesjavellir and Hellisheioarvirkjun geothermal power plants.
After a fabulous day we decided to go back to the apartment and rest. The following day we decided to head for the places we had missed.
Our first stop was Selfoss followed by Hella and Vik. We also went to see the remains of a crashed plane and to a black beach. We then went to a second black beach and we managed to see some wild puffins! – unfortunately they were a little too quick to get a picture!
We were ever so pleased with our sightings for the day. The 3 hour drive home was just as stunning, green open land for miles and miles.
On our final full day in Iceland we went to visit the Blue Lagoon. At a pricey £60 each we had taken a big blow to the budget, however 80% of tourists visit the lagoon and we didn’t want to leave without taking part.
Our time slot was 7am meaning we had to leave the apartment at about 6.20am. Unfortunately the weather was pretty miserable so we were hoping it would brighten up by the time we got there.
We spent a good four hours in the lagoon and we had a brilliant time. We both agreed the experience wasn’t worth £60 each but we were glad to of made the trip. We had a free face mask included in our ticket so we had two of those whilst in the water. The weather was pretty poor whilst we were in the water, strong winds and cold rain hit us but luckily the water was 37 degrees so we were lovely and warm.
After a wonderful time in Iceland it was time to pack up and prepare for the 6 hour flight to Toronto, Canada the following day. We had a great time and would recommend the visit – just bare in mind the cost!
John & Megs continued adventures around the world 
Nice to see it is still expensive there – I went there 27 years ago
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