Iceland time
2014.12.17. 06:26
Iceland time
2014.12.17. 06:26
Meet & Greet at Keflavík airport with our driver and guide. After just 20 minutes drive we will experience one of the most unusual welcome to any country. We put on our swimming costumes and go bathing in the Blue Lagoon, a natural mineral-rich geothermal pool in the middle of a large and dramatic lava field, reputed for its healing properties. It is special and invigorating. After the bath we will continue our trip to Reykjavik. During the 45 minutes drive the guide will tell you about Iceland and give you a few practical information’s. Arrived in Reykjavik we will check in at our hotel for one night.
Weaving our ways through narrow alleys framed with old timber houses, we learn about the life of the Icelandic capital from its very beginning to the present day. We pass Hallgrimskirkja-Church and enjoy a photo stop at Höfði house, where the Reagan/Gorbachev summit meeting took place in 1986. From the City Hall we take a walk through the city center to the street where the first settler built his house. Next to the Parliament and Lutheran cathedral we pass the sculpture of Skúli Magnússon, the founder of Reykjavík and Jón Sigurðsson, our real independence hero. Now we drive to the harbour where we find a large fleet of whale watching and fishing boats in all sizes. We drive past the Catholic Church and enjoy then the panoramic view over Reykjavik, the fjord and mountains from the balcony at the Pearl. Further on we reach the geothermal outdoor swimming pool in Laugardalur to learn what Icelanders are doing with the warm water from the hot springs. This is the recreational area of the city, with most sport facilities, the botanical garden, the farm animal zoo and Family Park.
(The routing of this city sightseeing tour is subject to change)
OPTIONAL: Wale watching (Summer departures only, price per person 54,- EUR)
Take part in an adventure at sea with an unforgettable trip into the world of whales and sea birds. Conveniently located in Reykjavik’s old harbor, a three hour journey can bring you up close to whales in their natural habitat. The various types of whales commonly sighted include minke whales, white-beaked dolphins, harbor porpoises and the popular humpback whales. We will be accompanied by sea birds such as gannets, puffins, guillemots, cormorants, gulls, kittiwakes, arctic terns, and many more. Our trips take us past several islands inhabited by colonies of puffin – a great photo opportunity! To make the trip even more comfortable, we provide our passengers with warm, floatable overalls and raincoats. For safety reasons, all children under 12 years of age are required to wear life jackets during the tour. To ensure that the animals are not disturbed by our presence, we sail at a constant speed towards the whales’ habitat. As a result, a variety of species, from humpback whales to tiny porpoises, often surface within a few feet of the boat!
We start our journey and drive to Þingvellir National park. Now we have arrived in the a most important historical places of Iceland, the old parliament site, where in the year 930 ac. the national assembly was founded to rule the country. We will take short walk through the old sites trying to find the atmosphere of long gone times. Þingvellir is not only important for Icelandic history, but also it is a place of high geological interest, a place where the meeting of the two drifting continental plates can be seen. We leave Þingvellir and drive via Kaldidalur Highland Road via Húsafell and on to explore a multitude of natural springs under a birch covered lava field, which creates a waterfall of hundreds of meters wide, the magnificent Hraunfossar (Lava Falls) seemingly appearing out of nowhere across the bank. A 10 minutes walk up the river is the Barnafoss (Children’s Fall), which has carved out strange figures from the rock. Our next stop today is is the Deildartunguhver, one of the world’s biggest hot springs before we continue to historic Reykholt, where Snorri Sturluson lived, a brilliant 13th-century writer/scholar for the next two nights.
Today we drive to the Snæfellsnes peninsula with its national park and the dominating Snæfellsjökull glacier. The glacier is famous for the setting of the novel “Journey to the Center of the Earth” by the French author Jules Verne. According to him the entrance to the underworld lies at this glacier. The peninsula is often called Iceland in miniature because many national sights can be found in this area. We visit small fishing towns, drive through lava fields and enjoy the coastal scene. The Snaefellsnes Community is a so called green community and has recently become the first Green Globe Certified Community in Iceland & Europe and only the 4th in the world.
From Reykholt we drive via Holtavörðuheiði to the north of Iceland. We drive pass Vatnsdalshólar, a cluster of hills of all sizes across the mouth of Vatnsdalur valley . These hills are considered to be one of the three “innumerable” things in Iceland along with the lakes in Arnarvatnsheiði and the islands on Breiðarfjörður. We are now in Skagafjörður one of Iceland's most prosperous agricultural regions and especially known for horse breeding and therefore called “valley of horses”. We continue to the town of Dalvík by Eyjafjörður Bay, the longest bay in Iceland for two nights.
We will drive via Akureyri, the so called capital of the north and onward to Lake Mývatn. Mývatn is a unique area that features strange lava formations, attractive bays, pseudo craters and thousands of birds. We visit Skútustaðargígar, where we find numerous pseudo-craters formed over two thousand years ago during one of many eruptions in this area. We stop at Dimmuborgir, Dark Castles, where towering lava formations characterize the surrounding landscape and Námaskarð (mine passage)at a bright colorful mountain where sulphur was once mined from a http://www.gjtravel.is/media/w700/b376fce2af81db1c.jpggeothermal zone and where many boiling mud pots are to be found with that special smell of the devils-cuisine. Mývatn area is a paradise for birds, especially ducks which are all to be found breeding in the Lake Mývatn area. During the nesting period however areas around the lake are closed for human access but we will try during our stops to spot some of these numerous birds on our way back to our accommodation.
From Dalvík we drive via Varmahlíð and then the second longest highland road Kjölur across the interior of Iceland. We are now in an uninhabitable volcanic desert and drive between two glaciers, Langjökull and Hofsjökull and reach the end of the highland road at Gullfoss Waterfall. We stop at the so called Queen of Icelandic waterfalls and meaning “Golden Falls”. The water falls 32 meters into the canyon of Hvítá (the white river) after having travelled 30 km from the glacier Langjökull (the long glacier) in the north. Nearby is the fascinating geothermal area of Geysir. The most active geyser is Strokkur “the churn” which can spout up to seventy feet every five to seven minutes. After a long day we end our tour in Reykjavík for our last night in Iceland.
Unfortunately it is time to say goodbye. You will be picked up by a driver and brought to Keflavík International Airport for your departure flight.
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