Iceland - a travel blog

Ice ice baby After a well night's rest, we open the curtains to a bright blue sky. As we enjoy our breakfast in the restaurant where we had yesterday's dinner, the view is quite different. Yesterday we couldn't see much, this morning the view is spectacular. More excited than ever we check-out and quickly drive off to our first stop of the day. While reading the guidebooks in order to prepare for our trip, I read something about a beautiful hike to Hangandifoss. There was little information to be found on where the waterfall was exactly located. Nevertheless, the few lines that I found promised a spectacular walk to one of Iceland's highest waterfalls. Especially when visibility is good.  As today seemed the perfect day for such a hike, we carefully looked up the coordinates for the start of the gravel road that should take us there. After a short drive we park our car at the end of the track in a slightly wider area. There's one other car, so we're at least not

Soaking wet After a well night rest we wake up again rather early. Together with a few other people we're the first to enter the breakfast buffet at the hotel. It's a grey and rainy morning but that doesn't affect our anxiety to go out and explore more amazing things.  Having filled up our tummies we check-out and head once more for the black sanded beaches. Not far from where we finished yesterday, near Dyrhólaey, there is a basalt formation on the beach. Not far of the shoreline three sharp rocks clearly stick out of the water. According to legend three trolls came out to sea to pull ashore a ship. They were surprised by dawn and were frozen into stone and they have remained immortalized since, as a warning to their kin. If you're a fan of these kind of tales, Iceland has plenty of stories about elfs and trolls.  When entering the path to the beach we are warned several times by signs about sneaker waves. This beach is notorious for very unpredictable high waves and p

Not yet having completely adjusted to the Icelandic time, we wake up around 5:30AM as the first daylight touches Reykjavik. Or maybe it's because we're so excited to start this day and see our first waterfalls? At around 6AM we decide to get out of bed and no longer wait for the treasures ahead of us. As with all the hotels our travel agency booked, we have breakfast included. So after a stop at the buffet, we grab our bags and head out of Reykjavik. Today has a long drive in store for us and there's plenty of things to see. So many in fact, we had to discard a few from our list before arriving in Iceland. It doesn't take long before the urban city landscape makes place for typical Icelandic landscapes: vast green mountains and black lava rocks. Every now and then you can spot a waterfall from a mountainside. Not long into the drive we make halt at a viewpoint just before the town of Hveragerði. In hindsight this wasn't such a spectacular view, but for us at that ti

Taking off Finally the day is here: September 4th. We've been counting down the days to the start of our adventure. Having seen many pictures of Iceland our expectations are high.  Around 10AM we head to the airport to catch our flight Brussels - Keflavik. On the boarding passes it says Reykjavik, and although Reykjavik does have its own airport, Keflavik is Iceland's biggest international airport about 30-45' drive away from the capital. We board our B737-900 Max from Icelandair, and after a quick 'hi' to the flight crew we take our places.  When the plane starts descending we stare outside the little window, hoping to catch a first glimp of this island. Unfortunately the cloud cover is rather low and it's not before we're over the ocean again, preparing for our inbound turn, that we can see something. At around 3PM local time we set foot on Icelandic soil and quickly arrive in the baggage reclaim area where we are welcomed by a huge puffin breaching throug

Welcome Hi! My name is Laurens, 28 years of age and happily living in Belgium. You know, the tiny country famous for its beer and chocolate. In September 2021 I traveled together with my girlfriend, Ann, to Iceland for a two week road trip across the country. In this blog I would like to take you along for the ride and share our experience. May it inspire you to one day visit this magnificent country. Travel planning  After all the misery that COVID-19 brought into our lives, we dared to speak of holidays abroad in late spring 2021. The vaccination campaign was fully under way in Belgium and if all went according to plan, our government deemed international travel possible for the summer holidays. A bit precautious we decided to plan our trip in September. Firstly because we were a bit sceptical about the government's planning, secondly because travelling outside the touristic season is always a benefit. Not only financially, but especially when travelling to a country where you wa