As the plane approached Reykjavik I was expecting a magnificent view of mountains, glaciers, smouldering volcanoes and waterfalls, all the things I had read about.\u00a0 Instead of that, once we broke through the heavy cloud cover all that was visible was a flat, barren, treeless landscape with an assortment of buildings that looked like a large military airfield. \u00a0Not surprising, because that is what it was, built by the British when we invaded neutral Iceland during World War II, to prevent the Germans from doing the same thing.\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember being told about that in school.<\/p>\n
In the arrivals area a man from Sixt Car Rental was waiting for me, and took me to their depot, where I was introduced to my car, a blue Chevrolet Spark.\u00a0 The Spark is not detectably related to any American car of that make, but a tiny, substantially blinged-up descendent of the Korean-built Daewoo Matiz.<\/p>\n
Reykjavik International Airport is not actually near Reykjavik, but in Keflavik, a much smaller town about 30 miles away, right on the tip of the Reykjanes Peninsular in the extreme south west of the island.\u00a0 The dual carriageway from the airport to Reykjavik has been described as the best road in Iceland in terms of a transport link, and that is probably true, but it runs for miles through the above-mentioned featureless landscape before entering the city.<\/p>\n
Iceland is four-fifths of the area of England, with a population only slightly greater than that of Coventry (330,000), and two-thirds of those live in the south-western corner of the country, so it could hardly be described as densely populated.<\/p>\n
Reykjavik<\/b><\/p>\n
Reyjavik comes across as a thriving city, with an excellent road network running through extensive suburbs including a fair amount of industry.\u00a0 My hotel was easy to get to, about a mile from the centre, just off a main thoroughfare called Borgetan lined with large modern commercial buildings.<\/p>\n
The temperature was about 6 degrees, and it started to rain as I walked to the centre under the heavy grey sky.\u00a0 This was just how I had imagined Iceland would be.\u00a0 The daylight hours near the autumn equinox were similar to those at home, which gave me about three hours to look round before dark. \u00a0\u00a0It was approaching the end of the holiday season, with some attractions and services already closed, but there were still plenty of tourists around.<\/p>\n
However, bars, cafes, restaurants, pubs and clubs are not in short supply, and apparently every Saturday evening there is an almighty pub crawl called the Runtur, which takes over the whole city centre.<\/p>\n Mention of the Al\u00feing brings me to matter of the Icelandic language, which uses the same character set as English, but with a few additional ones.\u00a0 The most used extra characters are \u00fe and \u0111, both pronounced \u2018th\u2019 but slightly differently.\u00a0 Almost everyone I met in Iceland spoke good colloquial English with little accent, and sometimes I got the impression that they speak it amongst themselves.\u00a0 Lots of signs and notices are in English, sometimes only in English. Place names can be difficult, because many of them are very similar and hard to remember, like those in Wales.<\/p>\n The Golden Circle<\/b><\/p>\n A drive round the north end of the lake leads to the hot springs area, with water at 80 to 100 degrees C. emerging from steaming pools of mud next to the road.\u00a0 Adjacent to these is Geysir, the original geyser that gave its name to others all over the world.\u00a0 Unfortunately Geysir, which spouted to a height of 80 metres, became blocked years ago by stones thrown into it by tourists, and although it has recovered to some extent following an earthquake the main attraction now is the nearby Strokkur.\u00a0 Strokkur erupts spectacularly every few minutes, sending water up to 35m into the air.\u00a0 When I arrived I joined a group of people standing on one side and watched it spout for a couple times.\u00a0 It seemed This was the first but far from the last time my camera nearly got soaked, and one thing you definitely need in Iceland is a waterproof camera.\u00a0 On many occasions I saw people with expensive and complicated cameras (mine is not) standing in precariously wet conditions.<\/p>\n After the geysers the next stop on the tour circuit was Gullfoss, a magnificent waterfall, wide rather than high, like a miniature version of Niagara Falls but on two levels.\u00a0 Public access is free and well organised, although it does mean quite a bit of scrambling about to get the\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 best views.<\/p>\n The road Rt. 35 northwards from Gullfoss is one of the few leading into the interior, and the only one apart from the Ring Road that goes From Gullfoss I cut across to Rt.30 leading southwards and even that involved a few miles of loose surface before coming back to tarmac and eventually Rt.1. \u00a0For much of the way the most prominent feature of the landscape was Heckla, perhaps Iceland\u2019s best known volcano until Eyjafjallaj\u00f6kull erupted in 2010.\u00a0\u00a0 That last eruption was not expected at all, and Further to the east just off Rt.1 a few miles from a small town called Selfoss was my second night\u2019s accommodation, an isolated farm guesthouse. The Guesthouse Lambastedir had 11 rooms in an almost new building separate from the farmhouse, and was basic but scrupulously clean.\u00a0 Amongst the guests were an American couple from Colorado who had been there for three weeks and were immensely enthusiastic about it, although they seemed to sit looking out the window at the flat and relatively featureless landscape most of the time.<\/p>\n On the advice of the friendly owner of Lambastadir I went into Selfoss for a meal at the Kaktus restaurant. As far as I know cactus is not on the menu, and I had fish and chips.\u00a0 The town is described by LP as witlessly ugly, which I thought was a bit over the top, although it is rather like an industrial estate apart from the area around the river.<\/p>\n Back at the Lambastadir I asked the Americans whether they had seen the northern lights, which is something I hoped to do, and they However, this heralded a change in the weather which was to last throughout my stay in Iceland and the next morning was cold but bright.\u00a0 The first port of call was the Urridafoss waterfall, a smaller version of Gullfoss, where I was able to enjoy the view entirely on my own.<\/p>\n By now I realised that foss <\/i>\u00a0meant waterfall, and the next stop just off Rt.1 was Seljalandsfoss, in which the water tumbled over the edge of a high cliff in a comparatively narrow stream.\u00a0 A rough path led down to the base of the fall and round behind it, A few miles farther along Rt.1 the road passes close to the infamous Eyjafjallaj\u00f6kull, which is now, like most Icelandic volcanoes, covered with an ice cap.\u00a0 Right at the foot of the mountain is a farm which was devastated by the eruption but has since recovered to have good harvests and is benefitting from the increased tourism. Following Rt.1, a flat, smooth-surfaced road with the mountains on my left and the coast not far away to the right brought me to Sk\u00f3gar and yet another waterfall, Sk\u00f3karfoss.\u00a0 This was like a larger, much wider version of Seljalandsfoss, but it was not possible to get behind it or even very close to it without getting wet.\u00a0 A long winding flight of steps led up the mountainside to the top but after the first couple of \u00a0hundred I decided that it was not worth the effort.<\/p>\n Amongst the buildings outside is a row of turf-roofed cottages from the 19th<\/sup> century, with the tiny rooms furnished in the original style.\u00a0 In a separate complex nearby is the Transportation Museum, in which vehicles and communication systems used in Iceland throughout the 20th<\/sup> century are displayed.\u00a0 This includes examples of cross-country and military vehicles dating back to the 1920s, including a rare Cirtroen Kegresse half-track truck, one of the few vehicles that would have been capable of travelling across the interior in the winter.<\/p>\n This spurred me on to try going off the beaten track again, towards the M\u00fdrdalsj\u00f6kull glacier, an ice cap covering the volcano Katla, which is also due to erupt before too long.\u00a0 The road (Rt.222) was ok for a while, but then became increasingly rough until it reached a yellow sign stating IMPASSABLE .\u00a0 By now stones were banging against the underside of the car and the sign clearly meant what it said.\u00a0 Foiled again.<\/p>\n The hotels were ridiculously expensive for what they were, but adjoining the Hotel Lundi was the Guesthouse Puffin, recommended by LP despite being described, correctly, as having very thin bedroom walls.\u00a0 They also mentioned a \u2018possibly haunted lounge\u2019.\u00a0 Probably haunted by people who had dropped down dead on learning the prices of the hotels in Vik.<\/p>\n Once sorted in my tiny room I drove down to the beach which was covered with coarse black sand typical of volcanic areas.\u00a0 This was said to be good place to see the puffins that live on the adjacent cliffs, but they were out at the time of my visit, so I climbed up to the church which afforded a good view over the town and sea.<\/p>\n Back to Reykjavik and the WestCoast<\/b><\/p>\n One problem with Iceland is that once you leave the south western corner you are confined to places not far from the ring road unless you have a vehicle suitable for going into the interior. The ring road is 832 miles long, which I could hardly complete in the time that I had left (1\u00bd days), so the next day there was no alternative to retracing my steps in the direction of Reykjavik.<\/p>\n Between Reykjavik and\u00a0 Akranes is Hvalfj\u00f6r\u0111ur, a fjord under which a four mile long toll tunnel has been built to save a detour of about 40 miles.\u00a0 The fjord did not seem to have a very high scenic value, so I took the tunnel.<\/p>\n Akranes was actually a fairly plain town, with a short promenade and beach, most of the waterfront being taken up by a massive and ugly fish processing factory.\u00a0 This was offset to small extent by some quite attractive traditional house in various Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u0111ur,\u00a0 Keflavik and home<\/b><\/p>\n Just off the road from Reykjavik to Keflavik is a fishing port called Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u0111ur.\u00a0 In a caf\u00e9 somewhere I had read an article about whaling in an English-language newspaper published by an American living in Iceland.\u00a0 Whaling was stopped in the country in 1989, but resumed a few years ago to protests from around the world, including from within Iceland itself.\u00a0 The article I read was anti-whaling, and showed a picture of a partially dismembered whale carcase on the quayside in Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u0111ur.<\/p>\n![\"Hallgrimskirkja\"](\"http:\/\/bevistravels.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/058.jpg\")
<\/a>For a capital city Reykjavik has relatively few imposing buildings or \u2018sights\u2019.\u00a0 By far the most striking building is the Hallgrimskirkja, an![\"Parliament](\"http:\/\/bevistravels.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/051.jpg\")
<\/a> immense concrete church with dramatic architecture, built between 1940 and 1974.\u00a0 It towers over its surroundings and is featured on every postcard and picture of the city.\u00a0 Another notable building is the Al\u00feing or parliament house, built of basalt in the 19th<\/sup> century with a modern glass and concrete extension.\u00a0 The whole complex is no larger than most English town halls.\u00a0 The main street starts quite downmarket, lined with shops of increasing quality as you go westwards, finishing in a pleasant little tree-lined square, but none of it is terribly impressive.\u00a0 Tucked away amongst the more modern buildings are some with the traditional wooden construction covered with corrugated iron sheet, as seems to be the norm in all cold places.<\/p>\n<\/a>This is the real tourist trail. \u00a0Within a region about 40 miles east of Reykjavik is the \u00deingvellir National Park,<\/a> incorporating the largest lake in Iceland, and some of the best known sights in the country.\u00a0 This area lies on the boundary of the North American and European tectonic\u00a0 plates, which are slowly moving away from each other, causing spectacular fissures in the landscape where the rocks have literally been torn apart.<\/p>\n<\/a>to me that the view would be better on the opposite side and I moved round to there, but realised when the geyser performed why the other people had not done the same.\u00a0 The water had actually cooled considerably by the time it came down to drench me.<\/p>\n<\/a> right through to the north of the country without fording any rivers.\u00a0 In the summer it is used by toughened-up buses and by some locals with ordinary cars, but rented cars are not permitted to use it unless they have four wheel drive.\u00a0 Apart from Rt.35 virtually all roads leading into the interior from Rt.1 have the prefix F, which means that they do not have a sealed surface and can only legally be used by 4x4s.\u00a0 Had I realised how restricting this would be I would have rented a 4x4, but I was led to believe by Lonely Planet that an ordinary car would be suitable for most purposes, which is not the case.<\/p>\n<\/a>in the normal order of things it should have been Hekla, which had established a pattern of erupting about every 10 years, the last time in 2000.\u00a0 Viewed from Rt.1 Heckla appears as an almost perfect snow-capped cone, reminiscent of the iconic view of Mount Fuji in Japan, although Fuji is far higher.\u00a0 To my disappointment Hekla was not smoking, and was\u00a0 covered in snow at the top, although apparently the crater floor is still hot.\u00a0 It is possible to climb it, but that can be risky because it takes about four hours to get to the summit, and when it erupts it only gives about two hours warning.<\/p>\n<\/a> said they had looked every night but the weather had been overcast most of the time that they had been there.\u00a0 At 9.00pm I went outside and it was a wonderfully clear sky with an exceptionally strong full moon, but no sign of the aurora borealis.\u00a0 At 11.00pm I checked again, but still nothing.<\/p>\n<\/a>rising again, even rougher, on the other side.\u00a0 Predictably, the stretch immediately behind the fall was rather wet, but I had to risk a photograph through the curtain of water.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 Like me, the pronunciation of Eyjafjallaj\u00f6kull probably defeats your imagination, but in every tourist shop in Iceland tee shirts can be bought emblazoned with a phonetic explanation in English \u2013 AY-yah-fyah-lah-YOH-kuul.\u00a0 During the eruption the efforts of British television newsreaders to pronounce it were a source of great amusement in Iceland.<\/p>\n<\/a>In the village of Sk\u00f3gar is the wonderful Folk Museum which covers all aspects of Icelandic life.\u00a0 It is an unbelievable collection of old buildings and artefacts gathered over more than 70 years by one man, who is now<\/a> at least 90 years old.\u00a0 As I looked around he came up to me and introduced himself, speaking good English, and gave me a short personal tour of some of the exhibits.<\/p>\n<\/a>My night stop was to be in Vik, a tiny coastal town acclaimed for its beauty.\u00a0 The road climbed for a while before Vik and then dropped down into the town, with a pretty little church perched on a hill above it.\u00a0 The setting was undeniably beautiful, but the town itself was not, consisting of streets in a grid pattern lined with buildings in which function took priority over form in most cases.\u00a0 There were two or three functional hotels and a functional filling station cum restaurant on the main road.\u00a0 This afforded a good photo opportunity of my tiny car parked<\/a> alongside one of the enormous special 4x4 vehicles that are used for journeys into the interior, and confirmed that I did not stand much chance of driving far off the main road.<\/p>\n<\/a>Looking at the map I realised that there was another road, no.221, leading towards the M\u00fdrdalsj\u00f6kull glacier and while it eventually became too rough I was able to get close enough for a decent photograph.\u00a0 It was then a straight drive back to the outskirts of Reykjavik and up to Akranes, a small town on a peninsular about 30 miles north of the capital.<\/p>\n<\/a>colours and a nice wooden church, but on the whole Arkanes was not a place where one would really want to spend a lot of time.\u00a0 I decided to go back to the hotel in Borgetan and have another look at Reyjavik, where, in the evening, there was an absolutely magnificent sunset which everybody was talking about the next morning.<\/p>\n