JVPhoto

Icelandair Saga 757 GLA-KEF

I had done the bid up offer from my economy ticket. Originally, I wasn't going to because it is only a 2:00 flight but I lowballed at $90 and got it so I was happy.

Check in was not a fuss.


Lounge invite which I was happy to get so I could try and get some things done on my computer.



The premium security line was nice, the normal lines seemed pretty full. However, something funky was going on. I noticed so many people backed up waiting on the other side of the belts. Well it seemed nearly 3 in every 4 bins got sent off to the side to be swabbed. Even the old lady ahead of me who had her coat, phone and small little wristlet wallet/purse. Fearing that I was going to get held up for 20-30 min I lucked out I think (given that my bag was full of camera gear) that the secondary chute belt was full so mine came down for me to pick it up. People were starting to get agitated and making comments about what the hell was going on.




Not going to complain about the free lounge, but I don't get why people were coming in and paying 20-25 GBP to access.

On my way to the gate I got in the mood with a little Led Zep.

��We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow
The hammer of the gods
Will drive our ships to new lands,
To fight the horde, singing and crying,
Valhalla, I am coming!
On we sweep with threshing oar,
Our only goal will be the western shore
Ah, ah,
We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow��



Our gate was boarding across from an Emirates 777 so it was pretty loud and chaotic with huge families trying to line up to board and them making several announcements to sit down it would be another 30 minutes.



I got a buy up and a free seat next to me.


These planes have such a strange lay out I couldn't figure it out. There were Saga seats behind me but I don' think they got the same service so I guess those were Premium Y? In any event the whole cabin just seems so strange.





Really good lunch. Got me in the mood for the coming days.
The IFE is on new and big iPad looking screens. I was mostly watching Glow that I had downloaded from Netflix, but I did put on the Icelandair produced tourism/sightseeing videos about Iceland which proved useful because I would actually stop at "Rock & Troll" and the shark farm on my trip based on seeing it here.



Plenty of Peptobismal WOW planes at gates...



Passport control was a breeze or me in that the non-EU lines were empty and I walked right up. It did take about 25 min for bags to come. The belt will stop moving if it is full so I spent time playing baggage handler lining things up/making room so bags could come out.

Hertz and (I think) Enterprise are the only in terminal car rentals. I went for Sixt this time for price. Hertz would have been like $1200 where this was $700. I was going to come on this trip with a friend so I was trying to find good prices for us to split but also in the event that (which I thought might happen) they didn't come I wouldn't be stuck with paying a lot more for a few points.
Sixt sent an email asking to fill out info to "save time" on arrival. Not sure what that did because by the time we landed and I was driving away it probably took me about 1h45m. 45m alone at the car rental waiting in line (well, you take a number and relax with coffee and wifi) and then the girl doing paperwork. She did "upsell" me on the extra gravel ding/window chip insurance for $10/day which in hindsight makes sense given the roads there. Also, the pre-pay fuel option is worth it and a lot cheaper. When I filled up 3/4 of the tank one day it cost me about $65 and the prepay option was $55 so I brought it back on fumes.
Never heard of SsangYong but this little diesel Tivoli got me around nicely. The windows are a little high (I'm 6'2") even for me to put my arm out and enjoy. It had a TomTom built in which worked for some POI but I mostly relied on my phone maps. I meant to bring my car charger but it had a USB port so that worked well to also listen to all my podcasts through the speakers as well.

popoemt

Whisky-not whiskey, no E (and don't call it Scotch)!

Was in Scotland for a week doing distillery tours with a hired car, def a must do if you like Whisky and traveling the rolling hills of the Scottish countryside.

roadwarrier

Absolutely loving the read as always. Thank you!!

JVPhoto

I'm going to give each day in Iceland it's own post. Hoping to do one tonight and if not at the TXL SEN lounge tomorrow!

If you want to see the "nicer" photos now you can visit www.leicagasm.tumblr.com which I use to host those photos as well as the ones from past TRs.

JVPhoto

Iceland Day 1 - Afternoon in Reykjavik

Like I said I was potentially coming with a friend and I know we would cook (glad I decided on this also given the cost of eating out!) plus finding a decent price place that would sleep 2 (in this case with a fold out couch) was harder than I thought.
In any event I was happy with booking Icelandic Apartments and would gladly stay again or recommend. It sits a little on the edge of the city but was fine launching point for my adventures.





They have a great system where they email you a door and lock box pin to get your key if you do not arrive by 5pm. I got there at 4:55 and said hi to them on their way out. It seems like it is an area still being developed with residential/office added to the mix of warehouse type stuff. A huge office building being built on the little hill it sits on. Just down the hill is a small convenience store/pizza/burgers place, a gym (2500 ISK/day) and a Bonus supermarket which is their low price one apparently.
I am glad I decided to run down to the store to get breakfast things as it turns out they don't open in the mornings until 11am. I went to the gym twice but they needed to give me an Icelandic ID # so I could pay, I guess that was taking a while so on the second day the guy just kinda said "We will email you it, you can pay online but if you forget to it's not a big deal" so it was nice to save 50 bucks on that.

I pointed the GPS towards Hallgrimskirkja which I have been wanting to visit for quite some time. I'm a devout atheist but the look and design of it are straight out of Helm's Deep or Moria and I had to see it in person.






I was surprised how easy it was to park in town. I was actually able to pull in and park for free in the church parking lot, later in the week it wasn't an issue to find spaces for the 100-200 ISK/hour spots on the street as well.


I was living for the good messy hair the crisp Icelandic wind was giving me all week.

A friend had told me to eat at Kol just down the street. I walked by looked at the menu board outside and saw the prices thinking...maybe another night to treat myself, looks delicious. The next place down the street just as expensive. Oh! Burgers...$20 each. I think realized the single biggest expense in Iceland is eating out! There was some food I was happy to pay for, I should have guessed it was like Scandinavia or even worse given the location.
Finally, I saw Laekjarbrekka and seemed so cute and cozy to stop in and have some food.





Great service, delicious food, free wifi, tapered candles...it made me feel not so bad spending $52 on the stew and a glass of wine.

A little more wandering popping into 66 North and some other shops thinking about buying another pair of pants to run around in but most of it was too heavy/ski style so I made due. I was a little cold that day with the pants I had but through the rest of the week it wasn't much a problem.

Turning in while the sun is still out to start a big day tomorrow. Driving time scheduled at about 7.5h not including the stops.

JVPhoto

Iceland Day 2 - Snćfellsjökull Peninsula



The start of an ambitious day. Thanks to the sun being up and warming up the house I was awake pretty early, made my breakfast on was on my way.



Heading north through the toll tunnel I was aiming for the Deildartunguhver hot springs and lava flow waterfall Barnafossar.


Before the springs I saw the "Rock & Troll" sign and whipped into the driveway. I saw this on the inflight program. There's a little nature walk with some troll statues/stories and a nice stream behind it. The owner has tons of vinyl records you can play during dinner, I had a cup of coffee and them moved on.







The hot springs were nice to check out, cool to see how much comes from the earth. Could also buy a bag of local tomatoes for 300 ISK.


Not far up the road is the waterfall. Easy to find and quite nice to walk through and across the bridge and read the story about the children who they think fell in and the earth bridge the mother destroyed.



A little down the road on the way back I saw the signs for Bruaras and the building was quite striking among the more traditional houses. I went in there for an early lunch salad.



Friendly younger staff interested to know where I was from and what not. I saw on the map there was a road on the opposite side of the river that would connect to my route down stream. I decided to take that (I loathe backtracking on the same roads, give me a circle anyday).



After about a km it turned into a dirt road.


Slowed me down by maybe 5-10 min but still feeling hungry after the salad I pulled over and had a skyr with some of my new mates for 5 minutes.


I was headed towards one of my top destinations the black wood Búđakirkja. Wind swept and dramatic I loved it.


The long driving leg was over so now I would have a few stops not too far apart going around the mountain.
I went to Arnarstapi but it was crowded and I really didn't care for the shore so I drove just a little bit up to Hellnar where there was another church.


Also there I stopped for some delicious mushroom soup.



Fed and content it wasn't far to walk along the coastline at Londrangar. Just up the road you can also go to the volcano tube caves Vatnshellir but you need to book in advance.



Back on the road going around the mountain to the villages on the northern part. Passed some of the tallest radio antennas I've ever seen in my life and through a bird mating ground with plenty of them dead on the road, cars covered in crap and them swooping back and forth across the road with reckless abandon.


Got fuel in the fishing village on my way to the "church" mountain. The road and scenery reminded me of Hout's Bay and their famous road going down the Western Cape of South Africa.


Another waterfall, another mountain.


The plan was to head back from here, but when I saw that the Bjarnarhöfn Shark Museum I also watched on the flight was on the way I decided to stop there as well and pay the 1200 ISK admission for the tour and tasting. Tasted like cheese with alcohol in it.





Once I got back around the mountain to the road back to town I stopped for one more coffee knowing I had about 2h ahead of me after the 8am start and what was 9ish hours out already.


You can't miss Hotel Rjúkandi at the intersection and it was a nice cafe and they did a good coffee.

By the time I got to Borganes I was hungry and figured to eat there instead of waiting to get back. Grillhuiso is next to a gas station, doesn't look like much but was pretty tasty with this lamb kebab.



Back on the road I would be at the door of the apartment at 8:45pm making it a 12h45m day that was incredible as it was long.

RTW4

Great report!!! Thanks, so much...

JVPhoto

Iceland Day 3 - The Road to Vik



My original plan was to add on some of the "Golden Circle" to this but by the time I got halfway back from Vik and would have needed veer off at Selfoss I decided I would do it tomorrow. Just way too tired from all the time spent driving.

The road leading out of town to Vik is a pretty open space flanked by a few mountains but you can smell and see the springs as you drive.



Once I got down the hill and going through Selfoss I spotted Kaffi Krus and did a u-turn to stop and get a coffee.



Thanks for the snacks Bjork! I made a joke at the Arnastapi waterfront cafe that when the fire alarm was going off I asked if it was a Bjork song...the server didn't think it was funny.



The first two stops were waterfalls.
You can't miss Seljalandsfoss from the road.



It's really incredible to see. It's so big that the water seems like it going in slow motion until you start to walk behind it, heard it and feel it.


You can also hike to the TOP of it which seemed amazing; but, as I was going for breadth and not depth on this trip I kept moving down the road.

Skogafoss is not far and is a bit smaller, but easier to go up and down and around.





Next down the road and GPS set (mostly to not miss the turn off since everything was off the same Route 1) was Dyrhólaey to see the sea arch. Actually, it was the Sixt road trip guide that mentioned if you have 4/AWD to go up to the lighthouse and not park below. Thinking this was more intense than it was I realized that would have meant for the summer and it was not an issue at all going up the dirt road to park at the top near the lighthouse.





By this point I was pretty hungry for lunch so I decided to go to Reynisfjara on the way back and run into Vik first to eat. I drove through the town and was going to stop by the gas station/grill place but a tourist bus let out and the place was swamped. I thought I'd just go to the grocery store to make a picnic but when I bypassed it to see what was at the end of town I came across The Soup Company and had some delicious fish curry soup.


Charming little town but seems like it can get swamped during the high season.


Back around the bend to the black sand beach. Wasn't a whole lot to see here other than 37,000 British teens on school trips. There's a restaurant as well as puffins sailing off the cliffs.





The glacier wasn't actually on my radar to stop. I saw it when I was driving down and with some signs including "Glacier Cafe" I made it a point on the way back to turn off the road and head towards it. I was very glad I did, absolutely beautiful.







You can do glacier walks but you need crampons, poles and a guide (recommended at least). There doesn't seem to be any shortage of outfitters camped out in the parking lot willing to do that. Attached to the small cafe seems to be the "official" guide group.




After that it was a straight shot back to the apartment. I'm actually surprised with the coffee that I drank that in the 2h that it took to get back from there I didn't stop to pee. In Hella there is a lava tourist center and restaurant I was considering stopping at but I wasn't really hungry at that point and wanted to get back to work on some things I needed to finish from shooting in Budapest.

JVPhoto

Iceland Day 4 - The Golden Circle


(not my map but more or less the same)

Well the nice two days of sun gave way to rain, clouds and drizzle on what was going to be the day I went to a spa resort. I head out on Route 36 to Ţingvellir National Park. I knew there was some old settlement and things like that. However, when I actually got to parking it was raining fairly hard, I had no umbrella and did't think there was anything worth my time to get wet. Once you go past that you are on a narrow winding road through the brush and scrub which is rather nice. You then get out on a big open plains plateau full of lava rock and the lichen cover.




Being someone who eats every 2 hours it was time to make my way over to Fridheimar Greenhouse for the famous tomato soup. They open at noon, I got there at about 12:30 and a tour bus was already on its way out. A "normal" seat would not be free until 3pm but they have a walk up bar where you can get a cup of soup and breadstick for 1,000 ISK.




This greenhouse produces about 20% of Iceland's tomatoes year round. My friends who came in the winter said it was very dead then and they walked right in to eat and the owner was actually there talking to the few guests.

I made my way past the geysers to Gulfoss first. A quite spectacular waterfall.

Note the ropes...

There are two parking lots if you follow most of the signs you end up at the top and then walk passed the gift shop/cafe down to the falls. If you notice before you get up there is another turn off and it's a lower parking lot which was less crowded and puts you at the level where these photos were taken.



I made my way back to the Geysir and again found that if you turn off just before the main area you can pretty much pull in and find plenty of parking. I had just seen it on the map didn't really know what it was...I thought it was a constant funnel of water shooting up lol. 12 min waiting for one of the smaller ones and nada. Went to the "main" one had my camera and everything ready when two kids running around bumped into me and as I turned to look it went off and I couldn't get the pic in time. I wasn't going to stand around another 10-15 min in the rain to see it again just for a photo as I was getting cold and wanted to heat up.


Not far down the road I pulled into Laugarvatn Fontana. This was going to be my thermal baths because I didn't realize you needed to book Blue Lagoon in advance and the only times I could have done it were like 8am or 9pm. Entrance is 4500 ISK, if you need to rent a towel it's another 800. While it was sprinkling off and on it was very nice. There's a few pools with water temps in the 30s and I think one around 40, a dry sauna and then 3 steam rooms with natural steam being 30, 40 and 50 degrees.


I spent about 2 hours there with some dips into the lake as well.


They also have a nice cafe where you can stock up on what you have sweat and steamed out.


Still hot from the sauna it was a very awake and refreshing drive back to the apartment with the window down now and then on the open road.

JVPhoto

Iceland Day 5 - The Long Way to Keflavik



Best part about a flight at 12:10am when the sun doesn't set until 11:40pm? Having a full day of sightseeing before you leave.

I managed to hit up the gym across the street in the morning and then slowly pack up my stuff. This trip as I said was going to be with a friend but it was fine that it didn't. With that I didn't try to find anyone to do shoots with while I was here...also because I wanted to sightsee and not having to dictate my schedule on just a small photoshoot.
Realizing I had the time I got to my social media sleuthing for some local gyms of any talent. Luck would have it the evening before I managed to set up meeting Olafur at around 1pm for a few photos.



After that I made it back to downtown Reykjavik for coffee and lunch. I stopped by Reykjavik Roasters hoping they would have some sort of shirts or merch that I could bring back to the girls that work at my local coffee shop but alas there was no "MERCHUNDISING!" (said as Mel Brooks' Yogurt in Space Balls). They did have a "shakerato" which was a double espresso shaken with ice in a martini shaker and then strained. Lovely! Had the crispness of an iced americano without feeling watered down.




I circled around a bit more looking at souvenir shops but again even the shirts and gifts are like double anywhere else in the world. Nephew I love you but you are going to outgrow that $38 tshirt in like 3 months. Just off the front of Hallgrimskirkja I stopped at Cafe Loki for an Icelandic lunch of fish mash, trout and sheep head jelly.



The sun came out and I still had about another hour before I decided I should leave for the last road trip so I indulged in a gelato. I could have had quite a few more. I ended up loosing 8 pounds in the 3 weeks I was gone.



That didn't last long.


I drove through Olfus but didn't really see any sort of cafe or place to stop so I just made my way to Strandakirkja. Another lonely church on the shore. I didn't go in any of the others (aside from Hallgrims) but I did pop in here and it was absolutely immaculate.





The rough shore the sailors and fishermen would have to use for landfall to come worship.


Up into the geothermal park to walk around Mordor x Bog of Eternal Stench at Krisuvik.






By this time I was getting hungry and made it a plan to find food in Grindovik. After a few loops through town I saw the sign for Bryggjan on the docks. Lobster bisque or vegetable soup for 2000 ISK includes a refill on your bowl, tea/coffee & bread.





You can drive around and see a few little shipwrecks off of the docks.


I can't recall the name in Icelandic but you can't miss the "America - Europe Bridge" on the side of the road. It's a rift in the earth that is the line where the North American & Eurasian tectonic plates meet.



If you drive in this area and see the steam clouds from the power plants roll down your windows and slow down. That stuff is LOUD!


I did a pretty good job. I aimed to get to KEF at 10pm to turn in the car to Sixt and make my way to the terminal. Ended up getting to the Sixt office at about 9pm. I've never seen such a thorough check-in of a rental car...I'm talking using a mirror to look under the car and rub small spots on the windshield to see if they were chips (I did get the gravel dings & chips insurance).

JVPhoto

Eurowings Y KEF-TXL

Well there comes a time for even people who travel 100k+ miles/year to make little mistakes.
I didn't even think to check with the counters would open at KEF. I figured between the flights to CGN, STR, FRA, MUC, TXL that it wouldn't be an issue. Well, they don't open for 2h before the flight which meant I had an hour to spend in the crappy landside part of the terminal. Got by with Netflix's new "F is For Family".



The counters had 3 displays up the time I was waiting for Vueling. I should have noticed when I saw people lining up and that the Vueling flight was taking off in 15min that they were going to have this all be for EW. By the time I got around to checking it had already filled up. There was probably 4-5 snaked lines behind me. The CGN, TXL, STR flights all go off within 30 min of each other. The signs had just said 6-10 but they actually opened 9 stations to for check in. From this point in line to grabbing my bags from the security x-ray belt it was only 23 min which I found impressive.



I had the soup earlier so would just get some little snacks to hold me over plus I knew I'd get the little turkey sandwhich on the flight. Some fairly decent food and eating options airside.



A line had formed, but when they announced boarding everyone sitting on the left thought it would just be okay to make their own line going into the already formed line as well.





I had row 2 aisle with a mother and kid next to me. 1 DEF only had someone in F so once the doors closed I moved to 1D. The flight was unremarkable other than the fact it's a horrible schedule of leaving at 12:35am, only being a 3h flight and then arriving into Berlin at 6am. The couple across in row 1 actually had their window shade up, I was able to doze off and then the sun came beaming in until I shot over a very noticeable glare.

RTW4

Absolutely superb report. Pics are fantastic. Thanks so much...

florens

Wonderful report so far. Iceland is just so beautiful!

JVPhoto

Berlin & The Westin Grand

If you've followed my TRs you'll know that I've spent a lot of time in Berlin (which means I'm not running around taking tourist pics) and I normally stay at Casa Camper. Feeling thrifty at seeing The Westin for $120/night compared to Casa Camper at $295 I went ahead and booked through SPG. About 2 years ago I stayed here for 2-3 nights to get status and then switched to an AirBnB so I was somewhat familar with the hotel.

Arriving at 7am I didn't expect to let them in...through I hoped. In hindsight Casa Camper usually has let me do that after about 10-12 stays of probably 45-60 nights. I had already talked to my friends that I would pop over to their house in Prenzlauer Berg before they went to work and I could nap.

I only had 50 euro notes on me with nothing really open to break it for change so I played the best tourist I could to convince the bus driver to accept it and sell me the 2.80e ticket.




Once I woke up around 1:30 I saw that at 9am the hotel called and let me know the room was ready. Had I known that I would have just had friends get breakfast with me near the hotel and have napped there instead.
But we ended up at Spreegold when one of them got home for a good breakfast and catch up.



Slightly annoyed that the queen was two doubles that they didn't even push together. I didn't feel like going downstairs and changing rooms.


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The rooms are nice, the grand atrium is pretty and overall it's a decent property. However, the 2nd day there after I had been out until 4am I was sleeping in and house keeping rings the bell at about 12:30. I open and shoo him away pointing to the DND sign on the door. At about 2:30 he does it again! This time I angrily quipped "I have the sign on!"
Also at breakfast (not that big of a deal) but one of the waiters who made eye contact with me as I went up to get more coffee and fruit that I was still eating cleared my table.



Speaking of breakfast if it is not part of your rate or Platinum it's 32e, pretty pricy but it is good and it includes champagne. However, I wasn't really even up for breakfast except for Monday and the food hall across the street below Galleries Lafayette has great stuff to pick up and keep in the room.




Found a new Japanese cafe called Kame just off Tulchoskystrasse. After I convinced the woman that I wanted "pure" matcha with no milk/soy I showed her my ikebana class photos and tea ceremony to prove that I knew what I was talking about!





One night all of my friends were being lazy or non-committing so I had dinner inside the hotel at Relish. The rabbit raviloil was great, the tuna nicoise was okay. Tasty but the presentation was bland.



While I was there in Schoneberg was the Motzstrasse LGBT street festival (Pride...as they call it Christopher Street Day was actually the following weekend) which was fun way to spend 2 hours eating, drinking, people watching.








I lost 8.5 pounds in the 3 weeks I was gone...I could have had so much more to eat!

More eating at YamYam on Alte Schonhauser Strasse for some bimibap.

Around the corner to Cuore di Vetro for some gelato (went 2x this trip). Great unique flavors plus the classics.






Vertical farming salad shop Good Bank has also opened in Mitte.


The watermelon feta salad was good but got really watery at the end. The chicken jalapeno was a let down.



Cheap and not that great Thai at Transit near Rosenthaler Platz is usually a final goodbye with my friend Roman. I would have rather gone around the corner to District Mot for Vietnamese.


A last farewell with a friend at Alt Berliner cafe around the corner from the hotel on Unter den Linden.

RandomBaritone

I'm slightly embarrassed at how long it took me to realize there were emoji in this photo.

Authentically European, I see.