The Tours - IV

 The last day in Iceland was the most relaxed day. The start was at 1030 in the morning which gave us 2 additional hours to relax in the hotel. All our earlier days had started around the 0830 mark.On this day we had to visit quite popular and close by places. The first stop was the Thingvellier National Park which is a valley that lies in the middle of the Eurasian and American continental plates. It was amazing to walk in the midst of the valley. Our next stop was the Gulfoss water fall. It was beautiful, but nothing matched the beauty of Hraunfossar which we had viewed the previous day. After a few more waterfalls and scenic locations, we made our way to the creme de la creme. The geothermal pool called Secret Lagoon! Icelanders are avid swimmers. And all swimming pools in Iceland are open, open air and heated by the geothermal sources! Apparently it is quite easy to find little pools of perfectly heated water across the country and anyone can have a swim. But we are not the adventurous kind, so we had to book in a few hours at the pool. 

The pool was a unique experience. People take a shower before they step into the pool. They do not want to chlorinate the water too much and make it loose its natural goodness, so rather they make clean people get into the pool. It is imperative for people to shower properly with soap in their birthday suits and not the swim suits. It was something I felt might be a bit too weird for me, but didn't turn out to be so because everyone just went about their business quite mechanically and methodically. Showers done, we had to just put one foot in the water to feel the luxurious warmth of it! It was an amazing experience to soak in the warm, tending towards hot water. The hot springs that heated this water bubbled nearby. The sun was shining and nearly roasting us. It was amazing letting out bodies soak away the tiredness of the previous 3 days.

It was difficult to relinquish the warm hug of the swimming pool. But all good things come to an end don't they.  We had to give it up to an evening of packing. We bid adieu to Iceland through a very scenic drive to the airport in Keflavik. 

It was an amazing 4 days and 5 nights. An amazing time that left me very tired. I had enjoyed to the fullest. And I am definitely going back for more. Some day! 

The Tours - III

Our third day in Iceland was some more parts of the South Iceland. We saw a splendid waterfall called Hraunfoss. This waterfall has no river. It is an underground stream of water which suddenly comes up to a. gorge and falls down creating the most spectacular view. Nature is the best artist. And the creations of nature are just mind boggling and so awe inspiring. The water that tumbles down through the layers of lava is pristine and blue. Our guide informed us that the water is pure enough to be had straight off. We saw a few more water falls before heading off to a lava cave. 

The guide took us through a lot of details. It was marvellous to learn about the formation of the cave. It was also amazing to learn how one day, the cave might not remain any more because of natural erosion! Again the glory of nature, the creator and destroyer was humbling. At the end of the tour, the guide asked us hold the hand of a person next to us. Then he requested us to switch off the lights on our helmets. Following this he turned off the lights within the cave. He then asked us to listen to the cave. We heard the dripping of water from the ceiling, we felt the chill in the air a bit more and I of course felt the proximity of my family a bit more. It was such a deep meditative state. It was my first encounter with total darkness. I felt as if I could touch, hear and feel a bit more with one sensation removed. 

After that amazing experience it was time to head back to the hotel. That night we felt mild tremors in our hotel room. At first when K said he felt the tremors, I dismissed them to be the wind. But I felt the rattle again! It was as if a train went over a really bumpy track. It was an experience we had not signed up for. Iceland was making everything well worth it!

The Tours - II

 The second day of the tour was that of the South Coast of Iceland. Now this was entirely an ode to SRK and Kajol and their famous Gerua song which brought Iceland to the tourism fore front for many Indians. The views were amazing from the word go. We saw many locations that the song was shot in. It is a very popular site for Hollywood films as well.

 There was a small waterfall our tour guide stopped by. This waterfall was entirely supplied by rain water, since in the area it rained 360 days of a year. The water fall was quite big in the morning but since it was a dry day, we noticed that when we passed it in the evening, it was much smaller. We went to numerous other falls which were simply breath taking. The most pleasant one was the Seljalandsfoss which had a natural walk way behind it on which we could walk. Walking behind a water fall was an other worldly experience, one that I have never experienced before and am not sure if I ever will. 

We visited the famous black sand and black pebble beaches in the village of Vik. Our guide was a teacher so a 'guide' in the literal sense of the word as well :). And I must say he was a very knowledgable person who made our trip a lot of fun and very informative. 

The most inspiring moment on day 2 was a visit to a glacier. I had thought we would just see a glacier and come back. But we actually went near the glacier, in fact on top of it. It was covered with ash since it was sitting in between two active volcanoes which spew ash, one of them being the famous Eyjafjallajökull volcano which brought air travel to its knees with the ash in 2010. Under the black blanket of ash was the pristine bluish white glacier. It was massive. Seeing and standing on top of it was the most magnificent and humbling experience for me. It made me realise the power and the supremacy of nature. How big yet how benevolent mother nature is! Watching the water drip, feeding nearby rivers and water falls and sustaining an entire eco system, an entire nation was something awe inspiring. 

The Tours - I

 The first tour was to a the Snaefellsness Peninsula. It was a very long drive. Since Pumpki and K suffer from travel sickness, they both took some pills to reduce it. The pills made Pumpki extremely groggy. She kept drifting in and out of sleep. She felt annoyed to get down from the car when the tourist spots came up. The driver revelled us with stories about the Northern Lights. He show cased how unpredictable nature can be. He had been on a 7 day long tour chasing Northern Lights. And his entourage has not managed to get any. But then one evening when he was going to drop a group of tourists at the airport, the lights were flashing like disco lights. 

The tour included food. The food I must say was simply amazing! It was wonderfully seasoned with the right amount of spices. My sis and I gorged on the food. K and the kids suffered a bit since they are not so attuned to eating fish. That is why I keep chanting the mantra, eat everything, you never know when you might need to eat what. A dialogue that always reminds me of the book "The life of Pi" where Pi Patel, a lifelong vegeterian had to eat fish. Not that I insist if it is ones religious practice. But if it is not, it is good to have an open palette. I had managed to sneak in some food from the breakfast buffet. The sandwiches really helped. Ah and another thing that helped was my carrying over food from the UK. I had read how famously expensive Iceland was. Also I was not sure of what foods would be available. Especially for the kids. So I had packed a ton of snacks. There was a bag loaded with all sorts of knick knacks which made the day bearable and sustained the kids :) 

 The most endearing factor of day 1 was Pumpki being held closely by Chiyaa as she kept drifting off. Chiyaa was supremely caring as usual of her little sis :) They both are such a joy to behold. 

The departure and arrival

 As it was the school summer holiday season, there was rampant news about the mayhem in airports. There was news of baggage loss, of flights being late or cancelled and all other sorts of madness. We were filled with trepidation regarding our travel. 

We booked our airport drop to get us there 3 hours prior to the check in start time. We reached 40 minutes ahead of schedule. We were not allowed to enter the airport till the desks opened. There were various other groups of passengers who were corralled to wait for their time to enter the airport. It was a bit annoying for the kids to stand there doing nothing but observing other passengers. But it was a very interesting occupation for me :) I simply loved it, noticing the expressions, clothes, luggage of other air travellers :) 

Finally we were called in to enter the airport. And I must say, there was absolutely no sign of crowd or chaos. People went in in an orderly fashion to their respective airline desks and got check-in done. The security check-in was supremely smooth as well. The kids were running down the lanes and the check-in was done well in advance. We had time to buy coffee, buy books and even read them! 

We were to fly with Iceland Air. And I must recommend them especially if travelling with kids. They treated kids like royalty. They were given a welcome bag, meals and earphone to watch the in flight entertainment ( adults had to buy earphones!) The kids had an amazing time on the flight and the time just flew. 

Once we landed, as usual the baggage collection was very smooth too. We had booked an airport transfer to take us from the airport to the hotel. But before that food! K stumbled upon a shop which did gorgeous pizzas! The pizzas were delectable! And so was the coffee! The salads seemed amazingly tempting, but we decided to give them a miss for a later day. Our travel to Kopavagur to the hotel was super scenic. Iceland just spread out like a wonder in front of our eyes. As we reached our hotel, we just plopped on bed and enjoyed the comfort of our beautiful room while looking forward to the days ahead :) 

The alterations

 Our hotel in Iceland was not in the capital city of Reykjavik. The tour operators started reaching out to us regarding our pickups. Some claimed that they wouldnt be able to pick from the hotel though during the initial conversations they claimed that they would! Taxis were not so easy to come by. And the distances which were 10 minutes drive according to Google maps would entail that we start 10 minutes earlier from the hotel. With kids everything can be up in the air. Plus an extra leg to the journey would add further unknowns. What if the taxis were late, what if we didnt manage one on a given day, what if, what if, what if. We deliberated a lot and finally decided that we had no other go but to cancel the tours and book ones which would definitely pick us from the hotel. Thankfully all the tours were cancellable and that is exactly what we did. We got in touch with the tour desk at the hotel and a whole ton of rework started.

The lady who was in touch with us was Katrina Anna and I must say she was remarkably helpful. She even helped us to plan and recommended that one of the tours we were opting for was nearly a duplicate of another and we might be better off going for some different ones. We spoke to her back and forth via emails. We had a ton of permutations to go through. Initially cost was a consideration, but then we realised that to get the best out of our time, we had to throw that variable out of the window. 

I am a pen and paper person. I kept jotting down stuff as we were moving along. There were a lot of changes on the way. 

Till finally this image emerged!! We had all the days planned! It did not leave us any time to marvel at Reykjavik. All the days were packed with long duration trips except for the last one which was 8 hours long. We hoped we would survive it. More importantly we hoped that the kids would be ok through it. But this was the plunge we had to take. We were ready to dive full on to experience Iceland!

The tours

 Booking the flights and the tickets was only the first step. The challenge of what to do there once we have landed and parked our belongings was the bigger question. 

K had the blue lagoon in his bucket list as a must visit place. So before we got anything sorted we booked the blue lagoon. We were very excited that we had one definite thing pencilled in. As the days got closer our research intensified. There were a bunch of stuff we needed to do which are kind of the must-be-dones for visitors. If one wanted one could go with a quick tour of the capital city and the geothermal lagoon, but then to have a look at all the wonders, there was much more to be done. We had to book tours since we werent game on driving through a new country. The tours were quite long, approximating around 10-14 hours. We had to be mindful that the kids would be quite restless on the long journeys. It was quite tricky balancing the duration of tours with the things we wanted to see. It was a lottttt of Googling. 

Once we had zeroed in on the stuff we wanted to do, one thing was sure. Blue lagoon had to be out. It was quite out of the way and would take up a good portion of the day. Taxis were not easy to come by and they were super expensive! It was better teamed up with some tour which other operators were doing. And the last nail in the coffin was that it was a man made pool heated by a geo-thermal plant nearby! That kind of ruined it for us. We researched some more and found that there were plenty of natural pools albeit smaller than the blue lagoon. We opted for one of them in our tours.

So we booked 3 day tours and kept the 4th day free to savour the sights and sounds of the capital city of Reykjavik.

The planning

 We were not going to make a trip to India owing to all the fluctuations happening with respect to Covid rules. Also K has a ton of upcoming financial tasks to do in India in the coming year. So we needed to zero in on a holiday for the summers. Mainland Europe was pretty wrecked with the war in Ukraine. Things seemed quite volatile there too. 

Iceland was a destination in K's mind ever since he saw the movie "The secret life of Walter Mitty". But it has quite the reputation for being an expensive place too. Would we be able to afford a family holiday there? This involved a lot of research. The flights and the hotels seemed a bit above a standard conventional European destination. But then for a unique place like Iceland there has to be a premium is'nt it? The premium was affordable for us even given the current ridiculousness of prices. 

Destination zeroed in. The flights were relatively straight forward since there are not a lot of options to choose from.The hotels were researched with alarming diligence. The names of places were un-pronouncable and we had a tough time ascertaining which place might be best suited. We always got in touch with the hotel staff to find out about distances and they were all supremely helpful. There was not one instance where we didn't go "Aww they are just so kind" at the responses we received. We finally opted for a hotel away from the capital Reykjavik in a town called Kopavagur. 

This was just the tip of the iceberg and there was a whole lot more to be done!