{"id":293,"date":"2018-10-02T22:34:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-03T02:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/02\/iceland\/"},"modified":"2018-10-02T22:34:00","modified_gmt":"2018-10-03T02:34:00","slug":"iceland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/02\/iceland\/","title":{"rendered":"Iceland, Brutal and Beautiful"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nPart 1: SOUTH ICELAND<\/span><\/b><\/h2>\n
\n<\/div>\n

\nDay 1 \u2013 Mon., Oct. 1<\/span><\/b><\/h3>\n

\nArrival<\/span><\/b><\/h3>\n
\nIceland is a COLD place. It’s as far north as Alaska! Who knew? It is also full of unpronounceable places, most of which start with the letter “S,” and many of which are waterfalls and glaciers. <\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nOn Arrival Day, we stepped off the Icelandair jet at 6:20 AM into a brutal monsoon – pouring rain, 50 mph wind, and cold! Why did no one warn us that Iceland is so effing cold? After the extreme discomfort of getting to the shuttle and getting our rental car \u2013 fortunately a lovely Forrester with much-needed heated seats — we drove through wild weather for 2 \u00bd hours to get to our lodging, a sheep farm called Sk\u00e1latj\u00f6rn Guesthouse. There, we hunkered down and napped for three hours. <\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThen, somewhat refreshed, Lexie relaxed while Bob and I went to Selfoss, 18 km away, for a few groceries, and to soak in a thermal pool. <\/span>
\n
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\n\n\n\n\n
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The weather the WHOLE day<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/div>\n

\nDay 2 – Tue., Oct. 2<\/span><\/b><\/h3>\n

\nThe Ring Road<\/span><\/b><\/h3>\n
\n
<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
\nThe day dawned still cold, but thankfully sunny. We let Lexie sleep late (she is a teenager, after all) and set off around 11 AM for a south coast expedition on Rte. 1, the Ring Road, to the town of Vik. We stopped at several waterfalls along the way. If we were going to do it again, we would definitely bring hiking boots. But thankfully, we had parkas, hats and gloves, because the temperatures were in the 30s all day, and the occasional bursts of wind cut through your bones.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nHere are the waterfalls<\/a> we visited:<\/span>
\n
<\/span>Urridafoss <\/b>Waterfall<\/b> \u2013 <\/span>This low, wide waterfall was ten minutes from our guesthouse. No one was there and it had a Niagara Falls feel. The hike was short and the view was spectacular.<\/span><\/span>
\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Urridafoss<\/span><\/span> Waterfall<\/span>
<\/span><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\nSeljalandsfoss Waterfall<\/b> \u2013 You can actually walk on a path behind this incredibly high (65 meters tall), loud, dramatic waterfall. Bob did. Check out the pics he got! (He was soaked afterward) <\/span>
\n
<\/span>
\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Seljalandsfoss Waterfall<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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View from the belly of the beast, by Bob<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Soaked afterward<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\n
Gliufradbui,<\/b> the hidden waterfall, was a quarter-mile hike away. Unfortunately, the cave you used to be able to use to access it was now closed for safety reasons. <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Look deep to see the hidden waterfall<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\n
<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
\nSkogafoss Waterfall<\/b> had a rainbow to its left that seems to be its permanent partner. It also has a challenging trail you can hike to the <\/span>mountaintop to get views of the falls from above. Also, lots of sheep neighbors!<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Skogafoss Waterfall <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

\n<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
View from above<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 Finally, we discovered the <\/span>Dryholaey Nature Reserve<\/a><\/b>, with its iconic rock formations in the ocean (The Needles), famous arch and end-of-the-world feel. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
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\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Dryholaey Nature Reserve<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\n  <\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
\nWe stayed up late and saw a subtle display of the Northen Lights before going to bed. A very satisfying day!<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\nNext stop … The Golden Circle. Watch for updates!<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part 1: SOUTH ICELAND Day 1 \u2013 Mon., Oct. 1 Arrival Iceland is a COLD place. It’s as far north as Alaska! Who knew? It is also full of unpronounceable places, most of which start with the letter “S,” and many of which are waterfalls and glaciers. On Arrival Day, we stepped off the Icelandair … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Iceland, Brutal and Beautiful”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[30,31,137,41,141,200,5,6,199,32],"class_list":["post-293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-adventure","tag-adventure-travel","tag-europe","tag-explore","tag-iceland","tag-northern-lights","tag-travel-blog","tag-travel-blogger","tag-waterfalls","tag-world-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}