August 1st, 2021 Leaving Reykjavík, Iceland

7:30AM I woke up and had breakfast before getting a complimentary taxi to the airport. I boarded the plane to JFK airport and the plane took off at 10:50AM. I reached JFK at about 1PM and the flight for SFO left around 4PM.

I brought some jerky home.

July 31st, 2021 Strandarkirkja, Iceland

6AM I left for Strandarkirkja, the white church southeast of the Buuble Hotel. The drive was 50 minutes. I took some decent shots with the wide angle. I took flyby videos with my drone. I then started driving back and picked up Paoula a little after 10AM.

10:30AM We drove back to Reykjavik to get a COVID test for tomorrow. The line took 30 minutes and then we drove to the Blue Lagoon. We arrived at 2PM. It was good and offered us a drink and 2 masks for the premium package.

3:30PM We couldn’t stay very long. The car rental company forced us to return the car and threatened to call the police if I returned the car late. I drove Paoula to Park Inn but couldn’t check her in.

4:20PM I started driving to Reykjavik and got take out from both Þrír frakkar and the Old Islandic Restaurant. Both are acutally small restaurants with great reviews. I arrived back at the rental company at 6:45PM. I had a small argument with the sales agent and left in short order. I walked a little before getting a ride from a Polish couple.

6PM I arrived back at the hotel and Paoula was already checked in. She was very upset and accused me of getting a single room. She thought she had paid for the room. She wanted a confession of some sort and wanted to stop me from going to the old manager downstairs. I went down and the manager said her debit card was just put on for deposit. Paoula did calm down eventually and realized that there were no issues and most of this resulted from the debacle that is when the rental company refused to render service for an extra day.

8PM We had the takeout which was whale and smoked puffin from Þrír frakkar and a seafood soup from the Old Icelandic Restaurant. We bought some sodas from the nearby grocery store and went to bed at 10PM.

Puffin

Whale

July 30th, 2021, Grafarkirkja, Kalfshamarsvík, Ingjaldsholskirkja, Budir, Iceland

6AM I left for Grafarkirkja, the oldest turf church in Iceland. The weather was misty and as a result, I didn't even bother to take the drone out for a flyby.  I then drove back past Blonduos to reach Kalfshamarsvík. This took almost 2 hours. The coastal locations tend to be foggier, I have noticed. I realized the next day when we were leaving that there were two Hvitserkurs, one was the actual site, which I missed here right next to Blonduos and one is a place close to Reykjavik. It was a shame I had missed it.

Kalfshamarsvík

11PM I arrived back to the Bohemian Cabin at Blonduos to pick up Paoula. She gave me a very nice surprise and decorated the room with balloons. We then started driving down to the Lake Matyn area again. 

Blonduos

2PM We drove past Kirkjufell and found Ingjaldsholskirkja, the white church at the end.

3PM We reached Budir, the black church. Surprisingly enough, there were many visitors here for photos. We missed a few turns. 

6PM We were fighting time. I spent 15 minutes at Eldborg with drone photos only as it was about 2 kilometers away from the main road.

Eldborg crater

8:30PM Though the restaurant stated it was going to be full, Ingolfsskali was actually completely empty. No wonder they had no issues when we told them that we were going to be half an hour late.

10PM We reached Buubble. There was no reception and we had pay 7500 ISK for someone to lead us in.

July 29th, 2021 Hljooaklettar, Hverfjall and Aldeyjarfoss, Iceland

6AM I woke up and drove to Hljooaklettar. The caves were a small hike away from the parking lot. However, I missed "the church" and had to redo the path in order to take photos. I didn't have enough time to go to Dettifoss and proceeded to drive back to Husavik.

Hljooaklettar

12PM I arrived back Husavik to pick up my new drone. Paoula returned from her whale watching trip shortly after and we checked out of the Husavik Explorer Apartment Hotel. We then started driving toward the Krafla crater.

2PM We arrived at the Krafla crater. I flew the drone up. It was not very impressive. At this time, I noticed that I misplaced my swimsuit. Fortunately, it was found at the Lake Matyn bath. I relocated it and we continued onward to Hverfjall crater. It only took less than 10 minutes to hike and I took some drone videos.

5PM We continued onward to the Dimmuborgir lava field. I tried to fly the drone as low as possible.

Dimmuborgir lava field

6PM We continued driving toward Gooafoss. It was mediocre and just off the road.

7PM We arrived at the Aldeyjarfoss, the circular and symmetrical waterfall. The hike only took 10 minutes. I flew the drone directly above the waterfall. We spent 40 minutes here. Paoula enjoyed it and I do think it's probably in the top 5 falls even though it was clear that not many tourists visit here.

Aldeyjarfoss

8PM Paoula drove us through Akureyri and to Blonduos. We had dinner at Eyri Restaurant Veitingahus. It was 10PM when we had dinner. We had some dried fish. The bartender farms sheep and we had some of his smoked sheep as well. He even made us his creative drink as a compliment. For dessert, we had rhubarb cake. It was a nice touch. Paoula drove the rest of the way to Blonduos.

 

July 28th, 2021 Hengifoss, Hverir, Vok Bath and Husavik, Iceland

6AM I woke to drive to Hengifoss. This was definitely a difficult hike, about 4 kilometers. The first half was manageable. The second half was more and more difficult, without a real path. It was like walking in nature. At the end, it was just rocks and water. I took the drone up. What a mistake! I flew it out of range, without satellites. The drone was right in front of the fall when it lost RC signal. I walked to where I thought the drone was, right in front of the fall. There was no way I could find it without risking injury and taking a long time. Seeing that there is no path, and the visibility was awful, I turned around.

9AM I gave up and started walking back. The hike was another hour. The drone couldn’t be located on the way. I met a few couples who said they would look out for it. I started driving back to Hotel Alder at 11AM and arrived an hour and half later.

11:30AM I picked up Paoula and we had a coffee there and continued onward to Lake Matyn. It was a long drive. We stopped briefly at Rjukandi on the way. I ordered another DJI from Reykjavik on the phone to be delivered at Husavik the very next day.

3PM We stopped briefly at Hverir Geothermal Area, followed by a stop at the Game of Thrones cave.

4PM We had a bath at Lake Myvatn. Paoula liked the Vok Bath the best.

8PM We started driving to Husavik and arrived at 9PM to have dinner. Paoula wanted to watch whales tomorrow. I found 2 tour companies, neither had space today or tomorrow morning. There was supposed to be a 9:30PM but we were the only ones there so the evening tour was canceled. Both companies had tours in the morning so we planned to have Paoula waiting it out in the morning to try to get on a boat if someone cancels.

July 27th, 2021 Svinafjellsjokull, Vestrahorn, Eystrahorn

5AM I woke at 5 AM and started driving back towards the glaciers. It took 1 hour and 30 minutes to get back to the glaciers. I arrived at around 7AM. This was definitely the place that Mads Iversen took his photos. I took several shots and flew the drone into the glacier for the panorama.

Svinafjellsjokull

7:30AM It took another one and a half hour to drive to Vestrahorn. The Viking film set was on site. The admission cost was 900 ISK. I have a latte for 850 ISK. I recognized the Viking film set from the TV series. I walked for the photo vantage point but didn't go all the way to the observatory. As Iversen had mentioned in his Youtube video, there were many interrupting clouds that made taking photos challenging.

Vestrahorn

Endalausidalur Peaks

10AM I started driving back to Paoula. I stopped for a couple more photos on the way of some intervening landscapes. I arrived a little bit after 11AM and Paula had all the bags in the waiting area because we had already been kicked out of our room. She kept a box of breakfast for me but she forgot plasticware. She said that she was doing something very kind and sweet. It was okay because the hotel didn't have any either.

Intervening landscape

1PM We arrived at Eystrahorn but couldn't find a good angle. We drove back a little more and found where Iversen took his photos. The rocks were a little slippery but I did manage. The photos were less dramatic because the tides weren't high.

Nearby Eystrahorn

5:30PM We passed Foldafoss and the number of other unnamed and named waterfalls in the mountains on the way to Hengifoss. We stopped by the gas station just before the fall and had three scoops of ice cream for 850 ISK. The flavors were apple coconut and pecan. I arrived at Hengifoss but there was too much rain. We decided to pass and go to the geothermal Spa. It was decent.

8PM We drove to the Nordic Restaurant. They had reindeer there. It tasted like minced beef meat. After dinner, we began driving to The Cliff Hotel. The Clift Hotel was 1 and 1/2 hours away from Seydisfjordur. It looks like the drive was going to be difficult. I called booking.com for a refund since the Clift Hotel was not answering their phone. We then managed to find a spare room at Hotel Alder with two separate beds. Paoula was very grateful that we didn't have to drive 1.5 hours at midnight. We went to bed at 1AM.

July 26th, 2021 Eldhraun lava field, Fjallsarlon, Jokulsarlon glacial lagoon

8AM We woke and I took the drone to take a video of the church above. It was anticlimactic. The breakfast was the same as yesterday. The view was beautiful.

9:30AM We finally left. We started driving to the Grafarkirkja church. It was not there and it was just another place with the same name as stated in the previous entry.

10AM We arrived at the Eldhraun lava field which was alright. The canyon was not far away so we drove to it. The hike was longer than expected. The drone shots were spectacular. I started running back because it was 11:40AM. I thought I could get to the glacier hike at 12PM. However, I miscalculated the distance and the amount of driving that we had done before. We had only driven around 45 minutes to Fjaðrárgljúfur and we were still about 1 hour away. I called the company and obviously, when they heard it would take us an hour late, they refused to refund.

Fjaðrárgljúfur

1PM We arrived at the Skaftafell Glacier National Park. They do not actually run any private tours. There were four private companies. Only one ran a small ice cave tour. They left an hour ago and they recognized me. I went to check out the other one called Arctic Adventure right next door and they weren't running any hikes with the cave. Ours was the only one that did. They did tell me that it was a small cave though. I look for Paoula and she seems to have disappeared. I bought a Diet Coke and a Coke Zero. They were getting warm in my hand. So I went back and exchange them for two new bottles. I finally found Paoula after an hour. She was just sitting in the car sleeping because she had the same color clothing as the car seat, I couldn't recognize that she was still in the car. At this point, she turned very angry. But she insisted that she was grumpy and tired. I continue to drive. I drove past Svinafellsjokull.

Svinafellsjokull

6PM We arrived at Fjallsarlon. They didn't allow drones here and I was warned by some strangers. We continue driving for 20 minutes to reach the Jokulsarlon glacier lagoon. We took a few photos at the Diamond Beach. The photos were difficult to shoot and the tides were coming in. My shoes got completely wet.

7PM we arrived at the Lilja guesthouse. I dropped off Paoula so she wouldn't get angry. I drove 40 minutes to the Endalausidalur Peaks. I actually took two wrong turns and with the last one I was running when out of gas. An American rescued me by giving me half a small tank of gas.

Sunset

7:45PM I finally took the middle road like the American had suggested. There was a large parking lot. I flew the drone. However, I had to fly very far and visibility was not ideal. 

8:30PM I arrived back at the Lilja guesthouse to pick up Paoula. We found another restaurant Pakkhus. They had very old decor and the building was built in 1932. The langoustine was great and they even gave me a recipe book when I told them I would like to learn. The horse was also good.

Langoustine at Pakkhus

And horse meat!

July 25th, 2021 Vik, Svartifoss and Solheimajokull

8AM We woke and had breakfast together. We started driving east. We had little gas and skipped the attractions toward to Skaftafell. This included Grafarkirkja Church, which was actually on the north side of iceland but we mistakenly thought it was here. I visited that later. This actually ended up being just another place named with the same name. We also skipped Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon and Eldhraun lava field until the next day.

11:30AM We arrived at Svartifoss. The hike was about 30 minutes each way and we realized we might be a little late. 

Svartifoss

2PM It took another 1 hour to get back to Solheimajokull. The GPS address was wrong. We made it to the glacier hike bus, which was parked 15 minutes away from the GPS location. Though we were 20 minutes late, there were a number of elderly on this trip which made it acceptable.

4PM After an hour of putting on our pants and crampons, we finally started our glacier walk. It was raining but we had rain jackets and rain pants. I had followed a waterproof hiking boot and waterproof pants. Paoula had brought waterproof pants from England but decided to get another pair anyways for whatever reason. She said she didn't want to get wet. The two hiking pants and one hiking shoe was 3000 ISK. It was 1000 ISK for each item. Paoula paid for it.

6PM We drove to Reynisfjara black sand beach after the hike was over. We spent about two hours with some drone shots. However, the tide was too high for us to walk into the semicircular cave.

9PM We went back to the Soup company to have soup. I wanted to have different choices but Paoula insisted on having the same thing as I did, the lamb soup. She had a ginger and grape drink, and I had the Applesin soda.

11PM We went to bed.

July 24th, 2021 Reykjavik and the Golden Circle

9:15AM We had breakfast and went to town. The sweatpants boots pop up store was closed over the weekend. We then drove to Strokkur, followed by Gullfoss. It took 1.5 hours to get there. On the way there, we stopped by the Fridheimar tomato farm. We had two soups there. The ice cream was disappointing as it was just tomato syrup poured onto what seemed like plain vanilla ice cream.

We then drove another 1.5 hours to get to Seljalandsfoss. This one was special as it is one where you could walk behind. I opted out. It was drizzling a little bit and I was not covered with waterproof clothing. Paoula walked behind without problems.

Seljalandsfoss

Gljufrabui was right by. At first the place looked like you would be drenched but when you get into the cave you realize it's enclosed so that no wind would blow it toward you. Skogafoss was not far. That was one of the prettiest ones I have seen. Kvernufoss was right by but I took a drone to see it instead.

Skogafoss

8:30 PM Lastly, we drove 15 minutes and trekked another 20 minutes to get to the Dyrholaey Lighthouse vantage point. We had to save Reynisfjara sea stacks until the next day. We arrived at the Soup Company just when they were closing at 10PM. The lava soup was made to imitate lava and was quite nice after being in the rain for the entire day.

Dyrholaey vantage point

Lava soup at The Soup Company