East Iceland 2022
Sept 18
East Iceland is definitely a less traveled portion of Iceland, most people come from Reykjavik as far as the plane crash and the town of Vik, then head back. Once we see a few more glaciers, there should be way less traffic and way less tourist buses. Not that it was very busy anyways.
Our first stop of the morning is the Hjörleifshöfði Viking Mountain and the Yoda Cave, made famous by its appearance in Rogue One:A Star Wars Story. Once we figured out we didn't have to do a three hour hike over the mountain, and could just drive a little further to another parking lot, we took the hike along the beach past some smaller caves.
This is where some tourists really annoy me... I'm happy to take my pictures and go, so others can get nice pictures, but there is this obnoxious group of Instagrammers and supposed "Star Wars Fans" and they have to stand in the main entrance of the cave taking picture after picture of pose after pose.They know people are standing back waiting, but they need 42 angles of Becky doing a fake force choke on Bruce while standing on a rock. When they get down and then start with "wait wait, let's do..." I kind of lose it and say maybe a little loudly "oh, come on!", their friends might have heard me and they finally wrapped up their 30 minute photo shoot.
Feeling a little calmer after my brief outburst, we can walk away from Yoda Cave and let the next people take some pictures.
We definitely haven't gotten to the windy part of the East Fjords
Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon used to be a hidden gem in Iceland until Justin Bieber shot parts of his video "I'll show you" in the canyon, now everyone knows where it is.They also had to add a bunch of safety barriers and trail markers to stop people from reenacting scenes from his video. A lot of locals are not happy with a certain Canadian.
It's a bit of a hike up long steep trails, but the views are well worth it.
After burning a lot of calories, it was time to jump in our Renault and look for a lunch spot.
We ended up in the tiny town of Kirkjubaejarklausterr for lunch (it translates to Church-farm-convent)... it's a little cafe in a gas station with another tippy table. But, they had a decent selection of food, and it was pretty good. The sign in the bathroom shows a certain sense of humour, or perhaps some frustration at some of the tourists that stop there.
You can't get very close to Foss á Síðu as it's on private property, but you can park by the gate, and play with the farmer's dog.
In fact if you don't play fetch with the farmer's dog, he will follow you back to your car. The only way to stop playing was to watch for someone else to pull in, then throw his rock far enough away and jump in your vehicle.
A short distance away from the falls are the Dverghamrar Trolls step. Legends of Dwarves and Trolls surround this little loop trail that winds through unique basalt columns and steps.
Our last waterfall for the day was the Fossalar waterfall, don't worry, there's more waterfalls later in the trip.
From the side of the road you can see the enormous Skaftafell glacier. We have definitely passed into a different and cooler part of Iceland, and when I say 'Cool' I am most definitely talking about the temperature.
This building is the last turf church ever built in Iceland. Hofskirkja was originally constructed in 1884, though it was thoroughly restored in the 1950s. Unlike some of the country’s other turf churches, this one is still a practicing parish. The church is partially buried in the ground, allowing the earth to act as natural insulation, and the turf grows over the roof and burial mounds surrounding it..
This watertub used to cool blacksmith tools, dates back to 1343.
The next stop on today's tour was the Fjallsárlón glacier lagoon, sitting at the snout of the Fjallsjokull Glacier. There is a sign for a boat tour on the lagoon, the sign says check in at the restaurant. So we walk around the building to the restaurant, and the girl says to check in at the sign... round round we go, it didn't matter, the last boat had already left.
Since we couldn't take a boat, we walked a loop trail along the shore, to get better views at the wide range of icebergs.
Just a few minutes away is the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon, it's not quite as dramatic as Fjallsárlón because the lagoon is much bigger and you are further from the glacier, but it's still pretty incredible to see.
Right next to Jökulsárlón is the famous Diamond Beach, the icebergs that break off the glacier, wash out to the ocean, and the crashing waves polish them into diamonds which then wash up on the black sand beach. It's definitely a sight to see.
We thought we had taken the wrong side of the lagoon river as there was hardly anybody on the East side, but we had it all almost to ourselves, while hundreds of people gathered on the West side looking at the ice-cubes.
We walked back along the bank towards the lagoon for one last view of the spectacle of the icebergs with the setting sun.
The next stretch of highway was known for reindeer sightings, so we watched avidly for reindeer, we didn't see any reindeer, but we did see more horses... and sheep.
Höfn
We made it into the small town of Höfn, and punched in the address for the Hotel Mikael. The stupid GPS took us down a wrong road and said we arrived at our destination. At that exact moment I get a message from the hotel, "We are about to close reception, so we'll leave your key in a lockbox". I explained to them that we were already there, just about 50 feet above their hotel on a cliff edge.
It was a cute little family run hotel, but we knew there would be trouble in the morning as our room was right beside the breakfast room.
We walked from the hotel to a restaurant recommended by the TI back in Vik, and once again we are struck by the odd display of peoples left over clothing, what is with this country?
The recommended restaurant must have been good, cause there was a 1 hour wait, so we ended up at a pizza place called Z Bistro. The table wasn't tippy and they had Lobster pizza. Pizza 2 nights in a row.
Sept 19
As expected we are woken up by the clinking of dishes, and the sound of serving spoons
hitting the sides of metal trays...
I guess it's time for breakfast.Then it's time to pack up and hit the road again, we might
need to stop and pet horses again.
Our first stop today was the Stokksnes peninsula. There's a small fee to enter the private road which leads down to a nice beach and a lighthouse.There was an interesting radar station that is part of NORAD, but I didn't want to break the law stating "No Photos".
The views of the Vesturhorn mountain range is stunning, especially when reflected in the shallow waters of Mirror Beach.
Another interesting site on this peninsula is the Viking village built in 2010 as a film set for a movie that was never finished, the village replica made its debut in a 2018 picture titled “Vikingr” - a film directed by Baltasar Kormákur based on tales from the Icelandic Sagas. Most interesting to me was it was used for some of The Witcher TV series.
We left the Stokksnes peninsula, but when we punched our destination in, the GPS had a meltdown, it wanted us to drive the long and opposite way around Iceland. That should take us about 22 hours instead of the 3 hours I expected.Good thing I brought a map.
It's a bit of a windy road along the eastern fjords, but the oceanside views are well worth it.
We stopped in the fishing village of Djúpivogur for lunch at Vid Voggin. It is supposed to be famous for it's Fish & Chips... it took forever for mediocre Fish, but the chips were good and we got to enjoy another tippy table, seriously, it must be all the earthquakes?
We made a few more scenic stops along the way at waterfalls (Fossá), they may have been called Nykurhylsfoss or Sveinsstekksfoss, but I really am not sure with our GPS acting up.
Our GPS finally figured out that it was shorter to not drive the entire clockwise direction around the ring road, and had us turn off of 'Highway 1' and take 'Highway 95'. It looks like a straight shot, and makes sense on the GPS map overview.It's a nice scenic drive, and suddenly the road is no longer paved and we are driving up, way up.
The higher up we go, the foggier it gets, and we are past the point of no return. I am not driving anywhere near the posted speed limit of 80kmh, but I am driving way faster than a couple other tourists that I passed. I am pretty sure they were contemplating the "point of no return" question.
And then as suddenly as it started, the fog was gone, and the road was paved. Whew!
30 minutes later we are pulling into our accommodations in the town of Egilsstaðir (aka Eggtown,cause no one can pronounce it)
Egilsstaðir
The Hótel Eyvindará is a bigger hotel, but the room is nice, and they have a couple hot tubs. We get checked in, and as we are heading back out, a tour bus unloads passengers for the night. I guess the hot tubs are out, and I hope it will be quieter than it is in the lobby right now.
We didn't take this cute little car in the parking lot, but we did drive into the coastal town of Seyðisfjörður. It's a drive up one side of a mountain via switchbacks, and then down the other side, of course being Iceland, there is a few waterfalls to see.
The road from Egg town ends at Seyðisfjörður, it's one way in, and one way
out.It's a cute little town sitting right in a fjord.
The highlights are its many colourful buildings and cute little church. The 2015 Icelandic mystery television series Trapped is set in the town, and was partially filmed there. I'll talk about the other area it was filmed later in the trip.
Back over the hill into Egg town, and we left the crowd at our hotel and went for dinner at Glóð Restaurant in town. I had Seafood Rotini and Norine had gratinized seafood, probably the best meal of the whole trip and it was at a non-tippy table
Sept 20
Surprisingly we weren't woken up by the tour bus leaving in the morning, but we did need to pack up, head to a local bakery for breakfast, and start the drive to North Iceland.