Planes, trains & automobiles & a ship to Iceland, EastGreenland and NE Canada

[bPeteb]

I've never done one of these on here so apologies up front for the wordiness. This trip was over five weeks in August and September.

QF15 BNE-LAX, Y, 71A/B
QF11 LAX-JFK, Y, 71A/B
FI614 JFK-KEF, Y
The World, Reykjavik-Quebec City
VIA Rail, Quebec City-Montreal
Amtrak Adirondack, Montreal-New York Coach
QF18 JFK-LAX, Y+, 36J/K, J upgrade requested
QF16 LAX-BNE, Y+, 36J/K, J upgrade requested

16/08/2015
This holiday has been a long time in the planning. It's a long way to Iceland and Greenland and it's going to be way colder than anywhere we've been before so we've been stocking up on warm/waterproof/windproof clothing for months, and months, and months. We might even have over stocked. Ok, we have over stocked, but it's better to have too many warm clothes than too few.

After six days in Iceland we sail to Greenland on The World. It's an expedition cruise and involves mainly zodiac landings. This meant we had to buy quite specific water and cold proof boots. Recommended was a brand called Bogs. They are basically cold proof (rated to -40) wellington boots. They weigh 2kg a pair. They are huge. They take up a lot of space in our bags. Then there's the walking poles, the hiking boots, the thermals, the mid layers, the outer layers. Because it's The World there's also the jackets for dinner and other more 'formal' gear we need for after 6pm.

So, instead of a having our preferred single bag each, we have three large, expanded suitcases packed and ready to go the night before we fly out. We're nearly always stuffing things into bags in the hour before we leave so it's a strange, almost surreal experience to get up on Sunday morning, get dressed, call a cab, and head to the airport.

We were so blissed out we didn't even notice that the cab was taking us to the domestic instead of international airport. No worries we said, we have time to spare.

Time for some bubbles in the QC before we board. The first chink in the aura of calm came with the announcement that the flight was delayed by an hour due to a technical issue. That was ok as far as getting us to New York because we would be on the same plane from Los Angeles, but it might affect us getting to Iceland from JFK.

We were in the air just on an hour late.

 

[bPeteb]

16/08/2015

We're both rubbish sleepers on planes even though we’re in 71A/B. Partner got none and I might have got three or four hours in the 13+ to LA. Made up nearly half of the time we'd been delayed and pulled up to the gate 35 minutes late. Great crew, pretty decent meals, comfy seats.

Bags arrived with us but immigration took 40 minutes. We arrived into the US and walked straight back around to leave it, via another stupid queue - border control and security. Bizarre.

Sadly no time to try out the apparently beautiful Qantas Lounge because our flight was already boarding.

Just over half an hour late we lifted off and were on our way to New York.

We made up another bit of time on this flight and I even managed to sneak another few zeds. Poor Al got nothing again.

When we walked off the plane we had just under four hours before we were due to fly out to Reykjavik.

Apparently Terminal 7 at JFK is the only terminal in the US not operated by an American carrier. It's run by BA. You see it at its worst standing in the weird luggage carousel 'rooms'. Cramped, no airflow and the slowest carousel in the universe. The crowd thinned but no sign of our bags. So much for priority tags. Finally, after 30 minutes, our bags all came out in a row. Truly weird.

QF11 LAX-NYC is a domestic flight, so we walked out into the US with no immigration queues and straight back and around into the departures hall (Icelandair also use Terminal 7).

We boarded a bit late (everyone was given a bottle of Icelandic water as we walked on), pushed out, and went nowhere. The plane made a few strange noises then just sat there. Eventually the pilot announced that we would be returning to the gate as the 757’s engine two was a non-starter.

We didn't though. We sat there, and sat there for a bit longer, then the plane made some more funny noises. Then the pilot came over the PA and said their mechanics had fixed the issue and we were ready to rock and roll.

Icelandair is cool. Really friendly crew, decent entertainment system and ok menu (you have to pay for food on basic economy fare but tea, coffee and soft drinks are free). I just don't like 757s. They make lots of strange noises.

 

[bPeteb]

17/08/2015
Keflavik Airport is odd. Quite big, very modern, but no apparent gate lounges anywhere. People were just sitting/standing in the corridors in lines. And there were lots of people, everywhere, at 6.30am, at an airport only serviced by two airlines – Icelandair and Wow.

Booked an older Subaru Forrester with Iceland Car Rental - 4x4 Car Rental Iceland I thought the car was being delivered to the airport, but with another couple we drove down the road to Keflavik. They were two of a group of five French and they’d hired a Suzuki Vitara. As they were handed the keys they were told "you have the car you hired".

Our turn and I’m told “you have a choice of a couple of cars, come out and pick”. A current model Honda CR-V or Hyundai Ix35! I chose the Honda but should have chosen Hyundai as it was a diesel. Both were upgrades over the older Subaru I’d rented (9800ISK day), but the Hyundai would have been a serious upgrade (13900ISK day) and cheaper to run and fill up too!

Car loaded, we headed back to the airport hotel to pick up the friend who’s apartment we would be staying in on The World. Next stop Akureyri Visit Akureyri | Visitakureyri.is
There's no better word to describe the Icelandic scenery than epic. It really is. Everything about it is huge, and magnificent. We drove route 1 that runs right around the island, a great road with very little traffic. On each side are huge mountains, some with last winter’s snows clinging on. Long sweeping bends and endless straights. Speed limit is only 90kmh.

I got REALLY tired but Mr BP was tireder – he hadn’t slept more than an hour in well over 40 - so it was me or me. I drifted off to the right a couple of times but a blast of fresh air got me back on the tarmac.

Akureyri appeared just in time. I was pooped. Friend deposited at The World, we found a park around the corner from our hotel, unloaded our pile of luggage and checked in.

Center Apartment Hotel English | Center Apartment hotel was very close to perfect. Excellent location, a couple of off street parks, really nice rooms with comfy beds and nice bathrooms. A fantastic breakfast (9 euros I think). Best of all an amazingly welcome proprietor Edda. She was wonderful.

A very pretty and compact town. Quite interesting houses. Lots clad in corrugated tin, others block, others vertical timber. It was surprisingly warm. So warm that we were down to t-shirts sitting outside at a bar on the town square drinking beers to cool down. Brilliant.

Dinner at rub23 Restaurant Akureyri, sushi, seafood and steakhouse | RUB23 Restaurant, recommended by the hotel receptionist, and it was terrific. It was a four course tasting menu and it was all delicious. Sadly both so exhausted that we didn’t really appreciate it.

In bed by 8, only 50 hours since we’d got out of bed in Brisbane.

 

[bPeteb]

18/08/2015
An ordinary night's sleep despite the comfy bed. Thin walls and timber floors meant we heard every move and conversation of our neighbours next door and above. That's obviously why they leave ear plugs in the bathroom! That's all they leave in the bathroom apart from liquid hand soap. No shampoo, no conditioner, no cakes of soap. Very strange.

They are the only negatives the hotel has. The rest is all positive.

Excellent breakfast of juice, coffee, yoghurt, fruit, cheese, meat, eggs and toast. It was a feast.

Plan for the day - Godafoss, Husavik and the phallus museum, Dettifoss and the thermal pools at Myvatn.

Godafoss, the first of our trifecta of Icelandic waterfalls - beautiful, and would have been even more beautiful in the sun but that wasn't to be.

We've been very nerdy and done google streetview walks and drives of everywhere and Husavik looked pretty ordinary. WRONG!! It’s a beautiful picturesque fishing village. Didn't even bother looking for the phallus museum. Better use of our time was eating delicious fish and chips and soak in the view.

Visited the Exploration Museum where they celebrate Icelandic exploration and NASA's visits to Iceland to train the moon astronauts.

There is a good view of Dettifoss, and a better view. The better view required a 52km drive on a corrugated gravel road – 26 in and 26 out the other side.

It was worth every teeth jarring moment. If Iceland is epic, Dettifoss is EPIC x 10. This the waterfall at the start of the movie Prometheus. Dettifoss is amazing. The power of the water is unbelievable. Lots of crazy people too close to the edge for me.

Myvatn Nature Baths Myvatn Nature Baths, not far from the end of the ‘out’ gravel road. ISK3700 plus 700 for a towel. Bargain compared to Blue Lagoon. A strange and cool (well, warm) experience.

 

[bPeteb]

GodafossGodafossDettifossDettifoss

 

[bPeteb]

Myvatn Thermal poolsCenter Apartment Hotel Akureyri

 

[kermatu]

Looks amazing. Iceland is on my "hopefully one day" list.

I'm amazed you picked up a car and were able to drive after that length of journey!

 

[RooFlyer]

Subscribing. I'm another who doesn't fancy 757s. My Icelandair flight from LHR-KEF was notable for the "Koala" white wine they served in J. A cat would have been disappointed to 'pass' it.

 

[love_the_life]

Loving the report so far. Brings back great memories of Iceland though we were there as part of a cruise (also adventure that ended here from Tromso and Svalbard). Agree about the airport - it is huge and virtually empty. I remember the falls well. How did you manage a trip on the World as I thought it was cabin/apartment owners only? Or does the friend you picked up own one of them? Very keen to hear all about it.
How was your luggage allowance - any excess with all those cases?

 

[bPeteb]

Loving the report so far. Brings back great memories of Iceland though we were there as part of a cruise (also adventure that ended here from Tromso and Svalbard). Agree about the airport - it is huge and virtually empty. I remember the falls well. How did you manage a trip on the World as I thought it was cabin/apartment owners only? Or does the friend you picked up own one of them? Very keen to hear all about it.
How was your luggage allowance - any excess with all those cases?

Yes, the friend owns an apartment. They sailed around from Akureyri to Reykjavik and then went back home to London. We are very lucky. No excess luggage. Way under our allowances as two x 23 each all the way to Iceland and same back.

 

[UpInTheAir:)]

Subscribing... never been to Iceland but thinking maybe I should..

 

[bPeteb]

19/08/2015

Drove a slightly different route back to Reykjavik - around a couple of the northern peninsulas. The scenery was stunning. Sheer cliffs dropping down into the ocean. Rolling pasture dotted with black and white sheep and black and white cylinders of baled hay. Farms with bright blue or bright red roofs. Waterfalls cascading down from the towering mountains above. The roads sweep through valleys and across mountain passes. It is just beautiful.

The towns are a stark contrast. Older buildings are timber or corrugated tin painted in bright colours. The newer buildings, and apartment blocks, are bland grey rendered slabs of mediocrity. Function over form.

Had time to fit in Blue Lagoon before we checked in to hotel. It is near Keflavik. I'd forgotten all about pre-booking the Blue Lagoon so it wasn't any surprise when we were told there was a wait. So we paid the equivalent of USD100 each for a towel, a drink band and a small pack of mud. We didn't really end up waiting that long before our wrist band colour was called and we were in.

Loved it. We got our 'free' drink at the swim up, ok walk up, bar. Al had a couple more but I wasn't game. No idea how long we spent but it was a hoot. Pissed that someone nicked one of our towels and no-one around to provide a replacement so we just had to share towel. Well worth the money.

Reykjavik is a large sprawling city with a terrific system of well-marked freeways around and through it but in the centre of Reykjavik the streets are narrow! Really narrow. We found Laugavegur and Hotel Fron www.hotelfron.is/ was 200 metres up the road. 150 metres up the road it turned into a pedestrian mall. We turned down the last street before the mall and miraculously there was a parking space!

Up until Hotel Fron, every contact we’d had with Icelanders had been warm and welcoming. It was like the staff at that hotel had signed a contract that stated that they couldn’t smile, or greet you, or laugh. It was bizarre. Our room was on the top (5[SUP]th[/SUP]) floor reached by lift and then narrow steps. Initial impressions of the room good – big, a wall of windows, view out to the ocean, nice bathroom, shampoo and soap even. Very soft bed though.

Reykjavik first impressions. Down by the ocean lots of modern apartment blocks that could be in any city down but most of the buildings away from the water much smaller and older. Lots of very small houses amongst older but brightly painted apartment buildings of maybe four or five floors. A really pretty city.

Dillon Whiskey Bar (www.dillon.is/en/) for dinner. Burgers and beers out in the beer garden but it got tool cold so we moved into the bar. A whole wall of whiskey. We stuck to beer.

Hotel room was like an oven with no temp control. Only solution was to open the windows. Five floors below was a very loud bar with outdoor tables. Windows closed too hot, windows open too noisy. Bar closed and an endless procession of garbage trucks arrived. Bins full of empty bottles rolled along the cobbles that were then lifted up and dumped into the trucks. Awful. If you stay at Fron ask for a back facing room.

 

[bPeteb]

 

[bPeteb]

Hotel Fron
Very cool 'graffiti' all around Reykjavik

 

[bPeteb]

20/08/2015
Breakfast included in the room rate. Ok spread of cereal, yoghurt, meats, cheeses, hard boiled eggs, fruits, juice, coffee and bread for toast. Restaurant is cramped and poorly set out.

On the road again at right on 9 for 'Golden Circle DIY'.

It was a pretty miserable drive and visit to the third of the waterfall trifecta – Gullfoss. Another spectacular waterfall though.

A map at Gullfoss showed a glacier that looked less than 30km away. The road was better than the one to Dettifoss. No dust due to the rain. Didn’t find he glacier but did find some snow to touch.

Eventually realised that we’d been driving on route 35, the overland route through to the north that we’d nearly driven to Akureyri on. Glad we didn’t. It would have been nine hours of hell!

At Geysir we got one a geyser and wandered around the thermal field. Thingvellir National Park was beautiful. An amazing stunted forest with a weird grove of pine/fir trees in the middle. Headliner is the cliff where the European and North America tectonic plates butt up against one another. It’s called the birthplace of Iceland.

Dinner at the 'gastro pub’ next to the hotel (where the noise had come from the night before) www.publichouse.is/. The food was brilliant. Seriously good. They really know their way around a kitchen in Iceland. Ended up back at Dillon.

No concept of responsible service in Iceland. It kind of goes with what we’d seen at the waterfalls where it was up to you to decide how close you wanted to get to the edge. There were a couple of guys sat beside us, one who could barely hold his glass. He eventually just fell off his chair. He dragged himself up and staggered off to the loo then emerged a few minutes later and just carried on. His mate bought him more beers. He drank them. The night before we’d seen a guy sat at the bar also nearly fall off his stool. He stumbled to the loo then when he came back proudly announced he’d cleared some more space by vomiting. Funny, and not so funny.

 

[bPeteb]

Cool architectureHallgrimskirkja
Inner city ReykjavikReykjavik street art

 

[bPeteb]

21/08/2015

Reykjavik on foot today. Rows of fish restaurants near the old harbour.
Whales of Iceland Home Differing thoughts on this one. Yes, a couple of the smaller whales/porpoises were a bit odd looking but the full size whales were amazing. It's expensive. Like most things in Iceland in high season. We love whales but we found the nearby Maritime Museum more interesting.

Highlight of the day was The Settlement Exhibition Reykjaví871±² Landnásýn Terrific. It’s an excavated long house found under a city hotel. The oldest evidence of human habitation found in Iceland. Great displays with interactive touch stuff we’ve never seen anywhere before. Brilliant stuff.

The lowlight - the Icelandic Phallogical Museum The Icelandic Phallological Museum

You’d think if anyone was going to find a museum about dicks interesting it’d be the gays but it was horrible. There’s only so many humpback whale, bull, goat, horse, pony penises in long glass specimen jars you can look at. Even the artwork of 15 erect penises that actually don’t belong to the 'members’ of the 2008 Olympic silver medal winning Handball team wasn’t enough not to give this museum a big ‘avoid at all cost’ rating.

Great dinner at Verbud 11 verbud11.is | Veitingastaður down by the old harbour.

 

[bPeteb]

Some straws just for us, Maritime MuseumRejkyavik streetscapePhallus Museum - avaoid. I have no idea how to rotate photos on here?Bloody expensive socks made by somone's grandpaAnother amazing meal, this time at Verbud 11

 

[RooFlyer]

Did you sample the hakarl, one of the local delicacies?

 

[love_the_life]

Now that is what I call an acquired taste. I could not get it down but Mr LtL did manage it (my morsel ended up in a pot plant)