#3.4 North-, North-East

Leaving Reykjavik after a good nights sleep and breakfast we were heading north for the Sneafellsnes peninsula. Having planned a 300km trip with 2 or 3 main sights we really had no expectations about what to happen. We just drove off to see "miniature Iceland" as some call this part of Iceland in the north east of the country.

- Unexpected beauty and a famous place no one cared to mention - 

Barnafoss

 The first day starting the trip around Iceland should show whether the tips for sights to watch found on the internet were actually any good. So with the destination enter into the navigation we set off for the Barnafoss. This waterfall arise for a river filling old lava caverns. The water basically falls into those caverns, is hidden for a while and comes back to sunlight creating this beautiful waterfall. This unexpected place on a sunny day experiencing the force of the water forcing it's way through the rocks really put us into "holiday mode" and made it easy to enjoy the countryside.

We went on for a very scenic drive along the west coast of Iceland seeing the Sneafellsjökull glacier from afar. Driving towards the white mountain top, stopping over occasionally for pictures, waterfalls and sheep along the way made it a memorizing day. In

fact we decided to extend our planned route from following the main road 54 directly to our place to stay for the night. We drove into the Nationalpark around the glacier.

Seeing that many different places, from waterfalls to glaciers, from cliffs to beaches really confirmed what I've heard about the penisula when planning the trip. I basically gives you an impression of what to expect around the island just in a smaller scale. 

- a small town and a popular scenery famous for Iceland tourism - 

View over Grundarfjödur

When arriving closer to Grundarfjödur we expected to find another Waterfall the Kirkjufellsfoss, which we did. What we didn't knew before arrival was that this place is one of the used scenerys used to promote Iceland. Be it the view from the waterfall to the white mountain tops or to the sea you'll find it in a lot of ads about Iceland. 

In the town itself we found our accomodation, a grocery store and some very nice restaurants. Ending the day at one of those having to look at the surroundings and again the never ending sunset really made this a great first day for our trip.

#3.3 - Reykjavik

The most northern capital city is also one of the most beautiful, less "urbanized" cities I've seen. A very nice scenery all around makes it a place worth to visit regardless how much time you have. Be it for a few hours for a stop-over to the US or as starting point for a trip around the whole of Iceland. Reykjavik was a very pleasant surprise to start our 16 days of Iceland holidays.

- a church , an opera-house and a very enjovable city center -

After starting from one of the ugliest and customer unfriendliest airports all over Germany (Berlin - Schoenefeld) an we had a fairly boring flight to Keflavik airport placed around a 1 hour drive from the city of Reykjavik.

Still within the departure area we came across the infamous duty free shop. Which is, according to several sources, the place to go after arriving in Iceland. Due to reduced or no taxes especially beverages are cheaper then in the stores around the country. To be honest it isn't very much but a noticeable difference.

Depending on your rental car service you'll find a number of bigger brands directly in the departure area. Otherwise have the mobile phone number of your company saved to call them if you can't find a person waiting for you. As the parking lots for rental cars are quite big it might even require a short drive to get your car from the provider.

View from Hallgrimskirkja tower
(you can see the town hall by the lake)

Off you go heading for Reykjavik which really isn't hard to find as there is only one pretty straight road from the airport to the city. But having satellite navigation for streets within the city makes it a lot easier to find the way to your hotel. As I've planned the route myself I thought of a solution to that without having to having to pay for a more expensive rental car.

I've downloaded an App* providing downloadable maps and navigation services without the need for standing internet connection to 2 smartphones just to be save. Having saved all accommodations and hot spots on a custom map made navigation really easy and flexible in case of any change along the route. (* MAPS.ME is really head to head with Google Maps when it comes to map quality and navigation) 

- a summer evening to calm down from everyday life - 

We arrived at out hotel for the night (* see the earlier post for details), checked-in put our bags in the room and went straight off to the city center. Heading for the big church of Hallgrimsskirkja gave us great point to start our short stroll. We choose to pay the little fee to go up the tower to have the best view all over Reykjavik which really was worth it.

Seeing small houses all around gives you the feeling of being in a small, relaxed town which is quite a contrast to other cities were you feel the stress and pressure as soon as standing between the skyscrapers.

We ended the evening by walking to the habour and the opera-house called "Harpa" where we sat down and enjoyed the never ending sun set of the summer days being that close to the Arctic circle. The big church on the top of a hill and the opera house at the habour are basically connected by pedestrian zone which is packed with cafes, restaurants and shops.

The habour of Reykjavik from Harpa opera house

As the first stage of our round trip would start just the other day we kept it easy and just enjoyed the scenery, but came to the conclusion of having to come back for a proper tour around the city.

As mentioned in the beginning Reykjavik is really worth a visit. Having seen it in the summer with the midnight sun really ensured my desire to come back and see it again in winter.  

#3.2 - Flights, cars and hotels

Transportation and accommodations were the real challenges while planning this trip. Getting to Iceland is fairly easy from either side of the Atlantic but finding hotels or Airbnb like rooms is hard and expensive especially if you're short on time with 4 persons. Not to mention that hostels are not really an option due to personal preferences (not mine btw.). The biggest hassle however is finding the right rental car for a reasonable price. It's big game of hide and seek with several different companies, car models and their ability to do the job.

- hotels, apartments and hostels - 

View to the mountain tops on Grundarfjördur

After planning the route (#3.1) finding accommodations along the road was a bit tricky. Less then 2 months in advance isn't easy for the most places  especially if we're talking about summertime. On the first day I tried to find some hotels the website showed an alert "Attention 70% of accommodations are already fully booked". You could argue "that's only marketing" but the truth is it was quite hard to find free rooms.

Starting in Reykjavik it was fairly easy as the city as a lot of offerings in hotels, rooms and alike. So I went for a reasonably priced and well rated Hotel called "Orkin". A place that had seen it best days already but price to performance was perfect. A 20 min walk to the center, free tea and cake and a solid breakfast gave us a really good starting point to visit Reykjavik and Iceland.

Next up north on Snaefelsnes was the H5 apartment in Grundarfjödur. As the name suggests this was an apartment in a small town with a store, a petrol station and a small habour. Beautifully placed in viewing distance to the snow covered mountain tops this place has a really nice "eating at home" - style restaurant.

Later on we stayed two days in "Studio Guesthouse" in Seydisfirdi. Which again a small town bit off the main road at one of the the main fairy harbors of Iceland. A big flat screen, a huge bathroom with shower a fairly modern kitchen and nice beds made it easy to like this place in the town which got connected to phone cables of europe back in the days. 

You can find a full list of accommodations and short description down below

- getting to Iceland -

3 days would it take to get to Iceland via fairy. Which might be an option if you want to travel with a camper van but for us going by plan was the only real choice. To be honest it's easy to find a flight from main land Europe as a lot of bigger airports offer direct flights to Keflavik airport. If you're flexible on your dates you can find offers for around 250€ for the return option. 

By the way if you have the freedom to do check the flights and prices before booking accommodations and stuff.

- hatchbacks, super trucks and gravel roads -

Finding free rooms might be expensive but it's easy. For finding cheap flights you have to flexible but it's easy. But finding a a good deal for a rental car is hard. You have a lot of cars, options and offerings and even for the same setup there are several prices.

First of all figure out what kind of car you need.

For us an estate car such as a VW Golf or Passat would be the one to look for. 4 persons with luggage just need a bit more room and in the end it's a bit more comfortable but not as expensive than a SUV. 

Settle your terms.

Gravel roads in the north east of Iceland

Insurance, air condition, navigation. Everything might cost extra, or not it really depends on the offer you find. therefore Make sure you know what you really need and what is just beneficial and setup your budget.

Search the internet.

Sounds easy and but the amount of offering websites, companies and search engines is ridiculous. Keep looking for offers on multiple sites for a few days as the offerings are changing relatively fast. But before deciding double check the offer actually has everything you need.

Please be aware that the route I've chosen contains parts with gravel roads. Which surprised us when arriving at those places but weren't a real problem other then being annoying. You can get around Iceland in a normal road car unless you want to up into the mountains. But to do so I'd suggest a tour with one of the super trucks which can get you to places no regular car can get you.

 Accomodations I've chosen for the trip around Iceland:

- Reykjavik              /  Hotel Orkin

- Grundarfjödur       /  H5 Apartments

- Bjarkalundur         /  Hotel Bjarkalundur

- Akureyri                /  Hotel Sveinbjarnargerdi

- Seydisfirdi            /  Studio Guesthouse Seydisfirdi

- Höfn                     /  Höfn Hostel

- Fosshotel Nupar

- Hotel Eyjafjallajökull

- Grindavik             / Steinar Guesthouse

#3.1 - Routenplanung und Sehenswürdigkeiten

When I started looking for things to do and visit I had a little bit of common knowledge on Iceland. The capital Reykjavik, the naturally heated "Blue Lagoon", Geysers, Glaciers and so on. It was fairly easy to make list of attractions around the island but it always comes down to nature which is really what would and should expect from holidays in Iceland. Outside of Reykjavik it's all about nature. Be it very raw and pure or more prepared for a number of tourists.

- waterfall, waterfall, volcano, glacier, waterfall -

Diamond beach at Jökulsarlon

I basically planned the tour around the places I thought were worth to visit, re-worked by some recommendations and necessary detours due to accommodation placement. The final tour evolved naturally by our day to day experiences with roads, local tourist offices and spontaneous decision to change the plan.

But you can find a list of attractions around which I planned the initial route. I also attached the link to Google maps where I've planned the trip. There you can see that the first sections are way longer to drive between accommodations then the last few. This is mainly due to the number of sights and hotels in the north of Iceland. This came in handy as we wanted to have some real time to relax towards the end of the trip.

Overall my planned tour was around 2000 to 2200 kilometer by car with sections of 100 to 400 km per day. This may seem a lot but if you remember this is for a 16 day trip, so it's completely fine.

I've planned the trip around sights, accommodations and reasonable parts of driving. Please be aware that you should be willing and prepare to alter this your plan especially in country like Iceland. Changing weather, random beautiful waterfalls or road blocking sheep will influence your day in one or another way.

You can find a link to the Google Maps project and a list of attractions below.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=10C1eophOC6ur9mhJG0CelAJLtW4&usp=sharing

Let's start with the more popular attractions to visit. If you are limited on time go for them as they make up for nice pictures, experiences and memories.

 - Reykjavik: As the biggest city and capital of Iceland its home to near one-third of the Icelandic population - a no-brainier when it comes to visiting Iceland

- Geyser: One of the biggest and most continues jets of hot water coming from deep down; name-giving to similar appearances around the globe

- Blue Lagoon: basically a big swimming pool filled with water naturally fed by hot springs; prepared and expanded to welcome hundreds of guests each day

- Glacier: if you're up for a hiking tour into the icy heart of Iceland - go for it

The next number of sightes are less popular bit still worth to visit. They are less close to Reykjavik and may require time to travel at.

- Dettifoss: One of the largest waterfalls in Iceland and "most powerful" in Europe

- Godafoss: way smaller but nicer to look and visit; same kind of "horseshoe" shape as the Niagara falls

- Jökulsarlon / Vatnajökul: the biggest glacier in Iceland and it's lagoon which feeds ice-shells directly into the sea

- Reynisfjara: a black beach popular for its great rock formations and deadly currents

- Borgarfjodur: best places to watch puffins

To round up that list some insider tips, at least from what I experience those places are as worth to watch as the others but require a car and some time to spare as they are mostly off the common tourist bus tours.

- Snæfellsnes: often summed up as "small Iceland" on this peninsula in the north of Reykjavik you'll find all a glacier, waterfall, vulcanos just on a smaller scale but just as beautiful

- Myvatn Nature Baths: basically the same as the Blue Lagoon but very beautiful placed at a hillside and  with way less tourists - it's more worth it than it's popular bigger brother

- Road between Egilsstadir and Seydisfjödur:  this twisty road from the valley of Egilsstadir to the town of Seydisfjödur is a pleasure to drive, goes trough fields of snow even in June and has a lot of waterfall right next to it - worth a drive if you have the time

#3 - Where to go on holiday this year?

"Where we gonna spend out holidays this year?" - A questions regularly asked by a lot of families and my very own is no exception to this. This in contrast to many others we are usually a bit late. Instead of figuring out our plans around December to February we were as late as April or May. No chance for special offers for booking early as the destination wasn't even clear. Well after a short discussion we decided "Iceland it is!".
That left me about 1.5 to 2 month for planning the whole trip.

- The task: Plan a 16 day trip to Iceland for 4 persons in June for under €2500 p.P. -

I thought - "Well, no problem I'm certainly not the first to trying to do this" - started by searching for other travelers experiences which confirmed my initial expectations. Beside several pre-organized tours from big agencies there is one main route which is clockwise around the island.

Reasonably fast I've collected a list of attractions along the way - easy. But when it came to hotels or accommodations in general it was way harder to find free rooms as we wanted to be cheaper than the 2500€ per person offered by agencies.
After some hours of research on several websites I managed to find a good solution and went for the family meeting.

Which went well, until I mentioned "... the majority of tourists go clockwise..." - this basically put me back to the starting point as it was decided "... well then let's go the other way around...". In the end this was probably a very good decision to make.

Why? When? How? Where? - Well, that's a bit too much for one post so I decided to go for several parts which should look something like this:

#3 - "Where to go on holiday this year?"
#3.1 - Site-seeing and route-planning
#3.2 - Flights, car and hotels
#3.3 - Reykjavik
#3.4 - North-, North-East
#3.5 - The better Blue Lagoon
#3.6 - Tourists all over the place
#3.7 - Resume

#? - Holidays in/on Iceland (complete Story)

- Island 2016 -
fun fact: the German translation for Iceland is "Island"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~DEUTSCH~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Wo machen wir dieses Jahr Urlaub?" - Diese Frage stellte sich auch meine Familie immer wieder, allerdings nicht wie die meisten im Februar, Januar oder sogar Dezember das Vorjahres sondern eher den April, Mai. Ja - für Frühbucherrabatte keine Chance, nach günstigen Hotels schauen - keine Chance denn noch stand das Ziel ja gar nicht fest. Als sich nach kurzem Gespräch auf Island geeinigt wurde war meine Motivation aber kaum aufzuhalten.

- Aufgabenstellung: Plane einen Urlaub in Island für 4 Personen, Anfang Juni über 16 Tage. -

Soweit so klar, "Kein Problem ich bin ja nicht der erste der sowas plant" - also ein bisschen gegooglet und die bekannten Reiserouten heraus gesucht. Gegen den Uhrzeigersinn rund um die Insel mit dem Mietwagen. Quasi das Standardangebot vieler Reiseveranstalter, was uns mit 2500€ pro Person zu teuer war.

Die Liste von Sehenswürdigkeiten war schnell zusammengestellt und eine Route dazwischen zu planen ein Klacks. Die Übernachten waren schon schwieriger: "70% ausgebucht", "Für ihren Zeitraum nicht mehr verfügbar" - schließlich aber doch machbar. Also auf zur "Mündlichen Verteidigung" im Familienrat (Hört sich wohl dramatischer an als es war).

Dennoch mein Nebensatz "Die meisten machen die Rundtour gegen den Uhrzeigersinn" wurde mir zum Verhängnis. Denn "Dann lass uns doch anders herumfahren" bedeutete neuen Planungsaufwand, von den Hotels ganz zu schweigen. Im Nachhinein stellte sich diese Entscheidung jedoch als sehr gut heraus.

Warum? Wieso? und Wie? - Das wäre zuviel für einen Post, daher gibt es einen Mehrteiler, der ungefähr so aussieht:

#3 - "Wohin geht's in den Urlaub?"
#3.1 - Routenplanung und Sehenswürdigkeiten
#3.2 - Flüge, Mietwagen und Hotels
#3.3 - Reykjavik
#3.4 - Nord-, Nord-Ost
#3.5 - Die bessere blaue Lagune
#3.6 - Die Tourisitenströme
#3.7 - Fazit
#? - Ein Urlaub in/auf Island (Zusammenfassung)

#2 - Licht an

Vor knapp 2 Monaten habe ich mir ein Starter-Pack vom Philips Hue-System gegönnt und nutze selbiges sehr aktiv. Um neben verschiedenen Weisstönen auch einen Farbtupfer im Raum zu haben, folgte auch noch ein farbiger LED-Steifen.
Sicher nicht günstige aber doch irgendwie sein Geld wert.

- Philips Hue: Im alltäglich Gebrauch irgendwie praktisch -

*Versuch mal ein Bild von einer LED-Lampe zu machen*

Beim Wochenendeinkauf bin ich im Elektroladen um die Ecke auf eine günstige LED-Birne gestolpert. Alles ganz nett und eine tolle Spielerei nur ohne echte weisse LED war das Licht zum Arbeiten einfach zu dunkel oder wie im Krankenhaus - eiskalt, steril und aggresiv hell. Für den Alltag schlicht unbrauchbar, denn was im ersten Moment toll und einfach aussah war schließlich eine mühsame Steuerung per Smartphone.

Vom hohen Preis abgeschreckt war das System von Philips seit dessen Einführung keine echte Kaufoption. Eine Idee davon war jedoch im Hinterkopf geblieben. Nach dem Fehlschlag der Billigvariante bestellte ich also das Weisslicht-Starterpaket. 2 Birnen, 1 Fernbedinung und das Herzstück des Systems, die sogenannte "Bridge".

Bridge  mit Strom und Netzwerk versorgen, Birnen einschrauben und los. Hört sich simpel an ist es aus weitest gehend. Aber eine volle Review oder Anleitung findet sich bestimmt auch anderswo im Internet.

Jedenfalls bieten mir die gekauften Birnen endlich den Mehrwert den ich mir von einer smarten Beleuchtung erhofft hatte. Es findet sich immer der richtige Weisston zur jeweiligen Tageszeit; Licht an wenn ich nach hause kommen; Licht aus wenn es Zeit ist zum Schlafen. Genau was ich wollte, aber "...Irgendwie wäre buntes Licht schon cool!...".

Da mir weisses Licht am Schreibtisch aber wichtig ist, habe ich statt einer bunten Birne einen RGB-LED-Steifen gekauft. Zur Erweiterung des Systems und als technische Spielerei perfekt. Farbiges Licht brauche ich zwar nicht jeden Tag, aber als Hintergrundbeleuchtung zum Serien schauen oder abgestimmt zur Musik am Wochenende macht das schon Freude.

Insgesamt ist es immer noch ungewohnt nicht einfach der Lichtschalter zu benutzen, obwohl mir der Architekt meiner Wohnung sehr geholfen hat. Die richtigen Lichtschalter liegen einfach so komisch im Raum, dass ich ganz froh sie nicht benutzen zu müssen. Sicherlich auch ein Grund warum ich mich letztendlich für das System von Philips entschieden habe.

Es ist ein ausgereiftes System mit reichlich Unterstützung für Anwendungen von Drittanbietern und macht was es soll. Im Alltag einfach irgendwie praktisch - auch wenn der Lichtschalter manchmal angenehmer wäre.

#1 - Nummer 1

Ich sitze in einem Starbucks in Zürich und schreibe diesen Post. Starbucks? Keine Angst ich bin kein über cooler Hipster (insofern das noch Trend ist). Auch bekomme ich Geld weil ich ein super bekannter Blogger bin (das ist mein erster Blogeintrag und ich liebe Zusatzkommentare in Klammern). 

Fakt ist habe mich aufgerafft an einem Sonntag-Nachmittag bei bescheidenem Wetter mal das Haus zu verlassen weil ich diesen Blog schon seit 2 Monaten beginnen möchte und ich bis jetzt immer eine Ausrede gefunden habe dies nicht zu tun. Um jeglicher Ausrede aus dem Weg zu gehen (und einen 2 für 1 Gutschein einzulösen) sitze ich jetzt hier und fange endlich an zu schreiben. Wie unschwer zu erkennen habe ich keine Ahnung in welche Richtung dieser Post gehen soll.

 - Endlich geht's los -

 Meiner Inspiration liefert mir eine Gruppe von Schulmädchen. Sie sitzen auf der anderen Seite das Raumes, arbeiten vermutlich an einer Schulaufgabe und das selbstverständlich auf einem MacBook. Das lässt mich in Gedanken schwelgen.

10 bis 12 Jährige mit einem MacBook, einem iPhone (oder Samsung S8) - der Technik-Liebhaber in mir meint: "Coole Sache, nur wenn die Technik in der Masse ankommt gibt es Geld für Weiterentwicklungen." Mal davon abgesehen, dass hinter dieser Aussage noch viel stecken könnte denke ich gleich wieder: "Wow, meinen eigenen Laptop zu bekommen hat immerhin gedauert bis ich 16 war. Mein erstes eigenes Smartphone hatte ich noch später." 

Wie immer liegt die Wahrheit irgendwo in der Mitte, aber können Kinder in diesem Alter die von ihnen genutzte Technik wertschätzen? Oder ist es einfach nur ein Statussymbol? Die "Converse" von heute? Muss es heute neben den Markenklamotten auch ein Ultrabook und Smartphone sein? 



So viele Fragen - auch wenn die Technik heute zum Alltag gehört und ein früher Umgang im später Leben sicher hilft - eine Wertschätzung, das Verständnis für die Technik und deren Möglichkeiten bleibt leider zu oft auf der Strecke. Zumindest habe ich das Gefühl wenn ich Teenager im alltäglichen Umgang sehe, zum Beispiel bei den Hausaufgaben erledigen in einer Starbucks-Filliale.
(Das hört sich für mich als "Dorfkind" immernoch an wie eine Szene aus einer amerikanischen Fernsehserie)

Hochgegriffene Thesen, ich weiß, macht aber nix ist ja schließlich mein Blog und dessen erster Eintrag ist jetzt "fertig". Besser gesagt ich beende ihn an dieser Stelle. 

PS.: 3 Stunden später finde ich diesen Post zwar nicht viel ansprechender als zum Zeitpunkt des Schreibens, aber immer habe ich es geschafft 2 weitere Post und einen Einstieg zu finden.