Seeing the World

If you’re travelling to Iceland from Manchester you have two direct choices. Easyjet or Icelandair.  If you’re flying from elsewhere, there maybe other options that I’ve not touched on here.

Price and comfort are my two main drivers when selecting a flight and on this occasion the Icelandic national carrier won the price battle by a mile.  Unless there’s an exceptional reason I’m quite happy in the average economy seat for a flight of just over two hours and didn’t give any serious consideration to a better class of travel.

Icelandair economy seat wins on a few other points.

Hold luggage is included. And while I’m happy to drop my skimpy bikini into my hand luggage for a trip to the sun, Iceland in March demands a little more in the way of heavy coat, think jumpers, thermals and bring your own snacks as it costs a fortune to eat there. So hold luggage is good. And not the c£30 each x two legs Easyjet wanted.

Complimentary soft drinks and hot drinks may seem like a small thing. But the two drinks I got would cost over £5 on the orange competition.  It’s also quite a civilised way to treat a passenger.

Free seat selection. Repeated at online check in when you can move to row 7 for free and enjoy legroom a giraffe would kill for. That said, the online seat booking, the Seatguru web site and reality of plane layout left a bit to be desired, although not in a way that caused a problem.  Getting into the front 15 rows of an Icelandair plane seems to be the way to go for free extra legroom.

In flight entertainment. Movies, music, comedy. It’s all there. You don’t have to spend two and a half hours listening to a sales pitch.  I can’t think of any other airline that offers this on such a short flight.

A loyalty scheme. I missed a trick here and didn’t join. If I had I’d have been able to spend points earned outbound on the return flight. Enough to buy two small boxes of Pringles that would set back the non-savvy flyer €6! That’s nearly 10% of the one way fare!  So while the likelihood of being a frequent flyer with the airline is slim, there is short term value to being a member!

In other words, if the price is close between Easyjet and Icelandair I’m going with Icelandair every time.  They also connect to Greenland which interests me …

Shrinking Tumours

The simple answer is very expensive!

But if you’re sensible with restricting meals to one course and minimise the purchase of just about anything other than the essentials it’s certainly a nation worth visiting.

Food seems to come in at around double what I’d expect to pay in the UK.  And isn’t very good.  A hamburger, chips and Coke is £11.  Fish and chips restaurant meal £22.  Large pizza £24.  Steak and chips around £35.  Coke in a restaurant £3.  A glass of wine £8.  Not a place to visit and get wasted!

The nearby Netto isn’t cheap either although fizzy drinks are better priced than you’d expect.  It doesn’t sell booze.  That seems to come from the liquor store which wraps its products in brown paper bags.  Think £15 for a bottle of merlot.  £35 for 70cl of Baileys.

It’s not a country where the culinary is special.  Don’t waste time on fancy food when there’s so much more you could be doing with your time!

Petrol £1.60 a litre.  Fridge magnets £7.  Locally made blanket £100.  Woolly hat £30.

Aurora Chaser

The night was young.  Fermented shark was on the menu.  So I ordered the pepperoni pizza.  A review of the KP index revealed that measuring the likelihood of seeing the aurora last night was about the same as the likelihood of seeing Kevin Pieterson play test cricket for England again.

i consumed the pizza, downed my Pepsi Max, mortgaged the house to pay the bill and headed back to the hotel for warmth and sleep.

And then it happened.  The KP forecast had said 2.  The live KP index said 6.  Suddenly the opportunity was there.  The northern lights became a certainty.  Except in the tiny fishing village of Grindavik, where I’m staying, it was chucking it down with an icy rain.

Cloud cover = no aurora.  The latest weather map said get in the car and head east.  So I did.  Hurtling it down narrow unlit highways in the once white Yaris with small posts reflecting the sides of the roads.  Faint lights of ships on the sea.  Faint glow of red to the north.  Rain for mile after mile.  Driving on seeking dryness and the aurora.

And then it happened.  The light flashed in front of me.  Fuel low.  Middle of nowhere. 11pm.  The likelihood of a 24/7 filling station nil.  Three point turn on the dark highway and return towards base.  Layby.  Wait.  More rain.  The faint glow of red west and north.  Not the airport.  Not Reykjavik.  But not what you could reasonably describe as even the haziest formation of northern lights.  Eventually I gave up and headed to the hotel.  Defeated but not disheartened.  Sleep.

To be continued …

Discovering “The Boss” Isn’t Bruce Springsteen

Well that’s Reykjavik ticked off. Modern cathedral. Shops. Parliament. City hall. Square where they protest against Danes, banks and other stuff. Walk along the harbour. Impressive concert hall. Job done.

By comparison to the magnificence of the Golden Circle I’d have to say a bit of an anti-climax. Not in a bad way. But it’s just a small town that happens to be the capital of a small country and that’s about it.  Although free parking after 6pm and all day Sunday is most civilised.

Driving back to the hotel a stop off to see the Icelandic Rock’n’roll Museum was funny. £11 to see some pictures of Bjork. Some superstar who goes under a nickname “The Boss” but isn’t Bruce Springsteen. A list of great guitarists such as Clapton followed by a list of unknown (to me) Icelandic guitarists. Oh, and Elton John played a gig in Iceland once.

Currently pondering food options. So far it’s looking like Icelandics don’t do food that you present nicely. Have some fish or sheep or a burger and pay through the nose for it, but that’s all. Maybe a pizza tonight …

The Golden Circle of Ungritted Roads

It snowed heavily in Iceland last week.  While it’s claimed that the place is far greener than Greenland there’s little doubt that the place is perfectly named right now.

It’s also obvious they don’t bother with that namby pamby gritting nonsense.  Which is bad news for a rookie in a Toyota Yaris on these roads.

Assisted by high winds, there were one or two delightful on road Torvill and Dean manoeuvres as temperatures dipped to minus four.  And despite the treacherous conditions it was a day that exceeded very high expectations.

Now I’m not trying to turn this blog into a Trip Advisor review but Pingvellir National Park with its “pay by card WC” facility is superb.  Natural beauty, a fabulous walking area and a huge fault line that you can walk down that separates the American and Eurasian tectonic plates.  I’ve driven over a similar line in Yellowstone.  Here I walked it, holding on for dear life to a railing as the icy paths did their best to send me arse over tit.  But failed.

Geysir next.  Which is, not too surprisingly, a home to a number of geysers.  These are big, and while not as big as Old Fairhful in Yellowstone they shoot up out of the ground every five minutes or so and you can get pretty close to the beauties.  There’s nothing like stinking of sulphur!

Gulfoss water falls next, which is like Niagara Falls in a beautiful setting.  Timing is everything and the sight of the river leading to the upper falls covered in mini ice bergs before hurtling them over the edge is astounding.  It was also bloody cold and justified handing over £5 for a latte in the cafe afterwards.

The attractions are everything they were cracked up to be.  But the scenery of ice covered lava fields, low level volcanoes and stunning lakes was amazing, helped by the sun being out all day.

It’s a route many have done before me.  If the chance ever arrives you should take it.  And remember to bring your credit card if you want a Jimmy Riddle.

Come On You Glowy Gits, Where Are You?

I have seen the Northern Lights before, albeit a white/grey shimmery experience from the moors above Oldham.  And while my reason for visiting Iceland is the joys of the geo thermal it would be nice to see the greens and pinks and blues of the aurora here.

After a £20 bill for a locally caught fish and chips dinner I realised my hotel room faces north.  The aurora forecast online was moderate with a warning that you wouldn’t see them if it’s cloudy.  No shit!

With no cloud and minimal local light pollution I stared north for a couple of hours ignoring some Hugh Grant movie on telly.  The atmosphere was clear.  The North Star strong.  The horizon with the blue, green and reds that you’d associate with the lights.  But not the magical curvy shapes.  They never appeared.

Tonight I’ll head out to darker spots in search.  But for now, no score.

Great Flight and a Smug Car Hire Queue Jump

Well the expensive American Express card came into its own with free lounge access. Manchester’s Aspire lounge in terminal one is a thing of beauty. And I got the last bacon sandwich along with various other pastries and a bag of pretzels slipped in to my hand luggage.

As flights go that was beautiful from Icelandair.

No issues with checking in after their online failure the day before and by getting row 7 the leg room was magnificent. It looks like any of the first 15 rows are set aside for “economy comfort” and nobody buys it. I assume behind row 15 is the standard airline offering of economy discomfort.

While food and alcohol is chargeable hot drinks and soft drinks aren’t. And a second drinks service was volunteered despite flight time being marginally over two hours was great.

In flight entertainment at every seat. Wifi for €7. In flight magazine worth reading. British Airways in the UK and Europe really don’t have anything positive by comparison.

Baggage collection was fine. Then the horrendously long queue for car hire collection. I’ve never seen anything like it, so I walked past the queue to the Avis Preferred desk (the best free priority service I’ve ever signed up to) and within two minutes I walked away with the keys to a brand new Toyota Yaris with 7km on the clock!

Half hour drive to the hotel, passing the Blue Lagoon. An easy check in, comfortable room and Netto next door which may offer cheaper food options than surrounding restaurants.

Tomorrow may well be the biggie. A lot of driving but The Golden Circle has some fantastic natural phenomena. Can’t wait!

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