Day 1 - 3
We took a direct flight on Air Berlin from Berlin to Keflavik, the plane landed just after midnight and it was still light outside, which was a bit strange. Since renting car at the airport was quite expensive we decided to rent from a local dealer which was about 10 minutes from the airport, we rented an SUV for 10 days at about EUR 1200. When we got to our accommodation (a private appartment close to the center of Reykjavik) we were ready to sleep. Early in the morning we went on exploring the city, weather was amazing, sunny and warm, so we took a car and drove to the Glymur waterfall for a short hike. From a parking lot we followed the trail, crossed the stream, went through the cave and ascented around 500 meters on 4 km, to get to the top of the waterfall took about 2 hours, the hike back down merely 1h30m and for me personaly this was one of the most beutifull places we visited during our trip. Later we visited the tectonical break, where we did another, much shorter hike and then we were ready to go north.
Day 4 - 6
On the way north we made a stop at a Hvitserkur, where we got a chance to watch seals on a black sand beach which was across a bay, quite far away, but we used our telelens and managed to get some great photos (just beware of nesting birds which are aggresive). Along the way to Akureyri, where we had accommodation, we stopped in the open air museum, which was nice and since we arrived 30 minutes before closing time we got in free of charge. Before arriving to our destination we made a quick stop in Hofsosi where they have nice outdoor pool overlooking the bay. The next days we visited Husavik and went on a whale watching cruise, which at nice weather is really worth it, visited Godafoss and Dettifoss, two nice waterfalls along the way as well as lake Myvatn and local thermal bath - similar to Blue Lagoon close to Reykjavik, but much nicer and much less touristy (in 2014). Close to the bath we stopped at thermal power plant and at Krafla, where we did a short hike around the lake. On the way back we admired the Hverir bubling mud and beautiful views around.
Day 7 - 9
From Detifoss we continued to beautiful village Eskifjordur, where we stayed in challets close to the lake and rented a boat to go fishing, unfortunatelly the boat was broken so we could not go on the lake, instead we stayed on the bank and got fermented shark in a local fishery, it is one of the food you can probably try only on Iceland, but it does not taste good, get one of the great fish insted. From there we continued south, stopped on a random pebble beach along the road, which was beautiful, took a dip in the ocean, really cold and continued to the glacier lake, where we spend couple hours wathing the ice move. The next day we were ready to do some glacier hiking, which was also great, took about 2 hours and we got to walk on the iceberg (only on a flat or slightly uphill surface, but still nice). From there we continued our jurney towards the south.
Day 10 - 12 - South Coast
From the glacier we continued south and made stops at Vik to see Dyrhólaey and the nearby black sand beac, which was nice from the top of the cliff. First thing that we notice when we got to the south coast that it was crowded with tourists, the northern part was at most parts deserted and we could enjoyed it on our own, but south was completely different with tour buses everywhere. Geysir was also nice, erupting every couple minutes, but again with many people around. We were supposed to hike to Landmanalaugar, but the weather changed and it rained for 3 days straight, so we decided not to go, instead we rented a super jeep and went there by car, which was great, we had to go through several fords along the way, but nothing dangerous. There were some really nice waterfalls along the south coast which are really worth it. At the end of our trip we visited the Blue lagoon, nice place to relax, but too many people to enjoy it in quiet.
