April 1999
A group of 4 of us decided that we wanted to spend a weekend somewhere with proper snow. After seeing an advert in a newspaper we decided on Iceland and started looking for a trip. We decided on a 3 night break in Reykjavilk staying at the Hotel leifur eirkison, located near the Halgrimskirja.
The flights were with Icelandair and were great. We were met at Keflafik airport and taken to Reykjavik, about a 50km drive. The scenery is really bleak, lots of rocks and not much trees.
The hotel was great – it was fairly basic with twin beds, tv, ensuite bathroom (with shower no bath) and without a kettle or mini bar but the location was brilliant.
Friday was spent aquainting ourselves with the city, and getting used to the temperature (about -4 deg C). Before leaving England we’d booked a trip for Saturday with Geysir for a skidooing trip. So, we were picked up at 9.30am, taken to collect some warm clothing for our ride, and were then driven in a Toyota 4 wheel drive to Hrauneyar where we had lunch. We then collected our skidoos (none of us had ever been before) and went off to Landmanalaugar. The ride took about 2 hours and was great fun. At Landmanalaugar there is a hot pool in which people were bathing. This was half way through our trip and before very long we were back on the skidoos heading back. All in all we had a 4 hour trip and covered 65 km. It was great fun and I’m planning another skiddoing trip in Iceland next March. Geysir were excellent and took us to see a waterfall before stopping for a coffee in a beautiful coffee shop in Selfoss. We finally arrived back at the hotel at 8.30pm and we were all exhausted. We wandered into town and decided to eat at Caruso, an Italian restaurant. The food was lovely, but we were all too tired to stay out for long so headed back to the hotel for a beer at the bar before bed.
Sunday was a sightseeing day. We headed off up the tower of the Hallgrimskirja which afforded excellent views over the city. We took a walk around the pond and to the harbour. In the afternoon we went to the Volcano Show, two films about the volcanic aspects of Reykjavik. It was quite interesting in a 1970s sort of way. the evening was spent at a restaurant recommended by the hotel owner. A fish restaurant, and it was lovely. Food is expensive in Iceland, but it is of very good quality.
We returned to England early on Monday morning, and were collected from the hotel by the “meet and Greet” service arranged by our tour operators, Regent Tours. Again, the flights were great and we arrived back at Heathrow on time.
Iceland is beautiful, and the plans are to return for a week next March and get some more skidooing in.
