Untamed Iceland 2021
Day 1 – Day 2 – Day 3 – Day 4 – Day 5 – Day 6 – Day 7 – Day 8 – Day 9 – Day 10 – Day 11 – Day 12 – Day 13
Untamed Iceland Day to Day Agenda
Full Agenda from Overseas Adventure Travel
ICELAND Overseas Adventure Travel JULY 2021 final night slideshow from Bryndis
Day 2
Arrival day – Selfoss
Bryndís was waiting at the airport in Keflavík when everyone arrived from USA. Eight had come to
Iceland 4 days earlier and joined us later. We drove directly to the beautiful Selfoss town, to our hotel by
the Ölfusá river, and had a buffet breakfast. Fortunately our rooms were ready early so everyone could
check in after breakfast and have some rest.
In the afternoon we went for a walk in town and had a little stop in Selfoss park, followed by a visit to
the nice coffee house Kaffi Krús, where you can get good coffee and cakes. There Bryndís´son Egill joined
us with his 15 months old daughter Hanna Brimdís. And by coincidence Bryndís´husband had been
filming nearby so he also stopped at the café and said hello.
Before dinner at the hotel we met at a private venue for Welcome briefing and a drink. There Bryndís
gave an overview over the whole journey and touched on some practical matters to bear in mind during
our journey. Then she handed out a welcome letter to everybody and a gift of an OAT Iceland pin, with a
puffin on it, to the SEH club members. And then everybody introduced themselves, but most everybody
knew the others as this was a Vicky Bergstom group; thank you again Vicky for bringing these wonderful
people to me and Iceland.
Wonderful welcome buffet dinner followed, with all kinds of choices and even a buffet dessert table too.
Day 3 Explore South Iceland
Controversial Topic: Iceland’s disappearing glaciers • Seljalandsfoss Waterfall • Super Truck tour
We left 9 o´clock in the morning for the day´s activities, starting at Midgard Camp in Hvolsvöllur. There
Hildur told us about the affects of the melting of Iceland´s glaciers on the country and overall affects
from the global warming.
From there we drove to Seljalandsfoss waterfall, where almost everybody experienced how it is to go
behind a waterfall. And now the rain gear came in real handy …
Our lunch was at Volcano hotel; a really good Arctic charr dish (Icelandic trout), with potatoes and salad.
Together with coffee and tea and a little piece of home made Date cake.
After lunch we drove to Vík village where we met Ingó, who took us on his Super Jeep – that can be
called a local vehicle – into the wilderness and a walk to Katla glacier. There he broke off a piece of a 600
years old ice and served it with a Katla vodka snaps. You might want to watch the Icelandic Netflix TV
series KATLA as it happens in these surroundings.
We then drove for about 2 hrs back to Selfoss hotel and in the afternoon and evening there was a free
time and dinner on own.
Day 4
Golden Circle tour – Borgarnes
We left our nice Selfoss hotel this morning, and started our day´s activities by visiting Guðrún at
Hespuhúsið – the Skein House – which is located on the outskirts of Selfoss town, but it feels like it is in
the countryside. Here we also met her dog Tryggur, which means Faithful. Guðrún´s specialty is dying
Icelandic wool by using plants the way it was done throughout the centuries in Iceland. She showed and
explained how she does this and how by almost magic absolutely beautiful colors form out of common
plants, such as rhubarb. Then everyone who wanted could do a bit of knitting and Guðrún showed how
Icelanders knit, which is different and easier than most knit in USA.
(Free patterns of traditional Icelandic sweaters and other knitted items can be found on www.istex.is and
many videos are available teaching how to knit our way).
After the visit to Guðrún we drove to Gullfoss waterfall which many think is the most beautiful waterfall
in Iceland. People took a long or short walks alongside the Hvítá river, into which Gullfoss falls in two
steps; 22 m and 11m making the waterfall 33 m tall altogether and then falling into a deep canyon, like it
is disappearing into the earth. From there we drove about 10 minutes to the Geysir and experienced the
spouting hot spring Strokkur spout many times. Bryndís told everyone to first experience the spouting
with the naked eye and then take pictures for memories to take home – and not to miss the beautiful
blue-green bubble that forms just before the spouting. Hot springs, like these, are found in a very few
places on Earth, so this is quite a unique experience.
Þingvellir was next on the agenda; an area on UNESCO´s World Heritage list as it so special that it must
be preserved intact for the coming generations. Here is the location of the oldest parliament in the
World, still working, and here you can witness on land the boundaries between the American Earth
plate and the Euro-Asian Earth plate. We started at Hakið viewpoint, where one can enjoy looking at
Þingvellir lake and the mountains surrounding it, that were formed in volcanic eruptions during last Ice
Age. We then walk down a canyon called Almannagjá and here we were at the beginning of the
American plate, reaching all the way to San Andreas fault on the Pacific side of USA.
We stopped on the way at the old parliament site – Alþingi – where Bryndís talked about how Iceland
was considered fully settled by 930. The settlement period in Iceland was from 874-930 and the first
settler was Ingólfur Arnarsson who came from Norway. Continuing we stopped at Öxará river, at the so
called Drekkingarhylur, or drowning pond, where Bryndís talked about women in the 1700 who had
broken the law were put in a burlap bag together with rocks and thrown into the pond to drown. Men
who had broken the law were beheaded.
We drove straight from Þingvellir to Borgarnes town, going through a tunnel under Hvalfjörður fjord
(Whale Fjord) so now everyone has been under the Atlantic Ocean. The tunnel was finished in 1998 and
it takes about 7-8 minutes to drive across Hvalfjörður, before the tunnel one had to drive alongside the
fjord, which takes about one hour.
After settling in B59 hotel in Borgarnes we took a short walk in town to Landnámssetrið where we had a
very nice dinner: Cod and chocolate cake. On our walk we had a stop in Skallagrímsgarður park,
admiring the beautiful flowers and trees and stopping at the grave site of Skallagrímur – the Viking Egil´s
father – and where Egil´s son is also buried. This can be read about in one of the Icelandic sagas; Egil´s
Saga which gives a great insight into the live of people during the Viking era.
Day 5
Conversation about the banking crisis • Discover Snaefellsnes Peninsula •
Arnarstapi lava field
Our destination of today was the Snæfellsnes peninsula on the west coast of Iceland. It is famous for its
fantastic mountain range, where many of the mountains are made out of Rhyolite rocks, which are very
colorful; white, yellow, pink, orange, green and blue. And then the Snæfellsjökull glacier; where the
famous Jules Verne´s story The Journey to the Center of Earth begins.
Our first destination was the tiny village Arnarstapi – the steeple of the Eagle. On the way we had a
short stop at Bjarnarfoss waterfall.
At Arnarstapi we drove to the harbor, from where we started a walk alongside the shore. There we saw
fantastic landscape that the waves of the Atlantic Ocean had carved into the shoreline, amongst them
dramatic basalt columnar rocks and a cliff with a hole through it. The walk ended by a sculpture of
Bárður the Good spirit of Snæfellsjökull, where a group photo was taken.
We walked from Bárður across the street to Samkomuhúsið, where we met Ólína the owner.
Samkomuhúsið means the Communal Hall and Ólína told us how dances and plays had been held here
back in the days, and that after she bought it she had started collecting all kinds of things that remind of
the life in these parts in earlier times. Ólína had made lunch for us: a traditional Kjötsúpa – lamb meat
stew soup – served with her delicious home made bread. She also told us that here people try as much
as they can to use local produce so the meat in our soup came from her neighbour´s farm.
After lunch we continued our journey alongside the shores of Snæfellsnes peninsula. We stopped at the
most photographed mountain in Iceland – Kirkjufell – and enjoyed looking at it as well as a small
waterfall called after the mountain: Kirkjufellsfoss. So here all had an opportunity to take some fantastic
photos.
The last, but not least, destination on Snæfellsnes peninsula was Bjarnarhöfn farm, where we would get
to know all about the Greenland shark and have a taste of its fermented meat. Everyone? had a taste
and chased the shark piece down with the Icelandic snaps Brennivín (Black Death, Rocket fuel …).
Here is also a small museum with all kinds of things, among them stuffed birds. So here we could see
Iceland´s only eagle species; White Tailed Eagle. , which everyone enjoyed looking at.
Back at the hotel in Borgarnes we met Birna who gave a CT talk about the Financial Crisis in Iceland and
its effects on the small society in and around Borgarnes; the bank there was the first bank in Iceland to
collapse and then one by one did the same until the financial crisis in Iceland was considered the worst in
the whole World.
Dinner was on own, so everyone chose what they wanted and some made thier way across the street to
Ljómalind, a handicraft market with locally made items and diverse food, such as home made ruhbard
jam and more.
North Iceland – Dæli farm
We headed north today and this day was to be a relaxed day in the countryside. Our first destination
was Stóra-Ásgeirsá where we met the farmer Magnús, his daughter, niece and a farmhand help from the
Netherlands. Magnús had converted part of his barn into a little pub where we got coffee and tea while
he told us a bit about himself and the farm. As it is difficult to make ends meat by being ONLY a farmer
Magnús has a bed and breakfast service also and his little pub is becoming increasingly popular with the
locals, and visitors alike. Magnús plays the guitar and makes his own music and he gave us a sample of
this, and asked us to sing the refrain of one of his songs with him (easy as it is written on the wall …).
Magnús took us to the stables where we got to pet his friendly horses, followed by a bit of horse
showing outdoors and fianlly all that wanted could mount an Icelandic horse – and of course have their
photo taken. Those who wanted could rent a horse from Magnús later in the day if they wanted to go on
a horseback tour.
From Magnús´ farm we drove a short distance and came to a surprise place: Kolugljúfur canyon.
Fantastic river canyon with waterfalls. The name means the Canyon of Kola, who was a very dark
giantess who lived in the canyon.
Finally we came to Dæli farm lodge, our destination for the night. We started by having a wonderful
soup lunch with home baked bread and meeting our hosts Kristinn and his sister Hrabba.
After lunch we sat on the veranda and watched a horse show, performed by Kristinn´s wife who is a
horse trainer. She showed the horse use the 5 natural gaits of the Icelandic horse breed – most other
breeds have only 3 natural gaits – the one called tölt being unique and only found in Icelandic horses.
A down time followed, in the beautiful valley where Dæli farm is located. Thereafter we went for a stroll
up a mountain slope where we planted trees in the Dæli forest. Each person planted his/her tree, either
Sitka spruce or an aspen. Iceland was about 50-50% covered with vegetation at Settlement time, 874,
thereof about 25% forest. But it is thought that in just one century the first settlers over exploited the
forest so now there is only about 2% of Iceland that has forested area – so every little tree plant counts
!Then there was happy hour out at the veranda of Dæli restaurant, that everyone participated in except
those who had gone horse back riding with Magnús at Stóra-Ásgeirsá.
Dinner was nothing but fantastic – the chef being the husband of Hrabba, who has worked in the best
restaurants in the city for 30 years. In the evening Happy hour continued for some; others spent some
time in the hot tub.
The destination for today was Akureyri town in North Iceland, which some call the capital of North. The
first stop on our way was Agnes´ Memorial site, where the last execution in Iceland took place in 1830.
The book Burial rights, by Hannah Kent, is based on the last days of Agnes before she was beheaded.
Then we continued to our next stop, Siglufjörður town, which is among the most beautiful towns in
Iceland. We started with lunch and then made our way over to The Herring Museum. Herring was called
the Silver of the Seas and for decades herring was fished around Siglufjörður fjord, brought ashore
where the Herring girls cut it up and filled barrels after barrels with it. The exported herring made many
rich and gave a lot of people work – but then the herring disappeared; it had been over exploited. By
walking through the Herring museum the visitor gets an inside into this compelling story and the life of
the Herring girls and the young men working back in the Herring era.
A visit to the small but interesting Center of Icelandic Folksongs followed. There our host was a young
woman who finished her talk by playing a folk song on Langspil, an old Icelandic instrument.
In Akureyri we met Guðmundur at Vistorka who gave a brief overview over how electricity in Iceland is
produced by using the power of water; either from the glacial rivers or the geothermal water. He
introduced the controversial topic of putting up windmills in Iceland; it is controversial as there is
already produced much more electricity than needed in Iceland so why produce more? Of course money
is involved but who gains?
We made it to the Happy hour at the Icelandair Akureyri hotel (which ends on the dot 6 pm), where we
would spend the next three days. Happy hour at the hotel is also very popular with the locals, so here
was a chance to get to know some towns people.
We only had about an hour long drive to our destination this day; Mývatn – or Midge lake. On our drive
alongside the lake we tried to see as many as possible of all the duck species that can be found on the
lake. Our first stop was at a hot spring where we met Nonni who told us how they baked bread –
hverabrauð – in the hot spring for his dad´s restaurant, using the same method as had been used for
centuries. Dough made of Rye meal and other ingredients is put into a container with a lid and then put
into a hot spring to cook for 24 hours. Nonni pulled out the baked bread from the day before and
everyone got a chance to taste this unique bread together with Icelandic butter. The taste is rather
sweet and the texture somewhere between a cake and a bread.
We then headed to an area behind a mountain by the lake, but first making a stop for a photo shoot
over the beautiful Mývatn lake. A visit to Krafla Powerplant was next on the agenda and there two
young women explained how the plant works, why we have hot water in the ground in Iceland and how
we use it sustainably.
Námaskarð hot spring area was our next destination spot. Here we can see bubbling mud pots, or
boiling melted rock, fumaroles that is a hot spring where we can only see the steam coming from a hole
and then many bubbling hot springs. The colors of the landscape are beyond words, as this is
transformed rock in white, yellow, orange, red, green and blue colors The Troll Garden is a word many use to describe Dimmuborgir, or the Dark Citadel. The reason being that the lava formations here show one „Giant Troll“ or another at every foot step. We had a lovely stroll through this magical world, which also has countless trees and flowers growing amidst the trolls.
After our outings this morning we had a well earned lunch at Sel hótel; a traditional Icelandic dish Lamb í
karrý, or curry lambstew, together with rice and potatoes. A cow farm is next to the hotel where they
produce their own ice cream so many made their way over there for desert. Most everybody also went
over to the lake for a walk alongside the shore, trying to spot some of the duck species on the lake.
Others also walked alongside the rims of some of the many pseudo craters there.
On the way back to Akureyri town we had a good stop at one of Iceland´s most beautiful waterfalls,
Goðafoss, or the waterfall of the Gods. The story goes that when Christianity was adopted in Iceland, at
the old parliament in the year 1000, the Chiftain Þorgeir Ljósvetningagoði threw his pagan pillars into
the the waterfall on his way home. From this event the waterfall got its name.
Coming back to Akureyri we stopped at Lystigarðurinn, the Botanic Garden. The garden was established
last century by women of Akureyri and here it is possible to see very many of the plants that grow at 66
degrees north around the World. So here can be seen plants from all over the world and the beauty of
the Garden is truly amazing. The Garden is on the same street as the hotel, only two blocks away, so
Bryndís advised those who wanted to spend a long time looking at the plants to make their way over
there when there was time on own.
In the evening was the Home hosted dinner and Bryndís and Óskar took the group to two different
homes; one group to Samúel Lúkas Rademaker and the other to Sólveig Bennýar Haraldsdóttir. Both
groups enjoyed their visit and hosts very much as well as the very delicious meals they were served.
We drove from Akureyri to Dalvík village in the morning, on the way Bryndís pointed out various places
and museums in down town Akureyri, which is actually just a walk down the Akureyri church located
below our hotel. We were on our way to go whale watching in Eyjafjörður fjord; the longest fjord in
Iceland. At the whale watching center we got Cover-alls to put over our suit, which was not all that easy,
but they would keep us warm while at sea. Then the Red Bunch walked down to the pier and entered an
old fishing vessel called Máni. We sailed for quite a long time, towards the mouth of the fjord, and were
then the closest to the Arctic Circle as we would be on this Iceland trip. The Arctic Circle lies over
Grímsey island, the Northernmost habitation of Iceland; about a 2 hours sailing from Dalvík.
It took a while until we saw quite many dolphins frolicking in the sea and then finally a humpback whale
show itself many times. Before coming ashore again a time was given to try to fish by using a pole. It is
possible to fish cod, haddock, wolf fish and other species but today no luck. Some had gotten a fish on
the line but they managed to loose themselves off the hook … (many witnesses to this)
After the whale watching we went to Gísli, Eiríkur, Helgi restaurant – named after 3 brothers who never
knew which one was wich so they always called out the names of all three (the Icelandic version of the
Three Stoogies). There we were greeted by Heiða, the owner, who had cooked for us a delicious seafood
soup, together with three types of home baked bread made with Kaldi bjór; a local beer. While having lunch a young musician, Þormar, entertained us with music; both his original on and other well known songs. He is in a band called TOR and their music can be found on Spotify.
We came back to Akureyri in the early afternoon, and now there was time and dinner on own, so
everybody chose whatever they wanted to do and eat.
This morning we took a 35 minute long flight from from Akureyri to Reykjavík city. At the domestic
airport, built by the Brits during WW I, our very nice driver waited for us and our days activities started.
We headed to the Ocean Cluster at the harbor of Reykjavík, where we were met by Nína who gave us
insight into the fishing industry in Iceland, especially innovations that improved quality and led to
productions of all kinds of items from fish or the ocean that gave much more value than just for fish
meant for consumption. Such as artificial skin for healing sores, tanned fish skins and various cosmetics.
We drove over to the University of Iceland, est. 1911, where we met Elías Pétur, a volunteer from the
NGO orginaziation the North Atlantic Salmon Fund, who gave a talk about the controversial topic of fish
farming in open pens in the ocean. He told us about the effect on the wild salmon stock in Icelandic
waters, why such pens had been banned in Norway and raised the question why this was allowed in
Iceland.
We then had lunch at the student´s restaurant Háma, by using food tickets – just as the students who
were there – and choosing whatever we could get for the tickets. A true „local experience“.
After lunch we had a walk in Reykjavík city center, starting at the impressive Hallgrímskirkja church,
which towers over the old town of Reykjavík and can be seen from far and wide. It is a Lutheran church,
like most churches in Iceland, made out of concrete and the state architect of the time, Guðjón
Samúelsson, based its design on basalt columnar rocks in nature.
From the church we walked down a colorful street, full of galleries, art stores and jewelers. On the main
down town thoroughfare Bryndís pointed out the bus stop to take for the public bus to and from the
Hilton hotel, we peeked into a green house, had a stop by the Parliament house and Bryndís told us a bit
about the government and the parliament of today. Then we made our way over to the Old harbor, as
most everybody in the group had chosen to take an hour long boat ride to Lundey – Puffin island – to be
able to see these cute and colorful birds.
After the boat tour our driver took us to the Hilton hotel, where we would be staying for the next three
nights. Bryndís pointed out the shops and restaurants in the vicinity of the hotel, as the afternoon and
evening was on own.
Day 11
Artist – Greenhouse – Outdoor museum
Our day started with a visit to an artist in a forest in the outskirts of Reykjavík. Erla Axels is the name of
the artist and she is a painter. She talked about her family history as well as her art, which she showed
us in her workshop. Her husband, Guðfinnur, has also become an artist on his own since he retired and
his work is displayed all around their big forested land, where we took a stroll and admired this wonderland he has created.
After this visit we made our way to Hveragerði town, where we met xxxx in his greenhouse. He told us
about growing houseplants by using the geothermal heat in the ground to heat the greenhouses and
artificial lights when the days are too short to provide the plants with necessary light.
We then drove back to Reykjavík where our next destination was Árbær outdoor museum. A museum
host took us to an old turf farm and a church and told us about this part of Icelandic history. The Árbær
farm has been in this place for centuries and when people traveled on horse back or on foot it was the
last place to stop and rest before coming to the town itself. At the museum are preserved houses that
used to be down town Reykjavík but were removed to make space for modern buildings. The museum
gives a good insight into the live in the town back in the days and if the houses had not been moved to
the museum this part of history would have disappeared.
Lunch at nearby Gallery Fiskur restaurant followed, where we were served fish of the day; halibut which
was a treat as halibut can not be fished but if caught in the nets is not thrown away but brought ashore.
The rest of the day and evening were on own, so everyone chose different things to do.
Day 12
Blue lagoon – Search and Rescue – Farewell dinner
For many a visit to the famous Blue lagoon is a highlight; the lagoon is located in the midst of a 800 year
old lava field and filled with brine; a mixture of geothermal water and the sea. The water gets its color
from blue-green algae from the ocean and it is soft and opaque because of the white silica coming from
the hot water. To spend time in the lagoon makes everyone feel like a new person – as everyone agreed
upon.
A picnic lunch was on the agenda so we made our way to Grindavík´s grocery shop. Bryndís was going
to give everyone a chance to have a „taste of Icelandic Christmas“ by having for lunch food that
connects to that time of the year. Everyone got on a piece of paper the item they were supposed to find
in the store – ask a local if they could not find it – and bring to the basket Bryndís would then pay for.
Then we drove to the nearby village Vogar where we had a visit to the Search and Rescue planned.
Marteinn and his colleagues greeted us there and showed us the kitchen where lunch was made jointly
by members of our group. While we ate the members of the SAR (Search and Rescue) team introduced how they worked,
followed by looking at the machinery and gear they had to use. They make money to run the voluntary
work by selling fireworks for new year´s evening festivities and key chains all year around – and of
course members of our group showed their support by buying key chains.
Coming back to Reykjavík there was some time on own, but we all met again in the evening for the
Farewell dinner, but first we had a Farewell drink and a meeting in a private venue. There Bryndís put on
a picture show with memories from our trip. Everyone was very happy with that – also to be able to
laugh at some of the good memories – and to be able to remember the trips for the times to come as
Bryndís is sending everyone the picture show, as well as this overview.
Hopefully our OAT journey in Iceland stays with you for a long and good time – and brings perhaps some
of you back to Iceland. YOU ARE ALWAYS WELCOME!
Bryndís
