Monday, September 15, 2014

Iceland Part 7- Akureyri to Saeberg to Reykjavik

I am combining the last couple days of our trip together because this has been running on for awhile- plus they were much quieter days, which was nice because the weather started to turn on us again.

We left Akureyri and headed out to our next stop on the route- Saeberg. Now, I do want to say the west coast of Iceland is supposed to be awesome, but you would need a few days to drive out to the West Fjords and the sights out there so we did not get to complete that on this trip- another reason to return one day!

Our first stop on the road were Glaumbaer and Vidimyrikirkja, a traditional turf farm turned museum and a turf church! We got a little lost (I had them marked wrong on my map), but they were definitely worth finding as they were pretty cool! Both of them cost money to enter, but you can walk the grounds for free.




We got to our hostel (Saeberg) in the early afternoon and we were actually the first ones there! So of course, we hopped immediately into the hot tubs for a little afternoon break!




I think all hostels should have hot tubs, yes?

Once we were sufficiently heated up, we head out to the peninsula of Vatnsnes, which is known for seal watching! Unfortunately, the seals were not there that day :(. But if you are in the area, please check it out because we heard it was a cool sight to see them all lounging there. When we got back we just made some pasta for dinner and relaxed. This hostel was a little dated, and freezing cold (the front door would NOT stay closed and it was a really cold and windy night. I kept expecting to wake up with a sheep in the room. However...it had hot tubs. So there's that ;)

After Saeberg we had to drive back to Reykjavik and return our car. A hurricane was actually blowing in so it was a bit of a windy and rainy drive. We did stop at the crater Grabrok, and the waterfall Barnafoss. However, we barely explored the Barnafoss/Hraunfossar area because of the crazy wind!




Then we drove to Reykjavik and returned our rental car, which was very dirty, but thankfully not damaged, from our week of adventures! In total we went 2500km and I took about 1200 photos!! We then spent the 24 hours just relaxing in Reykjavik and shopping for souvenirs for family and friends (super expensive in Iceland- we did not buy much!). Our flight was at 5pm on the Monday and we were thankful that the winds had died out so we could have a safe flight home.

All in all, Iceland was probably the best trip of my life and I feel like we barely scratched the surface. There are so many areas that we did not drive to that I would love to visit one day! It is simply a stunning country!! It was not cheap, but I think this is a vacation worth saving up for.


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