Keep me thinking: Iceland Travel - August 2018 ( Part 1)

From starting of the year, when my brothers, Kelvin and Joe mentioned that they were planning their Iceland trip, they asked if we would like to join them. We very much wanted to but we know that the cost of travelling to Iceland can be exorbitant. Throughout the first half of the year, they kept us in the loop of their plans, the routes, the accommodations and flights tickets. Ken and I became even more interested in joining them. However, we only managed to book our flights at the very last month before the trip because we will struggling with, you know, parting our money. Lol. The plan, (not a popular one), was to leave our children behind and they will be taken care by our parents. That was the only way to save on air tickets. Flying from Asia to Europe can be really costly. Needless to say, the children were not happy and kept asking why they couldn't go too. *guilty

Finally August arrived and these will be the first time we were travelling without the children. sob...
We flew, transit, waited, flew, transit, flew - all in over 30 hours. Yes, can cry. Of cause there were other flights available but we booked ours at the last minute and the air tickets were getting expensive. So we booked the cheapest but not the ideal routes to go to Reykjavik.

We arrived 1 day earlier than my brothers and we decided to tour a little on our own and getting used to the weather. You must know that coming from a tropical 32 Degree Celsius temperature to below 10 degree Celsius, can be cold for us. Haha! And to the Icelandic people, it is summer for them. We have seen France in their cold weather but nothing beat the cold wind blowing at us in Iceland. To us, summer in Iceland, is like winter in France. Haha!

I went online to tripadvisor and many tourists who have been to Iceland, mentioned other than going to Blue Lagoon, Waterfalls, Glaciers, etc, they also said it is worth going for whale watching tour. Since we do not have a lot of time, we asked the hotel to help us make the arrangement.

Whale Watching
We booked a 2.5hrs tour which will start at 1pm and the guide came to pick us up at the hotel. We arrived at an old harbour and somehow we were the only 2 persons taking the boat cruise. Hooray! The guide told us the Icelandic people were watching some matches and that explained the streets was quite empty too. So the boat ride started, I wanted to say that the wind blowing at us was really cold. Brrr... The weather was an extremely good one with sun. We saw birds, puffins and dolphins but no whales. Alas... there is no guarantee when it comes to wild animals. Nevertheless, Ken and I enjoyed the boat tour very much. the guides (husband and wife) were very friendly and shared information about the different kinds of birds and whales.

the harbour

I was all wrapped up for Iceland summer. haha

Giganta

Not too far from the harbour, there was a little path that led to a baby giant who lived in a cave.

2nd Day - Blue Lagoon

The next day, Ken and I went to the airport to meet Kelvin and Joe and also to pick up the rental car. Just some words of caution, rent cars from reputable companies, especially those with many shops worldwide. Our rental car was in a bad shape with an error message prompting us throughout the trip, empty gas tank, was over-charged, etc. Finally, we got it settled after 2 over hours which made us rushed down to Blue Lagoon.

We were totally not disappointed with what we saw at Blue Lagoon, the staffs were friendly and helpful, the water was the right temperature for a full body relaxation, the place was a pretty sight. We got our towels (which was part of the package), changed out and head to the pool. Yahoo!

The Blue Lagoon is the top tourists attraction in Iceland. I would say it is worth it and a "must go".
After Blue Lagoon, it was already late at night and it's time for us to find our airbnb.

Food that we bought from a 24hrs supermarket. Just heat up.

Kerid Crater

The next morning, we drove out to see the Kerid Crater. Kerid is a striking volcanic crater lake on the Golden Circle route, with blue-green water on deep red slopes. Absolutely stunning.

Geysir Geothermal area and Guggfoss waterfall

Next, we head to Geysir, a geothermal area where Iceland's largest erupting hot springs can be found. Here we'll see the geyser erupt every 4-6 minutes, up to 30 metres into the air.

The next stop is the powerful Gullfoss waterfall, a large beautiful waterfall in glacier river.

I am really cold. Brrr... lol

Hallgrimskirkja (Church)

Next we visited Hallgrimskirkja (the largest church in Iceland and one of its tallest structures). We did not want to pay money to go up the viewing tower so we just took photos around the premises. This is an unusual-looking church, inspired by the forms created when lava cools into basalt rock. I read on the internt that the view from the top looks out over the entire city, plus the rocky, volcanic landscape and the sea beside the capital.