Travel Report Iceland 2002  

Iceland in March 2002, now I know where that name comes from!  During landing approach Iceland presents itself completely in white.  Even Reykjavik is completely covered by snow.  An ice cold wind is blowing fine snow horizontally across the lands – it is really awfully cold.  Oh well, our dart team from Hamburg counting 6 people is on its way to downtown Reykjavik, we’re hungry. 

  Covered to the ears we make our way through the snow to the harbour.  When we left the hotel Bernd was saying that he never uses the hood of his jacket – this resolve lasted exactly 3 minutes!  Claus had to wrap his scarf around his ears, to keep these from falling off. First thing tomorrow morning we need is to buy caps.  As it turns out it is not so easy to find a place to eat – a tip in our travel documents that everything in Iceland is about twice as expensive as at home turns out to be correct.  We find a place where the prices don’t hurt quite so bad and have a nice meal.  The price of beer hurts very badly, though – approx. Eur 7.- per glas! 

Monday, March 4, 2002
After a nice breakfast we find out that the ice-cold wind is still at it. We make our way to the Halgrimskirkja, the biggest church in Iceland.  It is an architecturally very interesting church, and we make our way to the top.  Out of the top of the steeple we have a breathtaking view of Reykjavik and the surrounding mountains/glaciers.  We can’t get enough of this view, but the Icelandic wind is blowing so cold and strong that we search for cover in the lower platform.  In Reykjavik we found a nice coffee shop (coffee is not quite as expensive as beer) and bought some caps.  It is too cold to just meander around Reykjavik.  With the bus we drive to Kringlan, Reykjaviks modern shopping centre, where we want to go to the Hard Rock Cafe.  First we find a supermarket, where we find plenty of Icelandic, American and English goodies, as well as Coke and orange juice for the room party.  We stroll through the shopping centre, but are disappointed- there’s nothing we can’t buy at home, but at much higher prices.  It’s too early for the Hard Rock Cafe – so we all have a coffee.  Then we meet in the HRC.  The interior decoration is great as always, but the food disappoints us.  Slightly better than fast food.  Heinz and Claus enjoy their little piece of fish, but they are still hungry – and this for a price that I would pay for a 3 course meal at home! 

Tuesday, March 5, 2002
At 9:00 am our bus leaves the hotel for the South Shore Adventure, and to our surprise the big bus is filled almost to the last place.  Unnur is waiting for us and introduces Kurt from Australia, who has arrived for the tournament and is joining us for the tour.

We leave Reykjavik to the east, everything is covered by snow and the icy wind continues to blow the snow across the street.  Our guide explains that this weather is not typical for the Icelandic winter, it is unusually cold.  Otherwise a saying in Iceland goes that if you don’t like the weather, wait for 15 minutes, it will change. Our first stop is in Eyrarbakki, a village on the south coast.  It is breathtaking to stand on the dike and watch the waves hit the black shore, but – I mentioned it before – we can’t take the cold for more than 5 minutes and head back into the warm bus.  

The trip continues along the south coast of Iceland, on the left (inland) lie the great glaciers and volcanoes, on the right the sea.  We are surrounded by wide areas, mainly inhabited by the famous Iceland Pony’s.  Even these tough horses tried to find some shelter behind stacks of hay or a shed.  We were surprised by the amount of fences, which parts the empty fields into parcels.  Some of these fences went straight up the mountains, without any obvious reason for their being there.  Houses, churches and other buildings were also all fenced in, even though there was no other building anywhere near! It was unfortunate that some of the stops along the route seemed to concentrate more on „cafeterias“ and souvenir shops than the actual sights!  

Dyrholaey, where the famous rock formations can be seen from the black beach turned out to be an impressive sight.  Again the freezing cold kept us from enjoying this sight for more than 10 minutes.  The impressive waves crashing down on the beach took a toll among our group – some American students went too close to the water, even though we had been warned by the guide that stray waves often come up very high on the beach.  A girl fell into a huge wave and got wet up to her stomach.  The others were wet only unto their knees, which must have been extremely uncomfortable in these temperatures.  I’m glad I wasn’t one of them!  

Another highlight on the return trip was the museum of Skogar, where some old torf houses are dug into the hillside and a nice man filled us in on the life of the old vikings.  Very interesting.  The next stop was the Skogarfoss waterfall, about 60m high.  Very impressive, especially since it was half frozen and many ice creations could be admired.  Except for a short pit stop in Selfoss, which most of us used to storm the local supermarket, we had another stop at a smaller waterfall, but most of us were too tired to leave the bus and admired it from the bus.  

Back in the hotel Unnur from Icelandair was waiting for us.  Asked for a tip on where to eat that evening she recommended a fish restaurant, which we would never have found by ourselves.  We had some great food that evening as well as an enjoyable evening, since Unnur and Kurt had joined us for dinner.  We ended the day in the hotel room looking at the pictures from the day on the laptop which Claus had brought for the trip.  

Wednesday, March 6, 2002
Today we rented 2 cars and want to discover Iceland on our own.  Kurt is joining us.  We have many places we want to see, but first of all we want to see the geysirs and the Gulfoss waterfall, a route described as „not to be missed“ in my travel booklet.  The weather is ice cold, and as before the snow is flying across the street.  Kurt is filming out of the car window and describes the conditions as “extreme weather“.  On the street side 2 demolished cars are heaved on a pedestal for everyone to see, with the warning that 6 people died on that site.  Drive carefully.  We are taking the eastern route via Selfoss and Fludir to the Gulfoss.  When we take a turn for the north, we hit such a snowstorm that we asked Kurt, how he describes this weather, if that (comparatively calm) weather earlier on is „extreme“.  The only beings we meet on this godforsaken path is a rider on a horse, there are almost no cars on the road.  We decide to stop for a cup of coffee in Fludir.  After that, we drive in perfect loneliness, we meet no more cars for the next half hour.  

Shortly before Gulfoss we cross the Hvita, a river which is nearly frozen.  The view is incredible.  We stop for a photo session.  After a while we decide to continue.  Claus is the only one in a hurry to get back to the car, he went to take pictures in a t-shirt!  Right after we crossed the river a big drift of snow lies on the road.  The car makes it to the middle, then gets stuck.  Klaus heads into the snow with a bit more speed, and manages about 4 car-lengths more.  We try for ca. 20 minutes to push the cars through the snow, with no avail.  We give up and turn around (not an easy feat on a slippery mountain pass).  We have to drive all the way back beyond Fludir to find an alternative route to the geysir.  Once there we find a huge parking lot with a couple of tourist buses, the obligatory food stall including a souvenir shop, while the earth is boiling on the other side of the road.  

We go to the bubbling holes in the ground, which represent some smaller geysirs.  From here we can already see the big Strokkur.  Every 10 minutes a fountain of boiling water gushes up 20 m high.  It is an incredible show of nature.  First the water in the hole just boils away.  Then this mass of water begins to pump itself up and down, until a huge green bubble appears over the hole.  This green mass of water then gushes into the air and produces this fantastic show of nature.  Unfortunately our fingers on the camera trigger are almost frozen off by the time the geysir gushes off, so we only have a few nice shots.  

Next we want to see the Gulfoss, a breathtakingly beautiful waterfall that rushes its way into the valley in 2 steps.  From the parking lot we already have a great view of this half frozen waterfall, but it gets better!  It is impossible to describe these blue, green and white colours which mark this spectacle, and the pictures do not respect the true beauty of this waterfall.  We were surprised that there were only minimal security markings, only an ankle high wire next to this snow covered, slippery path!  It was a bit scary!  Here once more the ice cold wind stopped us from spending much more time admiring this beautiful sight.  

For the trip home we choose the route via Laugarvatn and Pingvellir.  Since the direct route is closed we have to take a detour.  We meet no people and no cars on this route, very creepy.  The tourist hut in Pingvellir is closed, nothing but deserted streets in this forsaken area.  Nothing to indicate that this here is one of the historically and geologically most significant places in Iceland. This is where the American plate meets the European one, and also the place where the Icelandic republic was pronounced more than 1000 years ago.  Incredible that the old Icelanders must have know what a special place this is then!  

We continue on our way in this loneliness, even though we are not really that far away from Reykjavik we have still not met one car!  On the Mossfellsheidi rise we see (surprise) a jeep.  The occupants are busy pushing a car out of the snow.  That is not  a good sign.  A huge snowdrift is blocking the road, the jeep is in the middle of it.  Claus stops the car before the snow, we want to check out the situation first. If we don’t make it through here we have to return all the way to Selfoss before turning to Reykjavik, and who knows what the roads are like there now (it’s been storming the whole time).   The guys from the jeep drive through the drift a couple of times to make a path for us.  Claus takes an approach and makes it about half way through the drift. We push the car.  Inch by inch we push the car forward, until it is completely stuck.  We try to stomp away some of the snow with our feet, which is very tiring.  With 7-8 people we push again, and this time we actually manage to shove the car through the snow!  When Klaus goes back to get the second car, we’re prepared for the worst – but Klaus drives the car without any apparent trouble to the other end of the snow drift.  We all applaud!  Thanks to the guys from the jeep for helping us. A short while later we see lampposts at the side of the road – we’re back in civilisation.  On the right we see the impressive Esja mountains. In the evening we go to a restaurant that Unnur recommended – again quite expensive, but soup and salad is included and the food is good.  The room party that night is a short one – we’re tired.  It was a great day.  

Thursday, March 7, 2002
Today we move to Kevlavik to play the dart tournament. We sleep in (a bit), have a relaxing breakfast and retreat to the rooms to pack.  Claus goes to the shopping centre to buy a chip reader for the laptop.  Bernd goes into the sauna.  At 11:30 we meet in the lobby, the bus leaves at 12:00.  At about 13:00 we reach the hotel in Keflavik.  We all have rooms next to each other.  In the afternoon we take a walk through the city and, as always, end up in a cafe.  We can see Reykjavik across the bay.  As we reach the hotel the others are just coming in from the airport. We're very happy to see our colleagues from Frankfurt.   At 6:30pm we leave for Gardur, where the tournament is to be held. 

Jimmy Shoulder - Singles Tournament
The tournament is played in the Samkomuhus (get together house), like a club house.  The beer is real cheap, only 400 Ikr, about 5 Eur.  Considering we’re in Iceland, thats cheap.  The teams file in, it’s great to see the guys from British Airways, Aer Lingus, AUA, Finnair, Icelandair and Manx again.  Kurt represents Quantas all by himself, and Marvin from TWA is also back.  
We draw numbers for the tournament.  The winner of the first round continues into the next round, etc. Unfortunately the whole Lufthansa team loses out in the first round, even though we played quite well in parts. All of the first places are claimed by Icelandair:  Best finish-  Thorsteinn Johannsson (167); Least darts - Gudjön Hauksson (16 darts). 

Friday, March 8, 2002
At 9:30 the bus leaves the hotel for the tournament.  Breakfast is a bit of a chaos, only one (very helpful) lady is trying to serve about 60 darters at once!  We manage somehow and leave for the tournament.  Lufthansa has 2 teams competing in the Jimmy Shoulders Memorial, we filled one team up with Marvin and Kurt.  Finnair starts with 2 teams, BA also, as does Icelandair and Aer Lingus.  Manx and AUA have one team each.  After a strenuous day of playing darts the Icelanders win with their team Icelandair 1 against the team British Airways 1 in the finals.  Icelandair wins the Jimmy Shoulders team competition!  

For the evening  trip to the blue lagoon is planned.   Unfortunately we get there only 30 min before closing time, so our swim is cut short. The blue lagoon is a giant geothermally heated pool and it smells strongly of sulphur.  The water gets as hot as 47°C, there are some areas we needed to get out of very quickly.  Above the water the typical icelandic weather prevails - the ice cold wind hows and the snow is blowing across the water.  To keep their hair from freezing solid Chris and Heike wrap a turban around their heads - a great idea.  After the swim we feel thoroughly refreshed.  In the late evening we all storm the local pizza pub.

Saturday, March 9, 2002 - The ASCA Tournament
Breakfast is good this morning. At 9:30 the bus leaves once again for the Samkomuhus.  Today each airline starts with 1 team into a round robin competition. In the decisive game Icelandair wins against British Airways 4:2 and wins the ASCA darts tournament 2002!

In the evening we get together again for the prize giving dinner and dance. The top trophies all go to Icelandair.  Afterwards the hosts of the Samkomuhus serve us a delicious dinner buffet - icelandic cuisine at its best.  Finally an icelandic band plays and the dancing begins.  Officially the party ends at midnight, but the last players come back into the hotel just in time for breakfast..... 

In this place we want to convey our  thanks to Unnur and the team from Icelandair, that spent so much time and effort to arrange this great tournament for us.  We had a marvellous and unforgettable week in Iceland, thanks from all of us!