Traveling these days is a weird thing. When Iceland announced they were opening up to vaccinated tourists, a quick Google search told me plane tickets were a good price (and probably wouldn't stay that way) so we jumped on the chance. We have wanted to go to Iceland for years, we had been saving for it, so we went for it! And we took our kids...
Upon arrival, we showed them our vaccine cards and all five of us, even the baby, got a PCR test at the airport. We picked up our rental car and then went to our rental apartment to quarantine and nap. By noon we had our negative test results and we're allowed to go anywhere we wanted!
We just wanted to get some groceries and take a nap. Day 1 was totally a rest day, Arthur and Laszlo slept fine on the flight, but there rest of us were wiped out. Day 2 our real adventures began.
The children enjoyed visiting Hallgrimskirkja, the great cathedral, and taking the elevator up the clock tower.
Paul and Laszlo saw the rainbow painted street, and immediately had to start a race. It's Mario Kart of course! Rainbow Road! It was their favorite part of the day save for the boat ride.
We took a puffin watching tour out of Reykjavik harbor. There is a small island that is a protected area, no humans allowed, so the puffins can safely nest. Those are some adorable birds! But they are very fast. Hard to get a decent photo when both your boat and your target are moving.
Whale watching tours are full day affairs and we didn't think our kids would enjoy doing that. Instead we visited the Whales of Iceland museum, which they loved.
A school/day care group was there when we arrived, and those energetic kids set the tone for ours. They were free to run and play, no one telling the kids that they needed to settle down and act like adults. It was very refreshing!
Day 3 we did the tourist classic: The Golden Circle. This is an easy day trip from Reykjavik with some very cool stops. Our first stop was Thingvellir National Park. A place of great historical and geological significance. It was quite beautiful and quite windy. Paul did not like the wind today. The kids took turns not liking the weather when it turned rough, and today was Paul's day.
Our absolute favorite stop of the day was at Laugarvatn Fontana, a supa classy spa. We started our visit by taking a bread tour. They do a traditional method of baking rye bread in the ground, where the boiling hot pot water cooks it. The guide was nice enough to let Paul and Laszlo help bury the bread for the next day and dig up our loaf of bread. It was extremely tasty: dense, sweet, and moist.
Then we visited their lovely geothermal spa, where there are many pools, saunas, and a chilly lake to cool off--if you're a little bit crazy!
After something like 3 hours of swimming, we finally got the kids out of the pool with the promise of dinner and ice cream. We just had to stop off at Efstidalur II, the family farm and restaurant, where you eat your meal and lick your ice cream cone in the a dining area that overlooks the dairy cows in their barn. You don't get more locally sourced than that! It was tasty, the kids loved watching the cows eat, and we all felt pretty good to finish our day off with a full stomach. Only two more stops: Geysir and Gulfoss.
Geysir is a particular hot pot, and actually provides the origins of the English word geyser. It doesn't erupt regularly anymore, but the one next to it does. I saw it spew water 3 times, but no one else was looking the first 2 and the kids had already run away towards the warmth of the car before the 3rd time. Not exactly Yellowstone, but cool nonetheless.
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