Family trip to Iceland

We got our big rent.is camper van. It was perfect. We drove to the oldest farm in Iceland, Keldur, where we saw a Viking settlement and a secret passage-way which ends at the other side of a river. Since we were a bit tired, we found a nice place close to the road, we set the table outside, we had lunch and then we had a resting nap. Then we drove near the wonderful Skógafoss waterfall, where we slept.

 

 

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We passed by Sólheimajökull glacier, touched it and went to eat breakfast at the glacier caffè admiring the cool, enormous glacier. After that we moved to Dyrhólaey national reserve, where dad saw his first puffin coming out from a hole (only he saw it, because he stayed behind to get things from the camper van) and there were weird rocks with weird holes and a magnificent black sand beach. While on the camper van we played games (like UNO or guess the person I’m thinking of) because of our long journey. We passed through Vik (where we went to a supermarket) and Kirkjubæjarklaustur and arrived at Skaftafell where we checked the glacier horses telephone number and the puffin tour time for the trips. After that we followed a long rough foot path which brought us close to the glacier and got a selfie. We slept close to Svinafellsjökull car-park where there were enormous mosquitoes and fat rocks. We cooked some beans on the camp stove we found in the camper van, we had a good dinner and we slept a good night sleep.

 

 

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We went to Skaftafell national park. It was a long rough walk. We saw tall falling waterfalls with giant stone pillars hanging from the ceiling. We had another hour walk and that was the worst part. I had a bet with dad of how much time we would get to the sand canyon; dad said 30mins, I said 5. It took 7mins 20secs.

We crossed the bridge to the other side of the canyon speaking about the bet we made. Half the canyon we were already tired, but there was few, nearly no more water, we ran back (we didn’t have no more energy even to go down the mountain). It was exhausting. Finally we got in the camper van and flew to book the horses for the next day. “Phew”. We slept again near Svinafellsjökull because the location was amazing.

 

We went to get the smelly horses, but unfortunately the people who had the horses booked another group at the same time, so we went to Jökulsárlón. We got tickets for a boat trip and believe it or not we saw a seal. We also tasted some of the lake’s ice. Off the boat we ate a yummy soup with a bit of bread to dunk in it. My dad, my brother and me went to buy a Viking boat as a souvenir. It was cool. We drove back and while dad was driving my brother and I played with the little boat. We got the puffin tour number. Dad booked the puffin tour for 9:15 the next morning and we went to the smelly horses. It was the first time I got to go on a horse, it was fabulous and everybody thought so. When we got to sleep a fabulous feeling appeared in my mind. The best feeling in my life. I don’t know if the others got it anyway.

 

We went to Ingólfshöfði for the puffin tour at 9:15 after going to Skaftafell to use the washing machine. We are really early birds. At the puffin tour we went on a tractor route through a sandy and muddy lagoon, stopped at the feet of a hill, climbed up and heard about the history of Iceland and Ingólfshöfði. We saw a lot of funny weird puffins also having bath in the sea. We found also the bones of dead puffins attacked by skuas, they were so interesting. While we were there a great skua attacked an old man and the old man pretended to hit it. We saw some baby skuas hiding in the tall, long grass. I ate some yum berries I never ate before: “yummy!”

 

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We started to drive back very early at 6:00 and we drove to Eyarbakki to find a little bar, but it was too small even to have a bar (there was only 1 little shop).  We stopped at Strandakirkja to see the church there. We also saw a big tall lighthouse. Then we went to Selatangar (where a ghost is supposed to live) to look at the old Viking settlement. After that excellent experience we rushed to Hafnaberg where we saw the cliffs (actually we didn’t, we nearly saw it, but a terrible wind came up and it was raining so we gave up). After that we quickly drove to a little unexpected cave on the road. We went inside and there we SAW… nothing, so we drove to the hole which splits the American plate and European plate. Then we drove to a campsite to sleep.

In the morning: after having our usual breakfast on the dining table in the camper van we rushed to the Blue lagoon. We got our bracelets and went in, we changed, had a shower and we went in the pool. The water was warm and we had a fabulous experience by the hot water and floats. There was a tiny waterfall which I went under and then I went in the sauna and the other 2 hot rooms then we had a shower, we dressed, ate some crisps and went to the Lava restaurant to eat fish. After that we had a shower with balsam and re-went in the pool while mum took photos then we got face masks, ate at the bar and went in the inside section of the pool. Then only I went out with mum taking photos. We had a new shower and went in the camper van heading to Reykjavik.

We got to Reykjavik and looked at the church in it, then we went to the flat we had rented and dad and me went to give back the camper van to you. It’s been fabulous, we couldn’t have stopped in all these wonderful places and rearrange our schedule at the last minute every day if we didn’t have the camper van! Also, from time to time we could chat with grannies to tell them about our experience with the camper van WiFi.

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