OT - A trip to the "Land of Fire and Ice" this is what I am doing and eating

Sea2Ski

Some of you you might remember our trip to AU/NZ last year and many liked the thread, so I will do the same on this one. While it will be food-centric, I will post other pictures from here and there as well. 

I have been past due for a trip. It has been a few months, and we got a deal we could not pass up, so we booked it.  Iceland here we come!

So let's get started.  Sitting at at the airport with ticket in hand. 

Eating airport grub.  BBQ pizza and cheese and tomato.


The real fun will be when we land from our red-eye from JFK direct to Reykjavik, get a rental and drive 4 hours east out of the city to a super remote cabin.  The owner stated the closest store to get food is about 45 mins away, so we should get what we want before we get there.

Until then, lets hope for a smooth, uneventful, and quiet flight.

northGAcock

Looking forward to the pictures and stories for sure. You guys have a great time.

DoubleEgger

Safe travels sir. Looking forward to this thread.We will be there in 2017. 

YEMTrey

Sounds great.  Let us po folk vicariously live through your travels!

Thanks for sharing.

Battleborn

Iceland is on the bucket list. No if I could convince my wife to get on a plane. 

Gman2

Looking forward to seeing your journey!! Enjoy

MJG

I wouldn't suggest trying the Hakarl. 

Sea2Ski

MJG said:

I wouldn't suggest trying the Hakarl. 

If I can try a small bit, I will.  I have never turned down eating anything (except fresh mangos-allergic to them.  Yep of all things, I know!).   I will try anything once, and force myself to do it.  I do not ever want to say "I could have, but didn't."  

Ot does sound utterly in appetizing, but one bit should not kill me.  We will see.  

Eggdicted_Dawgfan

This is going to be a great thread. 

Eggdicted_Dawgfan

Will you have internet in this remote location? To post pics?

Sea2Ski

Off the plane and car rented. Drove about 1 hour.  Sitting and waiting for our first meal in a Remote Resturant.   My current view:

northGAcock

Sea2Ski said:

Off the plane and car rented. Drove about 1 hour.  Sitting and waiting for our first meal in a Remote Resturant.   My current view:

You already put a good dent into that vodka.....or is that tequila? 

bgebrent

Outstanding. Safe travels and eat well brother. 

HofstraJet

MJG said:

I wouldn't suggest trying the Hakarl. 

Had to look up what that was. Wow.

http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/icelandic-cuisine-hakarl-iceland-fermented-shark.html

NPHuskerFL

Haven't been there since 92 & 93.  Glacier camping and  off-reading near Kef is fun.  And a must is the Blue Lagoon.

GATraveller

Great thread.....thanks for sharing your journey.

Sea2Ski

Wow, what a meal that was.  I started with a soup.  While the base was a seafood stock, there was a heavy cream added to it to fill out the body.  It was made of cod, shrimp, salmon, onion and diced tomatos.  It was fantastic!  



The main was an artic char with potato, kale,  cauliflower, and a fantastic celery purée. 



The room was pretty cool too.


We got there after the lunch rush, so we had it to ourselves.  The waiter was understandably slow, so we chatted with him most of the meal. It is great to talk to a local who loves where he lives.

We then had to get provisions, so choices needed to be made:


Stopped at a waterfall....


Grabbed a few sandwiches for dinner, and headed to our remote cabin. 
While not the exact place, to give you a visual idea:


Here is our actual cabin:  poor night picture, but I just ran out and took the picture with the cell. There is nothing around.   Nothing!  



Now we opened a bottle of red wine and we are hoping for the sky's to clear a bit for the Northen Lights, but the forecast is 75% unfavorable. Here is to hoping they are wrong!  

Sea2Ski

Listening to "mommy kissing santa clause" and othe Christmas carols in Icelandic, and drinking this:


It is hitting hard on a jet lag body, and it is fantastic! 

gdenby

Dang! What a trip. That soup looks superior. Hope you get some northern lights.

YEMTrey

Great thread.  Beautiful pictures!  Thanks for sharing and keep'em coming!

MJG

Nice pics. One lonely bottle of Reika vodka. I love that stuff. 

jollygreenegg

Awesome!  My wife and I are heading there in March '17.  Can't wait to see your updates and pics.  Are you going to do the ring road?

northGAcock

Keep um coming Mark.....I know you are having a blast. 

DMW

Wow, what a trip, and great photos. Iceland is on both my and my wife's bucket lists. We will make it there someday, though it may be when our youngest (currently 7) leaves the nest.

Sea2Ski

No lights last night, so we opted for fireworks.

@jollygreenegg we are doing the bottom part of it. It is winter here and unless we got another car, it sounds like we could run into trouble should weather pop up. 

Since this part of the trip is somewhat a road trip, and is "bring your own" it is a breakfast not really worth sharing. But since I said I would, here it is. 


A lot more driving today.  Wondering what we will see!?!?

Sea2Ski

So we left kinda early, it felt like midnight, but was 7:24


Light broke about 9:28.


If you think of Iceland as a clock, this morning we drove from 6:00 to 4:00, then 4:00 back to 8:00 (Jokilsarlon to Reykjavik). Yesterday was 165 and today was 336 for a total of 501 miles.  We encountered snow, sleet, rain and a few minutes of sun.

I saw a glacier, and I took a side road to get to it. My wife not happy with me for going off the main road. Then we got to the foot of the glacier, and were amazed. After about an hour, we moved on.  

This was our final target destination:



My wife got me setting up:


Unfortunately, I misplaced the Bluetooth plug which will allow me to transfer pictures from the good camera to the phone, so the good pictures are still on the good camera, but here are a few I took with the phone. 


Yes, the ice is really that blue. It was a pretty fantastic site. Of all the beautiful places I have been domestically and abroad: Tuscany, Sedona, Yellowstone, Tetons, the Caribbean islands, Central America and many of the places in Australia and NZ (well, not the fjords in NZ) just to name a few, this place is incredibly beautiful and in the top three; and we are only on day two.

We are now back in Reykjavik.  Tomorrow we will be exploring the city. I will try and get a new Bluetooth thingy to get some other pictures uploaded.  But now?  Time for some (more) of this:

It has a twig of birch in the bottle:

bud812

I hate you a little bit. Wish that was me.

theyolksonyou

Can't wait to see the good pictures 

northGAcock

theyolksonyou said:

Can't wait to see the good pictures 

Well you are gonna have to Jason.

Little Steven

See the lights? Kinda late in the year for the full display.

YEMTrey

Amazing.  Enjoy the rest of your trip.