Honeymoon - Iceland: Kerid, Stokkseyri, Gluggafoss, Solheimajokull glacier

Lots of driving today! We were heading down South and travelling close to the coastal, and we need to end at Vik! 

First stop, Kerid Crater. This is soooooo beautiful! Like a pendant!!! 

The view from the top

We walked one round at the top before going down. This is a totally different view versus other season. Winter it is a frozen crater, but it still looks pretty! 
It was really windy and cold.  

My hero :)

Next, we continued our journey to lunch at Stokkseyri. There is an amazing restaurant serving langoustine - Fjorubordid Restaurant. We had already made reservations just to be sure!
It's located near the shore of Stokkseyri's beach. 

That lobster soup was so good. The bread was surprisingly nice too! The sauce was quite special but I couldn't make out what was it.

Such a great lunch... This certainly taste great! 

We really had a great lunch, but the cost is not cheap btw. Anyways... YUMs!

Now for the long journey.... to Gluggafoss.

Next up was Seljalandsfoss which was about 20min drive away. At Seljalandsfoss, you can also visit Gljufrafoss waterfall which is about 400m further away. 
TIP: If you wanna visit Gljufrafoss, better wear waterproof pants/shirt/boots. You will get wet if you wanna go inside the waterfall.
This is one of my favourite waterfall because it's really beautiful, there was a rainbow at the entrance because the when there is huge volume of water flowing, and the mist remains, the sunlight will form the rainbow. 

Seljalandsfoss

This was the entrance.... We originally didn't go in because we didn't know we could go in. 
Then we saw someone who did and the boy decided to attempt to go although he was wearing sports shoe  that day instead of boots. 
I went in after he said it's ok to go. 
We spent some time drying ourselves though hahaha... but it was fun!

We hurried made our way to the last stop as we were slightly behind time. 
Our last stop was Solheimajokull glacier about 1 hour away.
It was super huge land of glacier, we walked abit to admire the nature and explore  the glacier until it was time to leave as we had to make our way to the hotel. 

We ended our day's journey at Vik for a night's day. Vik is quite a small town but it has it's own night beauty. At night, the whole place lits up and you can go to the top of the village and see the night view, I think it's really beautiful. 

Honeymoon - Iceland: Golden Circle

Early morning we set off and drove from Reykjavik to Thingvellir that is at the Golden Circle. Today's trip is sightseeing the golden circle attractions, so long day ahead!

Our first activity of the day is Silfra Fissure Snorkeling that the boy booked.
Silfra fissure is located between two continents and it has the clearest water in the world. This narrow opening is created by the separation of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates cutting through Iceland. 

Diving is available, however, the boy couldn't dive because here diving requires a dry suit certification, not the normal diving in Asia kind of certificate? 

The dry suit was very very heavy. We wore it on top of our normal wear. Dry suit, so you won't be wet underneath. It really keeps you warm on land. But in water, I almost died of coldness. Firstly, I wasn't really good at breathing with the equipment, and the coldness just tensed me up. The temperature is like 2 degrees. I was biting the mouth piece so badly. haha. Towards the end, there was a bit of free time for you to venture around before making your way out, but I went out immediately. 
Underneath the water is really very clear and beautiful, it is an experience, but I wouldn't do it again under such a cold weather.

After going out to undress the dry suit, the tour people (Iceland Adventure Tours) offered hot chocolate and biscuits to keep warm. The tour people are really very nice and helpful, they took care of me while underwater. The whole tour is about 3 hrs, but actual time in water is about 45minutes. It does take time to wear the dry suit and queue to get in. 

After that, we headed for Thingvellir National Park - Oxararfoss. It was a nice walk, the weather was so much better.

The snow cap mountain are just beautiful!

 We continued driving about 60km away from Thingvellir, it was Strokkur Geysir. This geyser is located in the Geysir geothermal area, it erupts about every 5-10minutes. 
We stayed there for quite a while because someone was taking a drone video and the water splashed high up and hit the drone. Quite a sight to watch. 

  
Our last stop was Gullfoss waterfall, and it was getting quite late already. The weather was turning colder too. 
There's a short stairway up to see at high grounds, but be warn in the evening it was super cold and windy. I went up, and down almost immediately. haha

At the top

It was getting late so we hurried back to check in at our apartment. We booked Golden Circle Apartment at Laugrvatn. It was a big and nice apartment! 

Didn't take the toilet and a wardrobe too not in the picture. 
Laugarvatn Fontana Spa was just a stone throw away, so we decided to go try it out! 
It is smaller than blue lagoon, but it has different temperature setting of pools so you can slowly adapt to the temperature. 
There's a small door for you to go outside along the open sea area, if you dare cause it's cold. 
Here there is actually a Rye Bread tour where you get to see bread being baked under the ground as the geothermal temperature is hot enough to bake a bread. Unfortunately it's a fixed timing and we couldn't make it in time. 
It was really relaxing after a day's of cold weather outside plus that snorkeling. 
I could do geothermal baths everyday... 
We walked back and cooked dinner and slept like a baby. 

Honeymoon - Iceland: Cafe Loki - Preparing for self drive - Blue Lagoon

This morning, we headed for another Icelandic traditional food!
It was near Hallgrimskirkja, so we took a stroll over and admire the morning quietness along the alleys. Also, we went into the church to explore as well. 

We then headed for breakfast at Café Loki, which is right across the church. 
This café serves quite a few of Icelandic food, so you can try lots of local food here. 
We picked one of the Icelandic plate which has the important ones we wanted to try - Shark, and the ice cream (research says it's really good!). The lamb soup was said to be nice too. 

So …. the Icelandic plate we chose - I think... was made up of mashed fish on rye bread, herring and egg on rye bread and rye bread ice cream (the one with cream on top). That Icelandic flag thing is small pieces of fermented shark. 
We order Icelandic meat soup which = lamb soup. 
Taste wise - That fermented shark is an acquired taste. It taste foul in the mouth and very strong fermented taste. Taking a second piece, it was slightly more bearable, but not something I would eat again. Maybe if it's cooked with other flavours….  
The mashed fish was not bad, definitely has other flavours (egg? mayo?), edible. 
The herring and egg... I realised i'm not a big fan of preserved fishes. Taste weird. But I see that herring is very popular here. In supermarket, you see more canned herring than canned sardines. I skipped the herring. 
The ice cream was my favourite out of the plate. Taste great! 
The meat soup was tasty too! I liked that a lot. 

We continued to explore the alleys, and we chanced upon this bread shop - Braud & Co. I saw this while researching but it wasn't in my "to-eat" list because the popular bread is cinnamon bread, and I don't like cinnamon.  

It smelt great inside, and having a glutton husband, we bought one since he is okay with cinnamon. I tasted one bite … and OMG, it was the best ever cinnamon bread I've ever tasted and this taste is something I CAN eat! It's not the overpowering kind. 

The bread was warm and soft too.... 

This is definitely recommended! 

It's time for car collection, so we headed to Hertz office. It's not very near but it's walkable. The weather also makes long walks bearable anyway. We rented the car for 8 days (!!!) for our rest of the journey in Iceland. 

Driving in Iceland:
For self drive tours, it is especially important to do thorough research so that you are well aware of the dangers and things to look out for. 
Because it's winter time, you will need to know it's totally different from driving in Singapore. Consider things like emergency road closure due to icy roads, bad weather conditions, snowing weather etc. 
It can get extremely windy, so insurance for car is also a must. Learn how to open the door properly when it gets windy. I had a friend who almost lost the door. 
Planning your route, knowing where are the petrol kiosks along your journey will be beneficial. You never want to end up on empty tank along a highway. 
Many petrol kiosks in Iceland dare unmanned, so you have to pump yourself and only credit card payments (with pin, no signature). So be prepared to know what's your credit card pin. 
Try to drive around carparks/ small roads to familiarize cause it's left hand drive, so roads are all opposite from right hand drive. 

Luckily, my husband was the one who did the homework for this trip :) so I just follow. 
I was casually mentioning to one of my friend our "homework" for this honeymoon was a 49 page word document, my friend was in shock. haha. 

Once we collected the car, we headed for Bonus supermarket to stock up breakfast, snacks and drinks for our driving journey. 

Our first drive out is to Blue Lagoon! Blue Lagoon is about 45minutes drive from city, we have already pre-booked (Please do that) for 5pm. We wanted to enjoy the sunset at Blue Lagoon. 

It may look bright and clear, but it was so windy if you hear the video. Obviously it was the boy who video-ed this cause I couldn't stand being outside the water.  

This is where everyone will enter after changing. Alternatively you can also walk out the main door and head for the pool. By entering this way, you can avoid being out in the cold wind.

We booked the premium package where it comes with 2 kinds of masks, 1 drink, towel, bathrobe and slippers. Slippers can be brought home with you. There's table reservation and free sparkling wine if you dine at Lava Restaurant but we skipped that. 

This is the first experience of geothermal spa, where the water is rich in minerals like silica and sulfur (it might smell a little). I would say it's quite a luxurious enjoyment and it's rather enjoyable. 
Note to bring lots of conditioner because if your hair touches the water, it can get VERY dry. 

It was getting late by the time we left, and was quite dark too. So we tabao-ed dinner at Lobster Hut (serves good lobster soup) and started packing for the next day departure. 

Honeymoon - Iceland: City walk - Hallgrímskirkja - Tapasbarinn

This day was an exciting day with lots of activities to check off. 
We went for a nice breakfast at Sandholt that serves all the pretty tasty looking cakes, bread, sandwiches! 

We tried the Icelandic doughnut and a sweet cake. I prefer the Singapore doughnut. haha. 

We have booked a free city tour walk to understanding their history and culture. It is recommended to provide them some tips whatever amount, afterall they spent their time sharing with you isn't it? 
This is the link where we chose our tour.
https://citywalk.is/

It was around 2hrs of the tour. Popular sights such as Hallgrimskirkja or Harpa was only talked about as we could go in and spend time ourselves outside the tour. 

We headed for lunch before continuing our sightseeing, so we went to Icelandic Fish and Chips. Not cheap! This cost about SGD$32! The sauce also cost money ok. 
But luckily the fish was really fresh and the salad is niceeeee…. the "chips" is the roasted potatoes which was tasty!

We continued our sightseeing, exploring Harpa Concert Hall and Hallgrimskirkja. It was raining so we spent some time indoors.

For dinner, we went to an atas place that sells Icelandic authenic food, and that means eating puffin, whale ……
The place is called Tapasbarinn, and we chose the Icelandic Gourmet Feast.

What it includes:
- Shot of Icelandic "Brennivin" (Icelandic liquor)
- Lamb tenderloin in liquorice sauce (Icelandic LOVES liquorice)
- Smoked puffin with blueberry "Brennivin" sauce
- Icelandic arctic char with bellpepper-salsa
- Lobster tails baked in garlic
- Pan fried blue ling with lobster sauce
- Minke Whale with cranberry-malt sauce
- Grilled Icelandic lamb with beer-butterscotch sauce
- White chocolate "Skyr" mousse with passion coulis

The puffin was not bad, the lobster tail as well. The whale was fantastic! The lamb as well. 
The dessert was awesome! 
In fact, I really love this meal. Very unique but still taste really good. 
I do not like the strong brennivin and the liquorice though. Well, I generally hate liquorice taste. 
Recommended place to try your Icelandic food! 

Smoked Puffin

Shot + liquorice sauce

Forgot what was this...

Minke whale

Lobster tails

Icelandic lamb

Blue ling

Arctic char

Skyr mousse

It was such a great day and awesome food. I'm loving Iceland too!