Parting is such sweet sorrow
NOTE- We’re home, but I’m running behind on blog posts. This is from our last two days in Iceland. I’ll post a wrap up in a week or so.
5/31/25
This morning, we have to leave the Westfjords and head toward the city. I don’t want to…….and neither does Laurie.
We leave our wonderful farm apartment and make our first stop around 25 KM (13 miles maybe) down the road in Holmavik. Laurie wanted to see two museums in the West, one was the sea monster museum and the other was the witchcraft museum. We grab fuel and a coffee at the N1 then into town for the museum.
5/31/25
This morning, we have to leave the Westfjords and head toward the city. I don’t want to…….and neither does Laurie.
We leave our wonderful farm apartment and make our first stop around 25 KM (13 miles maybe) down the road in Holmavik. Laurie wanted to see two museums in the West, one was the sea monster museum and the other was the witchcraft museum. We grab fuel and a coffee at the N1 then into town for the museum.
Holmavik from above
It is a very well put together museum, an accurate testament to what happens when people embrace superstition and fear while ignoring logic and science. Throughout recorded history, this path of action has NEVER given a positive outcome, leaving future generations to wonder what the hell they were thinking.
The church in Holmavik
Just like in the Scooby Doo cartoon (and much of human history)…. it was all about someone sketchy doing incredibly sketchy things to make money. Rituals often involved stealing money from the poor or widows or taking advantage of the weak. In the end they burned 21 people alive as witchcraft practitioners. Unlike so many other places during these dark times, only one of the executed was a woman.
The last N1 soup
We move south, stopping for soup at the N1 an hour north of Reykjavik. We come through Reykjavik and are quickly reminded why the Westfjords were so wonderful. It is a real city with the metro area having a population of around a quarter million people, 64 percent of the entire Icelandic population.
Happy Iceland donuts
We go through Reykjavik as quickly as possible. Even though it is Saturday it is very busy and crowded. We see more traffic in a block than we saw in ten days in the Westfjords. We keep moving towards our last stop.
A little lighthouse in someone's yard
We arrive in Keflavik and check into our hotel. While everyone thinks they fly into Reykjavik, they don’t. International flights come into Keflavik, about 40 miles south. Keflavik is a reasonable size town (around 15k people) with much less hustle and bustle than the big city.
Back in Keflavik
Keflavik has everything you need…..good restaurants, several grocery stores, shopping, and things to do and see. Keflavik strikes me as more of a reasonable place to live than the city. It’s easy to navigate and it’s not at all crowded. We ride through town and take photos of all the murals.
Downtown Grindavik
We wonder about Grindavik, a town about 12 miles south of Keflavik. We went through Grindavik on our previous visits and we wondered about how it fared through the eruptions. We decide to drive down there and take the coast road back to Keflavik, a route we took the very first time we visited Iceland 13 years ago.
So much damage
Grindavik was shocking. The damage by the lava flow and earthquakes was much worse than I expected. Large swaths of town were fenced off with no access. Houses and buildings were visibly twisted with huge cracks. Parking lots and sidewalks would suddenly drop five feet. Damage was extensive.
The parking lot fell five feet
It felt like a ghost town. While parts of town were not damaged and some people had moved back, there were a lot of places that were unsafe to live. Even if a building or house was safe, it was often vacant. Most people just weren’t moving back.
Twisted in the middle...and unsafe
Small bands of local kids were skateboarding or bicycling on streets that used to be very busy. Two restaurants were still open and we felt we should do what we could to show support for the businesses that were still there. We decided to have dinner in Grindavik.
This used to be level
The first restaurant was a pizza/burger place which was full of locals, out for a Saturday evening meal with their extended family. There were no open tables so we moved to the second one. It was a bit more upscale and practically empty. We decided to give it a try.
Drone shot during the eruption
While we started out as one of two couples in the restaurant, by the time we left it was full. I had a very good pizza and Laurie had fresh Arctic Char (sort of like salmon). The food, like every meal we had in Iceland, was very good. In fact, we didn’t have a single bad meal while there.
Lava dams around the town
People often talk about how expensive Iceland is, but you have to take a few things into consideration. We ate in a nice restaurant. Laurie had a beer and I had a coke. Her fish dish was one of the more expensive things on the menu and it was a nicer restaurant. There is no tipping or sales tax.
Our dinner was $85 dollars US. While not cheap, if you go to a nicer restaurant where we live and give a decent tip, it’s the same. If you’re going to something similar in Nashville, it may be even more. With Tennessee sales tax and tip added (around 30 percent), it’s the equivalent of a $55 meal in our hometown. With drinks.
Our dinner was $85 dollars US. While not cheap, if you go to a nicer restaurant where we live and give a decent tip, it’s the same. If you’re going to something similar in Nashville, it may be even more. With Tennessee sales tax and tip added (around 30 percent), it’s the equivalent of a $55 meal in our hometown. With drinks.
Eruption (Elgoss) photos
After dinner we drive around town a bit more. They have a photo gallery set up in a parking lot where you can see photos of what happened with the eruption. While set up where you can drive through, we parked and walked through.
So many businesses and homes are heavily damaged or people are just afraid to move back. The town is surrounded by rocks that were actually formed a year ago…..an odd concept. We felt so bad for the residents/former residents and hope the are recovering and living good lives.
So many businesses and homes are heavily damaged or people are just afraid to move back. The town is surrounded by rocks that were actually formed a year ago…..an odd concept. We felt so bad for the residents/former residents and hope the are recovering and living good lives.
Hardened lava
While a hurricane (of which we’ve lived through many) can take your house, an eruption actually takes the land it stands on. We continue around the peninsula on the coast road, the same road we explored on our very first visit.
We see sites we first saw years ago, which have changed little. We stop at a lighthouse that I photographed and has since been turned into a painting by a local artist in Cookeville. We close the loop and wind up back at our hotel.
We see sites we first saw years ago, which have changed little. We stop at a lighthouse that I photographed and has since been turned into a painting by a local artist in Cookeville. We close the loop and wind up back at our hotel.
Back to where we were years ago
We rise the next morning, grab breakfast at a local bakery, and do a bit more shopping for gifts. We go to my favorite Iceland store, Netto! It is an Icelandic grocery chain with a wonderful selection. We buy fresh squeezed orange juice, donuts, and candy for friends back home. I love Netto….it’s such a wonderful grocery store and I wish we had one.
Netto!
Eventually, we have to let go of Iceland and head back to our life in the real world. We head to the airport and board our flight. We are saddened that we must leave. It has been wonderful and we will miss it so.
We’ll put together a wrap up soon with even more photos. Thanks to everyone for joining us.
We’ll put together a wrap up soon with even more photos. Thanks to everyone for joining us.
