Blog #2: Where to go and What to do

Let’s See

…A trip to Iceland by the leading of the Lord.  Exciting, eh?  Yes, it is!  An adventure with God!  So, how did we begin the planning?  We prayed, of course! 

I am one that likes to get all the traveling arrangements over and done with—flights, rental cars and places to stay.  The latter, I decided, was very important in a nation with a population of approximately 150,000 (100,000 of them live in Reykjavik!) lest we find ‘no room at the Inn’.  The first two weeks of May are still within the “Off Season” dates, but one can never be too cautious where accommodation is concerned.

I went online and found the “Extreme Iceland” site where a traveler can book a rental car and give an itinerary (total number of days at specified locations) then the folks at Extreme Iceland will arrange the desired accommodation for you.  I printed out some maps of Iceland and then Stephany and I prayed over them, expecting the Lord to give us some ‘heads up’ on which areas to stop in and how long to stay.  Of course, we also had our desires based on sites to see!

The places that jumped out at me were Vik, Egilssadir and Myvatn.  Stephany said that she got the name of a place and it began with a “D”.  Was it Dalvik in the North?  We both felt that the area NW of Reykjavik was an assignment…we will see.

Our itinerary, with accommodations, is as follows:

2. May - By Pingvellir - http://www.lakethingvellir.is – cottage
3. May - Vik - http://www.volcanohotel.is/en/ - private
4. May – Kirkjubaejarklaustur - http://www.klausturhof.is/ - shared
5. May – Hofn - http://hvammurinn.is/ - shared
6. May – Egilsstadir - http://eyjolfsstadir.is/english - shared
7. May - Egilsstadir  (yes,  2 nights) - http://eyjolfsstadir.is/english - shared
8. May – Myvatn http://www.elda.is/ - shared
9. May - Myvatn  (2 nights) http://www.elda.is/ - shared
10. May - Dalir area - http://www.riding.is/cottages - cottage
11. May – Stykkisholmur - http://www.sundabakki.is/ - shared
12. May - In or close to Reykjavik - http://www.arcticcomforthotel.is/ - private
13. May - In or close to Reykjavik - http://www.arcticcomforthotel.is/ - private
14. May - Leave for airport.  Departure at 1700

Here's the map where we circled areas that popped out at us:

On May 2, we arrive in Reykjavik (pronounced  Rey-ja-vick) at 6:00AMish and will head out to Pingvellir (The “P” is really a “Th”…pronounced think-vat-lit) and tour the National Park on a sunny but cold day.  

 Will Thingvellir look like this when we arrive??????

While there, we will straddle the Continental Divide  (one foot on the North American Plate and one foot on the Eurasian Plates; see below, upper of the 2 dots in the southwest).  No worries about being swallowed up by the land mass as it only moves 2.5cm a year…   Then to the Church in thingvellir which had been there since Christianity came to Iceland’s shores in 1000 AD.  Of course, it has been repaired and repaired and repaired.  A bit of Shofar blowing will probably occur in Thingvellir.

I would also like to go to Geysir (pronounced Jay-sit) where we would see Geysers and then on to see the amazing Gullfoss (pronounced Goot-foss) waterfall; the name means “Golden Falls”.  However, looking at the weather (today, Saturday) in that area of Iceland I see that it is icy and that the road to Gullfoss is non-passable.  Hmmmm…  But I wanna see it, Lord...

As you can surmise from the few words I’ve given pronunciations for, getting directions while in Iceland may be difficult since we will most likely have no clue how to pronounce the name of the place we want to get to.  Prayers are always appreciated!!!