Day 9: Snaefellsjokull to Stykkisholmur (by bike and bus)
Day 10: Stykkisholmur to Reykjavik Airport (by bus)
Our plan for the end of the trip was to ride the north coast of the Snaefell peninsula to the largish town of Stykkisholmur, from whence we would take a bus to Reykjavik and then to the airport. However, when we were forced to turn back by the snow, the need to cycle around the base of Snaefellsjokull added about 50km to the distance to Stykkisholmur. We could have cycled the full distance, but it would have left us only one bus option to make our flights, and the buses have limited, unreservable, bike spaces. Consequently, we decided to take a bus for part of the route along the north coast as well, taking the pressure off entirely.
We slept and snoozed and breakfasted before emerging from the tent at around 11am. Back on the road, we decided to take a 15km detour to visit Ondverdarnes, the westernmost point in Iceland. Since Postyn and I have both done the Camino de Santiago which ends at Finisterre, the westernmost point in continental Europe. Ondverdarnes makes the claim of being the westernmost point in Europe, but actually, being so far west as to be on the North American continental plate, we weren't so sure! We had a strong headwind and the dirt road was heavily washboarded, making the riding unpleasant. The spot itself was nothing special, although there were cool lava rock formations. Some water-smoothed boulders were hundreds of feet from the water, meaning the place must get some serious storms! There, I discovered that my left-front pannier rack had broken -- sheared off where it bolts to the drop-out. So I removed that rack and pannier and strapped them on elsewhere.
From there we cycled along to Hellisandur, which had a bus stop and a tiny shop. We bought lunch foods there. After the previous night's horror of a meal, we splashed out on such luxuries as pesto -- even though prices were high, maybe 50% more than in Reykjavik. We caught the bus soon after, and had a beautiful drive to Stykkisholmur, although it felt a shame to race through the beautiful landscape in a bus, rather than savoring it by bike. But most people who visit Iceland hardly get out of their vehicles. We arrived in late afternoon, shopped for food and then headed down to the harbor to make dinner, sans cooking. We had a delicious canned bean/ salsa/ veggie salad, topped with crushed tortilla chips. Our meal was very drawn out as we had a long talk with the FGS -- friendly German stranger.
In any case it was tasty, and our mood was jovial. We played "lettuce chicken." We had bought a head of lettuce which turned out included the plant's roots in a tiny pot of soil. It didn't fit in our salad bowl (our one cook pot) so we ate it in bites on the side. We took turns taking bites to see who would give up first. I think it was me -- i didn't really enjoy the taste of dirt on my lettuce. We also coined several fun phrases, such as "cuddle my tuft" and "chafing my moorings." Their meaning is unclear, but the words "Well, cuddle my tuft!" were said, along with "That really chafed my moorings."
We biked out of town a ways to find a spot to camp, and had a beautiful sunset.
In the morning, we woke early in order to be first at the bus stop, knowing that the spots available for bikes were first-come-first-served. We were very early, so checked out the town campsite, and found next to the trash, lots of fuel canisters, including one with some fuel left, which we took. As we approached Reykjavik, it began to rain. On the bus ride, we figured out expenses for the trip. Including everything spent from landing to taking off, we spent an average of $23 per day. A chunk of this was spent on buses, but still, food was expensive in Iceland.
In Reykjavik, it was pouring. We ended up taking another bus into the center of town because it was available for free with our ticket to Reykjavik. We spent the afternoon at the Harpa Center, the big concert hall. We ate outside under the cover of one of it's overhangs, and then read and relaxed inside for many hours. The weather was wild: driving winds and heavy rain. As the weather improved, we headed out to buy postcards and check out a cool 3d map of Iceland at the town hall. We then went to the bus stop to catch a 4:00 bus to the airport, the last of the day. Because I had to leave very early the next day, there was no way to get there in time, with our bikes. When the bus arrived, the driver looked at our bikes and said -- you can't bring those. Gulp. Turns out the route to the airport is the only one in the whole country on which Iceland's bus company, Straetó, does not take bikes. We biked back to the tourist office and asked about options. They didn't know anything, but checked online the schedule of the private bus company we had taken on the way in -- and said we had just missed the last one. Thankfully, Postyn decided to check on his phone, and in fact there was another one at 8pm. We called and were told we could just get tickets on the bus, and that our bikes were no problem. We thus had another 4 hours to kill at the Harpa Center!
When the bus arrived, the driver had switched to a smaller van because he had very few reservations. Thankfully he was very kind and managed to squeeze our bikes into the van -- but if any other passengers had tried to get on, there wouldn't have been space! We got to the airport just after 9:00, to find the floors littered with young people waiting, as we were, for early morning flights. Signs in the airport said "no cooking or camping on the premises." I guess its a common problem. We headed to the far end of the parking lot to cook dinner. Our fuel ran out again, but thankfully our pasta was almost cooked. At around 10:30pm, in strong wind and rain, we cycled 100m outside the gates of the airport, pushed our bikes a ways into the grass to the shelter of an earth mound, and pitched the tent. We were quite damp, and the planes overhead kept us awake for several hours. We woke up at 3:30, in the dark, not very well rested, packed up, and pushed our bikes cross-country to the Bila-hotel where we had paid to store our bike box. Although open 24 hours, it took a while to find the right guy, and we then had to search four different rooms of bags to find our box. It took until just before 5am to sort our gear and disassemble my bike. Postyn left his intact, as he planned to cycle to a nearby hot-spring for the morning, before his afternoon flight!
Heading to the airport check-in, I found an empty check-in station and used it to balance the weight of my hand luggage, bike box, and checked bag, as I knew I was within a kilo of my max allowable weight. I then got in line to check in for WOW airlines. It was terrible. At the beginning, there were only two staff to check in two flights, and so I spent nearly an hour in line. Postyn meanwhile made me breakfast and a pack lunch -- what a boss. With 45 min to departure, I had to race with my bike box to oversized luggage, where there was another line. After a hurried goodbye to Postyn, I ran upstairs to find yet another line, for security. Through that, I ran straight to my gate (of course, the farthest one in the whole airport) and got there, sweating, with 2 minutes before the gate closed. On the plane I went straight to the toilets to change out of my gross clothes, then spent the 3 hour flight talking to the woman next to me, a American doing a biology Phd at Cambridge. She was from the Adirondacks, and, amazingly, had just been to a wedding in Williamstown! Small world.
And that concludes an excellent adventure in Iceland! We explored only a very small corner of the country, and I would definitely go back!
Day 10: Stykkisholmur to Reykjavik Airport (by bus)
Our plan for the end of the trip was to ride the north coast of the Snaefell peninsula to the largish town of Stykkisholmur, from whence we would take a bus to Reykjavik and then to the airport. However, when we were forced to turn back by the snow, the need to cycle around the base of Snaefellsjokull added about 50km to the distance to Stykkisholmur. We could have cycled the full distance, but it would have left us only one bus option to make our flights, and the buses have limited, unreservable, bike spaces. Consequently, we decided to take a bus for part of the route along the north coast as well, taking the pressure off entirely.
We slept and snoozed and breakfasted before emerging from the tent at around 11am. Back on the road, we decided to take a 15km detour to visit Ondverdarnes, the westernmost point in Iceland. Since Postyn and I have both done the Camino de Santiago which ends at Finisterre, the westernmost point in continental Europe. Ondverdarnes makes the claim of being the westernmost point in Europe, but actually, being so far west as to be on the North American continental plate, we weren't so sure! We had a strong headwind and the dirt road was heavily washboarded, making the riding unpleasant. The spot itself was nothing special, although there were cool lava rock formations. Some water-smoothed boulders were hundreds of feet from the water, meaning the place must get some serious storms! There, I discovered that my left-front pannier rack had broken -- sheared off where it bolts to the drop-out. So I removed that rack and pannier and strapped them on elsewhere.
 |
| Ondverdarnes -- the westernmost point in Europe? |
From there we cycled along to Hellisandur, which had a bus stop and a tiny shop. We bought lunch foods there. After the previous night's horror of a meal, we splashed out on such luxuries as pesto -- even though prices were high, maybe 50% more than in Reykjavik. We caught the bus soon after, and had a beautiful drive to Stykkisholmur, although it felt a shame to race through the beautiful landscape in a bus, rather than savoring it by bike. But most people who visit Iceland hardly get out of their vehicles. We arrived in late afternoon, shopped for food and then headed down to the harbor to make dinner, sans cooking. We had a delicious canned bean/ salsa/ veggie salad, topped with crushed tortilla chips. Our meal was very drawn out as we had a long talk with the FGS -- friendly German stranger.
 |
| Lighthouse at Stykkisholmur harbor, photo by Postyn |
We biked out of town a ways to find a spot to camp, and had a beautiful sunset.
 |
| Sunset over the mountains on the north coast of the Snaefell Peninsula. Photo by Postyn, from his sleeping bag! |
In Reykjavik, it was pouring. We ended up taking another bus into the center of town because it was available for free with our ticket to Reykjavik. We spent the afternoon at the Harpa Center, the big concert hall. We ate outside under the cover of one of it's overhangs, and then read and relaxed inside for many hours. The weather was wild: driving winds and heavy rain. As the weather improved, we headed out to buy postcards and check out a cool 3d map of Iceland at the town hall. We then went to the bus stop to catch a 4:00 bus to the airport, the last of the day. Because I had to leave very early the next day, there was no way to get there in time, with our bikes. When the bus arrived, the driver looked at our bikes and said -- you can't bring those. Gulp. Turns out the route to the airport is the only one in the whole country on which Iceland's bus company, Straetó, does not take bikes. We biked back to the tourist office and asked about options. They didn't know anything, but checked online the schedule of the private bus company we had taken on the way in -- and said we had just missed the last one. Thankfully, Postyn decided to check on his phone, and in fact there was another one at 8pm. We called and were told we could just get tickets on the bus, and that our bikes were no problem. We thus had another 4 hours to kill at the Harpa Center!
 |
| Lunch under the glass façade of the Harpa Center |
When the bus arrived, the driver had switched to a smaller van because he had very few reservations. Thankfully he was very kind and managed to squeeze our bikes into the van -- but if any other passengers had tried to get on, there wouldn't have been space! We got to the airport just after 9:00, to find the floors littered with young people waiting, as we were, for early morning flights. Signs in the airport said "no cooking or camping on the premises." I guess its a common problem. We headed to the far end of the parking lot to cook dinner. Our fuel ran out again, but thankfully our pasta was almost cooked. At around 10:30pm, in strong wind and rain, we cycled 100m outside the gates of the airport, pushed our bikes a ways into the grass to the shelter of an earth mound, and pitched the tent. We were quite damp, and the planes overhead kept us awake for several hours. We woke up at 3:30, in the dark, not very well rested, packed up, and pushed our bikes cross-country to the Bila-hotel where we had paid to store our bike box. Although open 24 hours, it took a while to find the right guy, and we then had to search four different rooms of bags to find our box. It took until just before 5am to sort our gear and disassemble my bike. Postyn left his intact, as he planned to cycle to a nearby hot-spring for the morning, before his afternoon flight!
Heading to the airport check-in, I found an empty check-in station and used it to balance the weight of my hand luggage, bike box, and checked bag, as I knew I was within a kilo of my max allowable weight. I then got in line to check in for WOW airlines. It was terrible. At the beginning, there were only two staff to check in two flights, and so I spent nearly an hour in line. Postyn meanwhile made me breakfast and a pack lunch -- what a boss. With 45 min to departure, I had to race with my bike box to oversized luggage, where there was another line. After a hurried goodbye to Postyn, I ran upstairs to find yet another line, for security. Through that, I ran straight to my gate (of course, the farthest one in the whole airport) and got there, sweating, with 2 minutes before the gate closed. On the plane I went straight to the toilets to change out of my gross clothes, then spent the 3 hour flight talking to the woman next to me, a American doing a biology Phd at Cambridge. She was from the Adirondacks, and, amazingly, had just been to a wedding in Williamstown! Small world.
And that concludes an excellent adventure in Iceland! We explored only a very small corner of the country, and I would definitely go back!
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