Wink wanted to go see some puffins and there are two ways for us to do that. There are puffins down Maine and in the Canadian Maritimes as well as in Iceland and Ireland. Mark has a strong preference for seeing puffins in Iceland and so that is what we did. The crew, Mark, Wink, Meg and Kate-Lynne were assembled. Mark and Wink took the Red Eye flight from Boston on the 20th of June arriving the morning of June 21. We had arranged for an Airbnb in the south of Iceland. Mark flew home on the 28th while the other three went to spend a week in Ireland.
Here is our itinerary:
Wednesday June 21 – Arrive in Iceland, Bird watching at Garosskagi, Lunch and shopping in Reykjavik, nap at Airbnb
Thursday June 22 – Jokulsarlon glacier lagoon and boat ride
Friday June 23 – Westman Island Puffin watching
Saturday June 24 – Icelandic Horse Ride, Westman Island day 2
Sunday June 25 – Black sand beach, basalt columns, Caves of Hella
Monday June 26 – Westman Island Day 3, Harbor and Aquarium Tours
Tuesday June 27 – Ring of Fire
Wednesday June 28 – Flight Home
Spoiler Alert: We might have seen puffins.
Wink and I arrived in Iceland at 8:00 AM after a five hour flight from Boston Logan. There was some confusion as to how to pick up the rental car as Alamo did not have a counter inside the terminal. Meg and I left the luggage with Wink and Kate-lynne and trekked to the rental car location. Meg and I were the authorized drivers, so we both needed to sign for the car. I was tired and left my wallet in the luggage as all I carried was my passport. Fortunately they accepted a picture of my drivers license.
Our Airbnb was essentially a tiny home with a minimal kitchenette. It was cozy.
We didn’t spend a lot of time at the Airbnb as we were quite busy. We did have a couple simple meals there. The weather could have been better as it rained every day we were in Iceland. The rain did let up occasionally, but it also came down in torrents. It was also cold and windy. We dressed in layers and wore our raincoats most of the time. The sky never got dark our whole stay. The sun set at midnight and rose before three AM and just barely went below the horizon. We needed to turn on the heat at night to stay warm. The cabin had a hot tub that we availed ourselves of a couple times.
There was a river nearby and flocks of birds in the abutting fields. There was usable outdoor space as well, but the weather largely precluded taking advantage of it. It was possible to go birding all night long, only Kate-Lynne took advantage of it during a break in the weather.
I ended up with more that a thousand pictures, so it will be too much to put in a single blog. I will have to break it up.
Icelandic Things
If you ever wondered what an invasive species can to, Iceland is your place and lupin are the plant. It is growing everywhere and turning Iceland purple.
Meg and Kate-Lynne went to Vik and the black sand beach and basalt columns while Mark and Wink rested at the airbnb. The basalt columns reminded me of the Giants Causeway in Ireland. We did find other basalt columns to photo:
We ventured out in the rain to see some geysers.
Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon
We arranged for a boat tour in the Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon. It is an Icelandic National Park. It was three plus hours on the ring road from where we were staying. It was the farthest East we ventured.
The bluer the ice, the more recently it calved from the glacier. This is because it is denser than the ice that has been melting.
There is too much material for a single blog, so I plan to make several smaller blogs.
Mark, Wink, Meg and Kate-Lynne
Great blog!