Day 17 – Back to The Netherlands

Today was our traveling-back-home-day. Nothing special, just get in the bus to the airport, buy some Brennivín (Icelands most well known drink, also named Balck Death) and fly home.

All wend well, until Wouter discovered his car keys electronics did not survive the Icelandic weather. The short story: drive to Boxtel, pick-up spare key, drive to Schiphol, pick-up Frank and bicycles, drive back to Boxtel, at home at 4 AM instead around midnight

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Day 16 – Menningarnótt

Today is Menningarnótt, Culture Night. Everywhere bands are playing, half of Iceland is in the center of Reykjavik, drinking beer everywhere. Around 23:00 the fireworks start (ten seconds after the countdown ended) and after that there was some more beer drinking. I am not sure if I ever saw so much drunk people in one night.

We wend to a couple of different bars, almost all having live music, ranging from Christian Car Company, a girl singer-song writer with an amazing voice, to the metal of Entombed in a bar called Sodoma.

All together a great festival, maybe again next year

Some bar… some time during Menningarnótt
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Day 15 – Blue Lagoon

The Blue Lagoon is another tourist loaded attraction. But the bathing in the warm blue waters with minarals is really nice for the muscles after all the biking.

After a lazy dinner it was time to explore Reykjaviks nightlife. Visiting multiple bars is an absolute must! First we wend to the English Pub, with some live music. Nice, but not that special. The next two places were much more fun. The Celtic Cross looked empty from the outside, but everybody was in the bassment, where also a band was playing. Nice place. We ended in Bar 11, amazing! Nice people, incredibly crowded, good atmosphere, for us the place to be this evening.

Relaxing in the warm water of the Blue Lagoon
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Day 14 – Thingvellir and from Thingvellir to Reykjavik

6.4km (from the campsite to Thingvellir and back)
50km (from Thingvellir to Reykjavik)

Our originial plan was to “do” Thingvellir today and go to Reykjavik tomorrow. We combines this in one, to have a day left for Menningarnótt

Thingvellir is special for two reasons. The two tectonic (?) plates of Europe and America are drifting a part. Normally that’s not visible (under water), but in Thingvellir it is. You can see where both plates end and can walk between them. They are 7km apart, and are moving away from each other with the amazing average speed of 1 millimeter per year.

At one of the plates is the important historical site of Iceland, where Parliament used to be held each year. It has a small church, graveyard and one other building. We had a guided tour by a park employee. Intersting story, well told! If you are there I advise you to take that tour.

The ride to Reykjavik was incredibly windy, leaning hard to the right, not to tip over.

Dinner and beers in Reykjavik, where we also met Yonathan again.

Location of the old parliament at Thingvellir
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Day 13 – from Geysir to Thingvellir

52.4km

After Geysir and Gulfoss we are on our way to the third part of the Golden circle: Thingvellir. The ride was mainly over normal roads, only a small part gravel, only one climb that counts, and for the rest not really special, or are we spoiled?

Things not to say when biking in Iceland (or anywhere else or hiking):
After this climb we have to be at the top.
It cannot rain any harder than this.
After the next bend it should all be better.
On the map it looks flat, so how much climbing can there be?
The wind will go down when we reach the top of that hill.

Lunch on our way from Geysir to Thingvellir
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