Some, like Grassmarket Hotel, provide it in keeping with the funky nature of the hotel...
Iceland has a whole different approach...
I included the breakfast when I booked this hotel - obviously it must have been a good deal and I wasn't sure of the 'breakfast' culture of Iceland. I normally prefer to venture out and find interesting (and cheaper) places to eat, but here, I am eating in and it was a good continental breakfast - with Nescafé! Have to say I am a heathen when it comes to coffee and I actually prefer the instant!
Then it's into the foyer to wait to be picked up for today's activity - which I had swapped with today's plans last night. And the super jeep arrives and it is very cool!
We drive to the other side of town to pick up a family from Chile - young couple, Paula and Petr and his mother, Gabrielle, and her partner, Claudio. Our driver/guide is Skarphedinn Ingason! I don't think we ever called him by name after the initial introductions. They pronounce things differently to how they're spelled. Here he is, though, with the truck. He was great!
He used to play basketball and must have been pretty good coz he played with the national team a few times. Then he got married, had kids and had to find a job. A friend knew of his love for boys' toys - snowmobiles and jeeps and super trucks and suggested he do this job. And he loves it!
Paula and Petr are on their way to emigrate to Berlin and Gabrielle and Claudio have come to see them settle. They're in Iceland until Sunday. Paula has the best English and we chat a lot.
It's a two-hour drive through amazing scenery - nothing like I've seen before.
Ingason tells us all about the scenery and bits of the history and geography of the area. All the water comes from the snow that has run onto the glacier and then melted down. It takes 50 years for the water to make it down to the river.
He tells us how pure and clear the water is straight out of the tap. I had noticed that last night. However this morning, I noticed the hot water had a smell of sulfur to it - but that's only the hot, apparently. He pulled over and ran down to fill a bottle for us all to try. It was good water!
A brief stop for coffee and then on again and up towards the glacier. Once we get close, he has to deflate the tyres so we can go off-road. The roads are extremely rough and it's a bit like a ride and is fantastic fun! And the scenery is amazing.
Then we arrive at the hut and get suited up - snow overalls, over-shoes, (don't know what they're called) balaclava, helmet, gloves...
Then it's back into the jeep for a short way until we arrive at...
Snowmobile! Very cool. We have a quick lesson...
..and then we're off - Ingason, Paula and Petr, Gabrielle and Claudio and me at the rear by myself. Only took a minute or two to get the hang of it and then we are speeding up the glacier! Amazing! Unfortunately it was not possible to drive and take photos. Also I can't operate the camera with gloves on and it was freezing so the gloves are staying on. We stopped for a moment and I snapped this...
It was amazing riding up that glacier - white snow all around, cold wind in your face, a few rocky outcrops to the right, on the left, some crazy-shaped volcanic mountains. The snowmobile bounces over the snow and is quite loud. It was just amazing. And the it started snowing!! Could it get any better?
We stopped briefly to survey the world and as we were standing there, the snow started to storm and within minutes, you could not see a thing - it was just white - incredible. See you can't see anything past the Ingason?
My hands were frozen and we realised he hadn't turned on the handle heater! So we remedied that.
This storm created a slightly dangerous situation as it made the crevices and cracks wet and more open. Thankfully we have GPS now! So we just followed in a line down to the bottom. This was a whole different kind of amazing - couldn't see anything around us, just the three snowmobiles in front and every now and then the front two would disappear into the white. A couple of times I had to zoom ahead to catch up, which got a bit scary!
It cleared up just as we came down the last little bit. Apparently it can do that - be sunny one minute and storming the next. There were other groups arriving now and another one coming down. We stumbled over to the jeep - the walk was treacherous!
Then we manage to peel off the outer snow gear and hop back into the jeep. Paula shouts a gleeful 'yes' to Ingason's question of if we wanted to go off road and proceeded to climb this hill...
As we were approaching the main road again, the jeep stopped altogether. There was a flurry of walking talkie and mobile phone conversations and they worked out that the mechanics had been working on it and driving it and hadn't filled it with gas. And they hadn't fixed the broken petrol gauge. So it was a simple case of ran out of gas. But we were halfway up a hill in the middle of nowhere.
Two of the other jeeps in the area quickly came to our rescue and towed us back...
I think the Icelandic nature came out here and it's similar to the Aussie one - 'ah, it's an adventure. We'll get there.' And our 'she'll be right, mate.'
And she was right, mate. We were quickly at the restaurant for a late lunch - a very delicious broccoli soup and crusty bread rolls.
After lunch it was a short half hour drive to the Secret Lagoon - one of the many hot springs dotted around Iceland. I'm not a total fan of hot springs but think I might have a go. Until we get there and you have to shower before going in and it's a public change room - there are no cubicles. Not a chance I'm going in there! I'm more than happy to sit while Ingason showed me family photo. This is what the lagoon looked like though...
Then it's back home. I was in the front passenger seat and Paula was sitting behind. She leaned forward and the three of us had a great conversation listing the pros and cons of our different nations, comparing notes on politicians, health, unemployment, sport, and so on and so on. At one point we were comparing something and we're trying to use a currency we all knew - we had Oz dollar, Iceland krona, Chilean peso (?), euro, American dollar and pound. It was a really interesting conversation.
Back at the hotel, I wander back to one of the shops Ingason recommended, had a really good pizza but did have to wait a long time.
And now to do tomorrow what I meant to do today!
The Langjokull glacier is pretty much in the centre of Iceland so we drove to the centre of this place in two hours!
And it was such fun!!
Wow, the things you get up too! Thanks for taking us all on this adventure with you xxx
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