Iceland was great! We drove the Ring Road around the entire country in ten days, staying at farm B&Bs, guesthouses, and hotels along the way. The weather was cool, cloudy, a little rainy, and a welcome change from the heat in Seattle. Most of the country is lightly populated as eighty percent of the people live in Rejkavik and most of the others are in the Southwest part of the country, the area of the ‘Golden Circle.’ This means a lot of empty landscape in the other parts of the country, empty of people but there are lots of sheep and horses. It must say something about me - my love of empty spaces.
On my seventieth birthday I had Arctic Char and lobster bisque, which were excellent. Actually, almost all the food we ate in Iceland was excellent. We ate that night at the Guesthouse Egilsstradir, and on the eve of my birthday I ate grilled lamb at the Icelandair Hotel in Egilsstadir, where we stayed. Both meals were excellent, and the only nod to my birthday was a toast with a glass of good French white wine - no cake, no gifts, no song.
Driving in Iceland was easy; they drive on the right side (one of the few island countries to do so,) and the roads were well marked and in good condition, although even the Ring Road - Highway 1 - has stretches which were unpaved. The biggest problem was finding places to pull over to take pictures, as most of the time there was no shoulder. I missed more great pictures than I care to think about for this reason. We shared the driving, but Nonna did the lion’s share, which allowed me to take pictures, sometimes through the open window if there was no good place to park. But when we could park we tried to get out and hike a bit, to the top of a waterfall, the edge of a meadow, or top of a knoll; wherever the picture looked best.
Most of the people we saw were fellow tourists, and they were from many countries, but mostly from Europe and China. The Icelanders we met were either working where we ate or where we slept. There seemed to be few local people on the streets, although we did see people working in their yards and gardens in the evenings when we went walking after dinner. The sun never sets in Iceland this time of year, so there was plenty of time for evening walks. If it was raining it seemed darker at midnight, otherwise only the absence of people marked day from night.
There are fields of lupine everywhere in Iceland, planted to counter the effect of overgrazing by the many sheep. And yes, there are trees in Iceland, mostly around people’s homes but sometimes in the mountains, planted in groves. There were many Ash trees, a tribute to their hardiness, but evergreens were more common. We also saw lots of birds, mostly seabirds and ducks, but no snakes and no mammals - except a few dogs. We saw warning signs on the road for reindeer, but that was all.
In summary, a great trip. The only negative was the cost, and perhaps the concentration of tourists in the Southwest, where twenty tour buses in a parking lot was not unusual.