Greg and Deb's Travel Blog

We enjoyed a sleep in this morning, both of us got about 8hrs sleep which was good. We were on the road heading northeast around 9am. It is Saturday, so the roads in St Andrews were quiet.
Our day started as we crossed the Firth of Tay and drove into Dundee. Our visit to this city turned into a drive through. Like a lot of UK cities and towns parking is very difficult to find, and when you do find a spot it is very expensive. Dundee was Scotland’s first UNESCO City of Design. We drove down to the shores of the Firth of Tay and found Broughty Castle, built in 1490. It was taken by the British without a shot being fired in 1547, taken back by the Scots 2.5 yrs later, and it began changing hands over time. It more recently served as a naval fortress in WWI & WWII. An impressive structure with a drawbridge and all.

We left our hotel and picked up our hire car, a Citroen Cactus and were on the road heading north about 9am.

We drove across the Firth of Forth and after missing a turn off, got back on track and at the right locations to take a few pictures of the bridges over the Firth of Forth, both the “new” road bridge and the famous Forth Railway Bridge built in 1890 which is a UNESCO site.

We were picked up at 9:20am and were sitting in the airport by 10:30am waiting for our 12:20pm flight.  Flight got away at 13:20, it was late getting in. The crew are Scottish and I am finding them hard to understand, their words run into each other. As we get into the country side that might prove even more interesting. ? We landed at 16:20pm (2 hr flight & clocks forward one hour), bags arrived at 16:55pm and after a 30 min taxi ride were in our hotel by 17:20pm.

We surprised ourselves and got away at 8am and headed towards Sauoarkrokur to see the Icelandic horses.  They are a great looking small horse, we have enjoyed seeing them all over Iceland.  

We were all packed up and ready to go by 8.30am this morning.  Was 8C, the air had a bit of a chill to it.  We headed half an hour away to Godafoss – waterfall of the Gods. It is divided into two horseshoe falls. Was pretty and close to the car park so didn’t involve any long walks. 

We washed our underwear overnight on the coldest night, 7C, since we have been here ?it was still a long way from dry this morning so we brought it along with us. Have it laid out in the car and the heater cranked up ?won’t take long to dry. 

Left at 8am, we have a lot of driving today.  Filled up with diesel, not long after, it started raining quite heavily.  And it got heavier ?

We went through our first tunnel here, 11/2 km long.

We started early today, after cleansing sulphur assisted showers, we figured we were ready for anything! Seriously, the water here at our hotel has a strong sulphur aroma to it. Something to do with the volcanic ground water here at our hotel!

When we opened the curtains this morning we were greeted with a view of clouds rolling down the distant mountains. They looked like an avalanche captured in time, as beautiful as amazing.

We were picked up from our hotel and taken to get our hire car, and were on the road by 9am heading to the iconic Icelandic Golden Circle, featuring the 3 most visited tourist sites near Reykjavik. It drizzled on and off for most of the morning, but nothing too serious, and the afternoon was dry. A good start for our first day driving on the wrong (righthand) side of the road. Our theme for the day seemed to be, “Keep right, Keep right!” and “Not so far right!”, but we made it through our first day with both of us driving.

Happy 61st birthday Greg, how lucky spending it here.  After birthday cards, messages and phone calls we headed out on a two hour city walk tour of Reykjavik.   What we enjoyed most was our guide Sara.  She is a formidable 39 year old, History Masters, teacher.   She embodied everything I have read about Icelandic women, strong, fierce, intelligent and no bullshit. Sara also had a good sense of humour.   They bring their children up to, Think like a Viking.  You can achieve what you want.  There is a lot to like here.