Start of day 9 of my trip to Iceland - Return to Reykjavik


I was up early this morning, I would be making the short drive from Borgarnes into Reykjavik this morning. I have to meet up with Haddi from Ridingiceland to return my bike rental [Suzuki VStom DL 650]. I told him that I would meet him at my Hotel in Reykjavik. He did not seem to be in any rush that morning to meet me so I didn't get ion the road under about 8:00. From Borgarnes to Reykjavik is only a distance about 70 kms. The Hotel that I was booked at was not in Reykjavik but in the town of Kopavogur, a city community just south of the capital Reykjavik. This is Iceland's second largest city with a population of around 30,000.


Route map of day 9 in Iceland




The ride down from Borgarnes along Hwy # 1 is down along a busy througfare. Only thing worth noting was my drive through the tunnel under the Hvalfjord fjord. This undersea tunnel is almost 6 kms in length. You have to pay a toll to use the tunnel. I think for the motorbike I paid 250 ISK. The alternative would have been to follow the old road that winds its way around the Hvalfjord fjord a distance of 70 - 80 kms.

I had a real difficult time to locate the Hotel that I would be staying at this day. My map of Iceland showed detailed streets for Reykjavik but not for Kopavogur. The hotel was located in a business development area somewhere in the south part of the town. I had to stop and ask a taxi driver where the hotel was located [warning Icelandic taxi drivers give lousy instructions] I eventually made my way to the Hotel Sami. When I originally booked the hotel on line, Google maps showed it as being located in the downtown district of Reykjavik and not 20 kms south of the city. Afer arriving at hotel, I gave Haddi a call, he stopped by the hotel and I followed him out to his rental shop. No scatches, dings or any marks on the Suzuki. I even washed it the day before to get a weeks worth of Icelandic mud off of it. In pretty short order, I was packed up, Haddi drove me to back to my Hotel, another part of his personnel service to his customers.

As it was still only 10:30 in the morning, they would not let me check into my room at the hotel, so I headed into Reykjavik to do some sight seeing.
A few blocks away from my Hotel was a bus stop. They have a good efficient bus service in the Reykjavik area. Buses run every 20 or 30 minutes. From Kopavogur to Iceland, the bus took about 30 minutes to get to the main bus terminal downtown.



Photos of downtowen Reykjavik

Walking down Laugavegur street from main bus station









Lots of shops,bars,cafes and trendy restaurants to be found in Reykjavik. I can see why Reykjavik has its reputation as a party centre for a lot of tourist who come here. For a small city they certaintly have more than their share of bars.







Down near the harbour front. Some boats being painted





A couple of old rusting hulls tied up at the dock in Reykjavik. Part of the old Icelandic whaling fleet.







This Whale boat still looks as though it is still in active service. It has what looks like a harpoon gun mounted on its stern.



Harpoons on deck of whale boat





Whale watching tours

Some more photos from around scenic Reykjavik







One of the more impressive buildings in Reykjavik is the Hallgrímskirkja Luthern church. However when I was there it was being renovated and was completly surrounded on all sides by scaffolding. It took them 38 years to complete construction of this church. Photo borrowed from Wikipedia site



How the church now looks under renovation


Interior of the Hallgrímskirkja church



Massive church organ near front entrance way. Organ composed of over 5275 pipes. Over 15 meters in height



Lots of colorfull painted houses in Reykjavik





I wonder whats on the menu

ok. could iceland be any more beautiful!? i think i may have caught the bug... that may be the next trip i start planning. unbelievable pictures and trip.

Thanks for the beautiful pictures!
What I wonder is how it compares to Norway?
Norway offers even greater scenery but is lacking the geothermal part.
Plan to go to Iceland for a week of 4x4. Then we shall know.

I have posted a video of my trip to Iceland on Youtube
Montage of my trip photos along with soundtrack

YouTube - Iceland - Land of Ice and Fire

Enjoy

Ride4Adventure

I have now includes a description of my trip to Iceland on my main motorcycle touring website.

at Home

Navigate to the Journeys section of the web site for trip description, video and photos.

The website includes other ride reports from trips I have done over the past few years including, Alaska, California, Colorado,Cap Breton,Scotland, Costa Rica

Thanks for sharing! Fantastic!

I am glad that did my trip over to Iceland last year instead of this year.

Some of the apocalyptic images from the eruption of Eyjafjallajokul volcano

Photos 1

[img width=900 height=567]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4059/4546042983_b700b413a4_o.jpg[/img]

Photo 2


Photo 3


Photo 4


Photos 5

I have geotagged all my photos from trip to Iceland last year and linked them to a map service from
IMAPFLICKR.

Motorcycle Trip to Iceland = 2009 from Google & Flickr created by imapflickr.com

Just read this report - brilliant write up.

I did Iceland a couple of years ago as a standard tourist and did think it would make a great bike trip. I may decide to go back now.

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