Click here to find out about The Holiday
16th..19th March 2001
Friday 16th Heathrow LHR, London 20:50 Keflavik Int'l KEF,
Reykjavik 23:50
Check in Terminal 1 18:50
Icelandair FI 0453
Monday 19th Keflavik Int'l KEF, Reykjavik 08:50 Heathrow LHR,
London 12:00
Check in Main Terminal 06:50
Icelandair FI 0450
I think these directions are clear enough!
| Station | Duration | Action |
| Euston (City Branch) | Wait for VICTORIA LINE train | |
| Euston (City Branch) | 5 mins. | Board train to: |
| BRIXTON or | ||
| VICTORIA | ||
| Green Park | 11 mins. | Alight and walk to PICCADILLY LINE |
| Green Park | 12 mins. | Wait for PICCADILLY LINE train |
| Green Park | 17 mins. | Get on train to HEATHROW TERMINALS 123 |
| Heathrow Terminals 123 | 68 mins. | Arrival |
For the Cambridge Nutters:
| Station | Duration | Action |
| Kings Cross St Pancras | Wait for PICCADILLY LINE train | |
| Kings Cross St Pancras | 5 mins. | Get on train to HEATHROW TERMINALS 123 |
| Heathrow Terminals 123 | 68 mins. | Arrival |
None has been booked.
Borartun 32
105 Reykjavik
Iceland
Phone 354 51 16030
Fax 354 51 16031
4 Rooms with continental breakfast
http://www.hotelsiceland.com/reykjavik/cabin/
The Hotel is on Borgartun street and is one (parallel) street away from the North harbour - slightly East of central on the E-W plane, but still no more than 1km from the centre.
Bernie has the transport resolved. The damage is £32 each (that includes
insurance, tax and airport charges). Although that is really 3 days hire, it's
at a mileage rate that we would have not got down to over 2 days (i.e. 600km as
opposed to 400).
Any of us can drive (well, not Jack, I suppose) - as long as we all have our
respective driving licences.
Another reason for the 3 day hire is that public transport doesn't look to be
that regular - buses do not run at the times we need for either airport visits,
and we actually use Keflavik, some 30/40km away.
We will have one Nissan Almera and one VW polo. http://www.alp.is
Alternative car hire: www.budget.is
Icelandic Tourist Board (Complete with a puffin!). The site has a useful page of Travel Facts.
Photos - Ans & Jerry (Check out their Ijsland 1999 page...)
A fascinating insight to Icelandic Psychology
Heathrow LHR, London, United Kingdom
Keflavik Int'l KEF, Reykjavik, Iceland
We'll be flying with icelandair.
At 26/2/01 125.8 Icelandic krónur = £1. (1Icelandic krónur = 8p)
Almost all swimming pools in Iceland are outdoor pools. Most of them are heated by geothermal water. And almost all have hot tubs that are even more popular than the pools. Admission is 150-300 icelandic krónur(£1.20-£2.40). There are also many natural hot pools where hot springs form pools that are used frequently by the locals as well as tourists. Many of those are in the highlands.
Geothermal sites are magnets for tourist such as Geysir that draws many to view the eruptions of its little brother Strokkur. The "Blue Lagoon" at Svartsengi has been developed especially as a spa for the enjoyment of tourists and for those seeking skin cures (www.bluelagoon.is). Rubbing in the silica mud is popular but the main attraction is the pool of natural mineral rich geothermal seawater in the middle of a rugged lava field. There are also some 120 public swimming pools that are popular. These are mostly outdoor pools. The annual use is about 200 m3 of geothermal water for each square metre of pool surface. In the wilderness areas there are several natural pools such as Landmannalaugar and Hveravellir.
Some links Bernie found:
http://www.south.is/gullfoss.html
http://www.south.is/hekla.html
http://www.south.is/geysir.html
Thanks Dave Brooke
The two car option is probably most appropriate for our relatively short stay
as there appears to be plenty to do and see without going off the major routes.
John Wilson has been there (in summer) and he said that even the major roads
were often un-surfaced and rutted. When I mentioned Geysir he didn't think it
was a day trip from Reykjavik. They spent 2 weeks going round the coast road.
I received the appended useful message from another Nick who lives over there.
Geysir is almost twice as far as Selfoss from Reykjavik according to this map: http://www.south.is/images/sudurland.gif
Of course, being nutters, we shouldn't be deterred too easily!
BTW, stay away from farms! Iceland's never had Foot and Mouth and I expect
immigration will ask questions. No sheep for Nick! Listening to the Archers is
probably safe for those who really must.
--------Message from Nick--------
I have an excellent road-travel information page for Iceland. There is an
English option, available from the front page. Click on this link: http://vegagerdin.is/
You will find a map showing the roads, and the condition of the surface, with
regard to the weather.
It is a little tricky to give more advice without more information, but there
are one or two points that come immediately to mind:
I suspect (from my own experience!) that you have looked at the map, measured some road distances and estimated how far you can travel. You will have almost certainly have over estimated the distances that are possible to cover. It takes an awfully long time to get anywhere in this country, and even longer at this time of year. If your trip is less than a week long, I would not recommend travelling further than to Selfoss in the south, and Akranes in the west. Although you can travel further, there is so much to explore, within those ´boundaries´ without even leaving the road in an ordinary car.
Only travel further if you are more interested in driving, than exploring the countryside. If you are dead keen on exploring some un-surfaced tracks, then it might be possible for you to get in to Thorsmork, which is a very nice area, down a 40km track with some very rapidly changing rivers, which can be a small trickle one minute and then a raging torrent after a few hours.
But, there doesn't seem much point in hiring a 110 just
for that trip. I would perhaps recommend a glacier trip, on a so called ´Jeep
Safari´. It is the only way that you will be able to get on the glaciers, in a
4x4. Whether or not you could get a short test drive once up there, I am not
sure, you would have to talk to the company or the driver... This should be more
appealing, because is is the one thing you cannot do in the U.K. since we don't
have any glaciers.
Now that I have thought about you trip for a while, the best itinerary
I can suggest is to hire the two cars, as you plan to, and get a good long list
of all the points to visit, from the info centre called BSI. At the same time
you could book a trip on the glacier (Lanjökull is the closest, and is nice,
too) and then get a feel for the place. There are many things in Reykjavik to be
explored, and a sometimes wild nightlife, too. You should plan at least one day
there, usually the first and last days are in Reykjavik. Then set of on your
sight seeing trip. The length of your drives depends of course on the
accommodation booked.
I will stop writing now, because I am so unsure as to your
actual plans, and length of stay. If you want, please do be in touch when you
have read this, and let me know the missing details and I will try to be a bit
more help then...
If not then I wish you a very pleasant stay here.
Should you get into difficulties whilst here, and I will try
my best to sort them for you.
Nick.
--------Message 2 from Nick--------
To drive non stop to the geysir area, would take around an
couple of hours. However, you should take the whole day for that trip, which is
know as the Golden Circle. Take a clockwise trip stopping first at Thingvellir,
then
Geysir, Gullfoss, then down to Selfoss, and back via Hveragerdi to Rvk. You will
find interesting things in Hveragerdi too. You should avoid buying food at the
cafe in Geysir, because it is very very expensive, rather take lunch with you,
and perhaps eat something in Selfoss for evening meal, pizza for example,
getting back to Rvk late Saturday evening, ready to explore a little of the
town...
This tour is also possible to do by coach, with guide,
but whether or not it would be cheaper than two cars or not, I can't say - could
find out for you if you think that is an option.
Nick.
from the Icelandic Traffic Council
National Association of Radio Amateurs in Iceland
We want to see an aurora! A couple of days before we fly out things look promising:
Click on the image to go the NOAA
site
Check out www.aurorawatch.york.ac.uk . Americans launch satellites to get the above image: we English have a more satisfactory method of detecting aurora using plastic bottles!
From image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/ask/a10356.html we have good news:
"Observations from Yerkes Observatory during a 55 year period spanning 5 sunspot cycles did confirm that September and March are the most frequent months for auroras and January and July the least likely. This correlation was also apparently described by Mairan in 1733. Most of the solar activity comes from regions of the sun outside the solar equatorial band +/- 10 degrees to either side of the solar equator. The Earth in its orbit is inside this equatorial band during January and July, and when it is at it maximum heliographic latitudes in September and March, the Earth is in the zone of solar activity."
Rule of thumb for photographing the event:
30-50s f3.5 on ISO 400 film
going down 3 stops that's 3 sec f1.2 -
1 sec looks underexposed.
Armed with Superia print film 800 what exposure should I aim for?
17 mm 1:2.8 lens 10s
50 mm 1:1.8 lens 3.5s
28-105mm 1:3.5 15s
The f11 rule for the moon means 1/50000 s at f1.4 using ISO 800. So let's hope the moon's not about.
http://www.netreal.co.uk/aurora/gallery5.htm
Don't use filters! and other useful tips.
