Iceland east coast

The Majestic East Coast

(Wednesday 11th September, 2019)

One of the views from a hill during a pause on our drive on the East coast.

Today we set out from our hotel at 8:30, prepared for a day with a fair bit of driving and maybe not so much sightseeing. However, it turns out that today’s drive was, in my opinion, the most scenic of this tour as of yet. Stunning and dramatic coastlines galore.

Not long past Egilsstaðir we turned on to a gravel road, twisting and turning through the mountains. It gave us a pair of excellent views over green valleys and thundering waterfalls, the sun finally smiling through at us a bit today.

We made a stop at Djúpivogur to refuel, buy some apples and bananas and to use the rest room. It was quite a scenic little village as well, with its little boats and (no offense) not amazingly beautiful, Icelandic houses.

The small harbour in Djúpivogur.

K took over the steering wheel and we followed Road 1 along the coastline, seeing those aforementioned mountains rise majestically and seemingly right from the water. Black sand beaches, sheep etc. Much more green here than on the southeast side than it had been previously.

We made a stop by Vestrahorn but as it turns out, you have to pay 900 ISK per person to drive out to the island which offers the better view of the mountain. Especially with the mountain shrouded in clouds and barely visible at this time, it did not seem worth it. So, instead we had a cup of coffee there in the café and found our accommodation for tonight (in Höfn).

Höfn was only 10 km away by now and we got there fast enough. The reception wasn’t open yet, so we did have to go on a walk in the town to pass some time. The houses were all more or less one story, quadratic cubes, which seems a little weird to me/us and not that attractive. I’ll say that to me, the Icelandic towns and villages have not been the most charming thus far.

At 15:45, we got our room. We had a few hours of relaxing before going down to dinner at a restaurant called Kaffi Hornið. Höfn is known as the ‘lobster capital’ of Iceland, so naturally we had to taste that. I went for the lobster pasta and it was very delicious. K also thought so, even to the point that he forgot to drink his beer!

We also treated ourselves to a dessert on this fine evening, getting some Icelandic skyr with cream and berries. This skyr was also significantly better than the equivalent which you buy in Denmark. Overall very yummy!

Very full and pretty happy we walked back to the hostel, where we are now preparing to sleep as we have another day driving ahead of us.