Hold onto your horses! This is a pretty long post!
We spent another week in London, which became our “home base” in September.
We visited museums and London attractions like the Design Museum, the Sky Garden, and checked out some pieces of the Roman Wall. We’ve still been enjoying English pubs – they’re warm, welcoming places!
And Nathan & Athena finally returned! We’re super grateful to them for opening their home and hearts to us. We loved having them as roommates – turns out, we have lots in common! We had a great time hanging out, cooking together, going to pubs together.
We also went to a Mario Kart tournament with music provided by a live 8-piece band, which was excellent! And of course, we had to visit the Community Sauna together, which was a wholesome, special experience.
And a day before we were going to France with Nathan to go on a 5-day hiking trip, both WW and Athena started to come down with a cold…
We also got the chance to meet up with Archy & Steph for dinner which was delightful!
Instagram targeted ads finally served us well – WW found a Mario Kart tournament event featuring a live 8-piece band which was incredible and so much fun! Turns out, the music of Mario Kart slaps.
So happy to hang out with our temporary roomies :~))
Nathan invited us to go on a week-long hiking trip in the French Pyrenees with his high school friend Ariel!
Some of our favourite travel experiences have been doing multi-day trips focused on physical endeavours, and especially enjoyable when we get to do it with friends! We had a wonderful time.
We stayed in the town of Cauterets and tried to conquer some peaks. Unfortunately, WW was sick with a cold but still managed to do some hiking and see some beautiful views, thanks to French refuges! French refuges are wonderful little cabins in the mountains that have beds and serve food and are generally warm, lovely places to hang out. They’re a great way to break up a long hike, or turn a difficult hike into one that could work for multiple difficulty levels.
Pic de Petite Vignemale | 3032m
Sept 11-12
Generally the Pyrenees have tons of adorable cows and sheeps out to pasture and this group of cows very politely waited for us to pass before completely taking over the trail behind us.
WW took the chairlift part of the way up which was very serene and lovely 🙂
Lac de Gaube was a gorgeous stopping point on the way up!
Made it to our refuge for the night!!
We had a lovely 3-course dinner at the refuge! Love French people’s love of food and ending every meal wiith cheese hehe.
Our very cozy beds for the night.
The next morning, the boys set off to conquer Petite Vignemale despite snow and fog and zero visibility. WW stayed behind at the refuge to wait for a few anxious hours…
They made it though! Look at that beautiful view!
Of course the sky cleared up as soon as the boys descended but here’s Jonny pointing at Petit Vignemale, the smallest, least dramatic peak in the Vignemale mountains that always gets cropped out of photos. But hey, they summitted it!!
What an incredible view of the valley and Lac de Gaube.
Rest day in Cauterets
Sept 13
We spent our day walking around beautiful sunny Cauterets.
Gotta appreciate the charcuterie board!
WW made this beautiful charcuterie board with local cheeses, tinned fish, and charcuterie!
Pic de Nets | 2428m
Sept 14
Another beautiful sunny day in the Pyrenees 🙂
A herd of sheep came by jingling their bells!
Lac d’IIhéou was absolutely stunning and the refuge there was the perfect place for WW to hang out and chill while the boys summitted Pic de Nets.
A pretty good place to knit and have blueberry crepes for a few hours!
At the summit of Pic de Nets!
Jonny and Ariel pointing to where they summitted to!
A lil dip in the icy glacial Lac D’Ilhéou was very nice on tired feet.
Lourdes & Pic du Jer | 951m
Sept 15
What a great time with our friends on this trip 🙂
We had fun taking the very steep funicular up to the Pic du Jer! Loved getting to summit a peak with zero physical effort this time.
We spent a day chilling and recovering in Lourdes and went up to Pic du Jer.
Then, we went to Iceland!
Ah, Iceland. It’s been at the top of WW’s list to go to for years, upon reflection, and it was so worth going. After much research and price comparison, we ultimately decided to rent a campervan to drive around the Ring Road of Iceland! We loved our experience in the campervan – it’s not ultimately far cheaper than renting a car + hotels, but you do get great flexibility.
Reykjavik & the “Golden Circle”
Sept 19-20
After landing in Reykjavik, we spent one night in a hostel before picking up our campervan – home for the next 12 days. We drove to Thingvellir National Park to camp for the night, so that we could get a head start on the “Golden Circle” the next morning.
The Golden Circle is a cluster of attractions close enough to Reykjavik that it tends to be very crowded with tourists coming from Reykjavik. It comprises Thingvellir National Park, Geysir, and Gulfoss – we stopped by Bruarfoss as well!
A long exposure of one of our favourite waterfalls (and severely underrated at that) Brúarfoss! It was so blue!
Our first night in the campervan (in Thingvellir National Park)! It was chillier than expected!
Strokkur erupting! It was very entertaining to witness 100 tourists poised and hovering over their phones trying to capture it when it erupted. It was a fun group experience, haha! The Great Geysir doesn’t erupt anymore but Strokkur still does about every 10 minutes.
Us at a waterfall in Thingvellir National Park, where the Eurasian and North-American tectonic plates meet.
Gulfoss! It was very large and very loud. The sun did come out to show us a rainbow in the mist over the waterfall, though!
Landmannalaugur
Sept 21
This was one of the few guided tour activities we booked on our trip upon a recommendation from my parents who had been in 2019 – and it was so worth it. Landmannalaugur is a nature reserve in the highlands of Iceland. The roads leading to Landmannalaugur are pretty rough, including some unbridged river crossings, and our little campervan was definitely not going to make it on its own!
We hiked through huge lava fields with obsidian and fluffy adorable Icelandic moss, and summitted Brennisteinsalda to see the most incredibly beautiful colourful rhyolite mountain view. It was unreal and the visual of the rainbow mountains is seared into my brain. On the hike we also made friends with David and Gemma, a couple from Barcelona!
Fluffy adorable Icelandic moss! It reminded us of the way snow collects on surfaces in the winter (in Canada). Iceland is very protective of this moss since it takes so long to grow.
The epic view of rhyolite mountains! J thought it looked like a default desktop background photo.
Small excerpt of our hike through the lava field.
Our friends Gemma and David from Barcelona and Jonny showing off their colours that match the sign post.
There was a natural hot spring at the end of our hike, and it was very very hot in some spots! The hot water was coming from the small stream behind us. (Also if you dug your fingers into the sand on the bottom, it got hotter the deeper you went!)
South Coast
Sept 22–24
The South Coast of Iceland is packed with beautiful sights, and is by far the most visited part of the country. Here’s a short list:
- Seljalandfoss: a massive waterfall you can walk behind (!!) to truly experience the majesty of waterfalls.
- Reynisfjara Black Sand beach: one of our first introductions to polygonal basalt columns, which form when magma meets a cooling surface (like ice) and contracts quickly, cracking into polygonal prisms that are fascinating and beautiful.
- Jokulsarlon Lagoon: we did a boat tour out onto the Lagoon and saw the edge of Iceland’s biggest glacier, and also saw lots of adorable seals napping on floating bergs!
- Svartifoss: a waterfall featuring basalt columns. You kind of become a waterfall snob when you’re in a place like Iceleand, but this one was our favourite.
WW striking a pose behind Seljalandfoss – it was very wet!
Super neat basalt columns on Reynisfjara beach! What’s an Icelandic sheep’s favourite flavour? …. Baaah Salt! Ba dum tsss!
A very large iceberg in Jokulsarlon Lagoon. The black lines are ash from volcanic eruptions! It was very pretty.
Cute little sleepy seal! We disturbed his nap and he wasn’t too pleased.
Svartifoss was one of the most unique waterfalls we saw! It really highlighted the beauty and scale of the basalt columns.
A abandoned US Navy plane crash site from 1973 (everyone survived, don’t worry)
Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon! It was lovely, but it was also very clear that tourism has had a negative impact on the environment, even with the protective measures in place. (This was not an uncommon occurrence in Iceland and made these beautiful places a tad bittersweet)
Eastfjords to Egilsstadir
Sept 25
This was mostly a driving day through the dramatic fjord landscape of the eastern coast of Iceland. We made a quick stop in Djupivogur, where WW splurged on an Icelandic sweater (!!) and we met Jon, a warm and lovely Icelandic man who has been collecting rocks for over 45 years. He hosed off his rocks for us so that we could admire them glittering in the sunlight – it was a very lovely, wholesome place.
WW and Jon (the rock collector) underneath his Taiwanese flag!
WW made super fast progress with her Icelandic mittens! Look how proud she is!
WW’s new Icelandic sweater (lopapeysa) knitted by a local Icelandic lady!
North Coast & Diamond Circle
Sept 26–28
Driving North towards Lake Myvatn, we stopped at Dettifoss and then Asbyrgi, a horseshoe shaped canyon that was completely deserted and felt like a place out of a fairy tale. Pictures really don’t do Asbyrgi justice!
We explored the geothermal areas near Lake Myvatn: Dimmuorgir lava fields, Grjotagja cave and Hverir valley before heading to Akureyri, the biggest city in the North.
After about 9 days in the campervan, we were pretty tired of roughing it. So we treated ourselves to a chill afternoon in the botanical gardens, dinner out, and an evening at the Akureyri Forest Lagoon!
“The Church” at Dimmuborgir lava field – it was huge!
Looking out from Eyjan, the island in the middle of the horseshoe-shaped Asbyrgi canyon.
Asbyrgi canyon closer up – we were the only ones there for a while and it was a lovely soundscape of rain falling and birds chirping.
Grjotagja cave. Apparently it used to be a popular hot spring (especially since it was featured in GoT), but the temperature rose to unsafe levels after an earthquake.
Hot bubbly mud at Hverir valley (is this what they call primordial soup?)
Snaefellsnes Peninsula and back to Reykjavik
Sept 29–30
Time to book it back to Reykjavik! These were some of our longest driving days, but we still made time to explore the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, north of Reykjavik. It’s been described as “Iceland in miniature” and it really did feel like the greatest hits of all the types of attractions we had seen: dramatic mountains, a glacier, beautiful waterfalls, basalt columns, and also a volcanic cave that we toured inside of!
We made it back to Reykjavik and camped for a mere 3 hours before sleepily dragging ourselves out of bed to return the van and head to the airport back to London.
WW posing on the stairs in Vatnshellir volcanic cave
WW recreated the same photo at Kirkjufell that her Dad took back in 2019!
WW on top of a stone bridge in Arnarstapi.
WW’s view for most of the trip: being a very productive passenger princess. She really burned through knitting those mittens super fast! Also featured: we regularly had laundry drying on the sunny car dash.
Our last morning was an early one! WW thought it would be fun to capture the authentic moment…
For more photos, check out this Google Photos album.
Did you know that you can comment on this blog? Some of you do! Thanks for taking time to leave comments, we love reading them! (even if we forget to reply sometimes…)
Wow, Iceland is beautiful <3 I live vicariously for travelling through you two hahaha
i love that you have added a profile photo to comment on our blog hahahaha you would have loved iceland i think!!! bucket list!
many are calling this the greatest blog post of all time. you guys are living life so good!!
weiwei be honest how much of an insta cop was that lopapeysa?
it was a pretty good month!!!! i look back on it fondly.
and uhhhh yeah we had stopped in their parking lot to have lunch and over the course like an hour i walked in and out of the store agonising over the sweater like 4 separate times. lopapeysa are frickin Expensive and up til that point i had kinda written them off as a souvenir for myself because the more traditional ones weren’t really my vibe, but this one i found…… it simply felt like serendipity and i couldn’t say no in the end lol