Jetlag in Iceland

We arrived at Keflavik airport around 8 or so in the morning, crossed through passport control and got our luggage. And just as the hotel owner had said, our driver was waiting nearby with a sign with our names on in it. We drove for a while through beautiful lava fields on the peninsula, almost like a lunar landscape, for a ways before heading into Reykjavik and to Mosfellsbaer. We made a quick stop at a bank so I could withdraw cash from the ATM (a much better deal than exchanging currency at the airport, as suggested by the driver), and were dropped off at Hotel Laxnes. The room wasn't supposed to be ready yet, so I was hoping they would hold our luggage so we could walk around a bit and stretch our legs after the overnight flight. But surprisingly, our room was almost ready and within five minutes, we were able to get into our room and unpack. We had lunch at the KFC next to the hotel, then headed out to explore the delightful little village of Mosfellsbaer. First, we headed down to where the rivers flow into the sea.

There were a number of Icelandic horses grazing in this area and we couldn't help but stop and visit. Icelandic horses are smaller than other horses and their blood lines have been kept pure for 1000 years.

No horses can ever be imported to the island and even an Icelandic horse that leaves may never return.

After taking some pictures and petting the horses for a bit, we walked further down to where a small peninsula juts out into the ocean and saw some sea birds on the shore and some beautiful flowers growing among the lava rocks.

Then we briefly headed back to the hotel to use the restroom and then headed north towards the rivers. It didn't take long to find our first waterfall of the trip - Tungufoss, a relatively small but very pretty waterfall just downstream from where Route 1 crosses the river.

We hung around here for a while taking pictures and enjoying the beautiful scenery before following the trail further upstream to see a few smaller cascades along the river.

To the right (east) we could see Mount Helgafell and a trail heading up the mountain. But we were tired from our overnight flight and decided to head back. We got some pizza for dinner and went to bed early to get ready for our Landmannalaugar tour in the morning.