{"id":25257,"date":"2026-09-29T10:25:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T10:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/?p=25257"},"modified":"2026-09-29T10:25:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T10:25:28","slug":"drive-back-to-reykjavik-and-the-barnafass-waterfall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/2026\/09\/29\/drive-back-to-reykjavik-and-the-barnafass-waterfall\/","title":{"rendered":"Drive Back to Reykjav\u00edk and The Hraunfossar and Barnafass Waterfalls"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

continued<\/a>… At the base camp, the tour group got back into the regular bus for the return trip to Reykjav\u00edk. They passed an aluminum factory. While Iceland did not have aluminum ore deposits, it did have abundant and inexpensive electricity. And a lot of electricity is what was needed to process aluminum. So they bulk shipped in the ore, processed it, and exported it. Apparently, aluminum refining generated a significant amount of revenue for the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They stopped at the Hraunfossar and Barnafass waterfalls. Apparently, the smaller falls were Hraunfossar and the bigger ones above them were Barnafass. Here were some smaller falls (Hraunfossa) by the river leading the bigger falls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hraunfossar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The main waterfall area (Barnafass) was beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barnafass<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

There were some narrow spots and the water was rushing past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There was a small foot bridge to cross over the see the various views of the falls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

They stopped for lunch at a small restaurant next to the waterfalls. Their primary offering was a small buffet, though there were a few a la carte choices. Eric got an a la carte sandwich. Then the bus took the group back to the Harpa<\/a>. From there, he rented a scooter and took it to The Grandi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now back to Christi and Keith.<\/a>.. After the taxi dropped off Eric at the Harpa, it continued on to the Grandi Hotel, located about a mile away, and dropped them off. The fee for the taxi ride was much higher than Christi had anticipated. It would have been cheaper to rent a car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Christi went to the front desk and asked if it was possible to get an early check in. The clerk said she did have one room ready on the ground floor. There was a 5,900 ISK ($50 USD) early check in fee, but it included an all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast for three (they charged for Eric even though he wasn’t there). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They dropped the bags off in the room. It was very nice, with a small living room with a couch that could be pulled out to a bed and a separate bedroom with a queen bed. The furniture was all low to the ground and Christi couldn’t help but think about how her and Eric’s parents would have struggled with such low furniture. It was decorated with modern art and funny Icelandic sayings. There was a small patio area. As they were leaving the room for breakfast, someone came in to convert the couch to a bed for us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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view from the patio. Our room was actually partly underground, so we looked up to the ground. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The restaurant was located off the lobby. It was a standard European buffet. For hot foods they had scrambled eggs, potatoes, bacon and sausage, a pot of beans in tomato sauce, oatmeal and tea and coffee. There were a lot of cold food choices: cereals, a dairy product called skyr that was similar to yogurt but more bitter, a large selection of breads including croissants, pretzels and Icelandic flat bread that tasted like burnt pita bread, raw veggies, a variety of sliced cheeses, a couple types of deli meats, hard boiled eggs, fresh fruit,  juices, pastries such as strudels, donuts and cake and juices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Icelandic Bread<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The food was okay, but neither Christi nor Keith loved it. After eating, the food coma hit them hard. They went back to the room and took a three hour nap. When alarm went off, Keith was in a FOUL mood. But Christi knew they would never acclimate to the local time zone if they got any more sleep and that it was imperative that they get moving. If they stayed in the room, they’d fall back asleep. They went for a walk in search of coffee. They passed a block of colorful row homes that appeared to be residential. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When they went through the pedestrian walkway between a couple of the units, they saw each home had a decent size back yard. The buildings behind them also looked to be similar row house style residences with yards. They passed a preschool — it was cute to see the little kids out in the yard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

About a block or so away from the hotel, they felt a few drops of rain. It was so cold outside — they knew they would freeze if they got wet in a rain shower. Wanting to avoid any potential rain, they decided to go back to the coffee house that was attached to the Grandi and ordered lattes (espresso for Christi and Chai for Keith). They may be the best lattes we’ve ever had. The milk they used was incredible. Much to Christi’s chagrin, it never rained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The drinks improved both of their moods. They considered walking around again, but they decided they didn’t want to be out in the cold when they were so tired. They went back to the hotel room. They each got on their respective devices and struggled to stay awake until Eric returned. Our hotel had a spa and the basic spa was included in the room rental fee. Christi almost went to the spa, but realized that the spa would relax her so much that she wouldn’t be able to stay awake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The sign on the wall says “Stomp The Steel Into Them [Give them a pep talk]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When Eric returned from the tour, all three of us went to the hotel restaurant for dinner (the same place as breakfast) because none of us was up for walking in the cold when we were so tired. After not loving breakfast, Christi and Keith were not excited about eating there again, especially because the food was pricey. But our dinners were amazingly good. Eric and Christi both got local fish in a beurre blanc sauce that was accompanied with mashed potatoes topped with crispy kale chips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fish topped with the yummiest bell peppers of all time in a buerre blanc sauce. Potatoes & kale not pictured.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Keith got a burger and fries. Given that there was no tipping in Iceland, our three dinners were about the same amount of money as three orders of burgers and fries in the Exumas<\/a>, but here the food tasted great and the portions and quality much better than the Exumas. Eric ordered a banana basque cheesecake for dessert, which had a soft texture that was more like a custard than a cheesecake. Keith got a chocolate cake topped with chopped raspberries — and they were generous with the berries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We returned to our room at about 1845 and went straight to bed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

continued… At the base camp, the tour group got back into the regular bus for the return trip to Reykjav\u00edk. They passed an aluminum factory. While Iceland did not have aluminum ore deposits, it did have abundant and inexpensive electricity. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,39,14,1,428,19,44,429],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-europe","category-food","category-general","category-geological-sites","category-guided-tour","category-history","category-iceland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25257"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25339,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25257\/revisions\/25339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}