Road trip Greece – Iceland by bike

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Having strong feelings and enchanted by this unique experience that we are about to live, we begin our journey to the country of fire and ice. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe, and here one can admire majestic landscapes, such as glaciers, lakes, fjords, volcanoes, geysers, hot springs and large, desolate volcanic areas. This unforgettable experience, full of beautiful scenery, began in late July of 2013 and included 9,000 km of riding and 160 hours of travel by boat.

Traveller: Vagelis Betsas

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[Music] travel experiences from around the [Music] world there are many Journeys we take in life which deeply affect us and during which many of our dreams and aspirations come true one such journey is the one we took to [Music] Iceland having strong feelings and Enchanted by this unique experience that we are about to live We Begin our journey to the country of Fire and Ice Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe and here one can admire Majestic Landscapes such as glaciers lakes fjords volcanoes GE hot springs and large desolate volcanic areas this Unforgettable experience full of beautiful scenery began in Late July of 2013 and included 9,000 km of riding and 160 hours of travel by [Music] boat the first 200 km of our trip took place in Greece riding from Athens to Patra where we took the ferry to Venice Italy [Music] after 32 hours at Sea we approached this unique Italian city where we began our 975 km ride to leig Germany we set off at 9:00 a.m. and rode non-stop until 8:00 at night although we had planned on camping most of the nights we had booked a hotel in leig because we were afraid that if we arrived late at night they wouldn’t let us into a campsite to set up our tent furthermore the distance was very long and we didn’t know what we would encounter along the [Music] way the next day we headed to hechs the northern Port of Denmark where we will take the ferry to Iceland a distance of 911 km the weather after Leipzig had drastically changed dropping from 36° C to 22 and raining in a few [Music] parts after 10 hours of riding we arrived in the city and headed to a campsite where we will spend the [Music] night the next day due to a slight delay in the ship’s embarcation we seized the opportunity to ride around the city a bit and to visit its historic Lighthouse which was built in 1863 [Music] after finishing our ride around the city we arrived back at the port and waited in line to get on the [Music] boat 48 hours later we approached sades fur the main port located on one of the Eastern fures of the island when we disembarked from the ship the temperature had dropped to 3° C while the air blew at 8 bord very difficult conditions for [Music] riding after filling out all the necessary documents at the Port we headed off to egil where we will make our first stop to exchange money drink a coffee and warm up a bit it is only 30 km from sis Fu but we needed time to get used to this drastic change in temperature after eil we made our way to the first attraction that we wanted to visit deos waterfall it is 161 km from egad and will take us about 2 hours to get there we didn’t come across anything along the way because as I mentioned before Iceland is very sparsely populated [Music] when we arrived at deos we were Amazed by the unique scenery it is the largest and most powerful waterfall in Europe with an average water flow of 193 cubic m/s while during times of flooding it can reach up to 600 the water falls from a height of 100 m and is 45 M wide the color of the water is dark due to volcanic sediment after deif we rode for about 67 km to nfal a geothermal area with intense volcanic activity full of ferals and sulfuric water spouts throughout the land the landscape looks almost lunar and the strong smell of sulfur was rather obnoxious so even though the scenery was rather exceptional we didn’t stay very long our next stop will be at gfos waterfall otherwise known as the waterfall of the Gods it is 53 km from nfal and will take us about 45 minutes to reach gfos has a width of 30 m and the water falls from a height of 12 M the name dates back to the year 1000 ad when Iceland decided to embrace the Christian religion and a priest discarded many Pagan statues here from goros we drove about 53 km to get to aeri where we will spend our first night in Iceland it was our first day we had ridden more than 400 km and in unfavorable weather conditions so we really needed to get some rest akui is regarded as the capital of Northern Iceland and has about 18,000 inhabitants making it the fourth largest town on the island the area was first inhabited by the Vikings in the 9th century ad and nowadays is a large fishing Village visited by many tourists it is a lively town with many outdoor parties while cafes and bars stay open until late at night which is rare for Nordic countries we stayed at a campsite in akeri for 2 days because we wanted to explore the surrounding area [Music] the next morning after taking a little tour of the city we headed off to sigu Fu a fishing Village in the north part of the island the distance from akeri to sigu fu is 76 km and on this particular day there was a herring Festival taking place which we had heard about and wanted to check out on the way there we made a short stop in dalig which is famous for its whale Safari or another other words whale hunting this route was the most beautiful we took in Iceland and one of the nicest I’ve taken in my life this means a lot seeing as I’ve ridden more than 115,000 km across Europe we rode along the Aya and the landscape and scenery here is absolutely magical and Unforgettable after about an hour we reach sigu and the scenery really impressed us beneath the mountains lies a small village of about 1,200 residents where we tasted some local dishes and listened to traditional music [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] [Music] after staying for about 5 hours we headed back to akeri where we would spend our second night the next morning we began our ride to raik evic the wind was very strong and it was rainy and foggy the distance is 386 km and we knew that it would take us about 5 hours to get there however Mother Nature had other plans for us as conditions were so harsh that we weren’t able to reach it the wind was so strong that we couldn’t didn’t even stay up right on the bike not even while stopped so we stopped at a house that we had passed to ask for help and the Very welcoming couple who lived there offered us a room to spend the [Music] night the next day weather conditions had improved a bit so we continued on to the capital [Music] in raik evic we stayed at a small campsite outside the city for 2 days wanting to dedicate one of them to visiting the surrounding attractions it is the largest city in Iceland and the most Northerly capital in the world located on the Southwest coast of the country raik evic has a population of approximately 118,000 [Music] an important attraction of the city is the Lutheran Church that has a height of 73 M and is the sixth tallest building in [Music] Iceland the so-called halya hosts an enormous organ that was brought over from Germany and the church has a seating capacity of [Music] 1,000 one building that really stands out in the city is harpa which was constructed in 2011 and awarded the most beautiful building building in Europe in 20133 it is a concert hall Conference Center and also has many shops and cafes another place worth visiting is The Pedestrian area of lagav which is the most Commercial Street in the city and besides shops you can also find restaurants cafes and bars where you can have a drink until late at night close to raik evic is thinger National Park which in 2004 was named a UNESCO world heritage site this is mainly due to the fact that it is the only place on Earth where tectonic plates are visible more specifically the plates of the Eurasian continent and the American continent where a huge Rift is [Music] formed on our way to the park we stopped at two hot springs in these Springs very hot water spurts out from the ground and is used either for therapeutic baths or as a sauna we were actually driven to these sites by the Greek console just a few kilometers north of the park is gfos waterfall one of the most important attractions in Iceland here the waterfalls in three stages creating a unique [Music] image a little further south is the largest Geyser in Iceland it is a hydrogeological pH phenomenon that only exists in a few places on the planet every 10 to 15 minutes these geysers explode catapulting hot water very high in the [Music] air after our visit to the geyser we headed back to spend our second and final night in [Music] rikic the next day we headed off to scaa National Park where we were to stay the night on the way there we made a stop to see Sean for’s waterfall which gushes water from a height of 60 M it is located in the southernmost part of the island at a distance of 127 km from rake yic 29 km South you’ll find skafos waterfall [Applause] the scenery is really beautiful and we were disappointed because we didn’t have enough time left to Camp one more day here the water falls from a height of 60 M and it is worth walking up the path that leads to the top as the view will Amaze [Music] you we rode for 2 more hours covering 100 73 km to get to scail National Park spending the night here is a must if you do not have a tent you must book a room at one of the scarce and expensive accommodation options available the glacier of the park is located about 20 minutes walking distance from the entrance but you will need about 2 hours in total to see the surrounding area on foot generally there are several paths with varying levels of difficulty we chose the one that leads to Saros waterfall which is about an hour walk from the campsite the next morning we headed to the yokus National Park to see the largest glacier in Europe we had to ride 57 km in a wildly beautiful [Music] landscape at one point we were hit with heavy rain in the southern section of the park a channel was created in order to let the ice that has detached from the glacier reached the Atlantic Ocean this was a rather impressive sight seeing the huge ice chunks detach and fall into the beautiful [Music] lake from here we have to ride 257 km to egil where we will spend our last night in Iceland we continued our journey on a beautiful route with the sea to the right of us all the way to duur we then headed north entering the mainland and riding all the way to egil there we will spend the night and the next morning we will go to the [Music] port now we are at the Port about to take the ferry to the Pharaoh Islands a paradise where we will stay three more magical days before returning to Greece [Music]