Skip to main content

Icelandic Highways & Byways (Part 1)

Image
By
From time to time, I do have the opportunity to travel internationally. Our world has so much to offer both domestically and abroad that I like to take any chance I can get to see different places. So when the opportunity arose to travel to Iceland with some friends in September and October 2016, I jumped for the chance to go. I got to see geysers, volcanoes, waterfalls, black sand beaches, the geothermal pools that Iceland is famous for, plus I spent a week using Iceland's capital city of Reykjavik as a home base. I also got to take plenty of road photos during my travels as well. This series will focus more on the road aspect of Iceland, but I will be including some photos of the places I saw along the way as well.

This first part of this Icelandic Highways and Byways series will focus on the roads around Reykjavik, with the first set of photos being from Sæbraut, which is part of Iceland Route 41 that eventually makes its way down to the Keflavik International Airport. Keflavik is where most international travelers first set foot on Icelandic soil.
Seltjarnarnes is a suburb of Reykjavik. As for the signage, I am told that it is based of Danish sign designs, but uses British Transport font.
Making my way down Sæbraut. You may notice the sign denoting that tractors are not allowed on the road during rush hour periods. I'm pretty sure that Reykjavik is the only world capital that has to advertise this restriction.
Solfar, or the Sun Voyager. You will see this sculpture on the side of the road along Sæbraut.
Standing in the median, looking at Harpa (a concert hall).
Looking at Sæbraut from Harpa.
Iceland Route 41 is not the only numbered highway that serves Reykjavik. Iceland Route 1 (the Ring Road around Iceland --- you'll hear more about this road later on), Iceland Route 40 and Iceland Route 49 are also important thoroughfares in and around the capital city.

Along Iceland Route 49, which serves as both a motorway and expressway in portions.
This might just be Iceland's only single point interchange, as seen from Iceland Route 49.
Petrol was expensive in Iceland, but diesel was a little less expensive. There didn't seem to be much variation in prices around the country either. You'd be expecting to pay the equivalent of about $6 USD per gallon.
Along Iceland Route 40.
Still along Iceland Route 40. Despite being a very old city in a country that has seen financial difficulties, there is a fair share of newer buildings that has been constructed in Reykjavik.
On Iceland Route 1 (Ring Road) starting to head out of Reykjavik. The route is a lot like this until you reach the road that splits off for the Golden Circle.
Iceland has lots of roundabouts.
Finally, a few interesting, yet random road photos around Reykjavik itself.
Old and new styles of signing streets in Reykjavik. The old style is typical of what you would find around Europe, as in street blade signs affixed to the side of a building. The newer style is a little more typical of what you would see in North America. During some of my other travels in Europe (Denmark and London, more specifically), street signs more low lying and not at eye level, which made things a little more difficult to navigate, even on foot.
Reykjavik's domestic airport is located just outside of downtown, so it is common to see planes taking off and landing in the city.
A wayfinding sign in the Reykjavik Harbor area.
Since English is the de facto second language of Iceland, you'll see plenty of English being used. I never really encountered much of a language barrier in Iceland, even outside Reykjavik. I only picked up a few Icelandic words while visiting, such as "takk", which is Icelandic for "thanks".
Approaching Perlan (the domed building in the distance).


This is it for the first installment of my Icelandic highways and byways post. I also traveled around the Golden Circle, and also southeast, southwest and north of Reykjavik, which will be featured in the future. I hope that you enjoyed this little visit to Reykjavik.


Icelandic Highways and Byways Series
Icelandic Highways and Byways (Part 1) - Reykjavik
Icelandic Highways and Byways (Part 2) - Golden Circle
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Did Caltrans just kill the G26 cutout US Route shields?

By
The US Route System was formally created by the American Association of State Highway Officials during November 1926.  Through the history of the system the only state to which has elected to maintain cutout US Route shields has been California.  The G26 series cutout US Route shields have become a favorite in the road enthusiast hobby and are generally considered to be much more visually pleasing than the standard Federal Highway Administration variant.  However, the G26 shield series appears to have been killed off on January 18, 2026, when Caltrans updated their Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices.  This blog will examine the history of the US Route shield specifications in California and what is happening with the 2026 changes.  The blog cover photo is facing towards the terminus of California State Route 136 and at a G26-2 specification US Route 395 shield.  In the background Mount Whitney can be seen in the Sierra Nevada range.   ...
2 comments
Read more

May 2023 Ontario Trip (Part 3 of 3)

By
  Over the years, I have made plenty of trips to Ontario, crisscrossing the southern, central and eastern parts of the province. Living in Upstate New York, it's pretty easy to visit our neighbor to the north, or is that our neighbor to the west? Ottawa is one of my favorite cities to visit anywhere in the world, plus I've discovered the charm of Kingston, the waterfalls of Hamilton (which is on the same Niagara Escarpment that brings us Niagara Falls), the sheer beauty of the Bruce Peninsula, and more. But I hadn't explored much of Cottage Country. So I decided to change that, and what better time to go than over Memorial Day weekend, when the daylight is long and I have an extra day to explore. On the third and final day of my trip, I started in Huntsville and made my way through Muskoka District and Haliburton County, passing by many lakes along the way. I stopped in towns such as Dorset, Haliburton and Bancroft before making a beeline down to Belleville and then over th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ghost Town Tuesday; Nichols, FL

By
A couple years ago I spent a lot of spare time exploring phosphate mining ghost towns in the Bone Valley of Polk County, Florida.  One ghost town in particular called Nichols on Polk County Route 676 west of Mulberry caught my eye due to a relative lack of documentation on ghosttowns.com. Nichols was created in 1905 during the early phosphate mining boom in the Bone Valley region.  For the time Nichols was unusual since it had company housing in the Nichols Mine site and private residences outside the gate.  Nichols is only about two miles west of Mulberry which probably made it a somewhat reasonable commute even by the wonky standards of the early 20th Century.  Most of the Bone Valley region was relatively remote which made commuting or homesteading impractical which is why there are so many ghost towns in the area.  The company housing section of Nichols was phased out and abandoned by 1950. The Nichols town site is largely abandoned and could "possibl...
4 comments
Read more