Iceland Day 6 ~ Heading Home & Final Thoughts

Our last day in Iceland was rather mellow. We went to a bakery for breakfast and enjoyed one last view.....

.......... then went back to the Airbnb (finally remembered to get a photo - our apartment was on the bottom floor)....

 ...packed and eventually made our way to the airport. 

Some final thoughts about our winter trip to Iceland:

• Our goal was to see the Northern Lights and we did ~ success! 😃
• The weather was very cold and windy at the start - low 30's - then "warmed" by the time we left, mid-40's, but rainy. 
• That being said, it was sort of fun to have it so cold and blustery. It also was not as cold as either of us experienced growing up in New England (Suzanne) and the Midwest (Brad).  Iceland temperatures rarely get below freezing, though it is often extremely windy.
• The exterior of the buildings all had an industrial look - and there were no small shrubs around the foundations.
• It is expensive there! Fuel was about $10/gallon.  😮
• We were not impressed with Iceland Air - the service, entertainment (movies on board), and seat comfort. So much so, that we will not fly them again. (We even upgraded to the "more comfortable" seats - can't imagine if we hadn't.) 
•  The big question is always, "Would we go back?" No. We are glad we went, but have no desire to go back - winter or summer. 

 

Iceland Day 5 ~ Volcano and The Blue Lagoon

Today was our last full day in Iceland and as we had nowhere particular we wanted to be by any particular time, we did not set the alarm and enjoyed a lazy morning. Eventually we were out the door and decided to drive to the town of Grindavík near The Blue Lagoon and where recent volcanic activity has occurred.

 It was a rainy and foggy morning....

 

As we approached Grindavik, we could see the lava fields. 

We could also see the barriers the town erected to help keep the lava away from the residential areas.....

 

 

Grindavik was interesting - it was pretty much deserted as it had been evacuated last year - but what was most interesting is that there were no homes boarded up against vandals, no graffiti, no fences keeping people away from homes - so unlike the US - which was both impressive (as far as Icelanders) and sad (as far as the US). 

As we mentioned before, we did not realize that we needed to make advanced reservations for The Blue Lagoon, so we ended up with a 7pm time slot this evening. (We did try to see if any earlier openings happened, but nope.) So we went to The Blue Lagoon to see it during the day, knowing that it would look very different in the evening. There are short walking paths from the parking area to the main building.....

We headed back to the Airbnb to chill for a while, nap, and hang out until it was time to head for our Blue Lagoon experience.  The lava is still cooling along the roads, which was cool (no pun intended) to see.....

 

We purchased the "comfort" ticket (a bit more than $100 per person) which includes a towel, a mud mask, and one drink - this was more than enough for us to have a complete experience. Once we arrived, we went to the separate lockers rooms, changed to swimsuits, and headed to the lagoon. What was really cool was that it was dark and foggy, along with the steam from the hot water, and while we walked/swam around, we could barely see in front of us. It was also a but rainy on-and-off, so that was neat too. We eventually made our way to the mask bar and got our mud masks (they stay on for 10 minutes) and then to the drink bar for our one complementary drink (we each got a smoothy type of drink). We hung our for nearly two hours - unfortunately no pictures as we did not have a waterproof camera - and eventually went back to the locker rooms to shower and change. We were actually glad that we were "forced" to experience the Blue Lagoon at night - it was less crowded, there were less children, and the atmosphere was very sublime.

It was back to the Airbnb for our last night in Iceland, While we were freezing the first night there, by the third night we started sleeping with the windows open so we could enjoy the  (too?) heavy down comforters on the bed! 😏

 

Iceland Day 4 ~ The Snafellsnes Peninsula

We were up around 7am with another rainy (although a few degrees warmer) day. We decided to take a drive to the Snafellsnes Peninsula and see what it was all about.

Our first stop was the town of Akranes where we visited the Old Akranes Lighthouse....

Then onto Borgarnes, a fishing town with great views.....

 We continued our path towards Stykkishólmur, enjoying many views...

 

 We eventually made our way home and had some leftovers for dinner. So a mellow day, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Iceland Day 3 ~ The Golden Circle

Today we woke a bit earlier - 7am - with plans to drive The Golden Circle. It was a much cloudier day with rain, so no need for the expanded paper visors! 😆

 

Our first stop was Þingvellir National Park, where one can walk along the Mid-Atlantic ridge, which is between two tectonic plates (which, incidentally, are moving apart 2cm a year).  We stopped, took a picture, and continued on our way. 

We continued onward to The Haukadalur Geothermal Valley, which is comprised of hot springs......

...and geysers....

 

Speaking of hot springs, Iceland is a leader in geothermal energy. The hot water has a sulfur smell, however the cold water does not smell at all and is perfectly safe to drink.

We continued our journey to Gullfoss (Waterfall) - it was huge and difficult to capture in a photo....

Along the way, we kept seeing very stocky and hairy horses - apparently these are a breed developed in Iceland with a unique gait (three feet on the ground simultaneously) which allows them a more stable and even pace. 

We drove back to our Airbnb along the ocean.....

 

After napping, we had dinner at Hotel Viking (when we met our shuttle driver a couple nights prior, we checked out the menu and it looked good) where Brad enjoyed some local Ling Cod, Suzanne enjoyed a very good vegetarian ravioli, and we shared a dessert of skyr (Icelandic yogurt) with blueberry sauce and sorbet.  It was all quite tasty!

 The sky remained cloudy, so we did not venture out to see the Northern Lights.

Iceland Day 2 ~ Waterfalls & More!

When the alarm went off at 8am, we were both in a deep sleep and couldn't figure out why the hell the alarm was going off in the middle of the night - it was pitch black! We were out the door by 9:30am (sunrise!) driving east along the coast, with the low sun was in our eyes the entire time.....

 .....which means that the sun visors didn't help....which means that we had to get creative......😉

 

The terrain here was somewhat flat - think tundra - with mountains in the distance - some more snow-covered than others.

 

Our first stop was Seljalandsfoss ("foss" means waterfall in Icelandic), at 65 meters - one can walk around, but one also gets wet and it was very cold and windy! (Plus, we've walked behind many a waterfall in our day......)

Speaking of it being cold & windy - we did not bring scarves - thought our winter jackets (with high necks) would be enough - nope! Thus we also invented (along with the extended sun visors) the "shirt scarf!" Take a shirt you're not wearing, fold it into a scarf-shape, and tada! 😂 It worked. 

Just a couple minute walk down the path was Gljúfrabúi Waterfall......

 

Back to the car with hot coffees in hand, we continued down the road a bit passing the occassional glacier....

 

To the next waterfall: Skógar. This one even had a rainbow!

 Selfie time!

It was back in the car (heat on high and seat warmers turned up!) as we continued to Vik, the southernmost village in Iceland. Along the way, there was a small snow squall.
 

It was time for lunch and we found The Soup Company - they had great soups and free seconds - and ya know Brad is all about second servings! 😋

We took a quick jaunt to the black sand beach where there are basalt sea stacks....

(It was so windy that Suzanne kept getting pushed back and she (tried to) walk forward.)

 

We started heading back, but first took this picture in Vik.....
 

As we had a late lunch, we didn't have any dinner, and about 8pm headed back to where we were the night before to see if we could see any Northern Lights. We did see a few.....

 

 

...but they weren't as stellar as the night before and were visible only briefly. (We did see them from our Airbnb as well.....)

 

Iceland Night 1 ~ The Northern Lights!

At 9pm (21:00 in Iceland time) we drove to Hotel Viking where we met our first driver of the night, a very friendly guy who drove us to the central meeting point for Reykjavik Excursions, where we boarded another van with a few other folks (two of who were repeaters from not seeing the Northern Lights the night prior) and we headed out to a dark area a bit outside of Reykjavik.  It was very cold and we were very bundled.....

 

One word: AMAZING!!!! Out of dozens of photos - a few......

 

The Northern Lights were across the entire sky and moving. (Tried to get video, but we were not successful.) They lasted about 1 1/2 - 2 hours, and we were VERY cold (even with the hot cocoa provided). 

We were back to the Airbnb about midnight and even though we had been on a van, bus, and our car - all with heat - we were freezing! We were very thankful for our heavy down comforters.

 

Iceland Day 1 ~ Getting There

Seeing the Northern Lights has been on our bucket list for many years - and when we have ventured north in the winter previously (Alaska in February) we did not see them. So we decided to go to Iceland in the winter -  another attempt at seeing the elusive Aurora Borealis.

It was actually less total travel time for us to drive to Orlando (three hours) and take a direct flight to Reykjavik, rather than drive to a closer airport and have a lay-over in either Boston or New York, so we flew round-trip Orlando/Reykjavik.

We still refused to check luggage, even if winter clothes take up so much more room than summer clothes! 

The flight was a red-eye and was fairly easy (more on Iceland Air in a later post) as we slept much of the time. Iceland is really quite far north......

Unbeknownst to us, Iceland Air does not always taxi to the terminal, so imagine our surprise when we walked off the airplane in the dark at 6am (wearing jeans and long-sleeved tops) and we were outside! 😲 It was cold! Damn cold! And windy....damn windy! We walked to the shuttle bus, quickly donned our winter coats, and eventually made our way to the terminal, through passport control, etc....

Thought this was a strange exit sign - to where else would we be exiting?

It was a little confusing getting the rental car, but eventually found our way and drove the 30 minutes to the Airbnb. It was a bit weird - it being so dark at 8am - and we kept having to remind ourselves that it was Saturday morning, not Friday evening.

We found our Airbnb, which was very clean and nice, dumped all of our stuff, and looked for some breakfast, eventually finding a bakery with good food, a sweet for Brad, and (a lot of) strong coffee. It was then back to the Airbnb for showers and strategizing. Keeping in mind our goal was to see the northern lights, we had previously booked a Northern Lights Tour through Reykjavik Excursions for Sunday night. We looked at the weather (clear nights Saturday and Sunday), as well as Aurora forecast ("moderate" for Saturday and Sunday nights) and called and changed our reservation to our first evening in Iceland. Here's the thing - Reykjavik Expeditions "guarantees" an aurora sighting and if none, then one can go back the next evening for free. So we figured, if there are two nights with the same potential, then let's go the first night and if we get skunked, there is always another "clear" and "moderate" night the following evening. 

As it was only noon and our Northern Lights tour wasn't until 9:30pm (yep, that's pretty much past our bedtimes 😆) we decided to head to the Seltjarnarnes peninsula, about a 30 minute drive from our Airbnb, to see the Grótta Island Lighthouse. 

 

 

It was very VERY windy and VERY cold!!!!

We drove back to the Airbnb, stopping first at a local food store to grab a few provisions, and crashed for a couple hours. We had dinner at the Airbnb (just some food we grabbed from the food store) and also looked to see when we could go to The Blue Lagoon - we did not realize that we needed to make reservations well in advance until we chatted with someone at the airport. (We were just planning to stop by on Day 1.) So we made those reservations as well. Then it was a few hours of waiting until 9pm when it was time to drive to where we would get picked-up for our Northern Lights tour.

This is how Brad spent those hours .......