Iceland

Having not done much in January and with Jenn having a week break, we decided to go to Iceland in February. We landed in Keflavik to the crisp cold of winter. Unfortunately this would not stay for our trip as the weather forecast was 5-10 and rainy all week.

Iceland is a beautiful country, we took a bus tour along the south coast and got to see some amazing sights. The landscapes feel like they are meant for giants, like we are too small for this island. A lot of the cliffs are old sea cliffs, even though they are hundreds of feet inland and at elevations of 20-30 feet. It turns out that because Iceland was formed from volcanic activity the whole island used to be lower than it is now. But over the millennia it has floated up and is where it is now.

Also ten percent of the entire country is covered in a glacier on top of a volcano. Depending on the volcanic activity different parts of the glacier will melt and can cause flooding all over the East side of the country. And since most of the country is accessible only from the single ring road that circles the country, if the flooding is bad enough to destroy the road it means that to get somewhere you might have to go the long way around. And if the road is destroyed in two places entire parts of the country can be inaccessible for long periods of time.

We got the chance to explore one of the ice caves in the glacier on our trip. The cave was the formed by three rivers of melt meeting and carving out a cave in the glacier. This is one of the bigger caves that they have had in recent years. These caves are formed during the summer when the ice melts and the guides find them in the Fall. In the Spring they will have melted, so every year they are different ice caves.

At the base of the glacier is the lagoon where the melt and icebergs gather before they are swept off into the ocean. The icebergs have the iconic blue ice of the glacier and the ones that wash up on the beach are crystal clear. These pictures are from the lagoon and Diamond Beach.

We also rented a car to do our own tour of the Golden Circle, a loop from Reykjavik to some popular tourist spots. Our first stop was Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park, the site of Iceland’s parliament from the 10th to the 18th century. The park sits in a rift valley caused by the separation of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. There are places where you are able to scuba dive between the plates.

Our next stop was at Secret Lagoon Hot Spring. Secret Lagoon is a sauna like pool that is heated from the natural hot springs. There was a small geyser feet from the pool and hot springs spotting the landscape. The entire area was covered in steam. This was a great stop as we were a bit cold and wet from exploring Þingvellir and this warmed us to our core. We felt so refreshed and ready for our next stop.

The one thing we missed out on this trip was the Northern Lights. Unfortunately because the weather was rainy, it was overcast and windy every night. Even though we went during the middle of February. Overall it was a great trip to a beautiful country. We would recommend anyone check it out for their next vacation.