Iceland

I’m always day dreaming about Iceland. About how I can get back there, how long I can stay there, how I can move there, it certainly gets under your skin. Every time we plan a trip somewhere I think, maybe I can convince everyone to go back to Iceland (not that it would take much arm twisting, but my daughter would like a different stamp in her passport once in a while!). Right now, my sister and her family are there, because we told them how amazing it is, and how much they’d love it. And of course they think it is, and they do. Looking at their images, I find myself more than just a little jealous, though so happy that are experiencing the wonder that is Iceland. And I am here, finding myself once again, deep in daydream about the country I am just crazy in love with.

Our first visit we did what every first time visitor should do, the Golden Circle. It was January, so the sun is up for about 5 minutes all day. We loved that we could get up at teenager time, have a delicious breakfast, walk into town, climb Hallgrimskirkja and be in plenty of time to watch the sunrise (at about 10:30am). With short daylight hours, by the time we were getting to Geysir, the sun was low in the sky and I was a bit nervous we’d run out of light entirely before we got to Gullfoss. Instead what we were treated to was nothing short of magnificent.

The light at the Geysir was gorgeous, back-lighting the steaming water, creating fantastic silhouettes of the onlookers. I loved that the Geysir made me jump every single time. I kept wanting to see it go just once more. Once it was kind of a dud, and everyone groaned at it (which cracked me up) but then it rewarded us with a double burst. Every part of it was fascinating to me, the steam coming out of the earth all around, the crystallized edges of the water, and of course that gorgeous light.

We rushed on to Gullfoss, and were rewarded with pink skies over the mostly frozen falls, creating a true winter wonderland. I think I may have gasped out loud. We were just mesmerized by the wonder of it. I can’t imagine a better time to be there. Sure we didn’t have long before the sun light was completely gone, and you couldn’t see anything, but I think I mentioned, January, a tad chilly, we couldn’t have lasted much longer any way.

Iceland isn’t currently on our adventure list, but it will be back on it again soon, I was just reading about a new travel route opening up in the North in 2019, think I need to check that out… in the mean time, I’ll post more of our Icelandic adventures soon…