In the Land of Fire and Ice

Since moving to London, David and I had been wanting to travel to Iceland to see the Northern Lights.  As the lights are brightest during the cold winter months, the timing never quite worked out for us.  But this year, we vowed to get the trip booked and take a weekend to visit the land of fire and ice.

We booked a package through Icelandair that flew us direct from Heathrow to Reykjavik late Thursday night, with a return flight booked for Sunday evening, giving us two and a half days to see the Northern Lights, Blue Lagoon, Golden Circle, and Reykjavik.

When we arrived at our hotel in the center of Reykjavik, we noticed Americans everywhere!  Usually when we travel around Europe, we will see Americans at some of the more popular destinations, like Paris or Rome.  But Iceland?  We met a few groups of American tourists on our excursions, at dinner, and hanging out in the hotel bar so we asked them, 'why Iceland?'.  Well, it turns out that Icelandair flies direct to Reykjavik from Minneapolis and Boston, as well as other destinations around the US.  And apparently there was a great Groupon deal that many couldn’t pass up!  So to all of my family and friends in Minnesota, if you’re looking for a fun getaway, keep your eyes peeled for travel discounts and seriously consider Iceland.  There is so much to do.  From whale-watching to dog-sledding to horse-back riding across a volcano, the possibilities are endless and it's easier to get to than you might think!

Before our boat tour on Friday evening to see the lights over the harbour of Reykjavik, we spent the day at the Blue Lagoon.

We’d heard great things about the lagoon and its healing waters, but I think everyone was surprised when we drove up and realized the lagoon is not natural, but man-made, with its water supply coming from the nearby geothermal power plant.  Haha, either way, the waters were warm and inviting and we had a good time.

The lagoon spa is located in a lava field about 45 minutes from Reykjavik.  The temperature of the water is around 100 degrees F, while the outside temperature was freezing!  When we got outside, we had to quickly jump out of our robes and make a mad dash for the water before freezing our bums off!

Once in the water, there are steam rooms, saunas (one of them carved out of the lava rock), mud pits (for DIY facials), and a swim-up bar. 

The funniest moment of the trip happened as David and I were floating around a group of American frat boys.  Everyone at the spa receives a free volcanic or algae scrub for their face and neck when they arrive.  Even the frat boys were getting in on the action, and they suddenly realized why women love spas and beauty treatments so much.  We heard one of them exclaim, ‘Dude, my face feels so smooth!  Bro, feel my face!  Ohmygosh, this is the smoothest my body has ever been!  Let’s get more mud!’

After that, David wasn’t embarrassed to try out the face masks.

Before we knew it, we had spent 4 hours in the water and it was time to go!

Our boat tour was at 8:00 that night, so we only had a couple of hours after the Blue Lagoon to shower, dress, and eat dinner.  So we decided to grab a quick bite at our hotel.  We were blown away by the food at the new Satt restaurant at Hotel Natura.   Because the hotel is simple and affordable, we didn’t expect the food to be that great.  We were so wrong.

We each had a three course dinner featuring Icelandic specialities.  We started with brie croquettes (delicious!) and for our mains, David chose the pan-fried ling (a white fish) with artichokes and I had lamb with root vegetables.  And to finish the meal, David had the dessert of the day, hazelnut crunch covered in custard and topped off with chocolate chips.  Being in Iceland surrounded by volcanoes, I had the lava cake oozing with rich, dark chocolate sauce.  After we were done eating, we just kind of looked at each other and realized, that was one the best meals we’ve had in a long time.  Every part of the meal, from start to finish, was fantastic.  And that’s hard to find.

That night, we boarded our boat and headed out into the bay. 

I felt like an Alaskan crab fisherman in my flotation overalls, but they sure did keep me warm!

Our guide proceeded to tell us all about the northern lights, and how they work.  Then she explained that because it was a bit cloudy, the lights would be difficult to see.  However, our cameras would pick up the colors better than the naked eye.  So we were told to take a picture if we thought we spotted something… and sure enough, as she was talking, a faint green light began to appear over the mountains.  Unfortunately, because we were on a swaying boat, the tripod we had borrowed from friends didn’t work that well, so the pictures are a bit blurry.

We stayed out for a few of hours, watching the lights eerily appear behind the clouds and grow stronger, before moving across the sky, disappearing, and coming back again.  And even though it was cloudy, our guide told us that she actually liked our pictures because the lights appearing behind the clouds made them look more mystical than usual. 

The next morning, we woke up early for our Golden Circle tour.  After driving for a couple of hours, our first stop was a greenhouse to better understand how Icelanders produce their own food year-round, even in extreme temperatures.

We met a farmer and his family that grows tomatoes, and got an overview of how technology is helping him to be successful.  After the presentation, David had a Bloody Mary while I tried the tomato soup – an unusual, but yummy, breakfast.

From there, we made our way to Gullfoss, Iceland’s most popular waterfall.  

What amazed me most about the waterfall was how cold it must get to actually freeze the water as it’s coming over the edge.  Most of the water was frozen but the waterfall was still powerful.  We could only imagine how spectacular the falls must be in the peak of summer with all of the water rushing over!

The wind at Gullfoss was extreme.  As we made our way down into the canyon carved out by the Hvítá River, it got worse and worse.  I thought it was even stronger than the winds at the Cliffs of Moher, and that wind was intense!  With the wind-chill, it was unbelievably cold.  I had my hood up and most of my face covered.  David took off his hat for pics (so it wouldn’t blow away) and braved the temperature, but I told him I would just try to smile with my eyes…

After snapping a few photos and trying not to blow off the cliff, we hopped back in our coach to head to the geyser. 

While driving, I was taking pictures of the beautiful Icelandic horses.  I realized later, when going through all of the photos, that in the background (to the left of the glacier) the geyser is going off.  Good timing!

After watching the geyser bubble over and explode out of the ground a few times, we headed to our next stop in the Golden Circle – Þingvellir National Park.

It’s here that Parliament was established in 930, shortly after Iceland was settled by a Norwegian chief.  Its location was central to most tribes, and they would gather regularly to enact laws and settle disputes.

Þingvellir is also the site of the North American and European continental divide.   The violent, ever-changing landscape of Iceland was evident as we walked through the cliff-lined gully.  Every year, the plates drift apart one inch, literally ripping Iceland in half. 

When I saw this picture, I joked to David that it looked as if I was in the arctic tundra.  And then I realized, I was kind of in the arctic tundra! 

One of our friends, Laura (who you may remember as the winner of the 2013 London Texas Exes Halloween costume contest), just happened to be in Iceland during the same weekend as us.  So we met up with her and a few other people for dinner at Sjavargrillid later that night.

After a large dinner of arctic char for David and lobster pasta for me, we went on the hunt for the Northern Lights again!  This time, David and I hitched a ride with Laura and our friends in their rental cars and drove back out to Þingvellir.  We’d heard this was a great place to see the lights, away from the glare of the city lights, but close enough to drive to and from in one night.

We didn’t need to go far to see the lights, though, because as we were walking to the house Laura and company had rented for the weekend, David and I looked up and just happened to notice the Northern Lights right above us – in the middle of Reykjavik!

It was pretty cool to see green streaking across the sky, over the rooftops.  It’s much more difficult to see the lights in the city due to the brightness caused by the man-made light, which meant that the lights were pretty strong on Saturday to break through. 

We rushed to the cars, piled in, and started driving.  As we approached the national park, I thought it was so strange that we could drive right through.  That would not be the case in America… there would be a park ranger in a booth charging an entrance fee, or more likely, the park would be closed after-hours.

Nope.  Not in Iceland. 

We just drove right in and parked near Þingvallavatn Lake, the largest lake in Iceland known for its crystal clear waters.

We didn’t need to wait at all for the lights to show up; they were already there.  The green was much stronger and we even saw a bit of purple.  Best part was, we weren’t on a boat, so David could use the tripod to take clear photos.

We spent a lot of time in the park, hanging out, messing around with our cameras, and watching the lights.  

Only towards the end of the night did we realize how to actually take pictures so we could see our faces, but by then everyone was too cold to stand outside, holding perfectly still for the 30-second shutter.

Because we didn't get back to our hotel until well after 2AM, we slept in on Sunday morning.  We spent our last couple of hours in Iceland exploring Reykjavik.  We strolled along the historic harbour, had lunch at Seabaron (recommended to us by Nicole, whom we had shared a meal and car-ride with the night before), and shopped on Laugavegur Street. 

Seabaron is known for its hearty bowls of lobster bisque

Out of the 300,000 people that live in Iceland, 1/3 of them reside in Reykjavik, the world's northernmost capital.  With a population of only 100k, space is not limited so the houses in the city center were larger than we'd seen in any other capital city.

Cute red house tucked behind one of the main roads.

Best house we saw?  This tree house of course!  Shutters, a bridge to the main house, a rope ladder, and window-boxes.  This is definitely the coolest treehouse we've ever seen!

Finally, we walked to Hallsgrimskirkja, the largest church in Iceland, and took the lift to the top to get a great view of the city and ocean beyond.

Statue of Leif Erikson, who discovered America well before Columbus

After nearly four years of living in London, we finally made it to Iceland and we were successful in our hunt for the Northern Lights.  Mission accomplished!