A trip to Iceland was booked slightly naively, solely to hunt for the Northern Lights. Then realisation dawned that if we didn’t see them it would be a pretty disastrous trip. Fortunately Iceland has so much more to offer, than just the Northern Lights, so much so, we almost forgot they were the sole purpose of our visit. Although thrilled they made a brief appearance on the last day.
Iceland is a large country with a small population, and lots of natural beauty. Reyjkavik is the largest city and has less than 150,000 inhabitants. Icelandair Marina Hotel makes a great base to explore Iceland. It’s a country of fire and ice. The country is blanketed in snow in December and can be compared to pictures on Christmas cards.
With mountains, volcanoes and glaciers and black sand beaches all covered in white snow, it’s absolutely beautiful. Wrapped up warm, it’s like you are surrounded by white fluffy marshmallow clouds.
Along the south coast volcanoes are encased by glaciers and have wonderful waterfalls, cascading through crevices.
The Geysir is a natural hot spring phenomena, which is active and bubbles, hurtling a jet of water and steam every five minutes.
The Golden Circle Gull Foss waterfall is marvellous. The magnitude of the water is amazing.
The polar ice caps are melting and glaciers have icebergs breaking off which has formed The Glacier Lagoon. At dusk it was picture perfect and beautiful. It is a really long drive through icy roads and best done over a two day trip during the winter months. As the sun sets early you will be lucky to get there at dusk and end up returning to Reyjakvik in the early hours.
The highlight of the trip had to be the Blue Lagoon and lunch at The Lava Restaurant. We had a great dining experience at Kol and The Fish Restaurant. With a yummy afternoon tea the Café Babalu in the shadow of the Hallgrímskirkja church.
New year’s eve 2015 celebrations in Reyjkavik were probably some of the best we have experienced around the world. Fireworks start as soon as it get’s dark in Reykjavik with huge bonfires dotted around the city keeping everyone warm in the snow. Families bring sparklers and sing whilst youngster let off fireworks along the streets. As long as you have snow boots, you can tread the snow and walk to a bonfire from the city centre.
At 10:30pm everyone heads home to watch an annual television show, Armotaskaup, an Icelandic, comedic round up of the year. The city goes completely quiet for the hour until the fireworks resume in full force. There are fireworks all over city however the church is a great focal point. The fireworks were continuous for hours and at midnight there you barely notice it’s midnight as the intensity of fireworks continues. Being at a bonfire and watching fireworks as it snowed was a truly unique experience and definitely worth braving the cold for.
