Disclaimer: All the pictures for this trip look really weird in the blog, if you want to see a picture double click on it to display fully, apologies
This weekend i took a trip with my son to iceland. We were hoping to see the northern lights, but due to the rainy weather we had to settle for other tourist attractions. As we arrived we realized how short the days are when one goes that far north. We learned that Reykjavik is the far northest capital city in the world.
On thursday we arrived to the airport, picked up our car and drove to our hotel, on the way we discovered how confusing it can be to deal with currency exchanges. Iceland uses the Krona, and the exchange rate is about 160 kronas to an euro, so everything seems really really expensive. Once we had checked into our room we had to find a place to park since no hotels have free parking. After that we took a walk in the main shopping street and found a tourist information place. We signed on the spot for a tour of a glacier for saturday and asked about other attractions, unfortunately no northern lights tours for that day, it was very cloudy. We ended up the day eating at an italian restaurant that was quite good.
On friday morning we woke up and went to the blue lagoon. The blue lagoon is a natural pool with thermal water. As soon as you get out of the car you notice an intense smell to sulphur. We stayed there for about 2 hours, time enough to enjoy the water. We also noticed that the sun comes out until 10:00 or so. After the blue lagoon, we drove 2 hours into the mountains to go se a geyser, it was interesting to drive in the countryside and saw a number of farms, the farms have predominantly horses, we saw just a few cows and also plenty of sheep. By the time we got to the geyser, it was already raining and also cold, so there goes again the northern lights. We spent about 1 hour at the geyser, took a couple pictures, ate a couple of overpriced hamburgers and headed back to Reykjavik. It was already dark by the time we got there. Andrew had leftovers in the hotel from the night before and we wanted to watch a movie. After making sure that there would be no northern lights tours that night we went to park the car about 1 mile from the hotel (the closest free parking place) and then went to the room and watched a movie with Andrew.
One of the landmarks of the city is an interestingly looking Lutheran church, called Hallgrimskirkja. It is located on top of a hill and provides a postcard-type view. Due to the short days we were never able to see it during daylight, but it looks pretty at night too. If you are ever in Iceland, one of the few free parking places is across the street front this church, there are quite a few free places after 6:00pm, but not during the day. This where we ended up parking our car when we took the glacier tour for the whole day.
Saturday morning we woke up early since our tour guide for the glacier would pick us up between 8:30 and 9:00. We ate breakfast, and like a clockwork, our tour guide named "Gummi" as in gummi bears he quickly told us, picked us up. We were joined in our tour by 5 more people from the US. The trip to the glacier took 2.5 hours, we saw a few waterfalls, and were told by Gummi a few facts about volcanoes in Iceland. By the time we arrived to the glacier there was not a single cloud in the sky so we thought that may be that night was the night we would finally have a shot at seeing the northern lights. I must mention that even in clear nights, it is not a guarantee that you will se the lights, as this also depends on the solar activity. There is a forecast that one can check for northern light activity. Anyway, back to the glacier. We got out of the van and put our glacier climbing gear on, which consisted of helmer, harness, and spiky things on our feet called "grampons" i believe. We walked about 3 kilometers in the glacier and it was a fantastic experience. We learned all about glaciers, how the formed, how they move and how fast the one we visited is retriveing (fancy word for melting), we spent the whole day there, and we even climbed an ice wall. We got done around 2:00 pm. On the way back we were all tired, Gummi gave us a sanwich that tasted really good as hungry as we were. On the way back we stopped briefly by a water fall and took a bathrom break.
Remember i mentioned how the day started amazingly clear? Well, forget it, by 3:00 pm it was very cloudy and raining :-( That meant no chance of northern lights on saturday either and a dad/son somewhat disappointed. One place we had intentions of going but did not get to was the National Museum of Iceland. They close at 6:00 and we never made it back earlier than that. Gummi dropped us off at our hotel, and we quickly got ready and headed to mass at the cathedral called Landakotskirkja. We listened mass in icelandic, not sure we understood much, but we were in spirit with God and got to thank God for all the blessings in our lives and for the wonderful weekend with my son, despite no northern lights. After mass we went to the Italian restaurant we ate at the first day. We toasted with water and ate a couple of delicious wood oven fired pizzas. During dinner we told ourselves we would try again for the northern lights sometime next year, but this time we would probably visit Tromso in Norway, maybe there was a reason for us not seeing the northern lights.
After dinner we walked around the main street, picked up a couple of cheesy souvenirs and headed back to the hotel. At the hotel we stayed up checking on my ipad the college football scores and planning our next trip to Tromso. We started researching about the best time of the year to go and have the highest chance of seeing the northern lights. After packing, talking and playing for a bit it was time to go to bed as our plane would leave the next day at 7:50 in the morning. We woke up early and headed for the airport, on our way we still saw a few rowdy teenagers ending the parties they started the nit before. It was still very dark, but i'm afraid to tell you it was still raining and not even a star on the sky. My son joked with me telling me there were stars and pointing to some christmas decorations on the street. As it happens, I'm finishing this write up on the plane with 50 mins left to get back to Amsterdam. Great weekend indeed, it is not very often that I get to go to a scandinavian country and spend one on one time with my son surrounded by nature. And wait for next week as we head to Paris for the Thanksgiving weekend, and thanksgiving indeed will be for us.
Andrew at the Mainstreet in Reykjavik
Eating dinner at an Italian restaurant in Rykjavik
Not a very good picture but this is the Lutheran cathedral in the capital cityThis is the entrance of the Blue Lagoon
How about this for a noon sun? The sun never really rises
Another picture of the Blue Lagoon
Andrew at the Blue Lagoon, we had already been there and on our way out
This is a volcano we photographed on our way to the geyser
This is the famour geyser seconds before it went off
And here it is in action, it only lasts 5 or 6 seconds and they say it used to be higher than it is today
Here's Andrew eating an overpriced hamburguer, how about 1200 kronas for this baby?Andrew and dad getting ready to go glacier climbing
Can you see that big glacier behind Andrew?
The day started out beautiful, if only it would have stayed like this :-(
Our tour guide "Gummi", gettingAndrew outfitted
Here we go, climbing on the glacier
The glacier used to reach as far as you can see in this picture as late as 1998
This is what is called a glacier moulin, which is a hole that develops over time and gets to be up to 50 meters deep
Doesn't Andrew look like a real climber?
How about Andrew ice wall climbing? It is a lot harder than it looks
This is our tour guide "Gummi" Also notice the day is not as sunny as it was before
Andrew and Dad at the end of the adventure, it was fun
We stopped at this waterfall on the way back to Reykjavik, what a trip! if only the northern lights would have shown up
