New Years Eve

It was a good thing that we had such a cozy Airbnb - since we spent a lot of time there! 

The big dining table had room for our little puzzles:

We also took lots of walks. These pictures are in color - even though they look black and white. 

The hot tub was amazing - even on really cold days. To use it, we had to re-route the hot water coming to the cabin from the floor heat (also lovely) to the hot tub. We also had to run across the snow and ice covered deck. But it was worth it. 

One of our greatest frustrations with most holiday homes is the lack of regular recycling. This community was better than home: glass, paper, beverage containers, compostable, and finally, trash. 

The whole trip, we'd been hoping for Northern Lights. After all - we were so far north that there was only four hours of daylight. But at first, the weather was really cloudy. Then the solar activity was low. Then cloudy again. Finally - the last night - we got this amazing show. Some of these were from the windows - some from our driveway. A New Years Eve to remember!

The last morning, we took the long way around to get back to the airport. My car stopped at Þorlákshöfn to see the ocean, some hearty surfers, and and this lovely ship. 

Thingvellir National Park

 Þingvellir was the site of the Alþing, the annual parliament of Iceland from the year 930 until 1798, as a sort of central location for chieftains to gather, since none of them had to travel more than 17 days to reach it. Yikes! 

It was a beautiful, sunny midday. 

Geologically, it's also interesting, as a rift valley between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. We walked down the "rift", with a cliff of interesting rocks forming the cliff on one side. 

At the end of the rift there was a gorgeous waterfall we'd seen last summer - but not frozen like this!

That evening, we went out to a fairly fancy (for me) restaurant for Micah and Ivy's anniversary. The road conditions looked good (or at least OK) on the maps - but that's not quite what we found. 

Here's a picture from their website of what the restaurant looks like. We never saw this. It was dark and icy with 30 mph winds. But it was still cool. 

And a video of the road (no - I didn't take the video) on the way home. I was very grateful when we reached the main road - and our "home" safely. 

Gulfoss and Geysir

Three sights make up the Golden Circle in Iceland: Gulfoss, Geysir and Thingveiller. Many, many tourists visit these three - even in winter. After consulting the weather forecast and road conditions, we decided on a day, and all six of us piled in to the two cars and the one hour drive to Gulfoss. 

Lots of other people had decided to visit Gulfoss that day - despite the subzero windchill temps, but there is plenty of space and free parking. 

Pictures just don't do justice to the magnificent views of this huge waterfall. It was amazing. 

 

It looks like sunset - but it was around noon. The sun just always hovers near the horizon this time of year. 

It was chilly but we were well bundled. 

On the way back, most of the group stopped at Geysir to see - the geysers! 

Toby and Adam skipped Geysir because Adam doesn't do well with sulfur smells. We had a lovely time exploring our way home. This "little" waterfall, Faxifoss, was just off the road. What a find!

Nearby: Selfoss, Hveragerði and Kerid Crater

Even though most Icelanders live in Reykjavík, we wanted to stay in a small town outside the city. We ended up even more remote - a 15-20 minute drive from a couple of small towns. 

Our go-to town for groceries and shopping was Selfoss, with Kronan, Bonus and Netto grocery stores. It also has a little but charming downtown. In the second photo, you can see both the large hill outside town - and low-hanging clouds. The last photo here is not a stack of books, but a staircase painted like a stack of books - cute! 

Hveragerði is also along Route 1. It's a smaller town - but very geothermally active. Meg and I stopped in this town last summer to shop at the Bonus foods and the excellent bakery. On this trip, we found a waterfall, a geopark where we bought eggs to cook in a small fumerole, and a long hike to a hot spring where people swim in the summer. 

We were even closer to Kerid Crater, a volcanic crater lake along hwy 35. Meg and I visited it last summer, so it was neat to see how different it looked in winter. In summer, the path along the rim was slippery from scree - in winter, it was slippery with ice :). 

Reykjavík

On Friday we decided the roads were good enough, and ventured out to Reykjavik. It felt good to get out after several days "stuck" in the house. Wendy decided to stay behind, so the rest of us squeezed into the Dacia Duster and the 90 minute drive into town. 

We stopped briefly by the iconic Hallgrimskirkja in the center of town. You can see that it was snowing and not that bright out at 11:30 am:

Meg, Adam and I walked along the waterfront and got nice views of the Sun Voyager sculpture:

Then we went to the Perlan museum. It had been advertised heavily on the plane, and cost a lot, but I loved it! It's a natural history museum, so there was lots about the animals, volcanos, glaciers, and more. I liked the planetarium show, but I *loved* the ice cave. It simulated real glacial caves, but was long enough and cold enough - with real snow and ice - to feel real. 

The Perlan is up on a hill, so we got great views from the top level of the domestic airport and back toward the Hallgrimskirkja.