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.

Iceland for Christmas

As our kids get older, we have been developing new rituals around holidays and other gatherings. This year, we thought we'd replace a focus on Christmas and presents with travel - in particular a trip to Iceland, one of the most queer friendly countries in the world. So Meg and I got plane tickets and car rentals and an airbnb. Micah and Ivy and Adam got passports. 

We flew overnight on Icelandair. 

We arrived in the dark. I knew it would be dark - but not THAT dark. At 8 am, it was still darker than it ever got when we were there in the summer. The roads were wet, with a freezing rain starting to fall. The tires made a funny sound on the pavement as the studs from the winter tires hit the road surface. 

By the time we got to the pass between Reykjavik and Hveragerði, snow showers reduced the visibility, the plows were out, and the driving was getting difficult. By the time we got groceries and settled at our Airbnb - the whole country was under a yellow travel advisory - and some of the roads we took that morning were closed. We hunkered in to wait out the storm - and enjoy Christmas!

Periodically, we ventured outside for walks through the horizontal sleet, grapple, and wind. The gusts were so strong that it was sometimes a challenge to stay upright!