We had a very exciting six day trip to Iceland last weekend. We took advantage of the Queen’s Jubilee four day weekend and scooted off to Reykjavik. What an amazing place!
Our first day we strolled around Reykjavik. We visited a cool cathedral that overlooked the entire city. We ate some good food and generally enjoyed the 22 hours of daylight. It was surprisingly warm and wonderfully sunny.
Scott lined us up on a couple of tours of Iceland. We saw everything from where the american tectonic plate joins with the eurasian plate, to a glacier, to a waterfall that would give Niagra Falls a run for its money, and more.
Some of the most interesting things were the geysers and random heated natural spring pools. The kids loved pretty much all of it. Having worried (needlessly) that the trip wouldn’t be kid friendly, I was surprised how great of a trip and learning experience about nature it ended up being.
Most of Reykjavik is powered by harvesting the geothermal energy right under the island. They drill down and pull up the steam which is then used for heating. One of the “by products” of the steam is water. At one of the big steam sites, there is so much warm water produced directly from the earth, that they have turned it into the Blue Lagoon. The water is replaced every 40 hours through sinking back down into the earth. Rich in minerals, it is rumored to cure skin ailments and to make you look younger. We took a swim in it but I don’t think we look any younger! It is a beautiful site to see though with volcanic rock everywhere and this bright blue chemical-free pool out in the middle of it.
The video highlights can tell the story far better than I can:
Honorable mentions:
This is a picture where just 10 months ago an earthquake moved the earth so much that it destroyed an overlook walkway.
Our cheeky kids:
Of course the snowmobiles were a huge hit!
This was a great trip. It ranks up there with my favorites! For any friends flying over to Europe, I heard that Icelandair (GREAT AIRLINE!!) will fly from the USA to Reykjavik as a stop over on the way to Europe. They don’t charge extra to extend the layover by up to ten days. So if you are heading over, consider this route and stopping over in Iceland for a few days. It will improve your overall trip (unless there are any volcanoes of course…)!