Family Adventure Part 3: Iceland

On the morning we were to leave for Iceland, my dad woke up sick (hope that this is not a new pattern for traveling with the family), and there was some talk of him staying an extra day in Bergen, but we all ended up making it to our plane and to Iceland! We stayed the night at a hotel in Reykjavik, which was surprisingly poppin. All of the hotels were completely booked for the new year! We had a very chill evening and looked forward to making it to a cabin the next day.
On New Year’s Eve, Lisa, my mom and I went to go grocery shopping before checking out the hotel. We had one problem however, we

could not figure out how to get our very spacious van into reverse. We sat in the hotel parking lot for a good long while not making any progress before a very friendly bus driver backed out for us. Feeling comforted that our car did in fact have a reverse gear, we headed to the grocery store. The shopping went well (except for accidentally buying kefir instead of milk), but when we had loaded up the car, we realized we still did not know how to back up our car. We watched several people arrive at the grocery store, get their shopping done and leave before a kind man offered to help us and explained that there is a ring that must be pulled up before you can get into reverse, which we really would never have figured out on our own.
Finally we were ready to go! The drive was stunning, spacious and Dj-ed with the full force of Lisa’s Spotify Premium account. We found our cabin with no problems. All was well! Except for my father, who was resting, the whole family decided to use the remaining hour of day light to wander. The mountains and the sun setting behind them were inspiring and we engaged in lots of silliness, including a race between me and Kevin that ended with him falling as he was filming himself (a video that is truly one for the ages).
We spent quite a bit of the evening in the hot tub (which was all naturally heated water!) looking at the sky, which was really pulling out all the stops for us. It was a clear night and the sky was filled with stars and the towns near us were all setting off fire works. The northern lights began to dimly fill the sky and at one point I saw a shooting star and was half way through pointing it out to the family when I realized how bad of an idea it normally is to point out shooting stars to people. Fortunately for me though, it kept going for several seconds, long enough for everyone to see! Eventually, Lisa and I decided to head in for the night, but our family didn’t seem to be joining us. We went back outside to discover the most brilliant aurora I have ever seen, dancing in a bright green ribbon that stretched all the way across the sky. A delightful way to kick off the new year.
On new years day, we did our Icelandic sightseeing. This time of year, the sun rises around 11:15 and sets around 3:30. We wanted to use every minute of that daylight. We left our cabin at 10:00 so that we could be at Gulfoss by sunrise. I hadn’t really heard any of the Gulfoss hype, but lived up to any expectations I could have had. Watching water move is always amazing, but this waterfall was really something else. On my top one waterfalls I’ve ever seen list for sure. It goes on and on in all directions and the ice that had formed from the mist on the surrounding rock walls was possibly as beautiful as the water itself. From what I understand, it came to be as a result of glacial flooding and the difference in the basalt that lines the falls and the sedimentary rock that the river cut through. Really seems like a geologist’s dream.
Our next stop was Geysir (the geyser for which all geysers are named!). Geysir no longer erupts, but it is still steaming and a nearby geyser called Strokkur now erupts every 8-10 minutes (I think it went off about 5 times while we were there?). That was crazy, but the general steaming of the earth all around was just as cool for me. It felt so invigorating to have all of this heat and bubbling water coexisting with the surrounding cold and frost. The colors of the earth, touched by all of the minerals that bubble up with the water were simply stunning and I loved the patched of green moss that had found a home in the middle of the frost.
Our final stop of the day was Þingvellir national park. This is the location of the old Icelandic parliament and of a continental rift. We wandered around the paths that go between two cliffs that are apparently still pulling away from each other a couple of millimeters each year. There was also a beautiful bright blue waterfall and lots of information about the history of the place. Apparently each year someone would recite the laws to the people that came to the parliament meetings, and that is how the law of the land was disseminated for a long time. They also used to perform executions at Þingvellir. For some reason, it was decided that women should be drowned and men beheaded. The reasoning behind this gender difference would be fascinating to me. It was amazing to be in a place with so much interesting history and geology!
One thing that was surprising to all of us was how many tourists were around, even in January! Where we went is the classic “Golden Circle” tour of stunning natural attractions that are relatively close to Reykjavik and each other, so in some ways it makes sense, and I would assume that it is even more populated in the summer months, but it was still surprising that Þingvellir was crowded on New Years!
We finished our day feeling like we had made good use of our hours of daylight and that Iceland had treated us splendidly.