Iceland

Christopher Mathews

There’s an old saying that Greenland is icy and Iceland is green. That’s fairly accurate – especially if you spend your time near the coast, where a branch of the Gulf Stream flows around Iceland to moderate the temperatures. But venture inland a bit and you’ll find Iceland earns its name …

On The Road – Christopher Mathews – Ice LandsPost + Comments (15)

Christopher Mathews

A few more views of the northern lights from various sites in Iceland.

An unfortunate trick of evolution is that human color vision degrades significantly in the dark.  Seeing the green and purple glow of the aurora generally requires either very good night color vision – which not everyone has – or a very dark night.  It helps to get out of town and to resist the urge to check your cell phone.

Cameras don’t work the same way and can capture the lights in all their glory even when it’s not totally dark.  Thanks for letting me share their magic with you!

On The Road – Christopher Mathews – Iceland – The Lights of Darkness, Part ThreePost + Comments (19)

Christopher Mathews

Shortly after submitting my first batch of aurora photos, I got an email asking if there might be a few more to share. As luck would have it, there are!

Aurora season in Iceland begins in August and runs through May, but the lights tend to be especially vivid around the equinoxes in September and March. Unfortunately, terrestrial weather sometimes clouds the skies and hides the lights from view, so you’re not guaranteed a glimpse of the magic.

Unless you emigrate here, of course. That’s how I did it.

On The Road – Christopher Mathews – Iceland – The Lights of Darkness, Part TwoPost + Comments (18)

Christopher Mathews

Summers in Iceland are wonderful, with mild weather, long daylight hours, and a landscape full of history and wonders.  I love the days here.

But I live for the nights.

 

On The Road – Christopher Mathews – Iceland – The lights of darknessPost + Comments (50)

MissWimsey

Day 7 was spent on a day trip to Snaefellsnes Peninsula, a magical land of trolls and elves. I did spot a dragon and no one can convince me otherwise. The day trip to Snaefellsnes was a wonderful way to cap an amazing trip to Iceland.

On The Road – MissWimsey – Snaefellsnes Peninsula, IcelandPost + Comments (16)

MissWimsey

I wanted to see glaciers. I wanted to see icebergs. I really wanted to see an ice cave. There was no way to see all of that on a day trip so I juggled my itinerary, added a couple of days and dropped other activities to make the time to get to the glaciers.

It. Was. Worth. It.

On Day 3 I drove straight through to Hofn, a small fishing village about 450 kilometers south of Reikjavik. I made a few stops along the way: Seljalandfoss and the black sand beach. The drive took about 10 hours. I spent the night at Hotel Hofn, which offers wake-up calls in case the northern lights make an appearance. Sadly, that didn’t happen on any night of my stay there. But that does give me another reason to visit Iceland again.

My ice adventures began Day 4 with a drive to Jökulsárlón, a glacial lagoon about an hour north on the Ring Road.

On The Road – MissWimsey – Ice Adventure in southeast IcelandPost + Comments (19)

MissWimsey

I took to the Ring Road on Day 3. This road circles the island, which is about 1,400 kilometers. I was driving to Hofn in southeast Iceland, which is about 460 km. that was the longest distance I was going to drive on this trip. I did make two stops to break up the drive: Seljalandsfoss and Reynisfjara Beach. I opted to take this trip in the off season, so there wasn’t too many tourists at any of these sites, even though tourism as a whole has been down since the start of the pandemic. That applied to the roads. I saw cars regularly on the drive down to Vik y Myrdal, which is about 110 km from Reikjavik. traffic went down considerably the farther away I got from the capital. It was unnerving (I had visions of a flat tire and googling how to change it) but it didn’t stop me from continuing on my way.

On The Road – MissWimsey – Ring Road in IcelandPost + Comments (22)