Ari and I planned a short trip to Iceland to see the northern lights. We packed for sub-zero temperatures and braced ourselves for snow, wind and cloudy skies. Happily we just got snow. We had booked a cheap (for Iceland) 4wd from one of the many rental companies and not long after landing Ari was grinding the gears of a little white Dacia Duster. It turned out that this was the standard issue budget 4wd in Iceland and we were to see many more of them around the tourist spots. The weather was predicted to deteriorate (which it didn’t) so we decided to try and make the most of the sun. This meant dropping our stuff at the little Air BnB we had rented 30 minutes from the airport and grabbing the closest thing we could find to eat, which turned out to be Icelandic Subway, which of course is like Subway anywhere else.
We drove out to do a loop to the South. The road we found was covered with snow and ice and at first I was unsure whether, even with a four wheel drive vehicle, we wouldn’t be sliding around and struggling to get up the first hill we found. Everything went well though and we stopped by a frozen lake and then a steaming and bubbling thermal area by the road. On closer inspection we found the tyres had large metal spikes on them which made us feel almost invincible.
Continuing down to the southern coast, we took a right and drove along close to the sea. It was 4pm local time which meant sunset. We found a place to stop and went for a walk in the twilight to see more steaming things and a lighthouse in the distance. Then in the darkness we drove back North stopping along the road to see whether we could spot the northern lights. I was sceptical but we spotted them faintly in the sky and took some amazing photos. The greens become much more pronounced with a long exposure. We weren’t alone and moving up the road we parked near a small tour bus to take more photos. As we drove North towards Rejkvik the streak in the sky became more intense and we could see it clearly even with street lights. It still wasn’t bright enough to really see the colours well though.
The following day, like good tourists, we drove the golden circle road. We left just before sunrise, shortly before 11 am. We stopped to see the massive fault line at Thingvellir National Park where, I’m told, the American and European tectonic plates collide (https://adventures.com/iceland/attractions/national-parks/thingvellir/). We then went to see the original Geysir at Geysir. Geysir has retired and prefers to just bubble up hot water and steam a little but the nearby little sister is still active and erupts every few minutes. You could tell this was the case by the hordes of tourists standing there waiting patiently with cellphones poised to capture the next Instagram or Tik Tok update. Being much more refined, I prefer to update an obscure blog that nobody reads.
The road took us further to Gullfoss. This was a big waterfall and mighty river that I think is probably at it’s most impressive with all the snow and ice that it has at this time of year. We took some more tourist snaps there and finally started to make our way South stopping at the Secret Lagoon. This is a somewhat less commercial thermal pool than e.g. the well known Blue Lagoon. We crossed from the changing rooms in the –5 degrees to the steps and plunged into the deliciously warm water. Two hours passed and our fingers turned to prunes as we watched the blue leave the sky and stars become visible. We kept an eye out for the lights during the 1.5 hours return trip but it was a bit cloudy and we didn’t see anything.
It was a slow start on Friday morning. The weather was, surprisingly, still good. We went to a nearby park in search of elves but didn’t find any. Instead we found the trees decorated with lights, plenty of snow and a little coffee shop that was unfortunately closed. In front of the shop were a row of little houses, which we assumed must be the elves’ houses. There were even signs of some activity in the snow in front of the houses.
In the afternoon we went to the new-ish Sky Lagoon, and managed to spend about 5 hours in the water. It was very touristy but very nicely done. The pools were created out of black rock that looked like lava. I wasn’t sure whether the rock had been brought in or whether they had found a hill and carved out parts of it. In any case it looked authentic. We got there just before sunset and could again watch the colours in the sky fade until the stars came out. You get into the water from one end and slowly walk out amongst the tall lava rock sides that must be the height of three people, around a corner and you have a view out to the ocean. It looks like the pool is flowing out into the ocean as the water appears to vanish into the sea. As you come closer you can see the length of the edge of the pool and small amount of water flowing out. There’s a waterfall at one end with hot water. There’re also many groups of English, speaking in jarring regional accents and sipping martinis from the bar that can be accessed directly without leaving the water. After returning from the thermal pools we decided to top it off by trying out the sauna in our Air BnB. Thoroughly cooked from the previous hours we crawled into bed after midnight.
We packed and drove to the rental depot on Saturday morning before the sun came up. The rental car guy asked if we’d seen the amazing northern lights in the night. We hadn’t even looked as we’d thought the forecast was for little activity. Oh well, we’ll have to come back… The sun started to rise as we waited at our gate, ready to return to Barcelona.
