In mid-February, we flew from Stansted to Reykjavik, Iceland to meet up with my family! Our little family arrived somewhat late on a Thursday night into Keflavik airport, then struggled to leave the airport as the taxi driver didn't know how to leave the taxi corral area! There was a barrier that required a special transmitter, which the driver didn't have because he was driving the car for someone else (?). He took us back to the taxi queue, where we unloaded everything (including Charlotte's carseat) and started to get into another taxi, when the original driver apparently figured out how to exit after all, so we loaded back into his car. Meanwhile, Charlotte had a lot of (admittedly appropriate) questions about why we were getting in and out of all these cars!
We stayed a night at a hotel in Keflavik, and got up very early for a quick breakfast before meeting up with the rest of my family who flew in early Friday morning on red-eye flights from Baltimore and San Francisco. They had picked up the rental cars and drove into Keflavik to pick us up. We then headed through Reykjavik at early rush-hour, and out towards Selfoss on the southern coast to check into our AirBnb. It was strange driving at morning rush-hour in darkness -- the sun didn't rise until around 9:15 am while we were there! Sunset was around 6:15 pm, so we had a decent amount of daylight. We chose wintertime to visit in hopes of seeing the Northern Lights, but it was not to be, as Iceland was covered with fairly heavy cloud cover each night except the last one of our visit.
We found our AirBnb, which was awesome but a little challenging to find! We were glad our first approach to it was in the daylight, because it was definitely tricky (off a series of smallish dirt roads and not easily viewed from the road, with no house numbers on the road!). The family members who had flown overnight took naps, and then we headed out to visit a few sights within an hour of the house.
Our first stop was at the town of Geysir, which is home to ... geysers and hot springs. It was pouring rain when we arrived, so we decided to eat lunch first in the large tourist center across the street from the hot springs. We then crossed the street in the cold and windy rain to see the hot springs. Paul, Matt, Allie, and Dad ventured all the way up the path to see the biggest geyser, but Mom and I stayed back with Charlotte (who wasn't particularly thrilled with the weather or the attractions!). It was neat to see the steam rising off the land where the hot springs were located.
We then hopped back in the cars and drove to Gulfoss ("Golden Falls"), which is one of the largest tourist attractions in Iceland and part of the "Golden Circle" drive that tour buses often take. It continued to rain, and Charlotte had fallen asleep in the car, so we took shifts getting somewhat soaked as we went to see the view. It was quite impressive!! It's a huge two-step waterfall that looks like it is falling down into the earth, as it's hard to see the river below from the clifftops where the viewing platforms are. We didn't get great pictures because of the weather, but it was definitely impressive.
After seeing Gulfoss, we headed back towards our AirBnb and stopped at a grocery store on the way. We stocked up on basic supplies and groceries for meals -- and were definitely sticker-shocked by the prices. Iceland doesn't make much of it's own food -- so it's all imported. This makes everything very expensive, especially the meats -- we saw a pack of bacon (about a pound) for the equivalent of $30! We didn't buy that bacon.
We got home in time to take a few pictures of the landscape around the house before dark. It's almost like a moonscape in places, with the volcanic rocks being very prominent. Almost everything is covered with a mossy top (at least in southern Iceland where we were staying). There are also very few trees anywhere, so you can see long distances. That evening we had dinner at home and went to bed fairly early.
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| Looking east from our AirBnb |
