Marina Hotel: I found a deal through TravelZoo and Icelandic Air to travel to Iceland. It was affordable, so I quickly asked the husband (he said yes, obviously!) and I booked it! We stayed at the Marina Hotel in Reykjavik, near the water. Since we took a red eye to Iceland, we arrived very early morning the next day and decided to get tea and coffee, while waiting for our room. This kitten tray was presented to us! So damn cute! Anyway, the hotel was decorated really well and we lounged around in the waiting room downstairs. Reykjavik Harbor: After we checked in, we took a walk around the harbor towards the Harpa Concert Hall. Reykjavik is a small city, and you don't need a car. I planned an itinerary to walk to some of the highlights of the capitol. Harpa Concert Hall is so modern and beautiful. It has geometric shaped glass panels of different colors and the concert hall is apparently red inside (which we did not go in). We ate here and I also bought a couple of souvenirs. Sun Voyager: Taking the sculpture and shore walk, our next stop was the Sun Voyager. It is a sculpture of a boat that contains the promise of undiscovered territory, a dream of hope, progress and freedom. Tourists think it is a replica of a Viking ship, but it is not! Hallgrímskirkja church is 244 feet high and the design is to resemble the basalt lava flows of Iceland's landscape. You can also go to the 8th floor observation deck and see surrounding mountains. Graffiti around Reykjavik: Hot Dog graffiti! Whales of Iceland: The next day we went to the Whales of Iceland museum. Iceland is not known for their museums, (they are very small) but I had to go to at least one of them! So I decided to see which whales swim around Iceland. Apparently there are 23 types of whales that are found in Icelandic waters. My favorite whale is the narwhal! I didn't know they were that big! We also got here as soon as it opened, so I didn't get any strangers in my photos (that is one of my pet peeves). It was nice to have the place to ourselves for a while. After the whale exhibit, we decided to rest before heading out to our evening excursion: Warm bath and cool nights tour. Here is the husband resting, buried under the sheets on the bed, with only his feet sticking out. I decided we had to go eat hot dogs before our trip, so we went to the famous, and cheap hot dog place, Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur . Laugarvatn Fontana´s open air geothermal baths are small, but fun. I was excited to be in an outside hot bath looking at mountains! After dinner and a soak, we headed east to see the Northern Lights. My underwater camera's door opened up in one of the baths, and I was so upset. But the memory card was still intact and the pictures are below. We drove to a national park around 9:45pm to look for the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis, and they did show up, but unfortunately I didn't have a camera to capture them. But our tour guide had her camera, and took several photos of the Northern Lights and guests. We jumped in last, so you can't really see the lights. I also brought hand warmers, called hot hands, to keep our hands warm, while we were outside waiting for the lights. Those little packets were so HOT! The third day we booked The Golden Circle Tour by Extreme Iceland. It was 8 hours long, and we saw a lot! Our first stop was Hellisheidavirkjun, a geothermal power plant. The speaker talked about geothermal energy in Iceland and natural hot springs. Iceland is between the North American tectonic plate and the European tectonic plate. As the plates pull apart, volcanoes erupt and magma flows up to fill the void between the plates. Water from cold rainwater or glaciers that has seeped through Earth’s surface, is heated by magma intrusions and as a result has risen, either to the Earth’s crust or all the way to the surface, creating hot springs. Driving in the minibus has its perks, I got to catch up on my sleep and dream about landscapes! Crater Kerid: This crater was a cone volcano which erupted and emptied its magma reserve. The cone collapsed into the magma chamber and created the crater lake bordered by strongly colored red volcanic rock. At this point, Matt told me he was tired of posing for photos and usually after 40 years of age, there is no really need to take photos of people! Do you believe that? So I took a picture of this stranger sitting peacefully down on a bench. We ate lunch at the geothermally active valley of Haukadalur. Around this area, are small geysirs and a lot of tourists. I wish we had more time, to climb the small mountain near by. Strokkur geyser, which spouts every 5-7 minutes and projects steaming water to a height of about 60-100 feet, scared the living day lights out of me. It was a loud explosion, that I was not ready for, and I jumped back away from the ropes! They had a souvenir shot at Haukadalur, which sold a lot of expensive wool items and coats, but I was looking at this line of Tulipop! At the Harpa concert hall, I bought a Tulipop key chain. It is based in Iceland, for kids or silly adults like myself. The characters are inspired by forms and colors in nature, and Fred is my favorite guy. They also had some taxidermy! Faxi waterfall is part of the Golden Circle tour and is a relatively small waterfall, but apparently, people come here to kayak. Here is the happy couple posing in front of the waterfall, taken by our bus driver/ tour guide, Hog. We saw horses from the bus and I really wanted to look at them closer, and take a photo, but it wasn't on our itinerary. Gullfoss waterfall or Golden waterfall is a tiered waterfall that plunges into a crevice about 105 feet deep. We were amazed when we saw it. It is the most impressive waterfall I have ever seen! There is so much to look at: snow, water, a rainbow, the crevice, and the people looking down at it from the cliff. This was my favorite place so far. We also visited Efstidalur, a family farm located close to Laugarvatn lake. They make their own ice cream and food here. The husband and I shared a chocolate cone, which tasted really pure. And finally the National Park Thingvellir (designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site). Here is where you can see the North American and European tectonic plates being pulled apart! I also heard that some people scuba dive in between the plates! That would be pretty incredible. There is also another waterfall here, the Öxarárfoss waterfall, but I was so amazed by Gullfoss, I didn't want to see anymore! I heard it was beautiful though. I should have gone! Althingi (the Icelandic parliament) was formed on these rocks in 930 AD, making it the oldest parliamentary site in the world. Our 4th and last day, we visited The Blue Lagoon: Not a natural wonder. The land is natural, as the melted lava shapes the pool, but the water is actually the result of runoff from the geothermal plant next door. The lagoon holds 9 million liters of water, which is full of silica, algae and sulfur; I could feel them on my sensitive skin. The water temperature is about 99F. They also have a swim up bar, cafe, saunas, steam baths and a silica mud station. It was of course, full of tourists, but it is pretty big, so you can move away from them, and escape the noise pollution. I did have a good time relaxing, but the husband couldn't really stay too long, since the water and hot sun was a little too much for him. We spent about 4 hours here, before going back to the airport. We lucked out with the weather and everything went really smoothly. Icelanders speak fluent English and everyone takes credit cards (also no tipping). It is also about 5.5 hours away from New York. It was a great trip, though the only caveat is everything is expensive. Next time I visit Iceland, (after recovering from all the expensive food I bought) I would like to visit the Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon in south east Iceland, the Dettifoss waterfall (where they filmed Prometheus), perhaps walk on a glacier, visit an ice cave, and take a plane or ferry to Grimsey Island.
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My short blog topics include: photography, music, science, crafts, vacation photos, movies, events in NYC, and of course stop motion animation.
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