Iceland

Iceland was the last stop of our trip.  While figuring out where we wanted to go during the early planning stages of the trip, I came across cheap flights to Iceland from London, and then saw that it was cheaper to fly back to the states from Iceland than any other country I researched.  So, we thought, why not? Quite unexpectedly, we arrived to find blue skies and warmer weather than we had experienced in many of the other countries we had visited. However, by the next morning there was nothing but dense clouds, lots of wind, and lots of rain.  It rains sideways in Iceland. And it stings when it hits your face.  It was like we were living in a constant hurricane during our entire visit.  However, despite the weather, we loved our visit and are already wanting to go back.

The landscape is so wild and foreign that it felt like we were on Mars…no joke.  We stayed in a little cabin in the middle of nowhere outside Reykjavik, surrounded by mountains, a lake, and playful horses. We drove around the golden circle and saw Þingvellir National Park, Gullfoss waterfall, and the geothermal valley of Haukadalur. We also went whale watching. Despite the fact that the two previous tours that day had seen, not only the typical Minke whales, but the rarer humpback whales, and the fact that 95% of their tours spot at least one whale, we managed to be part of the unfortunate 5% who saw nothing. Well…we saw a few dolphins, but hey, I’m from South Carolina.  I’ve kayaked and gone swimming with dolphins. 😉  We also spent some time hanging out in Reykjavik, which really is an awesome city.  Not too big and overwhelming,  full of brightly colored buildings, and, my favorite, a ton of great design shops.  Of all the cities we visited, this may have been my favorite.  We then summed up our trip at the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa…which was amazing.

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Some shots are film, some are digital, and most are available for print ordering!  You can contact me through this blog (see link above) or my website for more info.  Also, you can check out photos from the rest of our trip here…Prague, Switzerland, Ireland, Scotland and England.

Below is the view from our cabin. 🙂