Earlier this year, my niece Katelyn (my sister’s daughter) contacted me and said she’s long wanted to visit Iceland, and she wondered if maybe I’d like to travel there with her. With deep appreciation and excitement, I immediately answered yes, of course!! And I’m really happy I did! Katelyn is a wonderful travel partner — she’s enthusiastic, flexible, thoughtful, smart, insightful, witty, creative, and just plain fun to be around. Also, Iceland is a genuine land of superlatives.
This trip included three different home bases over our week and a half in the country — first in Reykjavik, then in Snæfellsnes (the peninsula north of Reykjavik), and finally in the middle of nowhere on the southern coast. From these locales we drove a rental car to numerous natural wonders that Iceland so abounds in.
We reached our first destination, Reykjavik (“smoky cove”), through a direct Icelandair flight from Raleigh. What a simple way to travel – it’s only a six-hour flight over, and Iceland is only four hours ahead of NC, so it’s certainly easier than traveling to Prague. We spent our first couple of days acclimating ourselves to the new country and time zone, enjoying all that the world’s northernmost capital city has to offer.
Scandinavians and Celts from Ireland were already visiting and moving to Iceland by the 800s, and once they began arriving in larger numbers, the Norwegians could make the journey to the volcanic island in about 72 hours. Farming was the big thing for over a thousand years, but nowadays tourism, fishing, and industry that uses Iceland’s cheap geothermal energy (like metal smelting) reign supreme.
Regarding tourism, in 2016, for the first time, more Americans visited Iceland than the number of people who live in Iceland. Nowadays more Americans visit than any other nationality, with over 30% of visitors (though it feels like even more). And there are now over 10 times as many visitors to Iceland (well over 2 million) than in 2002, when Colleen and I first visited (around 200,000).
Many years ago I worked for an Icelandic company based in Montreal, called OZ. We provided rich mobile messaging solutions before they were cool, haha. Nokia acquired the company in 2008, which is the same year that Iceland had a huge banking scandal and economic collapse. The original Icelandic founders walked away with a nice payout from the sale of OZ and returned to Iceland from Canada with money to spare in a country that didn’t have much anymore. For example, the former OZ CEO later founded popular budget carrier WOW Air (now defunct). He’s since been involved with various other enterprises in Iceland, such as Hvammsvik Hot Springs, a new addition to Iceland’s many geothermal lagoons and pools catering to tourists, and Time Out Magazine’s #1 thing to do in 2023. Reykjavik has several legacy city pools that aren’t as elaborate or expensive as those directed more to foreigners, including one at a beach, as shown below. Even the sea water right at the beach itself is warmed with geothermally-heated water.
Speaking of hot springs, in Reykjavik the hot water is obtained from geothermal sources, which emit a sulphur smell when taking a shower. Apparently the locals don’t notice it. They get their house heating supplied from the geothermal hot water as well, which makes heating inexpensive in this otherwise very pricey city. And the cold water originates from glaciers, and so is tasty, healthy, and clean.
The weather is relatively harsh in Iceland, and even in the middle of August we found ourselves often needing two jackets, gloves, and stocking caps to keep warm. It’s frequently gray and windy too, though we were fortunate to have been blessed with lots of sun during our visit. Understandably, locals like to liven up their surroundings, so they often paint their houses with bright colors, and in these warmer months they grow as many colorful flowers as possible.
Cats in Reykjavik are plentiful and friendly – dogs were banned downtown until 1984 (due to a parasite), and condo owners still need permission from neighbors to keep a dog! So you don’t see very many dogs around town, certainly not like in Asheville or Prague. Cats are left to roam at their whim, though they all seem to have collars and name tags.
Another common animal in Reykjavik is the gull. Not surprising, given the proximity to the ocean. We encountered a group of clever gulls that would hang out next to an outdoor sandwich shop where unsuspecting tourists would buy a wrapped sandwich, open the wrapping, realize that they forgot to get napkins, and stand up and leave behind their sandwich momentarily. At which point a gull would immediately swoop in and quickly steal the entire sandwich! It’s impressive to witness a gull swallow an entire sandwich in a few hardy gulps. We saw this happen twice in the short time we spent nearby.
Here are some representative photos from our time touring the lovely Icelandic capital, not including any of the sandwich-eating gulls:
Icelandic side note: I’d read that tipping is just not part of Icelandic culture. And good thing too, because this is the most expensive country I can recall ever visiting. But alas, with all those Americans, tipping requests seem to be creeping in…
Today’s Icelandic music video:
Today’s limerick:
We toured the land of fire and ice;
Volcanoes and glaciers, all so nice.
The springs are geothermal,
Good for all things dermal.
Words for this place will never suffice.
Major Meander 