Over the years my husband and I have had some wonderful holidays together from our first city-break to Budapest a few months into our courtship to our honeymoon in Japan, but this year we decided to return to Iceland for a second time. We first visited Iceland in September 2014 and though we spent most of our time in and around Reykjavik we fell in love with the vast, volcanic landscape, and this time we hired a car to explore the ring road.
We travelled clockwise around the ring road, taking it in turns to drive, mixing our favourite songs with a few Icelandic artists like Bjork, Of Monsters and Men and Sigur Ros, and watching the landscape change through the windscreen. Iceland is sparsely inhabited, beautiful and full of contrasts from crashing waterfalls, winding roads, snowy mountains and frozen lakes to moss covered lava fields, craters, bubbling mud pits, black sand beaches, colourful houses and quirky churches.
It was such a memorable adventure that it’s hard to pick my favourite moments – some of which weren’t even captured on camera. In Akureyri, we had the option of pony trekking or whale watching and my husband chose the former as he pointed out there was no guarantee we’d see a whale but 100% chance of seeing a pony while trekking. I was a little nervous as I hadn’t been riding since I was a child, but it was a lot of fun and the ponies were full of character.
We visited the fairly new Into the Arctic museum in Akureyri and as we had the place almost to ourselves, the curator gave us a guided tour. Both times we’ve visited Iceland, we’ve really enjoyed chatting to the locals, as most people speak English and they’re polite, friendly and funny, and it’s a great way of learning about the country.
We also spent a couple of blissful hours soaking in the Myvatn nature baths and we emerged feeling relaxed, refreshed and wrinkly as prunes.
The first time we visited Iceland, we were lucky enough to see rainbows in the waterspray at Skogafoss, and this time the sun hit the spray in front of Svartifoss creating a perfect rainbow just for a moment.
We ended up spending longer than we expected at Jokulsarlon as we were fascinated by the contrast of the blue icebergs washed ashore on the black sand beach. It is truly one of the strangest and most beautiful places I’ve ever visited.
The Icelandic diet is heavy on meat and fish, but we didn’t have any trouble finding tasty vegetarian food, and the highlights were vegan curry-wurst from a little farm cafe called Havari near Breiddalsvik and tomato soup from Fridheimar, a farm where they use geothermal energy to grow fresh tomatoes.
It was an incredible adventure and although we saw almost everything we wanted to on this trip, there is still so much more to see and do that I hope we will visit Iceland at least once more. Have a lovely week. X
Such wonderful photographs! I always think Iceland looks stunning. I have never been and have heard very mixed reviews from several people I know who have visited. Some have loved it and some, despite appreciating the natural beauty, have found the starkness of the landscape and the vast stretches of emptiness quite oppressive. For me, that would be one of the attractions. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks. 😊 There was only one area in the North East that we found a bit creepy because it was so desolate, no houses, service stations or animals grazing, nothing but frozen wilderness stretching on for miles and miles. It’s a really fascinating country, some parts look just like the UK and other places look like an alien planet. ☺
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for sharing such beautiful scenery. Iceland is on my bucket list. 🌼
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you. 😊
LikeLike
Such gorgeous scenery! Definitely a trip of a lifetime. It would be incredible to find yourself in the middle of nowhere.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks. It was really wonderful, and in many ways a very peaceful and restorative holiday because we had time to explore and just enjoy the scenery. 😊
LikeLike
That looks like such an unforgettable trip. I love the church with the turf roof!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It really was. 😊 I just thought that little church was so cute.
LikeLike
I would love to go again and explore more of the island. Those blue ice bergs look very special and I love that church at the beginning of the post. Looks like you had an amazing time. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
It really was incredible, I’d definitely recommend it – we already want to go back again. ☺
LikeLike
😁x
LikeLiked by 1 person
I loved this post; I was particularly interested in the light blue colour of the church and the light blue colour of the ice on the beach. It was almost like the church had captured an element of beauty from the environment 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, it was an incredible adventure, and we’d never done a real roadtrip holiday before. You might be on to something there, Icelandic architecture is often inspired by nature and the landscape, especially churches like Hallgrimskirkja in Reykjavik and Akureyrarkirkja in Akureyri.
LikeLiked by 1 person