Iceland Travel Adventures

It is difficult to find the words to describe Iceland. Words that come to my mind include amazing, beautiful, unimaginable, out of this world, a view that stops your mind and fills your heart.

The flights to get to Iceland from the United States were long. I was not feeling very well, I might’ve had a cold or the stomach flu. We had a five-hour layover that was very long, but I did get a cool T-shirt and we had a wonderful pizza from the coal-fired pizza place.

It’s been about 4 years since I visited Iceland, I am hoping that I will be able to go back and visit again.

We stayed in Iceland for 10 days. On the first day, we walked around local parks. On our second day, we walked about 10 miles in the city and surrounding areas in Reykjavík. I remember that I could not feel my feet anymore.

The air was crisp and wonderful. The days when we were visiting in September it was a wonderful sunny experience. We had one or two days with a little bit of sprinkling rain, but the rest of our days were gorgeous. We were told that that was unusual, normally the weather is rainier around that time. As you could see in the pictures the colors, and the magnificent waterfalls and the mountains speak for themselves. The lava formations and mountains are amazing all around Iceland.

Iceland has so much to offer. Beautiful sunsets and sunrises. There are wonderful islands around the island. Black sanded beaches, mountains, and ice caves, wonderful thermal hot water. The water in Iceland is truly amazing. There are hot pools and swimming pools everywhere. When you are in Iceland, you’re able to buy a ticket that lets you go into the swimming pool all over town as well as ride the bus in Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland. It was a little difficult for us to find a place where we could get the tickets. We walked about an hour and a half to get to the hotel where the pass was sold. I was not feeling well at that time, and I thought I was not going to make it, but I did: I just kept going.

One of the pools where we went often, was a place close to where we stayed in Kopavagur. The pool was very nice, it had multiple hot tubs with a back massage stream. It also had an area where you walk between the hot and cold water. It was very therapeutic for blood circulation. People would take turns to stand under the pools’ hot streams. It was a man-made waterfall with thermal water. Loved it.

There are many wonderful museums and great food. One of my favorites was the tomatoes that we picked up that were grown with the heat from the thermal water. It tasted very delicious.

The colors on the ground in many places resembled a painting. They were created because of all the mineral elements in the water. Colors that I had never seen anywhere else before. It was an interesting experience to walk on top of so much heat that come from the ground. The water was blocked off around the path where we could view the hot water bubbling up. Even when you take a shower or open the kitchen faucet thermal water comes out. Loved it.

We visited the Historical Museum that offered a wonderfully rich experience of Iceland history. We also visited the Settlement Museum. This museum was very great, they had a touchscreen table, and it was an original architecture site underground.

There are a lot of parks around Iceland. We shopped at the local grocery stores and tried some interesting foods. We also went to the local library and museum in Kopavagur. The museum had many different crystals, rocks, and different types of birds living in the area. We walked around the city of Reykjavík and used a rental car or the bus to get around. We walked a lot while we were there, between 6 to 7 miles each day.

One of my favorite experiences was when we went to visit the puffins. We took a ferry to go to Vestmannayear islands. The ferry ride was wonderful. Once we got there, we visited a sanctuary for puffins. There we met a teenager puffin that came out to visit with us and picked on our shoelaces, played with our jewelry, and his toys. We had the most wonderful time. I could have stayed sitting there all day just to play with the puffin.

After we spent some time playing with the teenager puffin, we went to explore the island and we found the place where the puffins come to lay their eggs and raise their young before, they headed out to the sea again. It was a wonderful experience just sitting and watching the puffins flying in and out bringing food to their nest. They are amazingly beautiful birds.

Another wonderful experience was visiting the ice cave in Reykjavík in the Perlan Museum. It was amazing to see the amount of ice in one place in the middle of the city. It was very cold. There is also music above the ice cave, and you can go out and have a great view of the city.

We also went whale watching in a small boat first and because we didn’t see any whales, they took us out again the next day. We went whale watching again on a big boat as well. It was a wonderful ride. We did not see any whales, but the experience with still great.

We also visited the island that was part of the Reykjavík pass called Viðey Island. We walked around for many hours and had lunch at the local restaurant. We had soup and bread and truly amazing rhubarb lemonade. The rhubarb lemonade inspired us to make it once we got home, we made a big batch and froze some of it. The island was really big, and we were only able to walk around about half of it before we had to go back to the city because the ferry was leaving.

I found a piece of wood on that island that now is a picture frame at our home that surrounds coins from Iceland.

Iceland was a truly amazing experience. I would go back in a heartbeat at any time.

Thank you,

Gabriella

Read another travel adventure from Gabriella here

Dancing Elephants Press Nov 2021. All Rights Reserved.