Did I ever tell you about our MAGIC TRIP TO ICELAND?

We had always wanted to go to Iceland, both of us and we finally made our dream come true a week in June 2004.

We were prepared for bad weather, as Iceland very often is at least very windy if not rainy, but we actually met unusually good weather to be in Iceland. We even went short sleeved up in the glaciers! My bad weather curse only seem to struck when we go to places were you can expect a sunny holiday. And I didn’t get ill either, incredible!

The first day we just relaxed by going to the Blue Lagoon thermal spa to have a bath. And boy, did we bath! We never wanted to go up from the hot water… The geothermal seawater comes from wells 2000 m (6000 feet) deep with a temperature of 36-39°C (100-110°F) filled with silica, minerals salts and blue green algae. It’s kind of milky but oh, so refreshing to float around there. It’s surrounded by lava fields and black sandy beaches.

The next day we went on a roundtour. First to the nationalpark Thingvellir, incredible beautiful of course. Further to the geothermal power plant Nesjavellir which were providings Reykjavik with 25% of all their hot water through pipelines down to the city. An incredible installation, to see those pipelines drawn all over the countryside.

Then we have the spectacular waterfall Gullfoss which falls 32 meters in two steps. The water comes from the glacial river Hvitá, which source is from underneath the glacier Langjökull and floats after about 133 kilometers right into the Atlantic Ocean. We weren’t able to catch that beautiful rainbow above it.

What would a trip to Iceland be without seeing the Geyser-area? Wooha! What a spectacular sight to see those Geysers have these hot outbursts. I can’t even describe it. To be able to get real close to them and actually see the hole in the ground and the boiling water and then, slowly it built up this one big bubble just before it had the outburst way up in the sky as a surprise. Truly magnificent and must be seen to understand the feeling.

The volcano Hekla is the most active volcano there, the last eruption were in 2000, but we just passed that one which I’m glad for… I’m also grateful that there were no noticeable earthquakes while we were there. They have a lot of small earthquakes, every day I understood. Their houses is built with the thought of earthquakes protection and they’re quite ugly actually.

We were doing excursions by jeep into the area of Thorsmörk (Thors wood), which is a valley who is difficult to reach beacuse it’s placed between three glaciers, named Myrdalsjökull, Eyjafjallajökull and Tindafjallajökull. They emit a lot of melting water in the area, creating glacial rivers, so it’s difficult to go there without a jeep. Some days the crossing is quite challenging. An innocent stream can change in a matter of hours to a thunderous torrent.

It was when passing one of those rivers, Mr Lifecruiser bumped his head in the car celing and got some kind of whiplash in his neck. It was also in there the jeep had a flat tire…. But they’re prepared to that, when you start the car enginge it starts to blow up the tire again!

On the way to the area there is another smaller waterfall Seljalandfoss where you can go behind all the falling water, quite unusual experience. And wet

There is also the narrow gorge of Stakkholtsgjá, a magnificent and breathtaking canyon, which we were taking a walk through. The walk included a difficult passage on rocks in the water, so we were lucky that we were well prepared with waterproof boots!

One day we even went out on the sea for some whale- and birdwatching. I was prepared, I took sea sickness pills - for the first and last time in my life - I was totally numbed of them, like a zombie for the rest of the day. I’d rather be sea sick than don’t experience anything at all. We only spotted one dolphin and a lot of puffins that were nesting on a small island outside Reykjavik. According to them, it’s unusual to not spot more than that, so they gave us a free ticket for the next time we visit, that’s nice hah?

Of course, if we now were on Iceland, it was a MUST to take a ride on the Icelandic horse over the lava fields! It was the first time Mr Lifecruiser were horseback riding and he did well, I can tell you. It was very special with their special walk, the tölt. Very comfy, you sat almost still in the saddle. Though there were a bit of problems when one of the leaders got thrown off her young and lively horse, but all went well, luckily.

The nature in Iceland is magical. You feel like you have come to another planet. All those volcanos and lava fields makes it somehow unreal, but it’s amazingly beautiful. The southern part of Iceland do have green fields and plants, so it’s not just bare lava fields. They have also been planting a lot of Alaskan lupines, so we saw beautiful blue fields.

We were not particularly impressed over the city Reykjavik though and a bit disappointed when we got the news that they had closed down their biggest disco, which we had been looking forward to visit for a dance evening.

The Icelandic language is extremely difficult. Even though Sweden are pretty close to Iceland, it’s totally different from Swedish. The names and words are just not understandable. Kinda cool I think!

The last day we booked us in for another trip to the Blue Lagoon, on the way to the airport, they took care of our luggage while we were bathing. Truly wonderful relaxation, you’re coming out from there as a new person.

Like I said before: if we ever go to the U.S again, we just have to make a stop over at Iceland and take a bath in the Blue Lagoon. We dream about that bath, you know, it’s that wonderful. We also have that whale watching to do to again and maybe go up in the northern part as well.

This was one of our favorite trips, so there is no problem for us to go there once again!

Lifecruisers photos from Iceland 2004

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