Iceland

Our first afternoon was spent wandering around Reykjavik which, if I'm honest, was not that fun or touristy. The area just down from the Hallgrimskirkja had a variety of local restaurants and cafes, and a few souvenir shops, but considering the size of the city it's a very small area to explore. Don't get me wrong, there are likely plenty of attractions, we didn't see them (it was a whistle-stop tour, after all).

That evening we traveled into town as there was due to be an Aurora, ending up at the lighthouse point just to the West of the city. Massive light pollution ensued, and a very weak aurora left us feeling a little deflated.

On our first full day, we hopped in the car and set off around the Golden Circle. This was brilliant! A 250km round route, stopping off at multiple attractions on the way, all within a 10-15 minute walk of the car park. highlights of this trip were Gullfoss Falls, Strokkur Geyser and hiking up and into rift valleys in Thingvellir National Park; a couple of steps each way takes you from Europe into North America and back!

Including a couple of hours soaking at Laugarvatn Fontana spa, this was truly a fun day.

it was bloody cold though; -8 as soon as you leave the warmth of the car is quite a shock to the system!

Day 2 saw us get up bright and early (3 am!) for the long trek along the South Coast to Diamond Beach. The 5-hour drive was spectacular once the sun came up, and we arrived at the beach just about 8 am. What we didn't realize was that the beach was not the real attraction here. That honor belonged to Jökulsárlón Glacier; grinding down from the Icelandic highlands, it spans hundreds of meters across and feeds the glacier lake onto Diamond Beach. Some of the ice blocks floating down the lake must have been hundreds of years old, and the intense blues and greens of the ice were breathtaking. That said, the beach itself was quite disappointing - very few diamonds!

On the way back to Reykjavik we spontaneously pulled into Svínafellsjökull Glacier, and this turned into one of the highlights of the whole trip. Easily accessible from the car park, you can actually walk right up to and onto the glacier. Even though this is small by comparison to Jökulsárlón, being that up close and personal makes you feel tiny by comparison!

Further stops on the way home included Seljalandsfoss and Gljufrabui waterfalls, both of which are lovely in the sunset, but can be quite busy. We eventually got home at about 7 pm, and then still traveled across town later to try to catch another aurora; again though, there was so much light pollution it ended up being a pointless exercise.

Our final full day was a bit of a fail, unfortunately - we traveled North to try to adventure up a lava tube, but there was so much snow that the road leading to the tube was closed 4km before the attraction. there was no way we were hiking cross country in -8 degrees! We traveled further up to Vidgelmir Lava Cave, but the £25 cost was outside of our remaining budget, and we'd have had to wait 2 hours for the next tour. So we didn't.

instead, we drove back home via Troll Park in Fossatun. it's pretty cool and cheap to access the short circular walk through the Troll Garden.

That night, instead of heading through town, we headed South into the mountains to catch the Aurora. We had some success with this tactic, though it was also the first night the clouds rolled in, resulting in a good few inches of snow the next morning for our drive back to the airport and home.

Absolutely brilliant though. Everything. I will most definitely be back!