Iceland
July 12-16, 2026
Day 1
A misty chill was carried on the strong wind when I got off the airplane welcoming me to Iceland. After taking a bus to my hotel, I walked the waterfront in downtown Reykjavik and saw sculptures, colorful buildings, murals and the Recycle house which had the most amazing collection of junk turned into art. The afternoon was spent on a food walk. The food was amazing including sashimi style arctic char, pulled lamb, honey glazed pan fried arctic char, fish stew (cod with mashed potatoes in hollandaise sauce), rye bread, lamb stew with veggies, lamb hot dog and a rye bread based ice cream with rhubarb sauce. Everything was delicious except the fermented shark chased by carraway seed flavored vodka. The ammonia smell was dreadful but not the worst thing I have ever eaten. As part of the walk, we went past some historic buildings, the rainbow road and Hallgrimskirkja cathedral. The city is a mix of old and new: pagan statue of Lief Erikson in front of the 1950s Lutheran church or 1800s restaurants next to the large glass concert hall on the water front. After I was stuffed from the wonderful food, I wandered through the Phallological museum. They had every sort of penis imaginable: various animals from a tiny mouse to huge sperm whales, sculpture and print art, plaster casts including Jimi Hendrix and silver casts of the Iceland Olympic silver medal winning handball team! It was strange but interesting.
Day 2
I did not get the best sleep as I was adjusting to a new time zone and it never gets very dark in the summer here. I looked outside at midnight and it was still twilight. Rain was the name of the game for today with bonus wind. I took a mini bus tour of the Golden Circle and Blue Lagoon. Our tour guide talked fast, drove fast and walked faster. We had several close calls on the road with other drivers but the only issues with the bus was it broke part way through the day. The door would not close and speaker system stopped working. They strapped the door kind of closed and we shuffled through the drivers door until the company met us with a different bus at the next stop. Our first location was Thingvelllir National park (UNESCO heritage site) which is where two continents are dividing creating a rift valley and causing Iceland to increase in size by a few centimeters each year. I have now been on both ends of the North American plate. Gullfoss waterfall was next up and was way more impressive than Niagara falls. The town of Geysir (literal names in Iceland) was close by that had a geyser basin with several hot springs, steam vents, two bubbling pots and one decent geyser (Strokkur). It reminded me of the hundreds of people that surround Old Faithful and go “Ohhh” when it goes off. It is the largest in Iceland even though it is smaller than most of the ones in Yellowstone. Kerid Crater was our last nature stop. It is a volcano that collapsed creating a decent lake at the bottom of the crater. A soak in the Blue Lagoon pool was much needed after a day of walking in the rain. It is a large spa created from geothermal sea water and fresh water. It has milky blue water with lots of silica and its own species of blue/green algae. I got my mud mask on my face, free lemonade from the swim/wade up bar and made a couple circuits of the pool. The algae was thickest at the far end where hardly any people went. I hung out there in the shallows and soaked my legs in the algae. My skin felt fabulous after soaking in the water for an hour.
Day 3
It was bound to happen with bus confusion. You need to know specifically which company and which tour you are taking to get on the right bus in the morning as they all stop at the same central locations. Two people got on my bus and the driver did not notice. They did not say anything until our third stop at 12:30 when they contacted the correct tour company to come get them. They were even in the wrong part of the country. We stopped at several waterfalls including one that I walked behind. The wind caught the spray and I got soaked from the side. It was not raining for this portion, so I dried off quickly. There were cows grazing near the third waterfall and we saw lots of sheep and horses during the drive. Glacier walk was up next and we were able to drink from a stream on the ice as it is so pure. The guide also hooked up an ice screw and we took turns hanging over a deep hole. Last stop of the day was a black sand beach that has tall basalt rock columns at the point. This is an iconic feature on the island. The surf had a wicked huge break, no surfing or swimming in this water.
Day 4
Ice, ice, lots of ice today. The group stayed at a small place in the country that is a cross between hotel and hostel. A twin bed that I had to make myself, no TV, limited furniture but I had my own bathroom that sort of had warm water. Diamond beach and Ice Lagoon were first and with this stop, I have now been to 100% of Iceland’s national parks as there are only two. Ice comes off the melting glacier forms a large lagoon and goes a few miles out to the ocean where some of it washes ashore on the black sand beach. The ice is so dense without air bubbles that it looks like diamonds on the sand. There were hundreds of arctic terns swooping and fishing among the flowing icebergs. A few families of Eider ducks were also present. I knew we were taking a boat tour of the lagoon, I did not realize it was on an amphibious duck boat that was used by the US military in Vietnam. Our boat still had a patched bullet hole visible. There was tour operator confusion and two people paid for the boat ride but the operator did not have tickets or room for them so they got a refund and waited for the rest of us. Typical tourists, they yelled at the bus driver as if he could do anything about it. One large iceberg had recently flipped and was bright blue above the water line. There were a couple harbor seals popping their heads up in the cold water. It was a two hour drive to stop at another tongue of the same glacier for ice cave exploring. We had to load into big wheeled 4X4 vans for the trek to the face of the glacier and then strapped on ice spikes. The ice caves were really cool, seeing the layers of ice from inside. The guides have to constantly look for new caves as the glacier is rapidly melting and moving up the valley. The rest of the day was over three hours back to Reykjavik.
Day 5
How to make your birthday last as long as possible: travel going west. It was funny to wake up to the only sunshine I have seen all week and I have to leave. I walked about a mile to the main bus terminal instead of getting a transfer so that I could see a couple parks and a few last statues. A couple of interesting tidbits about Iceland: the largest native animal is the arctic fox. The reindeer were imported as were the thousands of sheep and horses. They do eat horse meat here, but I did not try it. I ate lamb and seafood everyday including a lobster roll that was similar to the ones in Maine except the sauce is different. One of the stranger items was a smoked lamb and bean salad sandwich. The bean salad portion was like egg salad but using some sort of cooked bean in replacement of diced egg. It was strange but not bad. The plants were mostly imported intentionally for erosion control and are controversial. I recognized many of them from Alaska. The result was vast areas of blooming lupine. I did not see any famous puffins, but I did see several swans and one group of barnacle goose. The locals drive at least double the speed limit and constantly complain about the rental cars. We had a close call with a sheep crossing the road at one point, but the driver did not complain much about the sheep. Iceland is very expensive but a beautiful place to visit.
