Last week, Steve and I traveled to Iceland. He had one of those decade-beginning big 0 birthdays, so we thought we’d celebrate it by seeing the northern lights. We actually saw them from the airplane window flying into Iceland! and then again when standing in the dark on a windy plain, miles from our hotel. To my naked eye, the aurora looked like vertical white stripes in the night sky. Through Steve’s camera, it was green dancing billows above us. (I’ll share one of his photos later after he finesses it.)
Even without the northern lights, Iceland is a spectacular, other-worldly place. It’s a new land, formed entirely by volcanos. There are still volcanos. We only drove past the not-currently active ones.
There are waterfalls.
There are no guardrails on the hikes.
Every vista is spectacular. In many places, you can see the rubble that spewed out of the volcanos.
It’s also a place where you can chase rainbows.
Even the rare flat and straight road was mesmerizingly beautiful.
It is so isolated, the weather is so harsh, and the land is so new, that there are few native animals. Seals do come ashore.
The domestic animals that are in Iceland arrived a millennia ago, and there’s no bringing in of new lineages or species. There are sheep, cows, chickens, a few goats, and horses. All have evolved to thrive in this challenging place.
When out looking for seals, I came across sheep, grazing on kelp.
I’ll save my photos of the horses for the next post!
Beautiful photos and videos. I am amazed that the sheep don’t mind plodding through the water. What an amazing landscape.
Glad you had a great break, lovely pics and video’s. Jess and family were there wed night to sunday night, unfortunately they had 2 days of heavy rain, strong winds and blizzards. They stayed in a lodge that had uninterrupted views of the sea and the northern lights, their whale watching was cancelled and it was to rough for Jess to go riding, but they still had a great time and hope to go back for longer 🙂
Congratulations and what a wonderful way to celebrate ! Very beautiful pictures of the fascinating landscape and the videos makes me feel like standing just next to you/Steve.
I do remember the horses being different, looking forward to your comments.
I am fascinated by Iceland and your description says it all. Hope you went to the thermal baths…
I stopped traveling abroad many years ago but may decide on Iceland as it really is calling me !
Thank you so much !
Gorgeous!!
Iceland was featured in the new Warren Miller ski film we saw last night, and your post added even more information. Fascinating!
Fascinating! Thank you for sharing. I really enjoyed the video of the sheep grazing and look forward to your horse pictures.
What a wonderful trip. Looking forward to the horse pictures. My cousin had an Icelandic horse. Great little guy.
Wow!! Amazing photos of an amazing place!!