Iceland
has become a very popular destination, especially for the well-traveled. It’s
another country to check off the Bucket List and with its reputation for being
safe and fairly close makes it even more desirable. The banking collapse in
2008 was devastating to their economy, but it had the “silver lining” effect of
sending tourists streaming in while the dollar was strong. It’s a country of contrasts
and extremes. One doesn’t really travel there to enjoy the hotels and museums
although there are some very nice and unusual ones to enjoy. You go to Iceland
to be adventurous.
While
cruise ships may stop in Reykjavik (pronounced “rake a vik”), this large
capitol city doesn’t really begin to show off what this country looks like. Our
trip allowed nine days to travel the Ring Road. This two-lane blacktop road
runs an 860-mile loop around the island. We traveled coastlines where black
lava sand make a soft beach that is glass-like. Glaciers break off into the
waters and leave ice sculptures on the shore. The puffins glide swiftly in the
air and in the water with their bright orange beaks flashing color. We took a
boat ride where the white beaked dolphins jumped in unison like a Sea World
act, and the Minke Whales made an appearance.
We
traveled by miles and miles of grassy meadows. The intense green is a result of
a sun that sets for only a few hours a day. Sheep, cattle and horses grazed the
landscape. Oftentimes there wasn’t a fence to contain them. Other times there
were wide trenches cut in the land to hold the livestock in and drain the water
away. It was hay season, and the round bales dotted the landscape. The bales
were completed wrapped in plastic to endure the long winter. Some bales were
wrapped in black and looked like shiny black eight balls on a felt pool table.
The bales wrapped in white looked like the farmer was growing miniature marshmallows.
We
traveled miles and miles of landscape that looked more like the moon. Fields of
lava rock, volcanic rock formations, and bubbling mud pools. We would catch a
glimpse of steam vents sending a column of white into the air, while the view
in another direction was white snow on the top of a mountain. The word “geyser”
was coined here. Geysir is the name of the largest hot spring and blows every
7-10 minutes. They don’t set a clock like Old Faithful, but you can’t miss it
as part of the “Golden Circle” tour which consists of three equally stunning
locations in southwest Iceland: Þingvellir National Park, the Geysir Geothermal
Area, and Gullfoss waterfall. These sites are the ‘don’t miss’ and are all as
spectacular as they are unique.
Waterfalls
and rainbows would be part of my description, as we began to lose count we saw
so many. There were turquoise lagoons with thermal pools. Hikers pitched tents
near the action, as it gave hot and cold running water. Trees were introduced
to the country by the Danish and they are a small part of the scenery, so one
really can see to the horizon. As late as 1950 only 1% of the entire island had
trees.
We drove
miles and miles without seeing a building, a billboard or body. The only thing
manmade was the road we traveled. This really was natural beauty, serene and
surreal at the same time. I may need more than three minutes to answer “How was
Iceland?”
