Winter in Iceland

So why would anyone want to go to Iceland in the middle of winter? Iceland has become a very popular destination with tourism now being the biggest industry in the country of only 330,000 people. Ray and Traci decided to find out what is attracting so many people to the land of fire and ice during a March adventure.

Icelandair solved one of the biggest hassles of traveling by providing direct service to Iceland from many US cities including Seattle. They also offer tickets where travelers can fly to the European continent with a stopover in Iceland to stay hours to a few days at no extra cost. Ray and Traci decided to make Iceland their only destination and booked tickets for a 5 day 4 night stay. Their 7 hour 10 minute flight from Seattle to Keflavik International Airport (KEF) was on time and pleasant. Icelandair provides no complimentary food in coach but offers a variety of food choices for purchase at reasonable prices. They have strict baggage policies (carry on size and weight) so don’t try to bring in an oversized carry on to avoid checked baggage fees. Their back of seat entertainment screens have a modest selection of programs and you will need your own audio device – so bring a patch cable for your noise cancelling headphones or some earbuds. Icelandair will sell you some earbuds if you forget. They do have USB charging ports and slow (3G speed) wifi available to those who need to stay connected.

After arriving in the early morning hours at KEF, Ray and Traci passed thru passport control efficiently, claimed their checked baggage and bought roundtrip tickets on the Flybus which took them from KEF to downtown Reykjavik in about an hour. Note that Iceland is, for the most part, a cashless society – credit cards are gladly accepted for even small purchases. Ray purchased some Icelandic Krona at an ATM for incidentals but ended up with 70,000 ISK instead of 7,000 ($595 vs $59) so ended up paying cash for most expenses during the trip.  They encountered some significant traffic into Reykjavik which surprised Ray given the population of only 122,000. In town, Ray and Traci checked into the Hilton Reykjavik Nordica where they had reservations. Despite arriving around 9AM, the hotel made their room available within 75 minutes. Given the sunny but cold (high 20s F) weather, Ray and Traci were happy they could change into warmer clothes to begin their exploration. Their room seemed to be small even by European standards but comfortably arranged. Their biggest complaint was the very limited space in the bathroom. One major thing to keep in mind is that even in an American hotel chain like the Hilton, there were no US type electrical outlets – Iceland uses the twin pole design. Since most electronic adapters can convert the voltage, all that is needed is the US prongs to Iceland poles adapter, a very small and light item that fortunately Ray brought with him.

Tired, but ready to explore their new home, Ray and Traci walked to Hallgrimskirkja, a centrally located church with an 8 story clock tower. The travelers admired the architecture and rode the elevator to the top of the tower to get impressive views of Reykjavik on a beautiful clear day. Continuing their journey using Google Maps to guide them, they went to the Harpa which is Reykjavik’s performing arts theater. While the outside glass construction was fairly unremarkable, the inside architecture was quite amazing!

The construction was unique in that the walls were constructed using clear glass geometric blocks creating a honeycomb appearance. The beautiful sunny day bathed visitors in daylight. The Harpa was much smaller than the Sydney Opera House but the architecture was very impressive and worth a visit (free). Walking along the waterfront, they encountered a well-known sculpture called the Sun Voyager.

Based on the frame of a Viking Ship, the creator Jon Gunnar Amason intended it to convey the promise of undiscovered territory. Certainly the water and mountain backdrop highlighted the waterfront sculpture. Ray and Traci walked back along the waterfront to the Settlement Exhibition which is the archaeological excavation of a 10^th century Viking House. Here, they purchased 72 hour Reykjavik City Passes which give access to many of the attractions and serves as a public bus pass. Both attraction entrance fees and bus fares are pricey in Reykjavik so the pass makes a lot of sense for those wanting to do exploration in the city. The travelers made a final stop at the National Museum of Iceland to learn about the country’s history before catching a public bus back to the Hilton. Having very limited sleep from working the night prior and not sleeping on the flight over, Ray needed to take a short nap before seeing one of the trip’s highlights – the Northern Lights.

One of their motivations of traveling to Iceland in the winter was to see the Northern Lights. Ray and Traci have traveled to Alaska many times, but never far enough north and only in the summer months so they have never seen the Aurora Borealis. The natural light display is caused by charged solar wind particles precipitating in Earth’s atmosphere. The problem with Northern Lights viewing is that the solar wind varies and clouds inhibit visibility. A handy iPhone app called Aurora forecasts solar activity around the world. Ray and Traci had to change the date of their Northern Lights tour two times based on weather forecasts. They ended up taking a tour in the evening of their arrival day due to the forecast of favorable clear skies that night. As predicted by accuweather.com, the night was crystal clear. Even from the Hilton hotel, the northern lights were discernable as nightfall approached. Ray and Traci boarded one of the many tour buses headed out of town to dark areas to see the lights. Over a two hour period the aurora faded and intensified, changed shape and size. Using an iPhone X on a tripod and the Northernlights phototherapy app, Ray was able to capture some wonderful pictures of the phenomenon.

Travelers need to know the large amount of luck that needs to happen to have a good Northern Lights sighting. Most of the companies offer to let unsuccessful viewers have complimentary repeat tours if the lights aren’t visible and cancel tours when weather conditions are unfavorable. Happy but exhausted, Ray and Traci were dropped off at the Hilton and ended a very exhausting first day in Iceland.

On the second day, a tour of Iceland’s Golden Circle was booked with the company Go To Joy Iceland using Viator as the booking agent. Many companies offer variations of the Golden Circle, but Ray chose one that used a small bus to minimize crowding and had relatively short visits at the tourist sites. They had an excellent guide named Ian, a music teacher and trombone artist. He wasn’t a native of Iceland, giving him a unique perspective about the culture since he grew up in the UK. The tour included stops at Kerid, a huge volcano crater followed by the waterfall Faxi.

One of the highlights of a visit to Iceland was next, Gullfoss, the celebrated 2 tier waterfall. Viewing and taking photos of the beautiful natural attraction was made more difficult due to forceful winds in cold weather but few seemed deterred given the large crowd sizes. One can only imagine how crowded the site must be in the summer.

The tour continued with a stop at Geysir a combination tourist trap and volcanic park complete with a geyser that erupts every few minutes.

The last stop was at Thingvellir, a national park which is located at the junction of the European and North American tectonic plates. Visitors can actually see the earth’s fissures and subsequent development of a high wall which represents the edge of the North American plate. Having completed a long second day, Ray and Traci returned to the hotel for dinner and much needed rest.

Iceland’s remote location presumably makes all imported goods quite expensive. A trip to the supermarket or perusal of menu prices quickly confirms that. According to their guides, Iceland has a comfortable living wages and a 25% sales tax (value added tax) which are built into the cost of goods. Two things that are relatively cheap in Iceland is electricity and heat. Geothermal and hydroelectric sources supply most all of Iceland’s electricity, and power prices are considerably lower than in Europe although pretty much on par with what Seattle residents pay. Geothermal heat is also used to warm pools (seems like there is a public swimming pool on every block in Reykjavik), warm buildings, and to even grow tropical foods like bananas in large greenhouses. It is common to walk past homes (or Ray and Traci’s hotel room) in the winter with windows wide open to disperse excess geothermal heat piped in. It has been estimated that 87% of all structures in Iceland get their heat & hot water from geothermal sources.

Saturday morning proved to be a bit cloudy but still ideal weather for exploring. Ray and Traci walked to the Perlan, just over a mile from the Hilton. The Perlan is a tourist attraction that features a glass dome, observation deck, planetarium, nature exhibits and an ice cave. Ray and Traci toured the artificial ice cave held at a temperature of 14 degrees Fahrenheit with its very low ceilings. After looking at the glacial and volcanic exhibits, they watched a film about the northern lights followed by one on the many natural spectacles in Iceland. After admiring the views on the Perlan’s observation deck, Ray and Traci left to catch a public bus. As they walked to the bus stop they cut through Klambratun Park and decided to stop at one of Reykjavik Art Museums located at the park. Most of the art museums admission fees were included in their Reykjavik City Pass, but the Perlan was not. Two exhibit halls featured works from two Icelandic artists, one modern and the other more classical. After leaving the park, the travelers boarded a public bus headed back downtown. Their destination was the Grotta Island Lighthouse. The lighthouse is surrounded by a black sand beach which serves as a bird nature preserve and is a popular spot to view the northern lights near the city. Rolling waves passed by the lighthouse, and shockingly, two surfers were in presumably very warm dry suits taking advantage of the surf in freezing conditions. Glad that they didn’t want surfing lessons today, Ray and Traci took the bus back to the Hilton for the evening. During their bus ride home they noted two pre-teenage girls conversing in English while texting on their phones. While in America it would be unusual just to see such young children riding a bus downtown unescorted, it was remarkable in Iceland that they were chatting in English. Later in the trip, Ray and Traci learned that children are required to learn English in addition to Icelandic early in school and then a third foreign language in high school. Since texting & video games are often in English, the young adopt it for casual conversations although the older generations still speak Icelandic. Basically, you can visit Iceland and speak English to any resident.

Ray and Traci planned an ambitious tour to the South Coast of Iceland on their final full day. Their South Coast Full Day Tour was conducted by Your Day Tours. Waking up early, they boarded a minibus with former science teacher and tourist guide Steini who drove them 2 hours to the southern tongue of the Myrdalsjokull glacier at Solheimajokull. While both visitors have visited Alaskan glaciers before, the Iceland experience enabled you to walk close enough to the glacier to practically touch it – in fact, tour companies were equipping groups with crampons and ice picks to climb up the glacial ice. Ray and Traci stayed off the glacier and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

Steini described the significant melting going on resulting in retraction of the ice seen in Iceland as well as other glaciers around the world. Next, the minibus brought everyone to the town of Vik, population 300. This picturesque village was framed by beautiful scenery usually seen in some Hollywood fantasy movie. The lunch stop was at a black sand beach at the southern tip of Iceland. The surf was quite rough and variable – all of the guides warned visitors that large waves periodically strike and cause soakings or worse. Sure enough, a few unlucky tourists ended up being drenched despite the warnings. The final two stops were at waterfalls – Seljalandsfoss and Skogafoss. The sunny day formed a faint rainbow at the Skogafoss waterfall.

Steini treated his guests to a non-alcoholic beer tasting beverage and some smoked lamb before returning them to Reykjavik.

Ray and Traci managed to complete their planned itinerary leaving the final day free which turned out to be a good thing – from the Hilton, they could see snow squalls roll in resulting in near blizzard conditions lasting just a few minutes before relenting. For the first time during their visit, snow was actually visible on the Reykjavik streets. Ray and Traci were very fortunate to have near perfect weather during the bulk of their visit, and one night with crystal clear skies highlighting the northern lights. Their return on the Flybus to the airport was uneventful and after a 7 hour 45 minute flight, Ray and Traci found themselves back in Seattle.