Summer Vacation? Not ...

A Geyser, but not Geysir: Yellowstone NP, May 2012

 

So okay, Iceland isn't your typical summer vacation. No warm breezes, no sandy beaches to sit on, no poolside drinks, definitely no sunscreen. So why visit there in the summer?

Would you prefer the winter?

Actually, Iceland seems to have two seasons: a damp and chilly summer, and a damp and chillier winter.

June weather has temperatures in the low 50s by day and mid-40s at night. It rains about 21 days during the month. December, on the other hand, ranges from the mid-30s by "day" to upper-20s at night. Of course, come late December, it's night most of the time. June is the reverse, with Reykjavik having about 21 hours of daylight (most of them sadly through clouds), and the north of the country having but 15 minutes of "night" on June 20.

So why visit here at all? As usual, there's a back story.

I've always been attracted to wilderness, preferring hiking in the mountains (or skiing) to sipping a pina colada at a resort. Or even better, going hiking, then enjoying a beer or glass of wine back at the lodge later. My lovely better half prefers the reverse. So we've been trading off for the last several years, visiting the national parks, then taking a four star luxury cruise. By the way, this luxury cruising stuff is really not torture - you can refer to the Crusin' blog for the details. But still, it was my turn to pick some place to go and I was searching for an outdoorsy-adventurey kind of trip.

My first thought was another round of the US National Parks. We even sketched out an itinerary hitting a number of the places we haven't been yet. The problem is that we've been to many, and the ones we haven't seen are far apart. Which can lead to extremely long drives.

My second thought was Antarctica. It doesn't get any more wilderness than that. And it's also melting away due to global warming, so there's some imperative to go sooner rather than later. There are a number of dedicated photography tours, which would be right up my alley. But almost all of the tours are by sea from Patagonia, and the several-day crossing is far too rough for Sally, who prefers the smooth waters of the Mediterranean. The tour that was most appealing to me would have me away for over three weeks. And the cost is comeasurately high.

Not sailing to Antarctica, May 2014

 

From Antarctica, I segued to Iceland. Lots of snow and ice, I guess.

If you look at pictures from Iceland, it is pretty spectacular. When Sally and I were first talking about what we would do on the trip, my description to her was: imagine a gigantic national park. Waterfalls, geysers(1), icebergs, seabirds. Mountains and glaciers. Volcanos.

Since we haven't gone yet, I don't have any pictures to show. But look here to be blown away:

https://www.flickr.com/search/?text=Iceland

We probably won't see the Northern Lights, as they are a nighttime event and we probably won't ever see any real darkness.

And so we started planning a trip to the land of Fire & Ice.

 

 

 

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(1) Actually, the original geyser in the world is Geysir, in Iceland.

 

Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans