There is a reason why they call the place Iceland. The place knows how to get cold. And, I was not prepared for the kind of cold I faced in Reykjavik. On a previous trip to the Arctic Circle, in Finland, I learned that cold doesn’t matter as long as you know how to dress for it. I was warm and comfortable in Finland. So, I guess I didn’t learn my lesson because I repeat, I was not prepared for Iceland. I froze.
I opted for two tours in the cold. The first was a night tour to see the Northern Lights. We’ve all seen the postcards with amazing greens, blues, purples and reds. What nobody ever tells you, until after you’ve paid for the tour, is that the “color” most often seen is white. My guide said that those other colors are only seen two or three times a season.
Okay, so they maybe should be called the “Northern
Whites”. Regardless, they were
amazing. From the inside the warmth
of van, I first saw a great band of white slash the sky from
top to bottom.
But, when I crawled out of the warmth of my van to face the full
brunt of sub-freezing Iceland cold, I saw a double white “rainbow” cross the
entire sky. Those lights
continually danced and changed.
The rainbow merged into a giant loop before totally disappearing.
Then, I saw a huge halo over the mountains in the horizon.
The final spectacle showed swirling curves across the sky like a Van
Gogh painting. It was a “Starry
Night” sky in real life.
The second tour was a day trip along the southern coast of Iceland to
unpronounceable waterfalls, glaciers and beaches that blurred together in
the cold. The thermometer in the
van claimed it was -11 degrees Centigrade outside.
That didn’t include the wind chill factor with a gale force strong
enough to knock you over. At one
point, I took this photo of fellow passenger Ben.
I thought he looked as cold and miserable as I felt.
Continue on to Europe Image 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 or back to the Portraits Home Page.