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| On the plane to Iceland! |
Summer has arrived and with the warm, sometimes very hot and humid temperatures in Paris, what better way to escape the heat then to take a few extra vacation days (I mean, in France we get more than we can use) and go to Iceland! Bit of a random choice, but we have been interested in going for some time and have heard nothing but good things about it from others who have been. Then the real catalyst to finally make it happen is that our good friends from DC Uncle Ehren and Julie, as well as Uncle Matty were going as well for a trip of their own. So what better opportunity to go and meet up with friends and see a new country than now!
What is really nice is that Reykjavik is only a 3 hour direct flight from Paris with an easy 2 hour time change. Much easier than coming from the US, especially when traveling with a 7 month old. Petite Joséphine of course was very excited to add a new country to her passport being the good lil' traveller that she is. So off we go for a quick 3 night trip.
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| Downtown chilly Reykjavik |
Upon arriving we discovered quickly that Iceland is windy, and well, not warm. Won't say cold, but not warm and the wind was aggressive at least for the first two days. Also at this time of year it's never dark. Seriously never dark. At night the sun goes down below the horizon into a dusk type light that you could still very easily play catch in at 3:00 in the morning. It's weird and would take some getting used to if you lived there.
We took our time on the first day to explore Reykjavik a bit, not a big city but the downtown had some life with lots of bars and some really fantastic restaurants. Ducking in and out of the weather into various pubs was a great way to catch up and spend some time with everyone. We rented an apartment for the trip so we could all stay in the same place and have a relaxing spot to hang out which worked out very well. We also witnessed first hand that in Reykjavik, when you have a child / stroller, rather than take those two items inside (child and stroller) you just leave them parked outside the door. Seriously. We would see a stroller sitting just outside the door of a bar with a little person just sleeping away. We did not leave little JoJo Bean alone in this fashion, but apparently we had the option.
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| There goes the shooting water! |
Second day was time to get in the car and explore. From Reykjavik there is a well known route called the Golden Circle which hits a few key sites and takes a full day to travel. Driving through the wilderness you get a good sense for how open and desolate Iceland is, very pretty to be sure. First stop is "Geysir." People stand around in a half circle waiting for this thing to shoot 150 degree water 30 feet in the sky, it is actually quite impressive and there are lots of other bubbling hot pots of water all around. Oh and it was windy. I mean real windy. Like almost hurricane force to the point where we only lasted a few minutes before needing to find some shelter. This new experience was not fun for Joséphine and she went out of her way to tell us just how mad she was. At least the sun was out!
From there we went on to the Gullfoss waterfall. Picture is worth a thousand words on this one.
After the waterfall, we got back in the car to head back to town, but not before stopping at this random dairy farm off the road for some ice cream and stare at the cows through the window into the barn.
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| A little ice cream break with some cows |
For our last full day in town, the other must see and experience site was the Blue Lagoon, famous as the large geothermal pool with the milky blue water. The way they have it set up is a bit Disneyland and there is a swim up bar in the Lagoon, but most definitely a cool thing to see and do. The water is basically hot tub temperature and all heated by the earth. It sits in the midst of this vast lava field which is barren and rocky for miles all the way around. The water is in fact very milky blue to the point where you can't see your hand once it is about 6 inches under the water, it was a very unique place.
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| Cleaver in the Blue Lagoon |
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| Where is JoJo Bean? |
After that we drove back to town, tried to go to dinner but Joséphine sped up that process as she was getting tired. So after jamming food down our gullets we headed back to our apartment for one last night before an early flight home the next morning. All too quick a trip, but Iceland lived up to the hype and would be an amazing place to go for a week if you wanted to do some camping and enjoy the outdoors. Dress warm!
