In my travel experience, I have always found that the cloud of departure hangs over your final day, consuming it and leaving you with nothing else. Our flight home wasn’t scheduled to depart, but when you work your way backwards from the airport, car rental return, lunch, commuting back to the airport, checking out, and packing, suddenly the day is a busy one.
That’s how today turned out.
I don’t want to bore you with the details of packing, driving, and the activities of going home, but some highlights included seeing a fantastic full moon at 10:30 am while we were driving back. We also stopped at a thrift shop to see if we could find some Icelandic Wool treasure, but came up empty. We also ate at a food hall near the airport, which offered a variety of options for everyone.
I’m writing this post from our plane ride home, attempting to stay awake until I reach my bed, in the hope that my body clock will have a more effortless adjustment
Top Ten Iceland Surprises
Rather than recap the trip, I wanted to offer my Top Ten list of things that surprised me about Iceland. These are in no particular order:
- The Sun. While I was aware that there were fewer than 6 hours of daylight on an Icelandic November day, the trajectories of sunrise and sunset truly astonished me. The sun seemed to rise in the south and skirted across the lower horizon until it finally set. However, dawn and dusk seemed to last longer. In Colorado, it gets extremely dark thirty minutes after sundown, but in Iceland, we had twilight for what seemed like hours after the sun set.
- You have to get used to sulfur showers. Iceland makes effective use of its geothermal environment. Where we stayed, it seemed that most of the water came from hot springs, but as soon as the shower switched to hot water, you could smell a strong sulfur smell in the water. Where I’m used to finding showers refreshing, I had to adjust my expectations when I tried to get clean.
- On the flip side, the drinking water was always cold, crisp, and delicious. In Colorado, the downside of having amazing drinking water is becoming oversensitive to water taste when traveling. That wasn’t a problem in Iceland.
- Trolls are prevalent throughout Iceland. There is a lot of lore about how Trolls helped form Iceland, lived here before people came, and continue to live here. It was really cool seeing that exhibited throughout our time in Iceland.
- The speed radars have smiling and frowning faces. I’m no stranger to speed radars being placed along roads, but the ones on the onset of Icelandic towns tell you your speed in relation to the limit, then, depending on whether you’re over or under it, will show you a smiley or frowning face. Iceland also has a great deal of speed cameras, for which we were grateful that Google Maps would play a warning chime when approaching them.
- Iceland shuts down early, at least in the winter. We had to be careful in our activity planning if it involved a shop or market, as those would commonly close around 5 or 6pm.
- The wind is no joke. Coming from Colorado, we expected winter cold, but the amount of wind throughout our trip made it challenging to be outside. I’m glad I invested in hunting pants that helped break the wind.
- Most of the winter terrain is an ice skating rink. Months before we left, I invested in some crampons (little rings that put traction around your shoes when walking on ice), and there they sat on my dresser when I sealed my suitcase. I was kicking myself all week long for forgetting them. Iceland’s cold is so humid that pretty much every walking service becomes an ice rink. Thankfully, I didn’t slip, but I moved much more gingerly and had a few close calls.
- The scenery is beautiful, but you’re going to spend lots of time in the car seeing it. Perhaps it was how we organized our trip, but we ended up spending hours in the car each day to see everything we wanted to. Iceland is one of those countries where, if you can afford it, it makes sense to sleep at a different place each night. Some of that may not be practical, but things are spread out incredibly. We were fortunate to have only one day of treacherous driving conditions. Aside from that, the roads were well-maintained.
- Subway is everywhere. We even found a KFC, but McDonald’s and other fast-food chains are nowhere to be found. It seems that much of Icelandic cuisine has been influenced by various countries. Since Shannon is allergic to Gluten, she had to eat bun-less burgers virtually every time we ate out. Given that hamburgers and hot dogs are so prevalent throughout Iceland, it makes sense that these restaurants don’t want to compete with a fast-food burger but seem okay with a cold-cut sandwich chain.
Thank you again for journeying with me and reading my posts about our fantastic time in Iceland. I will forever be grateful to Shannon and her family for welcoming me on this trip and experiencing the joy of their family. I would love to bring my daughters back someday to experience all of this beauty, but perhaps we’ll aim for warmer weather.