Iceland

Chasing the Heavenly Lights !!

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We had information that this year Aurora would be in full swing due to high activities in the sun… My daughter had gifted me a new camera (lumix GF3) so I was ready to see and shoot Aurora this year.   One day I woke up at 5, for drinking a glass of water and when I peeped out of my window, I saw a green colored cloud over my garden.  I was excited that I was watching Aurora from inside my house.  I ran and brought the camera, but by the time I fixed it, the green cloud left and a beautiful blue haze covered the sky.

So first attempt failed.   Evening when we were watching our favorite TV serials, suddenly telephone rang and my friend Hilde was on the other side.  She told me to go to certain place, If I wished to see Northern Lights.  It was a wintery night and temprature was -4, with high winds blowing, but that did not bar us from rushing out.  We drove by the downtown, and near the sea and watched the beautiful Reykjavik in night.

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Iceland —Snow Saga

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The hot summers (+15 Deg C) had gone and slowly the winters were setting in. I was waiting anxiously for the goddess of snow to decorate Iceland, like a new bride. The Sun was becoming paler and had lesser shining times, coming out leisurely and running away hurriedly.

Now let us see the beauty of those places of Iceland, about which I have already explained in my earlier posts…. a different view of Iceland in winters.

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Iceland – Reykjavik, the capital !(Last part)

Iceland – Reykjavik, the capital !(Last part)

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Reykjavik is a small city having a total population around 120,000. There are very few foreigners here and Indians are hard to find. There are a few Indian families and 10 students in Iceland University. Reykjavik is on the North Atlantic sea. Since the warm gulf stream traverses nearby Reykjavik, the climate of Reykjavik is never harsh. A maximum of 15/16 degrees in summers and around -5/-6 in winters. Some days may see temperature as low as -16C but these are rare. We enjoy 6 months of day and 6 months of night here. Another interesting point is that every other Icelanders vows to have met a ghost or troll or an elve.  There are certain places around Reykjavik known for such entities.  I have yet to meet one !!

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Iceland – Glaciers , Green and Blue

Iceland – Glaciers , Green and Blue

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Remember the scene of James Bond’s film Die another day, where Pierce Brosnan had a car chase in a lagoon with an ice palace in background ? Voila there we are going now to the Ice-lagoon, One of the most beautiful place on earth.

The Vatnajokull glacier, the biggest glacier in Europe is surrounded by magnificent mountains, slopes… the whole route to Ice-lagoon gives a feeling as if we are in heaven. Beautiful small villages, water-falls and meadows !!!

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Iceland – the land of waterfalls (Part 3)

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The most unique is their gait. These horse, unlike all other horses in the world, gallop without moving their backbone. It is just like toy horse. Only the legs of the horse move and upper portion (back) remains steady. All other horses in the world, when move the rider has to jump up and down with his back… but here the story is altogether different.

Click on “PLAY” button to  see the beautiful gait of Icelandic horses

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Iceland – (the moving continents) part 2

Iceland – (the moving continents) part 2

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The first tour is called “Golden Tour” and it consists of  pingvellir (spoken as thing – vetlir), Geysir and Gulfoss.  This Golden circle is a 5/ 6 hours journey by tourist buses, but it can actually take the whole day, if you are driving on your own, because tourist buses only stop at fixed places, but there are so many view points in the way that you need a full day to complete this circle.

So on a beautiful morning, after killing the cloud demon and freeing the Sun, we started our journey from Reykjavik and reached pingvellir… a distance of 40 Kms covered in one hour.  Pingvellir is the biggest valley in Europe and is on the banks of ping lake, again the biggest lake in Europe.

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Iceland – the forgotten heaven !!

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When Indian travelers go to Europe, the prime target is always Eiffel Tower of Paris, alpine meadows of Swiss or Rome or Venice or London or  Keukenhof at the farthest.  


Iceland is not even known to many Indians.  It came to news mainly when its volcano erupted during summer of 2010, causing major disruption in air traffic across Europe, bringing many  airlines to the brink of bankrupcy.


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