Browsed by
Tag: Iceland

A Final Note On Iceland: Europe With A Wild And Fantastical Twist

A Final Note On Iceland: Europe With A Wild And Fantastical Twist

Comments 0 Comment

Something I was not expecting about visiting Iceland was just how European it would be. This might seem obvious, since it’s similar culturally to Norway, Sweden and the rest of the Nordic countries. But I’ve never actually been to any of those places, even though I’ve been to much of Europe. And Iceland is… you know… an island… kind of in the middle of nowhere, with wide stretches that are nearly uninhabited and extremely wild. Not the typical European experience!…

Read More Read More

I Found The Real Mount Doom – It Isn’t Where You Think It Is

I Found The Real Mount Doom – It Isn’t Where You Think It Is

Comments 1 comment

Do you know where Mount Doom is? You probably don’t. In the books Mount Doom is obviously in Mordor, which is – thankfully – not a real place. In the films, Mount Doom is an amalgamation of Mount Ngauruhoe and Mount Ruapehu in New Zealand. Ariel and I actually got to visit the film location during our somewhat ill-fated Tongariro Alpine Crossing adventure way way back in 2017. Little did we know at the time, but while this location was…

Read More Read More

Dining in Iceland with a Four Year Old: Part 2

Dining in Iceland with a Four Year Old: Part 2

Comments 1 comment

Editor’s Note: This is part 2 of a short series of posts by Ariel on our dining experiences in Iceland. For Part 1, covering the Reykjavik and Snæfellsnes Peninsula area click here! Laugarvatn We stayed right outside of the town of Laugarvatn on our third night, and down the road from where we stayed was the Efstidalur farm, which includes hotel accommodations and a casual restaurant and ice cream shop. Dinner was only OK here – definitely more meat options….

Read More Read More

Dining in Iceland with a Four Year Old: Part 1

Dining in Iceland with a Four Year Old: Part 1

Comments 1 comment

Editor’s Note: After being my adventure partner since the inception of this blog (and well before!) my amazing wife Ariel decide to do her own post about some of our dining experiences in Iceland, specifically from the perspective of finding food that would work for our rather picky eater of a son, Jacob. Here’s hoping she’s inspired to contribute more posts like this in the future! Just note, we’re not really your typical food bloggers, so we didn’t take a…

Read More Read More

Of Sunsets And Auroras

Of Sunsets And Auroras

Comments 0 Comment

For years I have been obsessed with watching the sun go down. One of my main rules for going on long road trips, is that no matter where you are, when the sun is going down, pull over and watch it happen. Even if it’s not the most scenic place, or if there are clouds, or whatever. But if you can watch the sun sink slowly behind the horizon, it’s magic. It had been a while since I got to…

Read More Read More

A Tale Of Two Icelands

A Tale Of Two Icelands

Comments 0 Comment

After several days of truly miserable rain, wind and generally awful weather, we lucked out into a truly incredible last day on the island. We packed up all of our stuff, started reloading our suitcases for the return journey, and hit the road. And what a road it was. Our last full day on Iceland was also our best weather day. One of my primary rules about road trips is to never backtrack unless absolutely necessary. After all, why see…

Read More Read More

Oh So THAT’S Why They Call It Iceland

Oh So THAT’S Why They Call It Iceland

Comments 2 comments

Believe it or not, 4 days into our trip to Iceland… we hadn’t really seen any ice! We tried to see some glaciers, but with all the rain and clouds, our visibility was less than a mile at best, and sometimes even less. Really miserable stuff. But finally the rain was over, and we were headed for the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon. We had reservations on a boat but had some stops to make beforehand, so we had to be extremely…

Read More Read More

Today In Iceland I Learned That Viking Helmets Didn’t Have Horns And That Hobbit Houses Were Real

Today In Iceland I Learned That Viking Helmets Didn’t Have Horns And That Hobbit Houses Were Real

Comments 1 comment

So day 3 started with… more rain. Turns out the beautiful valley we roamed around in the last post wasn’t quite ready to give up on the rain after all. Rain which didn’t let up all day. Like a constant downpour from the minute we left our cabin, through 8+ hours in the car – our longest driving day of the entire trip. But we had no choice but to keep moving forward. Our destination for this day was Vik,…

Read More Read More

Iceland? More like Rainland am I right folks!

Iceland? More like Rainland am I right folks!

Comments 3 comments

After recovering from one of the more miserable travel experiences I’ve had, Ariel, Jacob and I wasted little time hitting the road on days 2 and 3 of our Iceland adventure. For the first time since our trip to Alaska (which perhaps not-so-coincidentally was the last time we were going away in advance of a baby), Ariel and I have been immersing ourselves in just totally epic landscapes all day every day. Sure Hawaii was beautiful and incredible, but this…

Read More Read More

Walking along the Reykjavik Rainbow Road
We Made It To Iceland

We Made It To Iceland

Comments 1 comment

You’ll notice the title does not include the exclamation point I would normally include… Let’s just get right to it – we’re really excited and happy to be here, but man getting here was a classic “not a pony ride in May-sunshine” experience. Our saga started sitting in above-average Belt Parkway traffic on the way to JFK. After getting through security, which for some reason closed the TSA Pre check-in line at 7:30 pm (is this a thing at JFK???),…

Read More Read More