Driving in Iceland in the winter can, and most likely will be terrifying and treacherous. Many of the roads are actually closed during the winter because driving conditions are so poor, including the entire northeast region. Driving in Iceland isn’t too bad in the city, but once you leave Reykjavik, country roads aren’t a priority for snowplows. In addition...
When we traveled to Iceland, during the middle of December and the dark of winter, we had to pick our activities deliberately. With approximately four hours of daylight we couldn’t see everything, it just wasn’t mathematically or cosmically possible. The Golden Circle is 300 kilometers of Iceland’s most popular sites and attractions, including incredible sites that you can’t find...
Good luck trying to pronounce anything in Icelandic! It is one of the hardest languages to learn - it’s actually considered the 5th hardest language to learn. The vowels don’t sound like they look, and they have extra characters in their alphabet that are extra fancy and curvy. The Icelandic language contains sounds and letters that have vanished from...
The Volcano House in the city center of Reykjavik doesn’t sell batteries, but they are open on Christmas Day. They are the only place we could find open on Christmas Day in Iceland, when my insulin pump ran out of batteries and we were desperate. That is just the how of why we came to the Volcano House, (you...
When planning our trip to Iceland we knew we’d be stuck inside for a majority of our time. Between the four hours of daily sunlight, the cold winter weather, and considering the fact that the city shuts down entirely for two full days, we wanted a hotel with a pool that we could take the twins swimming and help...
Though we didn’t particularly enjoy our stay at the Icelandair Reykjavik Natura Hotel, we did love the classic and festive Icelandic Christmas dinner spread offered Christmas Day. Considering everything else in the city was closed, we didn’t have many options for sustenance, so we were fortunate to be staying someplace where the food was exceptional.
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Icelandair Reykjavik...
In the winter, Tjörnin Pond, in the city center of Reykjavik, is a gathering place to play ice hockey and soccer, and to go ice skating. This can be done formally or informally, as there is no where to rent ice skates for the pond. This means you’ll want to either bring your own skates or step out in your boots...
Believe it or not, Iceland wasn’t the last time we went winter swimming. There is something entirely primal about confronting below freezing weather in your skivvies and jumping into a slightly less cold pool. It kick-starts your heart, makes your bones jump and fills your lungs with the breath of a dragon. Swimming is a natural pastime in Iceland,...
My birthday falls two days before Christmas. It is on December 23, the eve of Christmas Eve. My mom left the hospital immediately after I was born to come home to take care of her five other kids and create the magical Christmas they expected to have. Growing up, Christmas was always a very enchanting time in our household....
When we visit a new place, we love living as the locals do - participating in local customs, eating the native foods, walking through their neighborhoods, and everything else. When we came to Iceland for Christmas, we wanted to have an Icelandic Christmas. We wanted to eat skate on Þorláksmessa, (dish of putrefying shark), and reindeer on Christmas. We...
