After a 7 hour overnight flight, we landed in Iceland at 9:30 a.m. local time (2:30 a.m. Pacific Time). Standing outside waiting for our rental car shuttle, we were immediately thankful we all updated our wardrobes to arctic gear – there is a constant, strong wind here, even in early September. Although a stunningly beautiful country with extremely friendly people, the elements are challenging, resulting in less than 500,000 people who call Iceland home.

We spent our first day travelling around the Golden Circle, a couple hour drive in west Iceland that serves as a great introduction to the country’s natural beauty. On the route we saw from a distance the smoke billowing and sulfur smell from the currently-erupting volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula (not nearly as close, or as hot, as our volcano experience in the Galapagos for those of you that followed our blog earlier this year). We also hiked around, and down in, the Kerid Crater, a small volcanic crater lake surrounded by red volcanic rock that formed 6,500 years ago. The crystal emerald downs waters of Kerid Crater are connected underground with the water of another volcanic lake around 15 minutes away such that when the water level of one increases, the water of the other decreases.

Continuing on the Golden Circle we entered the beautiful Thingvellir National Park – reminiscent of scenes from The Game of Thrones. Thingvellir is home to the only place in the world where you can walk between two continental plates – simultaneously touching North America and Europe. Because the fissure between the two continental plates is getting larger each year (thus why we hear that North America is continuing to move farther from Europe and closer to Asia), the path we walked on is ever-changing and expanding. Our walk was complete with our first waterfalls of Iceland, including the powerful Öxarárfoss. Of course, our return walk was not complete without a rain and wind storm welcoming us to the crazy weather for which Iceland is famous.

For dinner tonight we enjoyed traditional Icelandic lamb stew, smoked lamb flatbread, and local haddock and chips in a quaint bistro. Tomorrow we look forward to spending the day exploring the small city of Reykjavík after a much needed nights rest following the long flight.