This was my second trip to Iceland and I went to many places I have been before. The difference, now was winter!
Well if you thought it is super cold up there – wrong. Maybe in the mountains but the coast is under the influence of the golf current. Temperatures were the same as in Germany that time, around -5 to +5 degrees.
The first days we spend around the Golden Circle – Gullfoss, Strokkur Geysir and Thingvellir National Park. It was nice to see everyting in snow, but I was surprised of how many people where around in winter. And many of them – especially Asian – without winter gear…
The other days we spent at the South Coast. For visiting Seljalandsfoss (waterfall) it was good to have spikes for the shoes. Super slippery. The plane wreck was some sort of insider thing some years back. Now there is a big marked track going there an many people are visiting the plane. Very dissapointing.
We continued our trip down the coast to Vik to the famous beach. Next National Park was Skaftafell. I have not seen Svartifoss (waterfall) so we hiked there (again good to have spikes) and also visited 2 gaciers. From now on the good weather turned bad. A big storm was coming with wind speeds up to 11. At the famous glacier lagoon Jökulsarlon there was no ice anymore. Everyting blown away. Also the ice at black beach got minimized by the storm. 2 days we were basically sitting in the car and once every 1-2 hours it cleard a little and we could ran out of the car, took some pictures, and back in.
At least the last day the weather got better again when we drove back. At the lookout and lighthouse called Dyrholaey close to Vik the storm was still strong. The night we stayed directly at Skogafoss (waterfall). I managed to do some pictures in the monrning without people also we went to Seljalandsfoss again. Most of the ice melted, but still some left for the pictures.
Sadly again we were not so lucky with the polar lights. A little greenish for the camera… Well we need to come again ;). Iceland is absolutly worth a visit in wintertime.
