Iceland

Don’t ask what possessed us to visit Iceland in November. We couldn’t tell you. What we can tell you is that it was one of the best trips of our lives. English seems to lack sufficient adjectives to properly describe Iceland’s beauty. It’s a raw, ever-changing, breathtakingly beautiful landscape. Fire and ice? You bet.

Our road trip started and ended in Reykjavik, following the Ring Road (Iceland Route 1) counterclockwise around the island. It was a visceral experience. Iceland is not meant to be described, but felt, heard, and even tasted. We felt the steam from erupting geysers. We heard the roar of water as it gushed over the side of a waterfall. We felt the icy blast of wind from the surface of the island’s many glaciers. We heard and felt the crunch of our crampons digging into the ancient ice of Europe’s largest ice cap. We tasted skyr, the delicious local yogurt, and bread that had been baked underground by volcanic heat. And we experienced the unending kindness of the Icelandic people.

It is a country unlike any other I’ve been to, and it is no longer a question of if I’ll return, but when.