Iceland & London 2024
First: getting to Iceland…with a canceled flight.
Let’s start the night before take off. Kip and I were on our way to a dinner party with friends when we got the demolishing alert from British Airways our flight for tomorrow afternoon leaving from Denver was canceled. Yikes.
I am a travel freak when it comes to flights, flights are the only thing I need to go right, otherwise, my standards and usual ways of travel are all over the board. Anyways, Kip is calm and collected while I am well freaking out a little bit. We can’t go 3 days later like they were suggesting, half our trip would be over by then…Denver was only going to get more dumped on by snow.
We had an idea; let’s fly out of Phoenix, right now. We immediately requested a refund from British Airways (which bit us in the ass later..) It was currently then 9 pm, we bought a flight for 10 am out of Phoenix for the next day. Phoenix is 7 hours away…..So we had our dinner party and Kip and I hit the road at 11 pm to drive straight 7 hours to Phoenix. I found a hotel that would let us park my car and shuttle us to the airport, perfect.
ROADTRIP TIME!!!
Fueled up on Celcius, chex mix, and determination. We arrived in Phoenix around 6:30 am, parked the car, and took an hour nap in the parking lot. Kip was zonked. We boarded the shuttle a little after 7:30 and did all the airport things to be ready at our gate for the 10 am flight. Here we go flight from Phoenix to New Ark NJ, layover there, layover again in Frankfurt Germany, then FINALLY landed in Iceland. We shuttled from the Reykavik airport to pick up our Subie crosstrek we rented (what other car would college kids from Colorado drive)….got to our hostel and almost collapsed. We did the math and we were up for over 50 hours….
South Coast Rundown: our favorites.
Gullfoss
This was our first stop, but Gullfoss was just the beginning of jaw-dropping falls to come. Just an introduction on the ring road to what Iceland had to offer.
Skógafoss
This is the all-famous “I am Iceland” waterfall. It did not disappoint. The true immensity of this flowing water seriously took our breath away. We visited one day at about midday and decided to come back EARLY to beat the tour busses to get some sick shots. The second day we came back, it was lightly snowing and it truly was a magical morning. There is a quick hike you can do which gives views of the top of the falls, all uphill stairs, our Colorado lungs came in clutch. This waterfall was mystical and full of life. Truly a must-see on the South Coast of Iceland.
Reynisfjara black sand beach
If you are looking for a beach day look no further. Reynisfjara beach is fully black sand and shaped with incredible standing jagged rock faces and surfaces that will blow you away. It is said that this beach is one of the most dangerous beaches in the world, and I believe it. The size of the waves crashing on shore was so unpredictable, that the waves almost swallowed Kip’s camera and tripod….
Solheimasandur plane wreck.
This was a 4-mile roundtrip trek down to the beach to view this oddity. A 1973 Navy DC plane washed up onshore, another must-see. You can climb inside and on top of the old plane making the curious mind wonder how it is still so intact.
Yoda Cave
A hidden gem, this cave is so uniquely shaped like Yoda and we couldn’t get enough of it. As Star Wars filled my filled my childhood, this cave filled up my heart.
Diamond beach and Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon
These two unique features are right next to each other. The Jökulsárlón Glacier lagoon is a pristine baby blue lagoon containing poised glaciers. Now, being from Minnesota have never seen a Glacier before, and my jaw was on the ground.
Side note: As humans on this Earth, we have a large duty to appreciate and protect such environments. I am beyond lucky I was able to see a Glacier in my lifetime. If we do not do our part and hold politicians and large companies accountable, future generations to come will not have the luxury to witness such beauty within nature.
Thank you, back to our regular scheduled program….
Glacier Lagoon’s glaciers as they break down flow under the bridge and into the ocean. They recirculate and brake down even more and wash back up on shore to form the infamous “diamond beach”. If you are brave enough (like Kip always is) you can weave your way through the maze stand upon the larger diamonds in the ruff and test your intuition as the waves crash all around you. My boot got wet once or twice, or four times.
Within the Glacier Lagoon, you can take kayaking tours (which was not in the budget, but go for it if you can please) Parking can be scarce at times so plan. Kip and I were fascinated by the forming of the diamond beach from the glaciers present just upstream in the Lagoon, crazy beautiful how nature works.
Skaftafall Glacier Hike & Svartifoss
In the spirit of Glaciers, Kip and I took on this hike to see Svartifoss waterfall and Skaftafall glacier all in one. This hike started not raining, it was just a little humid not too bad. Then, Iceland waved its little magic weather wand and we were stuck in a downpour and horrendous wind for the rest of the hike. BUT we were prepared, I am not going to school in Adventure Education for nothing folks. Again, Glaciers are truly astonishing forms of nature and I was in disbelief. Svartifoss Falls is so crazily formed. Once molten volcanic rock now an amazing rigid falls, it catches the eye.
Overall.
Iceland was just wow. There were so many things that took place on the trip that were not mentioned, sadly I can only write a short highlight reel. This trip was immersive, astonishing, and unique.
The physical landscape of Iceland will boggle anyone’s mind, let alone a born and raised Midwesterner like myself. The weather is of HIGH honorable mention. Kip and I joke that we only saw the sun 4 times, but sadly that is true we did only see if 4 times. There was constant rain, drizzle, hail, snow, wind you name it everything. I only took my rain pants and coat off to sleep, seriously. The gore-tex is no more on my hiking boots, it’s toast. Nonetheless, the weather had nothing on us, because WE WERE IN ICELAND!!!!
We would 100% return in the summer and do a full road trip like originally planned just in the summer. Possibly there’s a ring road bike packing trip in the cards for Kip in the near future. I can not imagine what Iceland would be like in the Summer if we loved it that much in the harsh weather we visited it in.
Iceland, we loved you.
London, England
We hopped on a quick Easy Jet flight over to London. We arrived at the airport at 12:30am. The flight over had Kip in a weird sickness chokehold, I was quite concerned for him. I ordered an uber (which Kip almost threw up in) and we got to our hostel around 1am. There was a huge line at check-in, (at 1am???) but hey patience is key.
Full 7 hours of sleep then we hit the city. We only had one full day here we were determined to make the most of it. Kip is obsessed with Strava, and he tracked our endeavors for the day and we walked over 12 miles around London!
The only thing planned we had was the England vs Brazil game at 7 pm. Kip had mentioned to me while planning this trip mainly to Iceland, if we could just pop over to London and watch a footy game. Why not?
We started the day seeing Big Ben, the Borough Market, Tower Bridge, London Bridge, the House of Parliament, Hyde Park and so much more. Kip loved the guards with he tall feather hats walking around, little boy's dream came true to see that, he was geeking. I don’t even remember eating lunch, I know we did…we had lots to see in a very very short period of time.
The Football game was so fun. We were packed like sardines in the metro with all the fellow English football fans to Wembley stadium. People were chanting, singing all banding together for the upcoming game. We got some street food on the way up to the stadium and grabbed our seats. I had never been to any game like this, let alone watched a full football game….sorry Kip. Seeing Kip and all the other fans enjoying it so much was a great introduction to the game for me. 100% would do it again. Brazil scored one goal about halfway through and that was it. Brazil won, and we pretended to be sad English folk on our way back home. Sad and ready to get a pint at the pub….:(
Overall
We are glad we stopped over for a total of about 38 hours in London. It was worth it. I would definitely love to spend way more time exploring, but for what time we had we made the most of it:)
Don’t worry, we do actually make it to Iceland.
Kip and I at 11 pm ready to pull our all-nighter drive to Phoenix….my roommate Emma insisted on taking a pic, thanks Emma.
Kip and the Subie <3
Reykjavik rainbow street
Kip scouting a shot
Stunning horses, they were everywhere!
Rainbow!
Rural Icelandic church
Ominous coast
thank you Iceland.
Big Ben
England vs Brazil, Kip was living his footy dream
