After leaving from Raleigh on a direct flight, we landed in Iceland the next day! Alex and I were awake for the majority of the six hour flight, but the kids were able to sleep a bit. We landed at 6am Iceland time. We found breakfast at the airport and waited for our RV company to pick us up. After getting our RV, we drove to a grocery store to pick up food and a home store to grab a few things for the RV. Nearly everyone we interacted with spoke English in Iceland. The money is krona, but the majority of places accept credit card. We had planned a two week road trip around the Ring Road, a road that encircles the entire island. The Ring Road is 820 miles. We added in a trip around the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, a trip out to the Westman Islands and a trip into the highlands.
About three weeks before our trip, Litli-Hrutur began erupting near the airport in Iceland. We had made plans to take a small plane to fly over the eruption site as it was a twelve mile hike to see it on the ground. Unfortunately, the weather was poor the day we arrived so they had to cancel our flight after delaying an hour. Further, the volcano stopped erupting later that day. Bad luck, but I was able to grab a quick nap during the delay.
First chocolate milk in Iceland!
After the canceled volcano plans, we drove to our ambitious first hike. It was supposed to be a four mile round trip to a natural hot spring. Stupidly, I didn't pack our rain gear as it was dry when we started walking. It began to rain and continued to get heavier throughout our hike. We were soaked and the kids were freezing and exhausted. Alex decided to turn around with the kids and I carried on to see the hot spring. The hot spring was amazing, but I didn't end up getting in.
The hike started off beautifully!
There are more sheep than people in Iceland, which has a population of 370,000. The sheep were everywhere!
Reykjadalur thermal river! I was too cold and wet to get in by myself.
After the failed volcano visit and hike, we drove on to our first campsite. We saw our first rainbow on the way.
Our campsite was beautiful!
We brought a few toys for the kids to play with.
Goodnight! The sun set around 1030pm and rose around 4am. This was a considerable amount of darkness compared to twenty-four hours of light in July. I had brought eye masks to help us sleep, but our RV had great shades so we didn't need them. The kids and I slept great in the RV. Alex didn't love his bed as much.
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