First Trip to Europe Part 1- Iceland

This was our family’s first trip to Europe and we covered a fair amount of ground in 13 days. I am going to break up my posts by country so that individuals can read what they are interested in without having to go through everything! Some quick background, we are a family of 4 (mom, dad and 2 boys ages 10 and 8) who live in WV but dad commutes to Washington DC everyday so that we can enjoy our beautiful life out here. We flew out of Dulles on Icelandair sitting in economy plus. This was more money but well worth it to us as my husband is over 6’4” and does not fit in economy class at all. Seeing him have a panic attack after being squeezed between two other passengers on a previoust flight made this a smart choice on our part and we all were much more relaxed because of it.

On landing we picked up our rental car from the airport and drove to the START Hostel which was 10 minutes down the road. Iceland is fairly expensive and this hostel had great family rooms, incredibly clean and comfortable. When we first drove up I was a little concerned as the outside looked a little barren and not particularly inviting, but I was happily proven wrong. We knew we were not interested in seeing Reykjavik and wanted to be close to the airport because we would be leaving very early in the morning in two days and this worked out well. The next morning, we talked to the staff, found out how to get to the nearest grocery store (less than 5 minutes away) for breakfast and to pack a picnic lunch. Then we were on the road! Our goal was to drive part of the Golden Circle, particularly Thingvellir National Park and Geysers. I cannot recommend these places enough especially if you have kids who enjoy nature. At Thingvellir we literally got to see and stand on the 2 continental plates of North America and Europe (The North American plate is a long dark wall of rock that is moving apart from Europe at 2 cm a year. They are farther apart than you would realize (think a drive rather than a short walk) but it is all within the park. There is also a lot of cultural history at this place and just gorgeous. We spent half a day here and enjoyed so much. We then ate our picnic lunch with stunning views and drove another hour to see Geysers! This place is not a national park and indeed when you drive up you initially think “this is it?” It is on the side of the road with a lot of tourist shops/ hotels right next to it. You smell the sulfur right away from the hot springs. The water on the ground is at 90 to 120 degrees Celsius and easily accessible (only a rope block off) to either very dumb individuals or very little children. Just a heads up to those moms out there  My boys loved this place they spent over an hour and a half watching Strokker erupt every 8-10 minutes. The videos I have of them reacting to the eruptions are priceless. The hills surrounding the springs and geysers were covered in gorgeous purple flowers and made a great photo opp. June is an excellent month to go to Iceland. We then drove back to where our hostel was (2.25 hours away) and ate dinner at a local seafood shop. The shop sold fresh fish to locals but would also cook it up for you and had 2 tables. It was excellent and I ate a fish called tusk that I had never had before. We went to bed early as we had a 7 am flight the next day to Paris and we were planning on leaving the hostel by 4:30. Checkout and returning the car was a breeze and honestly we could have waited longer to get to the airport and I would have appreciated that extra 30 minutes of rest. The people of Iceland are wonderful. It is an incredibly beautiful and clean country (in terms of trash and in terms of environmental quality). I loved seeing how excited everyone was for the Euros coming up and I hope to spend time here in the future.