• The northernmost capitalReykjavík, at about 64°08′ N, is the world’s northernmost capital of a sovereign state. Its name means “Smoky Bay,” coined by Ingólfur Arnarson, Iceland’s first permanent settler, in the 9th century.
• Heated from undergroundNearly 90% of buildings in Iceland are heated with geothermal water. Reykjavík’s hot water is piped in from fields such as Nesjavellir and Hellisheiði.

Sources: Life in Norway: Reykjavik facts

• Harpa: a glass honeycombHarpa opened in 2011 and was designed by Henning Larsen Architects with the artist Ólafur Elíasson, who designed the façade. Its coloured glass panels are inspired by Iceland’s basalt landscape, and 714 LED lights let the façade play video. It cost about €164 million and won the EU’s Mies van der Rohe Award in 2013.
• Eleven women, one shopKirsuberjatréð (“the Cherry Tree”) at Vesturgata 4 is run by eleven women artists. They sell local ceramics, jewelry, lamps and fish-skin bags, many made from driftwood or upcycled textiles.
• The harbor, in glass, 44 metres longThe mosaic on the Customs House is by the sculptor and stained-glass artist Gerður Helgadóttir (1928–1975). Finished in 1973, it was the largest mosaic in Iceland, about 44 m long and 4.5 m high. It shows scenes from Reykjavík’s harbor: old sailing ships set against industrial machinery, with a rising sun among them. The glass was made by the German firm Oidtmann Brothers, and the “T” and Icelandic flag near the right-hand end stand for the Customs House (Tollhúsið) itself.

Sources: Wikipedia: Harpa Afar: Kirsuberjatréð Wikipedia: Gerður Helgadóttir Grapevine: the harbor mural Photo caption: size and maker

• About 50 km from the cityThe airport sits roughly 50 km southwest of Reykjavík and about 3 km west of the town of Keflavík. The main road out is Reykjanesbraut (Route 41).
• A very old road, newly widenedThe first road to Keflavík was finished in 1912. A new paved road followed in 1960–65, with a toll to pay for it until 1972. The non-urban stretch became a dual carriageway between 2003 and 2008.
• Built for a warThe US military built the airfield during the Second World War, replacing a small British strip at Garður. Meeks Field opened on 23 March 1943, and the airport still sits on that site. US forces returned under a 1951 defence agreement, and the base finally closed in 2006.
• Named for LeifThe civilian terminal that opened in 1987 is the Leif Erikson Air Terminal, named for the Norse explorer thought to be the first European to reach North America. It has a neat echo a few kilometres from here: the footbridge between continents is also called the Leif the Lucky Bridge.
• A restless peninsulaThe ground you cross here has erupted repeatedly since 2021. A Visit Reykjanes update from December 2023 counted four eruptions in three years, with the airport running normally and Reykjanesbraut open. That is a snapshot from then, so check current conditions before you visit.

Sources: Wikipedia: Keflavík Airport Gray Line: history of Keflavík Airport Wikipedia: Route 41 Visit Reykjanes: eruption update (Dec 2023)

• 15 metres across a riftThe footbridge, built in 2002 at Sandvík on the Reykjanes Peninsula, spans a fissure where the Eurasian and North American plates are pulling apart. It’s also called the Leif the Lucky Bridge.
• Still wideningOne source says the gap grows by about 2.5 cm a year. Sources vary on the exact rate, so treat any single figure with care.
• A certificate for crossingAfter crossing, visitors can collect a personalised certificate at the Reykjanes information center or the Reykjanes Geopark visitor center.

Sources: Adventures.is: Bridge Between Continents

• A parliament since 930Iceland’s Althing was founded here in 930 AD and met at Þingvellir until 1798. The Lawspeaker recited the laws aloud from Lögberg, the Law Rock.
• You’re standing in a riftAlmannagjá, the largest fault here, is a “veritable canyon” on the line where the North American and Eurasian plates pull apart. Sources quote the widening anywhere from a few millimetres to about 2.5 cm a year, so treat any single number with care.
• Iceland’s biggest natural lakeÞingvallavatn covers roughly 84 km² and reaches about 114 m deep. Nearby Silfra is fed by glacial water filtered through lava from Langjökull for decades, holding 2–4 °C, with visibility divers quote at 70–100+ m.
• Official recognitionThe national park was created in 1930 for the Althing’s 1,000th anniversary, and Þingvellir became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004.

Sources: Wikipedia: Þingvellir Gray Line Iceland Troll.is

• Twenty-four hours in the groundAt Laugarvatn, the best-known place for this, dough is sealed in a buttered pot, buried about 30 cm deep in black sand heated by water of around 95 °C, and left for about 24 hours. A big stone marks each pot. The long, low heat gives the bread (hverabrauð) a dense, sweet, cake-like texture.
• Old trick, new businessLaugarvatn has used geothermal heat for cooking and heating for at least a century. Siggi Rafn Hilmarsson learned the recipe from his grandmother and opened Laugarvatn Fontana, a spa and bakery, in 2011.
• How to eat itWarm, sliced and buttered, often with smoked lake trout.

Sources: Atlas Obscura: Iceland’s hot-spring bread Tasting Table: Iceland’s 24-hour underground bread

• Every geyser is named after this oneThe English word “geyser” comes from Geysir, which comes from the Icelandic verb geysa, “to go quickly forward” (to gush).
• Older than it looksGeologists think Great Geysir began forming around 1150 CE. The oldest solid written accounts date to 1294, and the name itself first appears in writing in 1647.
• Strokkur is the reliable oneAbout 50 m south of Great Geysir, Strokkur blasts up to 35 m every few minutes. It was first described in 1789. Its conduit gets close to boiling at only about 13 m down.
• Earthquakes and soapEarthquakes in 2000 woke Great Geysir up: it reached about 122 m for two days. In 1981 the drainage ditch was cleared, and for a while eruptions were coaxed on special occasions by adding soap. Environmental worries meant that was seldom done by the 1990s.

Sources: Wikipedia: Geysir

• Two drops, 32 metresAfter a curved three-step staircase, the Hvítá river plunges in two stages, 11 m and then 21 m, for 32 m in all.
• A canyon sideways to the riverThe crevice below is about 32 m deep, 20 m wide and 2.5 km long, and runs perpendicular to the river’s flow, which is why the water seems to vanish.
• Serious volumeAverage flow is about 141 m³/s in summer and 80 m³/s in winter. The largest measured flood was about 2,000 m³/s.
• The woman who “saved” itSigríður Tómasdóttir is popularly credited with saving the falls from foreign hydropower schemes, reportedly even threatening to throw herself into them. A memorial stone above the falls carries her profile. The falls were sold to the Icelandic state and protected as a conservation site in 1979.

Sources: Wikipedia: Gullfoss

• A closed club since 982Norse settlers brought horses to Iceland in the 9th century (sources say roughly 860–935 AD). In 982 the Althing, the same parliament founded at Þingvellir in 930, banned importing any other horses. A horse that leaves Iceland is never allowed back, so Princess’s breed has been isolated for more than a thousand years.
• Five gaitsBesides walk, trot and gallop, Icelandic horses have the tölt, a smooth four-beat gait with at least one hoof always on the ground, and the skeið, or flying pace, reportedly up to 48 km/h. Icelanders joke that the tölt exists so riders can drink beer without spilling it.
• Horse or pony?They stand about 13–14 hands, which technically puts them near pony territory (under 14.2 hands). Icelanders call them horses anyway, by tradition. Don’t argue with Princess about it.
• Built for weatherThey live outdoors all year; the coat thickens for winter and sheds in spring. One source counts about 80,000 horses in Iceland against roughly 350,000 people.

Sources: Nordical Reykjavik Excursions

• On the Sog riverHótel Grímsborgir, part of Keahotels, sits on the bank of the Sog (Sogið) in the Grímsnes area, about 70 km east of Reykjavík.
• A good base for the Golden CircleÞingvellir, Gullfoss and Geysir are each roughly 30–40 minutes away by car. Nearby: Kerið, Brúarfoss and the Reykjadalur hot-spring river.

Sources: Keahotels: location

• 60 metres, one dropThe falls are fed by the Seljalandsá, which originates in the Eyjafjallajökull glacier. A path lets you walk behind the curtain of water into a small cave.
• Famous backdropBjörk’s character walks behind it in the 1990 film The Juniper Tree. It was a waypoint in the first leg of The Amazing Race 6, and it appears in Justin Bieber’s “I’ll Show You” video and briefly in the Star Trek: Discovery season-three premiere.
• Right on the Ring RoadIt sits beside Route 1, at the start of Road 249, which leads inland to Þórsmörk.

Sources: Wikipedia: Seljalandsfoss

• 60 m tall, 25 m wideSkógafoss drops in a single sheet on the Skógá river at the cliff that marks the former coastline. Constant spray often makes a single or double rainbow on sunny days.
• 527 steps and a long trailA staircase of 527 steps climbs to the top. From there the Fimmvörðuháls trail runs between the Eyjafjallajökull and Mýrdalsjökull glaciers to Þórsmörk, and on as the Laugavegur trail to Landmannalaugar.
• The treasure behind the fallsLegend says the area’s first Viking settler, Þrasi Þórólfsson, hid a chest of treasure in a cave behind the falls. Locals once glimpsed the chest but managed to grab only its ring before it vanished. The ring was fixed to the church door and is now in the Skógar Museum.
• Screen timeFilmed for Thor: The Dark World and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (both 2013), and it shows up in Vikings (season 5) and the final season of Game of Thrones.

Sources: Wikipedia: Skógafoss

• Small, remote, and wetVík í Mýrdal is the southernmost village in Iceland, about 180 km from Reykjavík and the largest settlement for roughly 70 km around. It gets about 2,250 mm of rain a year, around three times Reykjavík and the wettest coastal town in Iceland.
• Living under KatlaVík lies south of Mýrdalsjökull, the glacier sitting on the Katla volcano, which last erupted in 1918. An eruption could send a flood large enough to destroy the town, and the hilltop church is believed to be the only building that would survive. Residents might have about 15 minutes to reach it.
• Trolls at ReynisfjaraLegend says two trolls tried to drag a three-masted ship ashore and were caught by sunrise, turning to the Reynisdrangar sea stacks. The black-sand beach was ranked among the ten most beautiful non-tropical beaches in 1991 and is part of the Katla UNESCO Global Geopark.
• Heads-up: sneaker wavesReynisfjara’s waves can surge far up the beach without warning. Between 2007 and 2024 there were at least twelve serious rescues and five deaths, with a sixth death in August 2025. The cave and basalt columns now close during Red Warnings, and Wikipedia reports that part of the columns collapsed in February 2026. Never turn your back on the sea.

Sources: Wikipedia: Vík Wikipedia: Reynisfjara Wikipedia: Reynisdrangar

• “Church farm cloister”Kirkjubæjarklaustur (locals say simply “Klaustur”) is a village of about 200, around 245 km from Reykjavík. Irish monks lived here before the Norse settlers arrived, and a Benedictine convent stood from the 12th century until the Reformation in 1550.
• Named for an eruptionThe hotel’s bistro, Bistro 1783, is named for the 1783 Laki eruption: a 27 km fissure with about 130 craters, which left a lava field of roughly 565 km².
• On the doorstepSystrafoss falls from the lake Systravatn above the village. A few kilometres away, the Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon is about 100 m deep and 2 km long, and the Kirkjugólf basalt “church floor” covers about 80 m².

Sources: Magma Hotel Adventures.com: Kirkjubæjarklaustur

• A roof you can walk onSkaftárstofa is the Vatnajökull National Park visitor centre for the area, at Sönghóll beside the Ring Road. The architects were Arkís arkitektar; it opened in early 2024. The turf roof was cut on site and can be walked on for views, and the eaves are clad in weathering (Corten) steel, which is why it glows rust-red.
• Current exhibitionA newer exhibition called “Life with Nature” has opened here. The park lists opening hours of 9:00–17:00 from 1 October 2026, so check before a winter visit.
• Why moss gets its own displayThe exhibit label in photo 6519 says woolly fringe-moss (Racomitrium lanuginosum) is among the first plants to colonise lowland lava and pumice fields, and dominates the wet Laki lava lowlands. That is the green carpet you drive through around here.
• Systrafoss behind the villageThe waterfall on the hill is likely Systrafoss, which drops from the lake Systravatn above Klaustur (see yesterday’s stop at Magma).

Sources: Vatnajökull National Park: Skaftárstofa e-architect: Vatnajökull National Park Visitor Centre

• Why turf?Icelanders built with turf for over 1,000 years. Timber was scarce (only about 30% of the island was forested at settlement, mostly birch) and turf insulates better than wood or stone alone. Corrugated-iron-clad wooden houses gradually replaced them in the 20th century, which is why a sod-roofed hut like this one is now a relic.
• Moss on a 1783 lava flowThe soft green blanket over much of this region sits on lava from the 1783 Laki eruption (a 27 km fissure with about 130 craters and a lava field of roughly 565 km², see Magma). The mosses colonised it first, and still smooth every sharp edge.

Sources: Wikipedia: Icelandic turf house Adventures.com: Kirkjubæjarklaustur

• The bridge that was brokenIn 1996 an eruption at Grímsvötn under Vatnajökull sent a glacial outburst flood (jökulhlaup) across the plain. Ice blocks and water wrecked the Skeiðará bridge, and the twisted girders left beside the road are the memorial. Wikipedia says the bridge was quickly restored; the new one is 904 m, Iceland’s longest, and has carried the Ring Road since 1974.
• A plain made of glacierSkeiðarársandur is an outwash plain: glacial rivers have laid down an estimated 100–200 km³ of sediment over the Holocene, and the coast here runs for about 56 km.

Sources: Wikipedia: Skeiðarársandur Atlas Obscura: Skeiðará Bridge Monument

• How the ice arrivesIce calves from Breiðamerkurjökull into the Jökulsárlón lagoon, drifts through a short channel toward the Atlantic, and some of it washes back up on the beach instead, where wind and waves polish it into “jewels”.
• Easy to find, hard to predictThe beach is across Route 1 from the lagoon, a walk of about 5 to 10 minutes, and your lagoon parking ticket covers both. Tides and weather move the ice, so no two days look the same.

Sources: Live Science: Diamond Beach Guide to Iceland: Jökulsárlón

• A very young lagoonIt began forming around 1934–35 as Breiðamerkurjökull retreated, and has roughly quadrupled in area since the mid-1970s. NASA’s Landsat time series from 1985 to 2025 shows the glacier in rapid retreat, with warm North Atlantic water flowing into the basin and speeding up melting.
• Then and now (Drew)We first came in 2013–14. There was no parking lot then, and the “facilities” were a couple of container offices and some tents. Today it is a full visitor site with a car park, buildings and paths, and it feels very different.
• Iceland’s deepest lakeDepth figures vary by source, from about 250 m to about 285 m. It is expected to keep growing and may eventually become a fjord.
• Busy timesGuides name June to August and November to January as peak seasons, with summer crowds heaviest between 11:00 and 16:00. Zodiac and amphibious tours run from 1 May to 31 October, so the boat in our photos was among the last of the season.

Sources: Wikipedia: Jökulsárlón NASA: The receding Breiðamerkurjökull Guide to Iceland: Jökulsárlón

• Thirteen lads, one a nightOver dinner we learned about the Yule Lads (Jólasveinarnir). There are thirteen of them; the first, Stekkjastaur (Sheep-Cote Clod), comes on 12 December and one more arrives each night until Kertasníkir (Candle Beggar) on Christmas Eve. Children leave a shoe on the windowsill and wake to a small gift.
• Their parents, and the catThe Lads are the sons of the ogres Grýla and Leppalúði. The folklore also includes the Yule Cat, a huge beast said to eat anyone who has not received new clothes by Christmas Eve.
• Where we sleptLilja Guesthouse is at Hólabrekka 2, near Höfn in Hornafjörður, about 64.30° N, 15.42° W.

Sources: National Museum of Iceland: The Yule Lads South Iceland: Lilja Guesthouse

• VatnajökullVatnajökull is Europe’s largest ice cap by volume, and the Ring Road runs along its southern edge, past many of the outlet glaciers that flow from it.
• Glacier tonguesEach “tongue” is an outlet glacier: ice that has flowed down from the ice cap through a valley. Most in this stretch are slowly retreating.

Sources: Wikipedia: Vatnajökull

• Built 1884Hofskirkja was built in 1884, dedicated to St. Clement, and is the last turf church built in the traditional style. It is one of six turf churches still standing in Iceland.
• Still in useIt is cared for by the National Museum of Iceland and is still a parish church.

Sources: Amusing Planet: The last turf church of Hof

• One eruptionEldhraun covers about 565 km² and came from the Laki eruption, which ran from 8 June 1783 to February 1784.
• Please don’t step on itThe woolly fringe-moss that carpets the lava is fragile. Footprints can take around a century to recover, so staying on the road and paths matters.
• Astronaut trainingApollo astronauts trained in Iceland in the 1960s, and lava fields like this were part of the reason.

Sources: Iceland Tours: Eldhraun lava field

• A murder, and a chase to the seaHjörleifur Hróðmarsson came to Iceland with his blood brother Ingólfur Arnarson and settled here, bringing Irish slaves with him. In the winter of about 875, they killed his only ox and blamed a bear. When he and his men went to hunt it, the slaves attacked and killed them all, then took the women and fled by boat to the islands off the coast. Ingólfur found the bodies, buried Hjörleifur on the summit, and hunted the killers down on those islands.
• Why they are the “Westman” IslandsNorse settlers called Irishmen “Vestmenn”, the Westmen, because Ireland lay to the west. The islands where the slaves were caught became Vestmannaeyjar, the Westman Islands, and the name has stuck ever since. This is the saga story as retold by the sources below, so treat the details as legend.
• Katla’s sandA fjord once lay beside the headland. Glacial floods from the Katla volcano have since filled the area with black sand and buried the traces of earlier farms, though ruins of one remain on top.
• The caveThe cave in the cliff is known to visitors as the “Yoda Cave”.

Sources: Guide to Iceland: Hjörleifshöfði Guide to Iceland: The Westman Islands Wikipedia: Mýrdalssandur

• Built to survive KatlaVíkurkirkja was begun in 1931 and consecrated in 1934. It sits on a hillside and is the designated evacuation point if the Katla volcano sends a glacial flood down.
• Same architect as HallgrímskirkjaIt was designed by Guðjón Samúelsson, who also designed Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavík.

Sources: Guide to Iceland: Vík í Mýrdal church

• Southernmost pointDyrhólaey is the southernmost point of the Icelandic mainland. The light station was established in 1910 and the present 13 m lighthouse was built in 1927. The site is open but the tower is not.
• Nature reserveThe headland has been a nature reserve since 1978, and the site has signs about nesting birds.

Sources: Wikipedia: Dyrhólaey Lighthouse

Sources: South Iceland: Stracta Hotel

• Hellisheiði Power StationIt produces about 303 MW of electricity and 200 MW of heat from the Hengill volcanic area, and opened in 2006.
• Carbon to stoneCarbfix pumps dissolved CO₂ into basalt, where it turns to rock, and the Climeworks plant captures it from the air nearby.

Sources: Wikipedia: Hellisheiði Power Station

• Where the colours come fromYellow and orange are sulphur, red is iron oxide, and the blue-grey is clay stained by pyrite.
• Mined for sulphurSulphur was mined here until the 1880s. Today a boardwalk keeps visitors off the hot ground.

Sources: Wikipedia: Seltún Hot Springs

• A windy nameOur guide’s full name is Johann Kari Ivarsson. Kári means “wind” (“gust of wind”, as Johann puts it), and in Norse legend Kári is the wind personified, a son of the giant Fornjót. His brothers are Hlér, the sea (also called Ægir), and Logi, fire.
• PylsurThe classic order is “eina með öllu”, one with everything. Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur opened in 1937, and its dogs use a mix that includes Icelandic lamb.
• EsjaMount Esja, across the bay from Reykjavík, is the city’s landmark mountain. The dog’s name is spelled from memory, so check it.

Sources: Wikipedia: Fornjót Guide to Iceland: Bæjarins Beztu Guide to Iceland: Esjan

• Hot-water tanksPerlan opened on 21 June 1991, built on top of six hot-water tanks.
• The ice caveThe indoor ice cave is about 100 m long and was made from roughly 400 tons of ice, snow and ash.

Sources: Wikipedia: Perlan