Iceland The Land Of Boiling Mud And Icebergs

Iceland is a fascinating country and somewhere that everyone should visit at least once in their lifetime to experience the diversity of landscapes in such a small area. From glaciers and icebergs to volcanoes geysers and hot springs, dust plains to lava flows, 24 hour daylight to brilliant displays of the northern lights (Aurora Borealis), waterfalls and rivers, Iceland has it all and much more.

You can download pictures of Iceland and see videos at The Holiday Directory. The population of Iceland in the year 2000 was 283,000 (just over 1/4 million) compared to UK 59,000,000 (59 million)
Iceland total area 39,700 square miles compared to UK 153,000 square miles.
Most of the population lives in the capital leaving the rest of the country fairly sparsely populated. This is swollen by tourists throughout the year as both the long dark days of winter and the long light days of summer both have their tourist attractions.

Iceland's international Keflavik airport is located at the west of the country approximately 45 minutes drive from the capital city Reykjavik. Although the main city, compared to European cities it is more like a large town and has far less traffic.

In a short 10 day stay in June/July 2008 we saw all of the attractions mentioned above but missed many more sites shown in the brochures because we only had time to tour the east and south coast. June is the best time to go for the long daylight hours as the sun only drops below the horizon for a couple of hours which means the light level never falls below dusk and then only for a short time. This is a very strange experience when you first you encounter it. Our flight touched down at Keflavik airport at about 12.00pm and we watched the sun go down below the horizon as we made our way to the taxi. We arrived at the hotel in Reykjavik in under an hour and at 1:00am I was on the roof of the hotel taking photographs of the moon over the city. It was just so weird.

Trying to get to sleep could possibly be quite difficult but the hotels we visited had thick curtains to keep out the constant light so it wasnt a problem.

Driving in Iceland.

In Iceland you drive on the right hand side of the road and by law you must ALWAYS drive with your dipped headlights switched on, even in the daytime. You can of course switch them to main beam in the dark. A surprising number of nationals seem to drive around with only one light working so I assume the police don't bother too much as long as one is working. Hopefully they get fixed when long days turn into long nights. Compared to driving in the Uk, driving in Iceland is a dream, the roads are almost empty.

There is a road which circumnavigates the whole of the country, this is designated road number 1 and although it sometimes goes inland, it often follows the coast and from it can be seen fantastic sea and mountain views. Although this is the main road around the country it is just wide enough for two cars. Dual carriageways are almost unknown as the volume of traffic doesn't warrant the building of them. The only dual carriageways I saw were between Reykjavik and Keflavic airport and in Reykjavik city itself. Road number 1 was at the time of visiting (2008) a very good road with the majority being smooth tarmac.