Iceland: Northern Lights and Reykjavik City

When the name of a country is Iceland, the perception is that it is in the category which means all ice and no habitation much like maybe Greenland or Antarctica. It could not have been more incorrect.
I realized that over the years when the country came into the travelers radar through various social media and quite a few of my friends visiting. The more interesting fact is that while the whole of Europe shivers over the hostile winter, Iceland is actually the most sought after place to visit, throwing the concept of an off-season out of the window.
Iceland is a place which is flocked by tourists throughout the year with both summer and winter offering some special experiences.
The primary attraction for a winter visit is the viewing of the ‘Northern Lights’ or the Aurora Borealis. And that was exactly the reason why we decided on a winter visit.  One might wonder why would anyone be insane enough to visit a country which has ‘Ice’ in its name itself in the winter but you do not get to see the amazing natural phenomenon in summer.  By the end of the trip though I realized, there was much more to an Icelandic winter than just the Northern Lights. 
Extensive research followed which revealed that we would need to base ourselves at the capital Reykjavik and then book various tours which are across the country. Unless you hire your own car, these tours are mandatory. 

The primary attractions are:
1) Blue Lagoon Spa 
2) The Golden circle tour which take you to natural geysers and hot springs, 
3) Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon
4) Northern Lights

Blue Lagoon Spa, we checked, was all booked by the time we started our planning. You will need to book at least a fortnight in advance.  Due to the very high expenses, we could take only two out of the three remaining options so we opted for the Northern Lights and the Jokulsarlon Glacier trip. In addition we would be walking around Reykjavik city and visit the various landmarks. 
Our flight was from the London Gatwick airport. Once again a long cross country ride we had to take from our residence in Basingstoke which involved changing trains at Farnborough. After a long three hour flight as we started our decent, we got the most gorgeous sight of a never ending white blanket down below. It was almost like a white desert down below where we were about to land. It was hard to believe that in a few minutes, we would be there walking around amidst that ice when from up there it felt as if we have left habitation far behind. 

We arrived at the Keflavik International airport, the main airport of Iceland around 50 Km south west of Reykjavik. We ate something at the restaurant there as we did not want to waste any time deciding where to eat once we hit the city in that sort of a chilly weather.
We booked tickets by Flybus bus service and were soon on our way to the city. As we drove through, it was like a dream. On a bright sunny day, we could see the blue sea on the left and a white blanket on our right till as far as our eye could see. 
Such a place always comes at a high cost. So on our budget, hotel accommodation was next to impossible. Thankfully God gifted us with the ‘airbnb’ concept these days so we were booked in one of them very close to the town center at a very prime location. Our hostess Flory had given us proper directions as per which we got off at Hotel Skuggi stop which was right opposite the place where we were booked.
Now we had the first hand experience of the thick snow on the ground. As we entered the premises of our accommodation, the courtyard was under knee deep snow. My wife had boots but my sports shoes were not meant for such a scenario so I could imagine my wet socks at the end of the day. It was most difficult and dangerous to climb even the three steps as the slightly melted snow made it all the more slippery. My wife, with her boots on, made it look as difficult as the Hillary step at Mount Everest and after some anxious moments we were safely in our room. The place was like a hostel. This was confirmed by our charming hostess Flory who soon arrived to meet us. There would be a common, sharing toilet and a common kitchen at the basement. 
We warmed up for a while, got our shoes and socks somewhat dried up and soon set-off to check out the amazing place with a couple of hours of daylight still left.

It seemed like another Everest-esque adventure to descend and come out of the snow covered court yard on the street. Just a short a walk took us to the sea-side, rather a bayside (The Atlantic making an inroad forming a bay on the north of the city) which provided us the first of the many mesmerizing views we would encounter in the coming days. It was all white mountains on the opposite of the sea. Rather I would say hills. The hills which would be green in summer, now completely white. We learnt that the thickness of the snow was due to a very heavy snowfall three days back on the Sunday. I would say we got lucky as we probably got the best shade of white to view. As the sunset drew closer, the orange hue appeared slowly on the white snow making it all the more spectacular.
In all this excitement, we now realized that we are actually freezing at -4 degrees.
We trekked our way back through the snow into the cosy comfort of our airbnb room in order to get ready for our night adventure aimed at seeing the spectacular Aurora Borealis or the Northern Lights

The Northern Lights
The main reason for us and many others for visiting Iceland in winter was to view this spectacular natural phenomenon where a few charged particles float in the air close to the poles turning the sky into multiple colors just like a laser show created by humans do on earth. We had seen some mesmerizing pictures of skies turning green with dancing lights created by nature. It sure would be magical to view it.  There is always a catch though. One needed full support of the weather to do so. On asked as to when do the lights come on, our guide replied ‘We would let you know as soon as we find the switch’.
You needed an absolutely clear sky which luckily we seemed to be having tonight. We had booked through Viator tours which had a tie-up with ‘Reykjavik Excursions’, the Iceland government’s own service. We sipped coffee and some panninis at Hotel Skuggi before we set-off at 9 PM on what we thought would be a historic journey.
The bus, full of tourists, took us to a place on the outskirts of Reykjavik away from the city lights. There was quite a crowded café over there where we could seek shelter from the cold and have a few sips of hot chocolate. It was close to midnight now but where were the lights? Alas, the only lights we could see were from the flash bulbs of some idiots who for some strange reason thought the flash in the camera would help them capture the Northern Lights. It was not be our night despite having a clear sky. We had little option but to head back.  We had the option of coming on the tour the next day at no extra cost. Of course, we had to.

After a lovely touristy day in cold Reykjavik city, we were all set for a second attempt at viewing the lights, this time with lower expectations. We were taken to a different place which was in the middle of nowhere without any café or any place to take shelter.  This time it looked like surely we would be lucky. I was aware and we were told as well that the photos of the northern lights can be clicked only with certain manual settings on the camera.  We had the best possible camera but were not ready with those settings. I just wondered if the sky is as lit up as shown in the various pictures surely the camera with automatic settings or any phone camera should pick it up.  That was the surprise in store.

The activity soon started in the sky. A white streak, a green tinge, some movements and it soon gave the illusion of dancing lights. But where was THE green color? We could all see something happening but it was nothing like the ones seen on the pictures used to drag tourists. Where was it? Well it was on the camera of the person next to me who was well prepared. So this was the secret of the lights?  To view the lights as we thought we would, we need to look into the camera. That’s where the green is and not up there in the sky.  Personally that was a bit of a dampener for me even though we did see the lights and it was indeed spectacular but what dragged us to the place was only on the camera screen not up in the sky.  I was told by our guide that what we viewed can be rated on a scale of 7 out of 10. I wondered if a perfect 10 would provide us the ‘camera’ view.  I heard from another tourist the next day that you could but for hardly for five to ten seconds.
I clicked a couple of photos on my iPhone 5s and all I saw was a black screen with one faint streak. Surprisingly, when I enriched the photo on Instagram days later it became spectacularly green much like what we see in the pictures. So, Instagram showed me what I could not actually see that day.
Summing it up, if you decide to visit Iceland in winter, Northern Lights should not be the deciding factor. And in case if you visit in summer and not able to view the lights you do not miss anything.

Reykjavik City
Our second day was devoted to walking around the capital city of Reykjavik before we would make one more attempt of viewing the lights.
Staying very close to the city center helped. We managed an English breakfast right at our doorstep and walked towards the sea which we visited the day before. We were once again treated to the breathtaking view of the white hills above the sea which looked even more bold in the bright sunshine.  We walked along what we learnt later was the ‘Sculpture and Sea’ walk as per google maps. We were now close to a glass building which was the Harpa Concert Hall and conference center, which we chose as the perfect place to take shelter from the cold and get some heat on our almost numb limbs. After a bit of warming up we moved away from the sea towards the city center. We first spotted the Arnarholl park and garden which was fully covered in white and which resembled the base of a snow capped hill with a statue at its peak frequented by tourists. We had a bit of fun with the snow over there before moving on. We were now in the pedestrian area of the centre which was full of restaurants, bars and quite a few hot dog joints selling the local favorite Icelandic hot dog.

We crossed the city square ‘Austurvollur’ which was another park with a statue and benches all around and now covered with snow.
Walking further up, we viewed the beautiful sight of a lake fully frozen. It is called the ‘Reykjavikurtjorn‘. A whole group of people were walking around, some skating and some simply enjoying slipping and falling. It provided a beautiful view all around with houses and churches. We spent a bit of a time clicking photos after which we moved on towards our hotel, not before enjoying an Icelandic hot dog. On the way we noticed the most prominent landmark of Reykjavik, the Hallgrimskirkja church which resembled a rocket about to be launched. After hanging out for a while around the church we made our way back to our room in order to get ready to go for the Northern lights tour a second time.