Iceland is a unique country, in that it did not have a prehistoric population. The island was bare of humans until the Vikings arrived in the 9th century. Up until the 20th century the Icelandic people were farmers and fisherman scattered across the island and even the capital had less than 10,000 people in 1910. Independence was gained in 1918 and due to the Marshall Plan after World War 2 the nation prospered and is now one of the wealthier nations in the world. Of the 333,000 people over 250,000 of them now live in the capital of Reykjavik.
Iceland sits on the conversion site of the North American and European tectonic plates just south of the Arctic Circle. Due to the tectonic plates Iceland is continuously threatened by volcanic activity. The good news is that due to the warm water of the Gulf Stream flowing just south of the island the weather is much milder than you would expect given its location.
In 2015 I had a two hour layover in Iceland and found out Iceland Air and WOW will let you have a layover of up to seven days at no additional cost, so you can tour the island. With this in mind, I returned in 2016 with my buddy to drive around the island. It turns out I was able to go cheaper with a one-way ticket to and away from Iceland and that allowed me to stay for 10 days. We rented a car and drove all the way around the island during our tour.
I feel confident saying that I will never find a country as beautiful as Iceland from a nature point of view and we saw over 125 different waterfalls. On top of that we walked in lava tubes, sat in hot springs, climbed glaciers, saw icebergs, 
watched puffins, and slept under the stars with very short nights during our 10 days.
I feel like the itinerary we set out with was perfectly timed and showed us almost everything this phenomenal land had to show. I recommend you read and follow each blog if you are looking to visit and do not know where to begin.
You can get even more helpful hints by watching the two travel videos I made for Iceland. Also, you can read what all I did during my 10 days in Iceland in my blog posts below the videos.
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Eric and I sat down a while back and chatted about the 10 day long driving tour we took around Iceland. We drove the Ring Road counter clockwise and then…
Today I simple want to tell you Happy Easter, how blessed I feel that Jesus died for my sins, and to share this wonderful photo I took in Iceland. This…
[Shane – this is another blog by Eric and the last one in Iceland. I hope you have found all the blogs about Iceland entertaining, and if you ever go…
Of course what do you expect when it runs straight off a glacier? Everywhere I looked it seemed like all you needed was sunlight to make the streams just “pop”…
[Shane – Eric is a friend of mine that has been on the boat twice now. He is 30, newly engaged, and a fellow firefighter. I ask him if he…
After Eric and I had completed a trip around the entire island of Iceland we had one more day and we both descided what we really wanted to see was…
Most visitors to Iceland spend time walking around the capital, Reykjavik, do whale watching and puffin watching bout rides, and take a tour or two around the Golden Circle. While…
Well here is the lava cave at Raufarholshellir on the soutwest corner of Iceland. We are looking down the tube and can see several spots where the ceiling has collapsed and…
What do you do on your last day in Iceland when you have already driven all the way around the island seeing everything and did the Golden Circle? The answer…
It is time to explore the most popular section of Iceland called the Golden Circle. We started out at the Arbaer Open Air Museum where we saw several historic buildings…
It is not what I expected. We had a wonderful time up here on a glacier in Snaefellsjokull NP, but I am sure you knew that from the blog yesterday about…
After a delightful night camping on the northwest coast of Iceland our first order of business was to visit a Wool Factory in Hvammstangi. It was a quick, but interesting…
You may want to rethink these particular hot springs, because they are boiling. If you remember on Day 2 in Iceland we stopped by Reykjadalur and took a hike up and…
Apparently the fact that the sun comes up around 4am during the first part of August in Iceland does not keep you from sleeping in if you wore yourself out…
Yesterday I told you about the seals that were swimming among the icebergs that had calfed off the glacier and were sitting in Jokulsarlon, or Iceberg Lagoon. Well here is my…
We started the day off by jumping right into a hike up to Hengifoss and Litlanesfoss waterfalls. I found these hikes because I saw a photo of the 2nd one…
While day 2 and 3 were officially called waterfall days, day 4 has been dubbed ice day! We started the day off by visiting the Vatnajokull National Park. This is…
Here is my favorite photo of the plane wreck I told you about yesterday. I think the stormy clouds add to the atmosphere.
I guess we wore ourselves out yesterday because we ended up sleeping until 10am even though the sun started coming up at 4am. Once we got out and about…
What do you think? I wrote about this waterfall yesterday. Did I exaggerate how amazing it was? now remember this was at 10:30 at night. You have got to love…
I picked Eric up at the airport at 9am and we headed straight for the Blue Lagoon, because it is real close to the airport and it is THE #1…
Tomorrow you will read about this world renown tourist attaction and some helpful hints surrounding it. But for today why don’t you sit and enjoy the unbelievable color with me.
My two month long “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles World Tour” begins today with my first day in Iceland, which is halfway between North America and Europe and just barely south…
Here it is in the morning and I still have things to do. Do I have a deadline to get them done by? You bet I do since I I…
When I went to Denver, CO from Oslo, Norway I flew on Iceland Air and had a two hour layover in Reykjavik, Iceland. My flight was pretty cheap ($460), but what I…
