This is the first chance to tell you about Iceland - and one word describes it - magical! Oh and snow!!

I was beginning to get worried that we would end up getting there and it being like everwhere else and it being warm and wet and therefore no snow. But it wasn't and there was!

Monday, January 11

We arrived in Rekayvich about 2.30 and we were all amazed as the plane came in on the flatness of the land and the whiteness - snow everywhere.

Our walk from the plane to the bus gave us our first flurry of snow - very exciting - and we got more during the afternoon and evening. I found the feeling of snow interesting - it was cold and wet yet not wet. Certainly not like getting raiined on. But as we walked around Reykjavich that afternoon you could get quite wet when you are walking in it up to your knees - which we did cause we could - and if you get enough of it pegged at you!

Very magical and it brought out the child in us.

Tuesday, January 12

Off to book tours this morning - Northern Lights and a horse ride - and then we wandered around Reykjavich for the day. Headed first to the Hallgrimskirkja chruch in the centre of town and what can be seen from most of any part of the town centre. It is a Luthern church, quite austere in appearance, has an amazing pipe organ which we got to hear, and a bell tower which we got to climb (actually we took the lift). Fantastic views of Reykjavich for the top of the tower.

Back down and we continued to wander. Found a park where we all became kids again - climbing on the climbing frame, playing on the swings and being spun around until we fell off. We had a bit of a snowball fight there too though Chelsea got a bit carried away and tackled me ☺ All good and loads of fun. The park also had a frozen lake in it. I was not to sure about walking on it but there were no danger signs, and other people were walking over it so thought we would give it a go. Pretty cool. Though as we got closer to the opposite edge it was obvious it hadn't completely frozen - there was a patch about 15 square metres which had about 50 birds swimming it. Obviously it wasn't time for them to fly south for the winter.

We headed dwon to the waterfront as I had noticed that there was amazing scenes down there of mountains opposite the town centre. The image of the Faxaflói bay in front of the snow capped mountains was beautiful. We walked a little further along the waterfront to the Solfar Sun Voyager - a viking boat sculpture. It's like the carcass of it - an upside chicken carcass perhaps - but a great image in front of the bay and the mountains.

As we were beginning to feel the effects of the -6 weather, we headed back to the hotel to warm up and get prepared for our NL tour.

It was going to be cold when we went out, so to prepare I had on 2 pairs of socks, 3 pairs of pants, 4 shirt layers, a heavy coat, beanie, hoodie, scarf and 2 pairs of gloves - and it wasn't enough!!

Pickup was at 9 where we headed out to a lovely spot away from the lights of Reykjavich and near another frozen lake to look for the lights. There was a faint tinge but nothing to get excited about and certainly nothing I could take a photo of. It was decided to try a different spot, so we headed off onto this back track only to discover that we couldn't get through. A bit of maneouvering to get 3 big buses around but it was done and we headed a different route.

The guide asked us to keep an eye out for the lights but not having seen them before we weren't too sure what to look for. There seemed to be something out there and so we let the guide know. He was telling us an Icelandic myth and so had a bit of trouble hearing us until we yelled at him. We stopped the bus and saw the most awesome sight.

At times it was a bit misty, but at other times it was very clear and you could see curtains of colour (mostly green with some red) rippling across the sky. Certainly amazing. I even managed to get some shots on my camera! Chelsea was so keen for a good shot that she was lying on the ground - crazy!

We stayed there about an hour enjoying the display, and the hot chocolate and twisted donuts and then left for home about 12.30. Into bed at 1.30 but worth being tired.

Wednesday, January 13

Happy birthday Chelsea!

Horse ride today so we didn't get much of a sleep in. 9am pickup and a drive out of Reykjavich into the mountains and a place where there are heaps of lava stones. The countryside was covered in them - well actually Iceland is made of it.

We rode Icelandic ponies - hairy, short little beasts but with lots of stamina. A great view as we trailled through the valley and around the place but very cold. My feet were frozen by the time we were finished - felt like I had a none when I was walking back into the complex. But it was a lovely way to see some more of Iceland.

We headed home to warm up and then did our own thing in the afternoon - either packing, shopping or sleeping.

We celebrated Chelsea's birthday at a French restaurant - a nice bookend to our trip - started in France. We talked about the good, the bad and the 'what I would defiinitely do or not do again'! Lots of good memoires, not so many bad ones. Jessica had bought a cake for Cheslea so we ended up back in our hotel room sharing that together - no plates or knives, just forks and the cake - a fun way to eat it.

Thursday, January 14

A really early start - 5.30 hotel pickup for our 8.30 flight.

Landed at Heathrow airport at about 11.30. Unfortunately Jess's bag didn't make it to London - we think it never got on the plane at all! She's filed a lost baggage report and they will send it to her.

Had lunch with Cheslea and Nick and then at about 2.30 we parted company - them back to the Bear and us through security to await our flight.

And so since then we have been killing time waiting for our flight - so far about 4 hours, only 3 and a bit more to wait.

And this ends our adventure. We are back in Brisbane at 7am on Saturday.

Thanks for coming along for the ride - hope its been fun!