ATVing in Iceland

Who has two thumbs, no fear, and dominated the ATV ride in Iceland?! This girl! This was definitely my favorite activity on our Iceland trip - I have a little need for speed but still like to be in control, so quadding is definitely my idea of a good time. I can go very fast, but can also be sure that I will be able to stop when I want to, unlike horseback riding for example. :) 

We drove about twenty minutes outside of the city for our ride, and were right at the base of a bunch of mountains. The scenery while we were riding was unbelievable - we had snowy mountains where cars aren't able to travel, grassy mountains, lava fields, extremely rocky terrain, and normal roads where we could really kick it up a notch. It was raining or snowing for our entire ride, but somehow it didn't even matter, in fact I think that made it even more fun! We drove through water, snow, lava, dirt, and lots and lots of mud - theres just something so satisfying abut kicking up a huge spray of mud and water! The highlight of the trip for me was when we came to an area with fresh snow, and the guide tried to drive through and got stuck and had to reverse out, and then the other guy on the tour tried and had to reverse out, but when I tried I totally made it all the way through and forged the path for everyone else! As the only girl on the trip I felt pretty satisfied with myself (hehe). This was definitely the best ATV ride we've ever been on!

We also stopped at the Volcano House in the city center, which had two short films about two of the most recent and devastating volcano eruptions in Iceland. The first was the eruption of Heimaey in the Westman Islands in 1973, and it was really amazing to see how quickly the city was able to rebuild, especially since volunteers were the driving force behind almost all of the clean up and reconstruction efforts. They also mentioned that the U.S. troops stationed at the then-operational Air Force base near Reykjavik helped out with the recovery efforts; it's heartwarming to me to see good relations between the U.S. military and other countries. :) The second eruption that was covered in the video was the one we were more familiar with, the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, which is in southern Iceland. We remembered this volcano because its ash cloud was responsible for shutting down airports across Europe and stranding millions of travelers. However, the employee at the Volcano House told us that another volcano called Grimsvotn erupted in 2011, and it produced more erupted material than the eruption in 2010.  However, since the wind carried its ash in a different direction, and the ash fell out of the atmosphere more quickly than in the 2010 eruption,  it didn't have as much of a global impact and didn't even make mainstream media (that I know about at least). I just thought it was fascinating that such a huge natural disaster occurred, but most of the world probably wasn't even aware that it had happened. 

Me at the Volcano House with some lava rocks

On a lighter note, we capped off our volcano experience with a visit to the hot dog stand that Bill Clinton himself visited when he was in Reykjavik. We were assured that they were the best hot dogs in town, and the didn't disappoint. Lastly, we couldn't finish our day without a second visit to the ice cream/crepe store next to our apartment. I got a Nutella and Snickers crepe...ohmygoodness it was so delicious!

Yum!

Oh hey, Bill.

I like food...can you tell?! ;)

Horseback Riding in Iceland

When I was a young Girl Scout I would go away to horseback riding camp every summer for about a week, and I loved it. When a horseback riding tour through a lava field popped up during my planning for Iceland I thought "Yes please!" We had been seeing the horses all over Iceland, and to me they look more like super cute oversized ponies than the ginormous horses we are used to in the States. All of the riders got assigned to horses, and since all of us had minimal experience we were assured our horses were calm and experienced to handle our horseback riding skills (or lack thereof). 

Getting ready for our ride

Once we all got up into the saddles (which was trickier than I thought it would be - that sucker was much taller than I thought!) we headed off on our tour. It was an extremely windy day, and I was just plodding along wondering if my nose was still attached to my face since I could no longer feel it. All of a sudden I see some commotion ahead of me, and the next thing I know one of the riders is flat on her back and her horse is running away from her and eventually lays down and starts rolling on the ground! It all happened so fast, and the guides calmly but quickly had the rest of us dismount our horses until everything was under control. Apparently the wind was whipping the plastic covering on the hay bales which spooked that horse and had it running a little too fast, so the rider decided it'd be better to bail off the horse. She was such a champ - she didn't cry or mope around, she just smiled and hopped back on her horse once it had calmed down. Even though I wasn't the one who had fallen, I was still a little freaked out. It was SUPER windy and I was just worried something else flapping or blowing in the wind would spook the horses, but luckily that was the only incident for the day.

Thomas getting ready to go!

Aside from the crazy wind, the rest of the ride went pretty well. The scenery wasn't quite as great as I had hoped for, but to be honest I was too busy worrying unnecessarily about falling off my horse to pay a whole lot of attention to my surroundings. We stopped at the halfway point to allow the horses some time to snack on grass, but Thomas' horse ate a whole pile of horse poop! We were laughing so hard because it reminded us of our dog Zoe who also eats poop - so disgusting/hilarious. Apparently Thomas' horse was new to walking in a single file line and it kept popping out of line and trying to maneuver its way to the front, but Thomas kept him in check and in line. :) It was a fun little ride, and near the end I was feeling comfortable enough to actually enjoy the little bouts of trotting that we would do, but I was glad when the ride was over - mainly to get out of the wind. If you are a horse lover then this would be a good little excursion, but if you're doing it to see the lava fields then I would recommend another way to do so. The guides were great and experienced, and made us feel safe and calm, so if you want to go horseback riding in Iceland I would recommend Hestar, they were perfect for beginners like us!

Scenery along our ride

Me and my well-behaved, non-poop-eating horse ;)

The Hallgrímskirkja church was right up the road from our apartment, so we walked on over to check it out up close. The architect who designed the church wanted it to resemble the lava flows that are so common in Icelandic landscape, and I think he did a great job of portraying that. Inside the church was very plain, but it was actually a refreshing change of pace from all of the ornate churches and cathedrals that we have seen elsewhere in Europe. It was also beautiful when it was all lit up at night (or early afternoon ha), definitely worth a trip to view this church. 

Hallgrímskirkja church

Me and my new Icelandic friend :)