Numinous Iceland

Her Point of View
Her Point of View

Numinous (origin Latin): a powerful feeling of both fear and fascination, of being in awe and overwhelmed by what is before you.

Since returning home, people have asked us what we thought of Iceland.  This word captures Iceland perfectly.  The raw and powerful beauty of the land is incredible and awe-inspiring.  I have loved many of the places I have been to, but I have never fallen so head-over-heels in love with a place like Iceland.  Words and pictures cannot truly capture the magnificence of this country….but let’s try.

Powerful feeling of both fear and fascination…

There’s always a bit of fear in the unknown, especially when traveling.  The language, the customs, the driving rules, the food, and the unknown all created a bit of unease when planning this trip.  But as soon as our plane touched down in Iceland, fear was forgotten and replaced by fascination.  The beautiful lupine lined the airstrip lent a hue of lavender as the mountains soared in the distance.  I instantly fell in love with this wild plant that could be seen throughout the landscape…so much so that I told Ken I wanted to change our red accent wall in the living room to that of lupine!  Not sure he’s hip to that yet.

The Icelandic landscape is the epitome of fear and fascination coexisting.  Other than the national park and a thin piece of rope around the geysers, barriers did not exist.  You could walk out onto a dirt path over the 25 meter high Skogafoss or as close to the raging waters of Gullfoss as you dared.  Coming from America where everything is quadron off for fear of lawsuits, we loved being able to experience the beauty of the land up close.  The power of the waterfalls and the ever changing landscape was fascinating and helped up stay up for over 24 hours without even feeling an ounce of jet lag.

Often we were the only people in this breathtaking places.  It was fascinating and fear inducing to my pragmatic side of the brain to think how isolated we were.  Sure, there were throngs of people at Seljanlandsfoss, a que to enter through the narrow crack in the rock for Gljufurarfoss, and others at Thingvellir National park, but most of the time the only traffic on the roads were sheep and horses and just Ken an I enjoying the artistry of Iceland.  What if our car broke down?  What if Ken went to far out on that ledge?  These little fear thoughts were quickly silenced as I took it all in.  I now understand Psalms 139:14 phrase of “fearfully and wonderfully made” on a completely different level.

Being in awe and overwhelmed by what is before you…

Once I went to Punta Cana with a friend and we swam with the dolphins.  Of course I HAD to buy the CD with all the pictures of us with the dolphins.  In every single picture, my mouth was open because I was in such awe of actually touching these amazing creatures.  That same sense of wonderment and being overwhelmed by beauty was with me every moment of our time here.  Often, Ken would find me with my arms flung back and my face to the sky in reverence.  And what was before us was ever changing.  We only ventured about 193 km southeast of the airport and approximately 230 km around the Golden Circle.  But we saw the greenest mountains, raging rivers and falls, geysers, hot springs, and reclaimed and barren lava fields.  We watched the midnight sun “set” outside our cabin window and woke to the soft neighing of Icelandic horses.  We (okay I )chased sheep in the vain attempt to pet them and soaked in geothermal baths.  Only a few hours in the car could transport you to another world and it was hard to comprehend that this is all in one country…and we only experienced a small portion of it.  There are caves and glaciers, valleys and craters to still be explored.  It did not matter that it was the end of June and I had on leggings, hiking pants, rain pants, thermal shirts, sweaters, rain coat, hat and gloves.  The landscape called to us and we ran to it with open arms.  It did not matter that we could have stayed for days longer in Ireland on the money we spent in 44 hours in Iceland.  Iceland will capture your soul, inspire your adventurous spirit, and leave you aching to return before you ever leave.

It was the best 44 hours of my life and left us with numinous memories to last a life time.

Tip:

  • Go!  Move it to the top of your bucket list.  Book that flight.  Rent that car.  And experience it for as long as you can…be it few days or a few hours.  This one place you will never forget.
His Point of View
His Point of View

Is Iceland worth visiting?

Heck yes it is worth visiting. Before arriving I wasn’t really sure what to expect.  I saw pictures, went to many websites, and read up on the things you could see while in Iceland.  There was one thing I was sure of and that was not to stay in ‎Reykjavík, which is the capital and largest city in Iceland. I wanted to get out and see the country side.   Due to our short stay in this country, I knew we couldn’t see or do everything, but Krista wanted to see waterfalls.

After a 6 hour flight where I had no sleep, and another hour or so getting to and picking up the rental car, we were on our way.  One thing I shouldn’t forget is I did stop at the Duty Free Store and picked up a large bag of Skittles.  This bag of Skittles came in handy over these 44 hours. Before leaving home I did save in Google Maps all the waterfalls and other attractions I felt we could get to during our stay. I had a good sense on what we could accomplish in seeing  in our short time.  So we headed west on the southern part of Iceland to our first waterfall which was going to take us about 2 hours to get to.

The best thing we did was rent a car and reserved a small cabin on Airbnb.  This allowed us to take our time and pull over whenever we wanted too.  We were able to stay as long as we wanted at the waterfalls, geysers, hot springs, and craters without felling rushed.

Getting through Reykjavík is similar to getting around the big cities in the States.  From the airport to when we finally got out of Reykjavík was about an hour drives.  During that hour drive we had the usual “conversation” about eating.  I will admit I was hungry, but I really didn’t want to get off the highway to find a restaurant.  I knew Krista was hungry too.  We have this little banter going on…with a little snip and snap to it. It was time to open the Skittles. Not the most nutritional, but enough to tide us over. As soon as we got out of Reykjavík and started to see the country side, the snip and snap stopped.  The views were spectacular. Mountains with snow caps, sheep, horses, and cows in green pastures.  I have never seen this color of green before and it was beautiful.

Our first stop was at this outlook just off the main road. It over looked the small town of Hveragerði.  The view was beautiful. Even though it was overcast with a little sprinkle, standing there with mountains behind you and the view of the city below was just breathe taking. Our pictures could never show what our eyes were really seeing or how it felt. It was just amazing.

One thing I really enjoyed about Iceland was the lack of barriers and hand rails.  Unlike the United States that has rails that prevent you from walking right up to anything, that was not the case here.  You could walk right up to the waterfalls and if you were stupid enough to walk through it, then that was on you.  If you were at the top of the waterfall and decided to walk out into the raging water then that was on you. It may not mean this, but I took as if your dumb enough to do something that you shouldn’t then you deserve what punishment nature has in store for your actions.  I really enjoyed getting up close to the waterfalls and craters. Being able to get that close gave me a sense of awe to be able to stand right next to or in the beauty that nature has to offer.

Through out our journey of Iceland it seemed we were the only ones out on the roads.  Even when we were stopped and walking around it seemed we were by ourselves, even though other people were around.  Not once did we ever feel rushed or hurried. We did get hungry a few times in the middle of nowhere but thank goodness for the bottled water and the big bag of Skittles.

TIP:

If you like to explore and see nature this is a must do.  Skip signing up for the tours and rent the car.  Make sure to get the WIFI add on for the car. It came in handy for GPS, Facebook posting and looking things up. Get the the full amount of insurance they offer.  You may not think it is worth it but trust me it is.  Tire damage and ash damage is a really thing you don’t want to be stuck with a $1000 to $4500 hundred bill.  Things are expensive – rental car, gas and food so prepare for it.  The nature you will see are all FREE!!!! Book it now and enjoy it. Don’t mess it up for everyone else by doing stupid stuff.  Stupid stuff means, no graffiti, no throwing of coins in any water, and respecting nature and the people.  I don’t want to go back and see barriers around everything.

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