Iceland is a place of extremes. From volcanoes and lava fields to glaciers, geysers to waterfalls, seabirds to northern lights, it has an incredible variety of natural wonders packed into an island you could circumnavigate by car in a long weekend. It is sparsely populated despite its small size, with fewer than 400,000 inhabitants, a third of whom live in the capital of Reykjavik. And lying between the North Atlantic and Eurasian tectonic plates, it is geologically fiery, with a number of active and semi-active volcanoes, and hundreds of geysers (they invented the word) and hot spring sources.
Lying just below the Arctic Circle, it also has a polar climate, with permanent glaciers (shrinking due to climate change), aurora borealis and mild summers of round-the-clock daylight. The Hawaiian islands are similarly dramatic, but Iceland is more extreme. During our visit in early summer, the permanent light made sightseeing and photography possible at every hour. We took advantage to see as much of the island as possible in a week. It wasn't nearly enough time, and every day brought a new breathtaking array of landscapes so alien they could have belonged on other planets. Next year will hopefully bring a quick return to planet Iceland.
