I am rubbish when it comes to surprises and keeping them a secret! This one though, I have to say, I was rather chuffed with myself over. My husband has always wanted to see the Northern Lights, so for his 40th Birthday, I booked a trip to Iceland! On his birthday I had wrapped a series of ‘hints’ such as some thermal socks, a neon glow stick with an arrow and an N drawn on (… Northern … Lights … 😛 ), an ice cube tray (…Iceland…) … ok, you get the picture!
No matter where you go to try to ‘Chase the Northern Lights’ they are of course a natural phenomena and even on a completely clear night they may not come out to play but I felt booking to try and see them in Iceland gave us an opportunity to also explore a country that has so many other things to offer.
Sunday 28th January and after a VERY early morning flight from Gatwick to Reykjavik we walked out of the airport to what I can only describe as the freshest, coolest air! Amazing! As we had nothing planned for the first day, we decided to head for the Kringlan Shopping Mall which is around a 15minute walk from Hotel Island where we were staying. The snow and crisp clean air made for a wonderful walk and definitely warranted a hot dinner on return to the hotel!
On the first evening, we were set to go and hunt the elusive Northern Lights. A pre-arranged trip organised by the tour operator and run by a local operator that made decisions on where to go based on the weather and solar activity to choose the place that would give the best possible conditions for a view to remember.
That particular night we were taken by coach to an area about 40 minutes away from the bright lights of the city and within ten minutes of being there, a glimmer a movement was seen in the sky. I had an app on my iPhone that was pre-set to capture the lights even if they were weak…although this did rely on keeping the phone still long enough! There was a lot of cloud cover that night but……………..
It has to be said that it was actually quite an emotional experience to see the lights! Travelling back to the hotel, the tour guide announced that they deemed the trip to still be ‘unsuccessful’ as there was a lot of cloud cover so we could have seen more, but that meant that we would be taken out on another night…weather permitting.
We returned back to the hotel around midnight after a long day, super tired but thrilled to have seen the lights and dreading the fact we had to have a 6am alarm set but it would be for another amazing day!
Stay tuned for day 2!
Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think in the comments box below or on my facebook page. Check out my social media….links below🙂
Facebook……….Twitter……….Instagram……..Pinterest
Great post!! The lights must have been amazing to see in person!
LikeLiked by 3 people
Thank you! Yes! It was amazing to see. It’s unreal to think it could have been better without the cloud cover!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Wow, I would absolutely love to see the Northern Lights! What a wonderful birthday surprise for your husband! Looks incredible!
LikeLiked by 2 people
It is honestly an amazing experience! Haha, my husband is usually the one who manages to surprise me but this time I got him good! haha! 😛 x
LikeLiked by 2 people
Oh what a nice experience! Hope you had a great time 🙂
Hasta pronto,
Selenita
http://deborondi.com/
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks for reading lovely. It was honestly amazing xx
LikeLiked by 1 person
This looks amazing! Iceland has been top of my travel list for a while now – this post just makes me what to go even more! Sam x
LikeLiked by 2 people
It really is such a beautiful place to go! Thanks for reading 🙂 x
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just WOW! How beautiful! I’m dying to go there it’s on my bucket list x
LikeLiked by 2 people
It’s certainly a bucket list kind of place…it has to be ticked! x
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s definitely one to tick off the list! xx
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve been meaning to read this since I saw you’d published it. Seeing the lights is definitely on my bucket list. What a fantastic experience. Looks amazing, bet your hubby was over the moon.
Loved reading and seeing the pics! I’ll keep a look out for day 2!
Samantha x
http://thebeautyspyglass.com
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks for reading lovely. Day 2 is coming up xx
LikeLiked by 2 people
You still up at this hour? Xx
LikeLiked by 2 people
Haha yes…I’ve become addicted to Greys anatomy so I’m blogging and binge watching! Off to bed now though…2.25am whoops! You’re still up too 😂 xx
LikeLiked by 2 people
This looked amazing!! I am so glad you managed to catch a small glimpse of the northern light. Hopefully day 2 will be better!
I am heading to iceland soon and was wondering which iphone app you used? The one you mentioned in your post. I hope you can share it with me! Thank you:)
– excited aurora hunterrr
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks for reading. We didn’t get to see them the second time we went out but were happy with what we saw! I used an app called Northern Lights Photo Taker. It’s 99p but I think it was more than worth it x
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for the reply! But this will make a good reason to go again!
LikeLiked by 2 people
❤❤
LikeLiked by 2 people
Any chance of witnessing the motherboard lights in early September??
LikeLiked by 1 person
As far as I know they are visible October to March. In summer I believe the sky doesn’t get fully dark, more dusky (so I’ve been told anyway) but I could be wrong!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sure will try our luck then . We saw some amazing light in Lapland .
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow I bet you did! I’ve seen some amazing Lapland photos!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was one of the most wildest experiences for me . My eyelids were freezing at – 30 degrees . OMG it was insane . But amazingly wonderful .
LikeLiked by 1 person