From Snaefellsnes to Reykjavik
The next morning, surprise! The show was still going on outside: we awoke to see the auroras illuminating the sky from our window at the foot of the bed. It was all kinds of amazing, after waiting for them for so long, now they just kept going on and on!
That morning we had to go back to Reykjavik and planned to swing through Kirkjufell to take some photos near the waterfall for a better view, hoping that there would be fewer people than the day before.
About thirty minutes later we arrived at the car park, which was actually empty; the sun was rising and the tourists hadn't arrived yet. We took the time to take a few photos. This mountain made for great photos and the frozen waterfall had a particular arctic charm.
On the way back, we stopped at Langaholt beach, a beautiful golden sand beach with rough seas and big waves. A few photos later, we were off to Reykjavík where we'd decided to spend the afternoon.
Arriving near our guesthouse near Hallgrimskirkja, we stopped at the Loki Café to try some local specialties. Their dishes were varied and highly original. We then spent the whole afternoon around Laugavegur Street to do some shopping and the old port.
At that time of the year, the area was less busy than in summer, even very touristic places like Lake Tjornin were deserted. It was completely frozen or almost frozen, and ducks were running around and along the thick layer of ice. After a visit to the Hofði House and the Drakkar in Reykjavík to take some photos, we headed to the old port and its small colorful houses.
That's when we got an alert from the My Aurora Forecast app telling us about another great chance to see the Northern Lights tonight in Reykjavík. We were in luck! So after dinner at Glo, a vegetarian restaurant with great value, we took a moment to think about where we should post up to see the auroras. Two possibilities: either we left the city in the direction of Reykjanes to get far away from the light pollution, or we stayed in Reykjavík, heading to the Seltjarnarnes district, near the lighthouse, where we had a little protection from the city light.
In the end, we picked the last option and got back in the car to park near the lighthouse. There were indeed no lights but many other cars with passengers who, like us, thought this place could be a nice place to view the show. So we waited, our eyes trained on Mount Esja and its snowcapped peaks, and very quickly the first auroras began to appear.
They were much less intense than the day before, such that when we turned on the headlights we hardly saw the auroras anymore, and the many cars that came and went didn't help our long exposure photos...
In retrospect, we might have preferred to head out of town to avoid the crowds, but we did that yesterday, and to see this show a 2nd night in a row was pretty amazing!
