Selfoss, Iceland

After another great breakfast, we meet our private guide for the day Stefan. The weather is beautiful with gentle snowflakes falling. The terrain is all covered in snow reminiscent of Dr Zhivago. We stopped and petted the Icelandic ponies and one of them chewed on my arm. They have a heavy winter coat and are quite cute. We moved on to the many leveled waterfalls called Gullfoss- it was stunning many parts of it were frozen in ice. A young man asked me to take a video of him and it turned out to be his wedding proposal to his future wife and of course she accepted-all this overlooking the magnificent waterfall. It was a privilege and it was so moving! We walked through an area where there were geysers – definitely not Yellowstone! We ended up at a soup restaurant. The best soup I’ve ever had or maybe I was just hungry! After lunch we went to the Fontana spa where most of us washed up first put on bathing suits and went outside, yes outside in Iceland in The middle of winter in a bathing suits to get into the sauna, the hot springs; the best part was that I dared everyone to get into the cold lake with me! At first they said I was nuts, then one by one they followed me and tried it. It was so much fun!! After washing up again we changed into our warm clothes, continued our private tour to Pingvellir national park where Iceland’s first parliament is located . It is also where the Eurasian and American tectonic plates pull apart. After this long day, we go back to the hotel, have a light dinner go back to the room and we shall meet Stefan our driver at 9.00pm. He says this is the last night we might see the Aurora Borealis. We all 17 of us board Stefans bus and he takes us somewhere on the road near the airport. All of us thought what are we doing here??? We’re not in the middle on nowhere! But then he drives us on the dirt. We see in the naked eye a faint green cloud in the sky. He starts taking photos of our group with his infra red camera. Then we turn around and it starts happening. Lauren tells me there is an app called northern lights that actually acts as an infra red camera right on your iPhone. Fortunately I have a sim card so I’m able to download this app. Then crazy activity starts happening like curtains moving and dropping in the sky and I keep clicking pictures one after the other with this app. It’s remarkable how fast it comes and how ephemeral it is! We are very fortunate to have seen such activity. We came here and we conquered!