February 8, at about 6:00 a.m., we landed in Iceland. After collecting our luggage, we found the shuttle to the car rental and picked up our 4-wheel drive Dacia Duster with studded snow tires. The clerk at the rental shop told us that that night was predicted to be a good night to see the northern lights. Since that was the top item on our list of things to do, we made plans to venture out that night to see them.
Once we were set with the car, we headed into Reykjavik. We arrived at our hostel, the Butterfly Guesthouse, and were thrilled to find out that our apartment was ready and we could check-in (and sleep) right away.
It was fairly late in the day by the time we drug ourselves out of bed and ventured out into the city. We walked to the nearby harbor in search of food and nearly got blown into the narrow street by the ice-cold wind.
We found a little cafe where we enjoyed soup, sandwiches, and…
…hot cocoa.
Once it started getting dark, we loaded up the car with snacks and warm clothes and headed out toward Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park, where we heard it was a great place to see the lights. The wind was CRAZY strong as we drove. There were times that the visibility was near zero as the snow blew across the road. As we drove through clear patches however, we could see the northern lights. Initially I thought it was light from a distant city glowing over the top of a mountain, but then we realized that there were stars shining down where the “mountain” should have been, and it was clear that the glow was actually the northern lights.
(The lights do not look green to the naked eye, they look milky white. The light is green in the photos because of the long exposure.)
As we approached the park, we saw a pull-out on the side of the road and figured that it would make a good spot to watch the lights. We got out of the car a couple times, but could only stay out for a few minutes because of the wind-chill.
The rest of the time, we stayed huddled up in the car, watching the lights through the windows.
At first, the lights were just a slowly morphing line above the horizon.
Then they started dancing and as they started dancing more and faster, a pink color was visible to the naked eye.
(The long exposure necessary to capture the light makes it look like a big blur rather than the dancing wisps that they are.)
The kids were getting restless and wanted to go home, but thankfully we didn’t because sometime around 10:00 the lights roared to life, covering the entire sky with swirling paisleys. It was the most incredible sight and I didn’t even try to capture it with the camera because I knew there was no way. We climbed out of the car and watched in amazement as the lights danced above our heads. The burst only lasted about 5-10 minutes, then the lights faded away almost completely. It was a dream come true to see such an awesome display of the aurora borealis.
Several days later, I saw this picture on NASA’s website. It was taken in Iceland on the same night that we saw the lights. We didn’t see anything that we identified as a dragon, but this definitely resembles what we saw. That NASA site also said that there hadn’t been any sunspots so they couldn’t explain why there was such a spectacular display that night. I guess it was just an early 40th birthday present from the heavens!
Another photographer captured this “phoenix” on the same night. I’m glad that there were plenty of professional photographers snapping pics while I just stood there enjoying it!
