Stefan Verraedt and a friend gave themselves five winter days in Iceland. They explored Reykjavík, rented a car, drove the Golden Circle and kept going east along the south coast to Jökulsárlón, the glacier lagoon, where they went inside the blue ice caves of Vatnajökull. His photographs follow that route from the capital's rooftops to the floating icebergs, with the northern lights appearing on several evenings along the way.
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Reykjavík in winter: Hallgrímskirkja and city auroras
The best view over Reykjavík comes from the tower of Hallgrímskirkja. At 74.5 metres it is the largest church in Iceland and the second-tallest building in the country. State Architect Guðjón Samúelsson designed it in 1937, construction began in 1945 and it was completed in 1986. A lift takes visitors to the viewing deck, which looks over the colourful roofs, the bay of Faxaflói and the mountains beyond. Its stepped concrete wings echo the columnar basalt found across Iceland, including the cliffs at Svartifoss.
Reykjavík also proved that you do not always need to drive into the countryside to see the aurora. Verraedt photographed the northern lights over the harbour and, on the third day, right above the city centre. Winter nights are long at 64°N, so the season from late September to early April gives the most hours of darkness; the rest depends on clear skies and solar activity.
The Golden Circle: Þingvellir, Geysir and Gullfoss
The Golden Circle is a loop of about 250 km from Reykjavík that links Iceland's three most visited sights. It is fully drivable in winter on paved roads, though daylight in December and January lasts only four to five hours.
- Þingvellir National Park. The Alþingi, one of the world's oldest parliaments, first met here around 930 AD and gathered at the site until 1789. Iceland declared its independence from Denmark at Þingvellir on 17 June 1944, and the park became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004. The North American and Eurasian plates are drifting apart here, opening rifts such as Almannagjá.
- Geysir. The Great Geysir gave its name to every geyser in the world but rarely erupts now. Its neighbour Strokkur goes off every few minutes, throwing water up to about 30 metres.
- Gullfoss. The "Golden Falls" of the glacial river Hvítá drop about 31 metres in two stages into a narrow canyon. In winter the spray freezes over the rocks, as these photographs show.
South coast: Eyjafjallajökull and Svartifoss
From the Golden Circle the trip continued along Route 1, the Ring Road, past Eyjafjallajökull. This ice-capped volcano erupted in 2010, and its ash cloud closed much of European airspace for days. Verraedt joked that he had to copy and paste its name.
Further east, Skaftafell is now part of Vatnajökull National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2019. A short uphill hike from the Skaftafell visitor centre leads to Svartifoss, the "Black Falls", where water drops over dark hexagonal basalt columns that are often fringed with icicles in winter.
Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon
Jökulsárlón lies about 60 km east of Skaftafell and 75 km west of Höfn on the Ring Road, more than 300 km from Reykjavík. Icebergs calve from Breiðamerkurjökull, an outlet glacier of Vatnajökull, and drift across a lagoon that covers about 25 km² and reaches 284 metres deep, making it the deepest lake in Iceland. The ice then floats out to sea and washes up on the black sand of Diamond Beach across the road.
Inside the blue ice caves of Vatnajökull
The highlight of the trip was a guided visit to the ice caves. These natural tunnels form when meltwater carves through the glacier in summer; once the cold sets in they become stable enough to enter. Compressed glacial ice absorbs red light and lets blue pass through, which gives the walls their deep sapphire colour. Because the caves melt and re-form every year, tours usually run only from about November to March, leaving from the Jökulsárlón area with glacier guides who check each cave before entering.
Go with a certified guide: ice caves can collapse or flood, and only operators who inspect them daily should take visitors inside.
Ending at the Blue Lagoon
The gallery closes with the Blue Lagoon on the Reykjanes peninsula, close to Keflavík airport. The milky blue geothermal water comes from the nearby Svartsengi power station and owes its colour to silica, which makes it an easy last stop before a flight home.
Related reading
For a summer view of Iceland's ice, see Lana Tannir’s Iceland ice photographs, and for a glacier interior that is open all year, visit the man-made tunnel at Langjökull.
- Vatnajökull and Its National Park: Icelandic Ice, Caves and Landscapes
- Ten Iceland Experiences: Waterfalls, Glaciers, Hot Springs and City Life
- Erez Marom’s Iceland Landscapes: Ice, Water and Unusual Light
- Iceland Aurora Films: Northern Lights from Sixty Locations
- Blue Iceland: Andy Lee’s Infrared Landscape Photography
- Crystalapse in Iceland: A Landscape Film with a Personal Ending
- Stian Rekdal’s Iceland Time-Lapse: From a Road Journey to a Film
- Strokkur Geyser: From a Blue Dome to a Column of Spray
- Eyjafjallajökull in Time-Lapse: Sean Stiegemeier’s May 2010 Film
- Iceland’s Blue Lagoon: Geothermal Water and the Landscape Around It
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