I have wanted to visit Iceland for a long time, and with friends currently posted there, now seemed like the perfect time to go.

The island is starkly beautiful, filled with waterfalls, lakes, geysers, venting steam, volcanoes, fantastically shaped volcanic mountains, lava fields, black sand beaches and deserts, glaciers, icebergs and more. The author of a book on Icelandic horses that I bought said about a particular phenomenon of the landscape that it's found in only two places: Iceland, and Mars. But from our admittedly brief experience I would say it’s not the easiest place to photograph.

Lying just south of the Arctic Circle, Iceland is a pretty cold place, even in summer, when it also rains and clouds up a lot, and is subject to fierce winds off the North Atlantic. I would also say Iceland is an “outdoor activity” paradise -- one magazine called it an “extreme destination” -- with numerous exciting activities available, such as hiking, cycling, backpacking, rafting, mountain climbing, camping and horseback riding, although of course less adventurous tourists can enjoy the island as well, but they need to be prepared for cold, rainy, windy (like gale force), cloudy weather, having to hike at least a little to see most of the sights, driving extremely long distances on sometimes gravel or dirt roads (meaning a 4x4, and a heavy vehicle, is best) and basically having to put out that extra bit of effort to do most anything. It was sometimes an effort even to get out of the car because the wind was so strong; the car rental company said the most frequent damage to their vehicles was doors getting blown off, so one has to be careful when exiting the car.

Iceland is aggressively promoting tourism, though, and has things set up quite well to accommodate visitors. Even the airport was amazing – we were able to walk right up to a ticket agent, tax refund took less than a minute (and we had a lot of receipts) and Iceland Air for some unknown reason put us in First Class. I’d fly them again, and I’d love to return to Iceland to see the many things in the north and east that we missed, but next time I think I’ll come more prepared, at least mentally (and with adequate cold weather clothing!).

One thing people have to be aware of is that this island has many active volcanoes and a lot of seismic activity. We learned this morning that there had been around 700 earthquakes in the past two days in the southeast, where we spent the past two days driving around, and that a volcanic eruption could occur in the next month. I’m glad we visited when we did.