Bon lundi!

Sometimes promotions work. It's what got me to Iceland for the first time last year and started my love affair with the island.

You see, Icelandair has a promotion that when you fly with them between Europe and the US/Canada, you can build in a stopover in Iceland for up to seven nights at no extra charge. (Maybe I should interject here that this post is not sponsored by Icelandair, but merely my honest opinion.) Michael proposed trying it out last year for a trip back to the US, and we spent three nights in Iceland on the way to NJ. (A word of warning I must share: even though the stopover is free, don't expect the trip to be cheap! Just renting a car, filling it with gas, sleeping and eating will easily run $250 per night for 2 people)

Before then, Iceland was never on my radar. It just never really crossed my mind as a travel destination. And then when Michael put it on my radar, I was a bit overwhelmed by how to plan a trip there. (I'm used to navigating cities but the great outdoors, not as much.) But our trip last year to the south part of the island turned out so well that we were more than up for another stopover to discover the northern coast.

There is so much to share and I promise more in the coming week(s) as I gush on and on about just how beautiful the country is. For now, I'll leave you with one picture to illustrate some autumn colors on a cold October afternoon just a few days ago.