Iceland

August-September 2021.  Maybe it was good that Joanne and I visited Iceland during the Pandemic because, even then, there were many other tourists.  The weather was mostly awful, especially in the south, but it's a spectacularly beautiful country and well worth at least a couple of weeks.  Since there was still a lot of COVID, even in Iceland, we did not eat inside many restaurants, a shame because the food we ate was good.  Given the weather, many evenings we also could not eat outside.  So some nights we just had picnics in our hotels and Airbnbs.

We rented a car and drove around the island, including the Westfjords area in the Northwest, which doesn't get as many visitors.  The touristy hot pools, like the Sky Lagoon and the Mývatn Nature Baths were fun, but we especially liked community pools like the Sundlaug Laugum and Laugardalslaug pools (our favorite, with a hot dog stand just outside).  A good article on the pools in Iceland was published by the Washington Post.

We recommend the Eyja Guldsmeden Hotel in Reykjavík, the Kvíhólmi Apartments, the Potato Storage, and the Natura Apartments.