I travelled my first time (and only so far!) to Iceland for the New Year's in a photography trip led by Joel Santos, a world class photographer and an amazing individual, from whom I have learned a lot. 

 

Wary as I might have been of the spectacular landscapes of Iceland - that carry so much praise - I must say I was truly blown away by this country's views. There you can find some of the most stunning natural sceneries in the world, crowned by the opportunity to merge those with the magnificent aurora borealis nocturnal light shows.

 

These are some of the pictures I took there, which hopefully are pleasing. Thanks for viewing!

Northern lights panorama over a mountain somewhere in Iceland (can't really tell where I was, but it was somewhere around Reykjavik!) and the milky way lurking on the starry night sky.
This is nature's light show on full display, colorful soft waves dancing and breaking all over through the night sky. 

Getting to the Vatnajökull glacier ice cave, the largest glacier in Europe, implied driving through the receded glacier's smooth gravel rocks bed. Our intrepid ice cave guide Helen decisively trenched the hilly 'paths' leaving us about one km trek away from the caves entrance.

Crampons attached and all geared up, we slowly headed for the entrance, right on the front of the huge glacier's edge. The glacier is truly massive and one only gets a real feel of the size when standing at its tip.

Entering the cave was relatively easy, stomping through fresh snow now over a crack in the caves ice. After crossing the stream of water (harness required), we get to the main nave of the cave. 

There's blue light everywhere seeping through the ice ceiling. The ice walls were soft and smooth to touch. 

Snow had delicately piled up from vertical openings on the glacier, leaving several cones inside the cave. The sounds of water flowing around us were reverberated on the ice walls. The cave goes on across the river bend, behind other snow cones and fading into the darkness.

Though icy, the cave is inconspicuously warm, even more with the added fire light as you can see in the other photo.

What a magical place!

Just after daybreak, icebergs are picture frozen afloat the blue Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon.

There is no wind, the atmosphere is cool and silent, blissful. Everything is still, white, blue and beautiful. These icebergs will be carried out into sea by the lifting tide and transform into cristal clear ice rocks laying on Jökulsárlón beach.