Great Baddow High School on tour

Currently sitting in our cosy common room at Husid (near Vik),we realise what an amazing trip this has been! The main highlights for all of us were the Blue Lagoon, a ‘once in a lifetime experience’, Strokkur geysir,the stunning waterfalls (Gulfoss,Seljalandsfoss and Skogafoss), Solheimajokull glacier and the amazing black basalt beach with its massive basalt columns. We loved going to the outdoor pool in the evening to wind down and relax, making a swimsuit wearing snowangel in the deep snow by the side of the pool then diving back into its welcoming warmth. Heaven!

We have been entertained by the singing girls, Josh’s Mr Bean DVD, snowball fights, Miss Brown’s galloping Arctic horses, people slipping over on the ice, passing messages through rooms and of course……..CATH! (Note from Cath at this point.. I loved it all too- a great school party to be with from breakfast to Northern Lights time (ooops I mean bedtime!))

What was really good was the friends we have all made. Before the trip hardly anyone knew anyone as we were from Years 9,10 and 12; now we have shared these wonderful experiences and the really great memories they have left with us!

The staff at the guesthouse were so lovely and we really loved their really cute dogs! The food was really nice and our rooms were warm and cosy. Our home for the week was called Husid, which means The House, which tells you just how isolated it was. Because we had the whole place to ourselves, it was easy to agree with Jana about rearranging mealtimes, so we could change our plans to make the most of the most amazing daily weather conditions (we had four days of deep blue skies and glorious sunshine, with temperatures down to -12C in the daytime and the warmth of the pool in the evening).

If we ever hat the chance to return to Iceland we would never turn it down. It has seriously been absolutely amazing and we are SOOO glad we came.

From Cath – I was pleased the students commented ‘How organised it all was’  – thank you Rayburn and Catherine Stephenson in particular. They even said they enjoyed my daily facts and top banter, so I’mofficially a bae in Essex speak!

The pictures have not been photoshopped – the colours were just amazing. The photo of the Blue lagoon was taken just by the entrance (so no people in the water!), the waterfall was Skogafoss ( visit in the afternoon so the sun is in the right place for rainbows if its a sunny day). We were VERY cold at the beach but the columns and waves were amazing!

The last four are Hallgrimskirkja, with the amazing view from the tower, and the conference hall Harpa with its beautiful reflective windows.