My husband and I just returned from Iceland for my 40th birthday. What a beautiful country! Because of technical problems with our plane leaving JFK, we ended up arriving in Reykjavik at 2:00 a.m. We drove straight from the airport to Gulfoss, about a 3-hour's drive, arriving in Gulfoss around 5:00 a.m. Being pitch black outside, we were so curious to know what the landscape around Gulfoss would look like once the sun came up. We went to sleep in the car and woke up at 10:00 a.m. when the sun was just rising and this is what greeted us.

Iceland's landscape is unlike any I've seen - everything is a soothing shade of pink, blue, black or white. Because the sun never gets too far above the horizon during the winter months, the mountains are all bathed in a beautiful alpenglow most of the day. Waking up that morning in Gulfoss and feeling like I'd been dropped on a beautiful moonscape is not something I'll soon forget.