While most Reykjavíkers slept off their New Year’s hangovers, many tour operators in the city spent the first evening of 2014 busily shuttling an estimated 2,000 visitors into the countryside to catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights, RÚV reports.
The majority of the sightseerers were transported in ten buses operated by Iceland Excursions and Reykjavík Excursions, Vísir adds, although several smaller tour companies also ran smaller shuttles or rented cars to tourists specifically for the purpose of chasing down the Aurora Borealis.
Hjörtur Þór Unnarsson, a shift manager with Iceland Excursions, said that nearly 840 people took the company’s Northern Lights tour last night, making it the company’s most successful tour night ever. “We took around 730 travelers on December 30,” he said. “It is quite clear that many of the travelers who are in Iceland have come to see the Northern Lights.”
Luckily, last night’s tour groups seem to have gotten a good show. According to Gísli Reynisson, a driver for one of the groups, the spectacle exceeded expectations, with perhaps the best Northern Lights display of the whole winter.
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