Also yesterday! We visited Diamond Beach, where artists were forming the ice into diamond shapes. Cool! Then on to Jökulsárlón, a large glacial lagoon filled with icebergs from the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier.
I will write more in-depth on bjhess.com later. A collection of pages vs blog posts? 🤔
Yesterday! As I mentioned prior, extreme driving day. Here are four shots from the drive: Rjúkandafoss, marina at Djúpivogur, some mountains (😀), and the back side of Vestrahorn mountain (I think).
Way too tired to post an 🇮🇸 update tonight.
First hiccup of the trip. I thought an excursion south of Höfn was tomorrow, but it is this afternoon. So we got up before 4am to drive. More rushed than I’d prefer.
Also, who is building the Iceland Bathrooms app? I knew it might be a challenge, but wasn’t expecting this level of difficulty!
Finally, we found an absolute gem of a path in Höfði nature preserve. An odd Icelandic location covered in trees, it was a husband-wife passion project in the mid 20th century. Donated to the country in the 1970, it also offers an awesome view of the free-standing lava pillars called Klasar.
We had some lovely pizza at Daddi’s, and then jetted off to the Dimmuborgir lava field. It was a surreal landscape, a kind hiker offered to take an epic family photo, and we embarrassed the kids by sitting on Santa’s throne.
The rain started dropping on us around Krafla Viti crater. (Not to be confused with Víti geothermal lake near Askja, which is much harder to access. Believe me, I wanted to make the trek.) Then a short drive to Hverir geothermal fields followed by a visit to Jon and Ygritte’s GoT (Grjótagjá) cave.
In Iceland you sometimes take unplanned detours. After waterfalls, I saw this crater to the south of Route 1 and drove in. I was the only one to climb the Hrassaborg Crater. It offered a spectacular view over the moonscape toward Herðubreið, “The Queen of Icelandic Mountains.”
An epic day around Mývatn. Way too many pictures to share. (And many pictures on a different camera.)
Dettifoss, Dettifoss’s rainbow, Selfoss, and downstream Hafragilsfoss with it’s glorious canyon.
Wow, wow, wow.
A quick stop by Goðafoss, geared up for whale watching (prior post), explored the Húsavík waterfront, dinner at Hlodufell (not pictured), and finally landing at the alien landscape that is Mývatn.
My wife’s snaps from whale watching (I was on video). The black tail is a rare humpback with a fully black tail. The jumper is a four-month-old. ❤️
It tipped 60°F today in Akureyri! We took it easy today with a lagoon visit, a walk around downtown, popped into Bautinn for dinner, did some grocery shopping, and landed back at our home base for that view. 🤤 Sun shining on the hot tub into the night.
Walking around Akureyri. We like it here! Wild that the “Capital of North Iceland” is smaller than our nondescript home city in Minnesota.
A tough golf hole in Akureyri.
Iceland, home of grocery store poetry.
Mostly a driving day today, but finished up in an okay place. 😳
A bit windy and rainy at Kirkjufell, but still gorgeous!
And a few pictures with people at Svoðufoss, Saxhóll Crater, and a lovely meal at Sker in Ólafsvík. We pushed until after 11pm tonight, doing just about everything we set out to do!
Buðir Church (Black Church), Svöðufoss, Lóndrangar, Snæfellsjökull.
Bjarnarfoss and the other direction from Bjarnarfoss.
Scenes from walking around Reykjavík.
Doing important things in Reykjavik. Trying to stay awake.
7:50pm flight to Iceland tonight! 🤩
That moment when you get a reminder that Siri typo’d when you told it to remind you of something, you realized it at the time and didn’t correct it, and now you’re staring at the reminder with no idea what it means.