Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Day Six - Vík to Höfn

My birthday was today! And I can’t imagine a better way to have spent the day. We started with a delicious breakfast at the hotel and then we hit the road. Again, our drive was filled with incredible, ever-changing landscapes.

We drove to Skaftafell where we did two hikes – one to Skaftafellsjökull glacier (a very windy hike!) and then to Svartifoss waterfall. Both hikes took around 3.5 hours total. The weather was quite warm (comparably) and there was no rain – it was just perfect. The waterfall was gorgeous – totally worth the effort of hiking to (even with a 30-pound kid strapped to my back!)

Our last stop of the day was Jökulsárlón, a lagoon filled with icebergs which have caved off of the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier. Words can not even describe this site. It was so magical and surreal to watch these chunks of ice float away from the glacier, under a bridge and then out to the open ocean. It was also insanely cold and windy but John and I braved it to walk around (Will was asleep in the car) and taste some glacial ice.

We stayed in a hotel outside of Höfn and went into town for dinner at Kaffi Hornið. It was delicious. I had the lobster soup (Höfn is famous for lobster) which was super tasty and for birthday cake we had a warm chocolate cake with a sparkler on top. John, William and a couple from Ireland sang Happy Birthday to me.

After dinner we braved the wind (it was extreme) and made the drive back to our hotel. After having left the Skaftafell area yesterday there was seriously strong wind for the next couple days – and I do not like wind! I am glad John's driving cause it is supa freaky out there.

Happy 29th birthday to me.


Mossy lava rocks? I don't even know exactly what is going on here.
It's like a different planet. And RAD.

Walking to Skaftafellsjokull glacier



The glacier.




Skaftafell.






Tasting the ice at Jökulsárlón.




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