Ice, ice, baby!

Today’s departure time was 8am as we had a 3.5 hour drive ahead of us. Mike and I had hotel breakfast (not great and super crowded—including a lady who pretty much took the entire container of scrambled eggs). Just as we were losing the car, Romi got an email from the restaurant and they had her purse! Yay!!!! We couldn’t get there and then to our tours in time on this day, but we made a plan to pick up the purse on Wednesday. So, off we went…relieved and ready for the day!

The scenery along the Southern Coast is just stunning. Every direction you look! Amazing mountains. Glaciers. Green everywhere. Lava fields. Adorable little villages. It was a beautiful drive! 

We took a quick pit stop to stretch our legs at the lava fields. These were from a volcano that erupted in the 1700s and they are now loss covered otherworldly looking spaces that go on forever.

Our first official sup of the day was Glacier Lagoon. We had lobster rolls and hot dogs from the food truck on site, but we ate them in the car as it was raining and a bit chilly. I was miserable and not looking forward to the rainy boat ride. 

But, just as it was time for our tour, the rain stopped and we were treated to a gorgeous slow moving amphibian boat tour of the lagoon. It’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. There were even seals swimming around everywhere! And where we were cruising around an iceberg even split and flipped over! It was incredible. 

After that we drove across the street and checked out Diamond Beach. Another unbelievable place! All these little

iceberg pieces wash up on the black sand beach and the water flowing out into the ocean is just incredible. I’ve never seen anything like it. 

Next up was a short drive to our next adventure: a glacier hike! Mike and I were ready to redeem ourselves from the last time we attempted a glacier hike (in Alaska) when we had to instead help rescue one of our tour group members who injured her leg before we even got to the glacier. We all got suited up (harness, crampons, axe) and started the walk to the glacier. Pretty early on Romi realized this was not for her and she turned back. It was a good move as the hike was fast moving and stressful to me!! 

But…we did it!!! And the views in the glacier were pretty spectacular! Loved it!  It sure it was my favorite thing ever, but certainly something unique. The whole trip up around and down took about 2 hours. 

After we were reunited with Romi it was off to dinner! We had a lovely dinner at Systrakaffi. Highly recommend.

Then, we checked into Hotel Laki. We let Romi rest while Michael and I headed to check out Fjadragljoufur canyon. Just beautiful!! And there were so many sheep!!! Michael really loved the Icelandic sheep. :) 

We had a quick drink at the hotel bar and then headed to sleep before our last day full of adventures.