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.

Day Five - Hella to Vík

Our first stop this morning was Keldur -- an old farm with turf-roofed buildings and a sweet little church. We had to walk up a little lane and over a bridge to get there and it was so lovely. The weather was beautiful and everything is so green and lush. It is so fun starting the road trip and really getting a feel for what Iceland is. The landscape here is incredible and it changes to something completely different every 5 minutes! It's impossible to get bored.

After we left Keldur, the plan was to go see the Þórsmörk area, which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful areas of Iceland. To drive there, a 4x4 is required for the rough roads and river crossings. Once we got to the first river crossing it looked too foreboding to attempt crossing. There were some other people stopped at the edge of the river who decided not to do it either. We all ended up turning back, deciding it wasn't worth the risk to get stuck.

Just a bit down the Ring Road is the beautiful Seljalandsfoss waterfall. There is a trail that goes behind the falls which was fun to walk.

We got to Skógar just as it started to rain so we spent an hour or so in the folk museum to wait it out. We even got a private tour from the elderly man (he told us he can't remember how old he is now) who started the museum back in the 1970s. He was such a sweet man and it was really interesting to listen to him tell us about some of the objects he'd collected. Luckily the rain passed so we could take photos at Skógafoss.

We managed to find the small, unmarked trail through black lava rocks to the plane wreckage out in the middle of Sólheimasandur. The plane ran out of gas in 1970 and has been sitting out there ever since. It was a crazy thing to see – a huge airplane just out there in the middle of black nothingness with nothing around for mile and miles. Very surreal and awesome.

We then continued on to Vik with a stop at Dyrhólaey to see the lighthouse and the view from the cliff there. It was incredible! One of the most amazing sites we’ve ever seen. It was also freezing and windy but watching the sun set over the Atlantic from a cliff was incredible.

Our hotel for the night was Hotel Höfðabrekka where we also ate dinner. I had the lamb dish (the lamb was raised there by the hotel owner), which was good but sheep-y. :)

Also, the hot water there was very sulphur-y smelling because it was sourced from a natural hot spring below the hotel. The smell doesn’t stick to you, but it is definitely an eye-watering experience. However, the cold water here is incredible. We can just fill up our water bottles with the cold tap water and it’s better than any purchased bottled we’ve ever had! Can’t get enough.

The famous Icelandic horse.

Keldur.

4x4s only!

Deciding whether or not to attempt the crossing of one of three rivers to get to Þórsmörk.

These signs are supposed to help?

Abandoned farm buildings.

View from behind Seljalandsfoss.

Skógafoss.

Us at Skógafoss.

William loves Skógafoss.

View from the top of Skógafoss.

Abandoned plane.

View of beach at Dyrhólaey.

Black sand beach at Dyrhólaey.

Dyrhólaey itself.

A long way down...

Lighthouse as Dyrhólaey. I am apparently a leprechaun.

William at Dyrhólaey.

Day Four - Reykjavik to Hella

Well, today was a not so good day, for me. I got pretty sick and it wiped out our day's plans. Luckily, we have an extra day at the end of our trip that we can use to make up what we weren't able to do.

The day was spent in bed (me) and getting our rental 4x4 (John and Will). We then drove to Hella where we stayed in the beautiful Hotel Ranga, an amazing 4 star hotel. I got to have a super hot bath in the huge bathtub in our room and ate harvest soup -- my first food of the day -- at the restaurant. And let me tell you, that soup was incredible.

Here are just a few photos that we took on our drive today.

Art and sculpture garden in Hveragerði.

Our hotel in Hella - Hotel Ranga.