ICELAND Day 9: Then the Magic

Day 9: Golden Circle

When I woke up, a mama and two baby sheep were directly below my window (totally normal Iceland thing) and it was only lightly drizzling! We could see the glacier across the street! Visibility was above-average and I shook off my bad dreams, absolutely confident my family and our rain coats could thoroughly savor our day. We all enjoyed a farm fresh breakfast before packing up and setting out in our rental car, ready for a big day of 12 stops ahead.

And, after an hour of driving in a thoroughly reasonable amount of rain, the clouds parted and we saw the sun for the first time in days and I knew it would be an absolutely magical day.

And it was.

Our first stop was Jökulsárlón, a glacial lagoon. Beautiful and ethereal, a sleek seal dove and fished right in front of us.

Pieces of glacier floated by as well, along with a mama and four fluffy baby ducklings. I found it so beautiful.

Diamond Beach was a few yards (meters) away.

Full of pieces of the glacier that have broken off and been stranded by the tides, it's a black sand beach dotted with modern ice sculptures.

The diversity of beautiful things to enjoy, experience, and climb on, mere miles apart, is like nothing we'd ever experienced.

It's a beautiful spot that must never look the same twice.

Our next stop was a National Park. You know we love a national park and this was our third international version! (Costa Rica and Curaçao were our first two.)

The park was lush and beautiful and we hiked the 2 miles round trip to Svartifoss, a stunning waterfall running over black basalt columns. You can tell the weather had changed because we were HOT (actual temp probably about 50*F), shedding all of our coats into James's ever-growing backpack, and sweating through the clothes we had left.

Once again, a big thank you to the volcanoes and lava for providing the magnificent geology.

One thing that's hard to capture in pictures is how lush and beautiful Iceland is on the way to, from, and all around every destination. Like Svartifoss- that's something many people hike to see, yet on the way it's a gorgeous green hike, with hills and valleys and spectacular views. There's waterfalls everywhere (always) and ones like this, that would be the destination of a hike anywhere else, don't even have a placard or lookout point:

We walked to the visitor's center (love having kid's old enough to take pictures; Claire borrowed my phone for a bit and it was so fun to find pictures like this later that night when I was going through them) and had a great lunch cooked by an Indian family that runs the cafe.

Next up was Reynisfjara, Reynisfjall and Reynisdrangar! A few Game of Thrones scenes were filmed here.

A beautiful black sand beach with deadly (literally) waves and stunning black basalt geological features.

As we walked up, a humpack whale was feeding a few yards off the coast. The depth drops off sharply right off the beach (part of why the sneaker waves are so deadly) and this giant whale was happily feasting in krill so close to the shore I worried something was wrong.

He or she waved hello a few dozen times until eventually swimming further out to sea. We all climbed on the columns- they make for perfect stepping stones up and down- for nearly an hour, just enjoying the sounds of the waves, the novelty of the black sand, and the gorgeous architecture of the cliff.

Next up was a stop at Skógar, a small Icelandic village with a museum next to a famous waterfall we'll get to in a minute. But I happened to google something about waterfalls in the area (we banned the kids from electronics while driving when you could actually see things, so if I ever accidentally maybe glanced at my phone and they saw me, I had to be googling something relevant) and learned about a "less visited" waterfall called Kvernufoss that you could hike to from the parking lot at Skógar as long as you paid the nominal Skógar parking fee.

The hike is on private property, so you need to stay on the path and (obviously) leave no trace of yourself behind. There's a ladder over the barbed wire fence and then you enter an absolutely stunning landscape and wide flat path. Even if there wasn't the most amazing waterfall ever around the corner, it would be worth a stroll.

But there IS the best waterfall ever around the corner. You hear it before you see it and then, bam, hello there beauty.

And you can hike behind it! Those three little dots to the left of the falls are the LagLiv kids. Going behind the waterfall blew our minds a little bit. It was genuinely the coolest thing I'd ever done until we did something even cooler about an hour later.

A little wet, a lot happy.

Thoroughly delighted by Kvernufoss, we next headed over to the usual headliner in the area, Skógafoss!

You can climb stairs up and around it, but I could tell my crew was flagging and we still had a few stops to go, so we stayed on the ground level. It was still loud and majestic and Landon insisted (pretended?) he wanted to go swimming in the pool at the base.

Next up should have been Seljlandsfoss, but we were getting hungry and our hotel was so nearby and I knew we could revisit, so I tempted my crew with the secret waterfall right next door instead.

See that slit in the rock? There's a waterfall cathedral back there.

We zipped up our rain coats and fjorded a small river, rock jumping and James carrying Cora on his back, to get through the opening in the rock

To reveal a secret waterfall room inside.

It was magical in a way I'd never experienced before- like a secret space just for us for those few minutes. I'll treasure that memory forever.

We were wet and giddy with secret waterfall magic.

But soon it was time to to reenter the world.

Hotel Selja was only a few short minutes away. The twelve-room hotel was perfect: clean, bright, modern and homey. They served the best pasta bolognese for dinner that I've maybe ever had and we could see Seljlandsfoss and the very top of Gljufrabui from from the dining room and our room windows. We actually got two nights there, so we could settle in a bit. We chatted with the manager and her husband and talked about their childhoods in California and why they chose to move back to Iceland when they had kids. It was a lovely night after a perfect day.

And our day... the colors of the green hills, white thundering waterfalls, black volcanic rocks, and bright farm life dotting the vistas are simply impossible to capture. I've tried, but both pictures and words fail. It was pure magic.

These are live images burned in my mind that I will never, ever forget.

ICELAND Day 8: First the Fog

Day 8: East Fjords, allegedly

On Day 8 we woke up to clear skies and beautiful views!

We got very excited that we might actually see some of the east fjords on our five hour drive today and we walked down the lake to breakfast with some pep in our step.

Only to have it start raining the moment we loaded up the car. At this point, we finally let the kids just have their electronics, turned on our audio book (still working through the Harry Potter series) and tried to ignore what were probably spectacular views out our windows if only the rain and fog would let up. Which to be fair to the weather, they occasionally did, taunting us with waterfalls and canyons galore.

I did some googling and multiple reputable websites told me that June is the "least rainy" month of the year here, but my cute new sunglasses that have only left their case once on this trip would disagree. Luckily it was just a drive day and we didn't have any activities planned and who needs to see fjords and reindeer anyway (sob).

On the upside, we got our Flytographer pictures back from our first full day here and despite basement-level expectations (*crazy* high winds; very cold temps; mildly cranky family members), they are SO GREAT! And the skies are so blue! I don't think we realized how rare and special that was.

What I was hoping from this session was a few pictures of us, as a family (with me actually in them), that showed us as we are on our adventures. And they did!

I really truly love them.

My little adventurers. I'll treasure these.

Thank you Rakel!!

We got to our hotel, Brunnhóll Guesthouse, which was just lovely, and had our biggest triple room yet (unless we happen to have a cottage or apartment, we've been staying in two rooms: a triple for the girls and a double for the boys).

James only just fits in the European style single beds, but we've all slept well at every stop.

We ate dinner at the hotel on the farm and went to bed hoping we'd see the glacier allegedly in front of us in the morning.

This is where I admit to some vacation worries and I am usually pretty worry free on vacation. No one seemed to mind the rain, but we had 12 "points of interest" to see the next morning and I was really excited about all of them. I had weird dreams all night of heavy storms just pouring on us and opened our blackout curtains (the best ones on the trip so far! Tripadvisor should have a separate review category for blackout curtains in places where it is light 24/7) with a feeling of dread...

ICELAND Days 6 and 7: Horse Fail, Whale Win, Waterfalls Forever

The travelblogging continues, faithfully and laughingly retailing every high and low of our adventure...

Day 6: Northern Iceland

Ah Day 6, the day we were reminded that Iceland in summer is still ICEland. After making breakfast and packing lunches (and everything else) in our beautiful Akureyri cottage, we headed even further north to Húsavík, whale capital of Iceland! The weather was clear in Akureyri, but the further north we got, the darker and rainier it became.

Undeterred, we pulled up to the lovely Saltvík Farm for our “Seaside Horseback Riding Tour” offering “an excellent ride along the coastline near Húsavík with a fantastic view over the bay of Skjálfandi.”

Except no. It was *freezing,* super windy, cloudy, and alternating between heavy rain and light snow. Eternally optimistic travelers, we put on all our jackets and walked into the stables where we were greeted by the equally optimistic Icelanders who never doubted the tour would proceed.

Our stalwart Icelandic horses were duly saddled and we mounted up and headed out.

And… it was even worse than expected. Claire’s horse immediately took 3 quick steps off trail to bite a flower and Claire let out a blood curdling scream and started sobbing, genuinely certain she was going to be bucked and trampled by this placid horse who only wanted a pre-ride snack.

Perhaps not a confident horsewoman

Back to the barn we went, so Claire could now be led by hand by our sweet guide who walked the whole route beside her.

And so we rode, heads bent and resigned, through the pastures and along the ocean in pelting rain and high winds.

I have skied in -20 degree weather and I have NEVER been as cold as I was on that black sand beach that day.

Cora, who was a pro at handling her own horse, started crying at the very end when she couldn’t feel her hands or feet and I was like, girl, same. Landon didn’t change his neutral (frozen?) facial expression for the whole two hours and 20 minutes after we finally returned to the barn, he moved his mouth enough to say, very clearly, “I did not enjoy one minute of that.”

Steadfast resignation.

Not every plan works out. But the guides were lovely, the horses were willing, and I'm sure the views are beautiful when you can actually see them!

So fun. Please ignore the full body shivers I'm experiencing. I'm just having so much fun.

Luckily next on our list was the gorgeous Geosea Geothermal Sea Baths!

SO FUN!

Super hot water (preceded by a super hot shower), spectacular ocean views, a swim up bar, and the rare opportunity to wear a wool hat while swimming.

It was the perfect follow-up to our near frostbite and the sparkling rosé didn’t hurt.

James attempted a swim practice and the kids playe game.

And we all just really enjoyed the novelty of swimming in freezing temps, intermittent rain, high winds, the occasional bit of snow, and the North Atlantic Ocean spread out before us. What we could see of it anyway. Thank you volcanoes!

Next up was supposed to be a whale watching boat tour, which seemed like an increasingly terrible idea not even we could muster up enthusiasm for, and frankly I was thrilled to get a call from the boating company while still soaking in the geothermal bath that the captain felt the high winds were a capsizing risk so they recommended we cancel. "YES!" I practically yelled in agreement, and we quickly scheduled a tour for the next morning that we would be happy to backtrack our road trip for.

Now that we were going to head back to Húsavík in the morning, we added a few stops in the Lake Myvatn area near our hotel that we were originally going to do the next day. First up was a stop at the Námafjall Geothermal Area, under the Namafjall mountain that belongs in the Krafla volcano fissure zone, where sometimes the ground just smokes. This is totally normal.

As are the bubbling acidic mud pits and rotten egg sulphur water that comes boiling to the surface at nearly 400*F.

James ventured further into the rotten egg mists than we could manage, but not even he lasted long.

Next we explored Dimmuborgir, a large lava field full of caves and crazy formations from a volcanic eruption a couple thousand years ago. As Landon noted, it's just like Utah, if all the Utah rocks were black and spiky.

Basically everything you see here is because of a nearby volcano.

We checked into our hotel by the lake and of course the weather cleared up completely just as we were done for the day. The view off the sod roof of the hotel was just gorgeous.

We had our best meal yet at Vogafjós Farm Resort further up the lake, even if it was mildly disturbing to eat beef while cows watched you through the windows. But everything was so incredibly fresh and delicious, I'd have everything we ordered again if I could.

Once back home, we tried to go to bed early (and largely failed, it's so weird when it's broad daylight) so we could head back to Húsavík to try again with the whales in the morning!

Day 7: North to East

On Day 7 we woke up at 6:30 am (which is 1:30 am US central time, which I am still inexplicably somewhat on) to drive back north to Húsavík for our redo with the whale tour.

We got to see the snow capped mountain range we were supposed to have seen from our horseback ride, but never did.

And, as a reward for the backtracking due to the terrible weather the day before, ALL the whales came out to greet us.

We saw at least a dozen majestic humpback whales, smaller juveniles and giant adults, feeding and flipping their tales, some coming so close they touched the boat.

It was extraordinary.

What huge, beautiful creatures they are. We also saw white beaked dolphins, a pair of Humpback whales fishing together, and puffins(!), which are exactly as adorable as promised.

It was cold and it absolutely rained on us, but it was all worth it, and the hot chocolate and cinnamon buns didn’t hurt.

(Funny story: the overalls made everyone look the same and I kept "losing" Landon because I didn't recognize the adult form in front of me as my baby Landon. I called out his name from directly beside him multiple times.)

After the cruise we had a great lunch in Húsavík and continued our drive east, with a stop at the east banks of three waterfalls. At Hafragilsfoss we had a fjord, a waterfall, and an old married couple in the picture.

The weather was clear at Hafragilsfoss, but the fog was definitely descending as we approached the thundering Dettifoss, the most powerful waterfall in Europe.

The boys tapped out, but the girls and I continued on the 1 mile hike through a rainstorm to get to the beautiful Selfoss.

Who run the world?

The rest of the afternoon was spent driving east across Iceland in crazy fog to our 3-bedrooms apartment in Neskaupstaður for the night.

An apartment that should have spectacular mountain and fjord views but instead just has fog and rain. Every Icelander has commented on how unusual it is for it to rain this continually but 🤷‍♀️, at least we all have rain jackets.

We ate dinner at a cute pizza place down the street and hoped the rain would lift at least a little in the morning for the lovely view we were supposed to have from our apartment windows and balcony and for our drive down the eastern fjords in the morning. The adventures continue!