GIF from Tenor

GIF from Tenor

GIF from Tenor

The plane back home In my travel experience, I have always found that the cloud of departure hangs over your final day, consuming it and leaving you with nothing else. Our flight home wasn’t scheduled to depart, but when you work your way backwards from the airport, car rental return, lunch, commuting back to the airport, checking out, and packing, suddenly the day is a busy one. That’s how today turned out. I don’t want to bore you with the details of packing, driving, and the activities of going home, but some highlights included seeing a fantastic full moon at 10:30 am while we were driving back.

Our last full day in Iceland was a long one, starting with getting up at 5am to drive the 3.75 hours to the Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon. We had to be there by 9:30 for a scheduled ice cave tour. Once we got there, we hopped on board a "jeep" which was basically a passenger van on steroids. It has these gigantic tires that inflated and deflated on command, thanks to an onboard air compressor. After a 20-minute drive, we arrived at the base of the Breiðamerkurjökull Glacier, where many other vans with other groups were waiting to make the trek up to the ice caves.

Yesterday's whirlwind day meant we needed a later start this morning. After sleeping in, we departed for Hella, a town 15 minutes east of where we're staying, to check out a cute wool shop. On the way into town, we spotted the neatest diner concept: an American school bus. Sadly, we didn't eat there, but we loved the idea! We then drove the 1.5 hours west back to Reykjavik, the capital city. Our first stop was the National Museum of Iceland to learn about the unique story of Iceland's settlement and its Norse and Viking heritage.

We spent today exploring the western region of Iceland, experiencing the natural beauty of Thingvellir National Park! Our day started with a 1-hour drive north to the Hakid Viewpoint and Visitor Centre in Thingvellir, which sits on the tectonic plates. It also features views of the Almannagja Gorge and Thingvallavatn Lake, which came into view as the sun rose at 10:50 am. We then went to the Laugarvatn Fontana Geothermal Baths, which has a Geothermal Bakery tour, where they actually cook bread by burying it in the ground! The use of the hot springs, which contain boiling water, to cook a pot of rye bread ingredients that cook while buried for 24 hours.

Today, we packed up our gear and departed Hvammstangi, heading towards Hestheimar, the name of our lodging near the town of Hella. The drive was over three hours, and we stopped in Borgarnes for lunch...

After sleeping off our jet lag (to the tune of 10-12 hours!), we were looking for activities that would involve less driving and found a few destinations on a looped road around the Vatnsnes Peninsula that would start and end us at Hvammstangi. Our first stop was the Kolugljúfur Canyon, a hidden gem that was a 25-minute drive from our village. A coat of ice over the parking lot made walking a challenge, but we were rewarded with incredible views of waterfalls. We were also the only ones there as well, which we assumed was attributed to visiting during the winter.

Hello from Iceland! Shannon’s family was kind enough to invite me along to their family trip in Iceland. We departed on Thanksgiving Day, with our flight leaving DIA at 3:40 pm for the seven-hour flig...

Hello from Iceland! Shannon's family was kind enough to invite me along to their family trip in Iceland. We departed on Thanksgiving Day, with our flight leaving DIA at 3:40 pm for the seven-hour flight to Reykjavík. Iceland's seven-hour difference would have us arriving early Friday morning. While our flight was uneventful, sleeping on the plane was difficult and left us behind for the rest of the day. As I write this, it is 7 pm on Friday, and aside from a few accidental cat naps, we've plowed through the day, attempting to stay awake and avoid jet lag.