Iceland South Shore

Woke up at 8:00AM like normal. Emily again woke up quicker than I did. She headed to the kitchen to make her oatmeal. There she started talking to another couple who was also making breakfast. They were from Duluth, Minnesota. This was at the end of their 8 day trip and like us, this was as far east as they got too. I eventually joined them in the kitchen as well and enjoyed some hot tea. We had to say or goodbyes at 9:00AM so we could quickly get ready and hit the road. Only thing we had planned today was to drive the 5 hours back west to Sulfoss however, we hoped to do a super jeep tour onto the glacier which was about a 20 minute drive west. We headed out and got to the site. We checked a few doors and didn’t see anyone, though a supe’d up van left right when we got there. I continued to check into things to do as Em drove and we decided to pull into Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon area. We got there about 10:30AM and checked the times for both their amphibious truck and zodiac boat tours. The truck had an opening at noon and the zodiac at 1:40pm. We decided to think on it so we walked to the shore of the lagoon just to see a thick fog roll in. We watched the fog until 11:15AM when it started to clear and we decided to book the zodiac and see what happens. We now had roughly two hours to kill before the tour, but the fog and clouds had lifted to show the entire glacier massive as the back drop. It was so incredible to see! We walked the shore of the lagoon under the road bridge and up to the beach where we watched a dozen or so seals sun bath. We when walked back to the parking area and marveled at the glacier some more before going to get lunch at the food trailers. We each had an ‘Icelandic’ hot dog and split a light beer. The Icelandic part of the hot dog was the crispy onions on it. An interesting, but tasty addition!

We gathered at 1:20PM for our 1:40PM zodiac tour of the lagoon. A big group didn’t show up so there was only 10 of us for the two boats that normally would carry 20 between them. So we only had six on our boat. They put us in big coverall style orange suites to help if we fall into the lagoon and to keep us warm while cruising on the water. The suits were very warm walking to the boats but once the boats got up to speed, we could see why they gave them to us. It was a blast! The lagoon didn’t look like it was so big but that was because the glacier is so tall and massive! It was over 8km from the boat launch to the face of the glacier and we flew there! Our guide was Marco and really good! We got to see a seal up close sunbathing on an iceberg. We also got to watch some pretty big chunks fall off the face of the glacier. It was about 45 minutes or so out on the water. It was cold but the suits they gave us really did their job!

We then had a 4.5 hr drive west to Selfoss. We drove straight through, only stopping at a pull off to get a good view of the moss covered lava fields east of Vik. The sun that we enjoyed at the glacier lagoon quickly disappeared and we hit some rain on the way.

We got to Selfoss right at 7:15PM or so. Our AirBnB was the front room of an older lady’s house and we would be there for two nights. She was real sweet and showed us around. She had turned her utility room into a shower for guests and the front room / bedroom had a half bath off of it. The whole setup worked really well. We unpacked a bit and then headed about 10 to 15 minutes west of Selfoss to the town of Hveragerði to eat dinner at Ölverk Pizza & Brewery. They used a hot spring’s geothermal heat to make their beer! We got a beer flight to try what they had. They had a sour beer made with Iskery (Iceland’s local yogurt). So it was a sweet beer with a bit of sour after note, very unique and good beer. Their Kolsch was tasty too! They had a bitter ale that was good, but their strawberry one was eh. Their pizza was wood fired and good, not fantastic but a solid pie. We were seated at a long table with a couple from California. She worked in HR for Netflix and was here on a work retreat and her husband / boyfriend was just tagging along. Also, there was three guys from Israel. Em and I just kind of stayed on the fringe of their conversation. However, one of the Israeli guys, the one who was born in Chicago, let me try a bite of his pizza (random since we were not really that involved in their conversations). It has bananas on it. Not bad though Em thought it was so weird! We then headed back and started a load of laundry since our host insisted, we use the washer if we needed it. We probably overloaded the washer a bit because the load took forever to wash. We let the clothes hang dry in the utility room / bathroom and our room overnight and they were pretty much dry by morning.

Safe Travels,
B&E

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