Day 10 - Leaving Iceland...

Day 9 - South Iceland

We had a long drive back to Reykjavik today, but made a couple of stops and managed to see a couple puffins!  Tomorrow we will be headed back to Minneapolis.

You will have to zoom in, but the puffin is near the top.

This is a view from a lighthouse/farm.  Can you imagine living there?  We walked out to the end.

Looking back to the lighthouse.

That is Kevin.

My next ride.

Another waterfall.

Some cool sheds.

That is all for now, we will be in the air at about 11am tomorrow, Springfield time.  

Day 8 - I have to touch a glacier.

Today we left Hofn for the Foss Hotel Nupar, which is the one in the lava field made out of shipping containers.  It is actually the nicest place we have been in.  Today we continued to be stymied in our attempts to touch a glacier. It turns out that glaciers create large rivers in the heat of summer, and we didn't want to swim.  Now to the pictures:

This is glacier bay.  Icebergs from the glacier.

We finally found a hunk of ice from the glacier and climbed down to touch it.  It turns out that wet rocks, seaweed and icebergs are all very slick.  Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of two old guys falling down, hopefully they don't exist.

Kevin wanted a picture of his feet to post on Facebook. Unfortunately, I wouldn't get out of the way.

No new news on the volcano.  We are headed back to Reykjavik tomorrow.  Here is the view from out hotel tonight.

Silly picture bonus!

Day 7 - On the way to Hofn

Today we drove along the east coast in and out of many fjords.  The scenery has continued to amaze us, plus we drove through a few tunnels.  One was one lane, so you had to be prepared to pull over mid tunnel to let others pass, and one was nearly 4 miles long.

This is an Icelandic horse.  He kind of looks like Donald Trump.  No other horses are allowed to come to the island, and if an Icelandic horse leaves, it isn't allowed to return.

Sheep are everywhere.  The even nap on the road.  They are kind of cute.  We have still not seen any puffin or reindeer.

We visited a beach with tiny black pebbles, which was also cool.  I wanted to bring them home.

We spent the afternoon on an amazing (and long) hike to a glacier!

Our evening wrapped up with another amazing meal in an old building on the waterfront.  

No new activity with the volcano, but they have told us that even if something happens, we are out of the danger zone!

Day 6 - Full update

Today we had a longer travel day with photo stops along the way.  We are now on the east coast of the island at Neskaupstadur for the night.  We have been through many varied landscapes, some which looked like the moon.  We had an early dinner and then found an incredible trail at the edge of town and hiked until nearly 10 pm.  We can hear the waves crashing from our hotel.  

This was a stop where people hav built many cairns.

A picnic stop along the highway.

This is right before Kevin slipped and slid down the remaining 15 or so steps using only the handrails.  I thought is was a cool move until he told me it was unintentional!  

View from our hotel window.

Day 6 - traveling to Nestkaupstadur

We have some pics to share but no Internet connection, so stay tuned.  The volcano update is that there is no new news.  A local told us that even if there is an eruption, it won't affect our travel route.  Will try and post today's pictures tomorrow.

Day 5 - Lake Myvatn (and surrounding areas)

Today was a jam packed day and we didn't get to all of the things on our list.  We started off with a trip to see Dettifoss, which is the largest volume falls in Europe.  It was cool this morning and we got pretty wet.

After the falls, we stopped at a thermal area with sulfer vents and bubbling goo... We hiked to the top of a "mountain" and back again.

(Look closely, you can see the parking lot)

We visited a sod house from the early 19th century.

We then had dinner at a working farm and had a terrific dinner with a view of the cows being milked.  After that we walked some trails across from our hotel around some craters in the lake.

Today we also learned about the earthquakes in the highlands and have been assured that they will close the roads if it an issue in the areas we are traveling.  They are on high alert 4/5, but they were at this level in January too.  We won't take any chances and are watching the situation at:  http://www.vedur.is

For the truck lovers... (David)