The itinerary for Day 2 took us to Vatnajokull Glacier - Europe's largest glacier. To fit this excursion into our trip, we had to hop on a small propeller plane from Reykjavik (on the Western end of Iceland) to fly to Hofn, a small village town all the way on Iceland's Eastern end -- a one hour plane ride, instead of a 4-5 hour car ride. While I enjoyed my first prop-plane ride, Lucia turned pretty green given the bumpy ride on the way back to Reyk....I'm just relieved she didn't hurl - it was close there for a moment and I had the barf bag on standby......
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| Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon |
After landing in Hofn, our tour guide drove us to Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon, where huge aqua-blue icebergs float around. This is also the site where 21 minutes of the 2003 version James Bond "Die Another Day" movie was filmed (now I gotta go check-out that movie, hehe). The view of the pristine icebergs was breathtaking and surreal. Definitely an incredible site! An added bonus of the tour was being able to board the equivalent to a "Duck Boat" to take you into the waters of the lagoon and get an up-close view of the icebergs.
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| "Duck Boat" Equivalent |
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| Iceberg up-close |
While it was hard to peel ourselves away from the lagoon, next stop was to climb aboard four-wheel ATVs to traverse the unique rugged terrain of Iceland's "countryside," consisting of green hills and glacier rivers. It was my first time riding on ATVs and it was definitely an awesome experience. Along the way, we stopped by a stream of running glacier water, where our ATV tour guide handed-out cups for us to drink the "freshest tasting water" you can ever find....Shockingly, I didn't hesitate drinking water that wasn't from a Poland's Spring water bottle, but it was pretty cool....
The ATV ride was a lot of fun, and the view of Hoffesjokul Glacier that we were treking towards made the experience even more awesome. From where we were standing to snap all these pictures, we would have been on the glacier itself 80 years ago -- that's how "quickly" the glaciers have evolved and melted...
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| Hoffesjokul Glacier |
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| Lucia got stuck! |
Of course after a long, action-packed day of adventure and physical activity, we worked-up an appetite and made sure to get in some more good eating...Iceland is known for being seafood-rich, and I've made sure to get in my fix of "Langoustine" (a.k.a. Lobster). Langoustine is smaller than the lobsters we're used to in Boston, but the meat is very tender. For dinner, we had to try out "Icelandic Fish & Chips" with an ice cold beer to go along with it. So delicious....It was the perfect way to end a very successful day of adventure in Iceland!
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| Grilled "Langoustine" (Lobster Tails) |
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| Icelandic Fish & Chips |
Sounds like tons of fun going on the "Duck boat" and riding the ATVs. Checking out nature and learning global history. Love it! No Dramamine for the plane? The blue Glaciers are so pretty. They must of been amazing in real life. That lobster looks so yummy and the fish and chip looks nicely cooked. Yummmmm.......
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