Iceland (Day 3)–European Vacation Summer 2022

I’m not going to write a lot about what we did on our second day in Iceland (day 3 of our trip)–the pictures speak for themselves so I mostly just want to share those. It was a lot of driving, but totally worth it. We drove three and a half hours out from our hostel to see Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon and Diamond beach. We then spent the rest of the day stopping at the other sites along the way back to the hostel. Here’s the list of stops: Jokulsarlon glacier lagoon, Diamond Beach, Fjallsarlon glacier lagoon, Fjadrargljufur Canyon, Reynisfjara black sand beach and basalt columns, Solheimajokull glacier, and Skogafoss. This was the worst weather of our trip but not that bad–a bit colder and misting rain on and off. If you make it to the end of this post–it’s a long way because we packed a lot into the day–I will share one of the coolest things about summer in Iceland!

First stop: Jökulsárlón Glacier. I know I say this a lot, but one of my favorites! The pictures don’t capture the amazing colors of the glaciers and the water!

The next stop was Diamond Beach. Guess what? Also a favorite! This is just across the road from the glacier lagoon where the ice chunks wash up on shore after being tumbled and smoothed to resemble diamonds

There was another smaller glacier lagoon nearby so we stopped there to compare: Fjallsárlón Glacier.

Next stop quite a bit down the road was Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon. I learned this place became very famous after it was featured in a Justin Bieber music video about 6 years ago. In fact, the whole video features a lot of the places we went in Iceland! I’m not a fan, but if you want to see the video, here’s a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfGaX8G0f2E Apparently after the video, everyone started going out on the “branches” like he did in the video. They had to close the trail for years and it only recently reopened (with lots of ropes blocking the way in an attempt to keep tourists in the proper spots).

Next stop was Reynisfjara Beach with black sand and basalt columns. I taught my 5th grade science class about basalt columns this year so I was especially psyched to see these. Rachel, John, David, Avery and Kayla–these pics are for you!

Hard to believe as I type this out that it was all one day! Next we did a short hike/walk up to Solheimajokull Glacier so we could actually get up close and personal with a glacier. This one was different than the others–a lot of volcanic rock and ash mixed in so not as “pretty” in the traditional sense.

Still going…. last stop of the day, Skogafoss–a very large, tall waterfall.

Then it was back to the hostel for takeout pizza from a local joint.

And as promised, one of the coolest things about Iceland in summer–it doesn’t really ever get dark! It’s amazing the effect this had on my energy levels. My brain always thought it was earlier than it was so I felt more awake. Good thing too, becuase after pizza at the hostel, I drove back to Reykjavik to pick up my brother, Matt. Check out this photo from when I got him at the bus station at 11pm–it looks like 11am!

Finally, here are some pictures of scenery along the way today. A lot of these are just from the car so the quality isn’t awesome.

Those are sheep in the road! There’s more to that story so come back for my next post and I will share the story of sheep in Iceland.