South Iceland: Day of Ice

I want to share one of the best travel days we’ve ever experienced. It was day 2 of Iceland trip #2 and it was all about ice. It was November and the sun started making its way up around 9:30am. We bundled up and drank Rob’s coffee and took a little time to explore the AMAZING grounds of our airbnb cabin.

I have to point out that when I say we “drank Rob’s coffee” I mean that Rob roasted his own beans a few days before we left, we packed the beans in our limited luggage (1 checked bag, 1 carryon and 5 personal items for family of 5), then he ground the beans by hand and brewed it on our first morning.

Once we hit the road we stopped to say hi to some locals.

Then we hopped on the Ring Road heading east. The drive was pretty brilliant.

Our first stop was Diamond Beach. This is a strip of black sand  where icebergs from the glacier lagoon drift ashore. To say it’s magical is an understatement. Due to the late fall/early winter daylight hours the sun remained at the perfect level to provide a heavenly glow on the icebergs. The kids loved exploring and finding all the cool different shapes and sizes of icebergs. Nearby the rushing water hums in the background. We even saw a seal cruising through the bay.

A super short drive and you can visit Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon. The icebergs in Jökulsárlón are composed of ice that is over 1,000   years old.

We ran out of day light on our drive home. But that didn’t end our day. We ended up enjoying a night, outdoor swim at KIRKJUBÆJARKLAUSTUR’s local pool. The pool was complete with a slide and 3 hot tubs of varying temperatures. It was a great way to relax and warm up after our day of ice. For more on swimming in Iceland, go here.