We had a jam packed day driving back to Reykjavik. After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we hurried to Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon to try and beat the tour buses.
Glacier Lagoon was really windy and cold but the beautiful of the lagoon almost made you forget the wind and cold, it definitely caused you not to think about it as much.
We stayed out there and explored up and down the lagoon watching tour groups starting to pile onto small boats to ride out into the lagoon. We watched birds hang out on the icy water and found a seal hanging out in the lagoon.
After our time at Glacier Lagoon, we had heard there was a "Diamond Beach" (Breidamerkursandur) right across the street. Since direction in Iceland were vague at best, we weren't sure how quickly we would be able to find it. We almost decided to move on without even looking when Eric & I decided to just quickly run over a sand dune.
Boy were we glad we ran over. It was beautiful. Black sand beaches, huge glaciers washed ashore and dozen more in the water riding the waves into the beach. It was just a cool experience and one that we spent time hanging out, catching waves and taking tons of pictures trying to capture the beauty of it all with little success.
It was time to get on the road to check out other wonders of Iceland and to make it back to Keflavik for our last night in Iceland. We drove for a few hours before we stopped for gas and a restroom stop and ended up finding lunch at the first place we found for miles.
Right behind the gas station was Kirkjugolf, it was a small area that had a unique rock formation. For years, people believe this was a site of a church and the rock formation was the remains of the floor. We could definitely understand why people believe it. It was really pretty and we were scared to walk on it as we wanted to preserve it for many others to be able to come see it.
About a mile away was the start of the Systrafoss hike. We figured this would be a quick, easy hike with a waterfall (Systrafoss) at the end. It was a little more intense then we anticipated but the views alone the way were well worth it.
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| Turf house at the base of the trail |
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| The steps along the trail |
At the top, we learned that Systrafoss had been dammed and there was no longer a waterfall to see. We were bummed but it was still a fun hike and beautiful view.
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| Loved the fables they told along the way |
Our last waterfall on our list was Foss A Sidu. This was a little confusing to figure out the right waterfall on the side of the road. This waterfall was supposed to flow backwards. Apparently the location of the waterfall and the strength and direction of the wind would cause this waterfall to blow back up the mountain. Unfortunately, we were not able to witness the impressive feat. We weren't even able to get very close to the waterfall since may waterfalls are on personal property or you have to hike through personal property and they had signs prohibiting us from driving any closer.
We had seen a lot of waterfalls over the last 3 days and we were ready to see something a little different. There was a canyon not too far off the beaten path called Fjardrargljufar that we stopped at before making it back to Keflavik.
As we got closer to Keflavik, we decided that we would go check out the Blue Lagoon and hope to soak in the hot springs before hopping on an airplane in the morning. We couldn't think of a better way to send the last few hours in Iceland. Unfortunately, you can't just walk in and buy tickets to the Blue Lagoon so after some finagling, we were able to book a reservation online for later that night.
With a few hours before our reservation, we found an awesome place for dinner, Thai Keflavik. It was the perfect place with a throw back to last years trip with the four of us to Thailand.
The Blue Lagoon as the last stop in Iceland was perfect. It was so relaxing and we had a great time laughing, freezing, rubbing mud on our faces and people watching. It was fantastic.
After four days in Iceland, it was time to pack our bags and get ready for our next destination, Amsterdam.
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