Black Sand Beaches/Ice Cave

 And we're up and adam for a wonderful breakfast again - I SO enjoy the pastries they serve!  My favorite is a croissant type one with chocolate!  And I might end up having a couple of them every morning with my coffee!

Our first stop was a another waterfall - this waterfall you could actually walk behind if you wanted to - Patty and I chose not to since you do get pretty wet and we had done this at Niagara Falls!

We drove by a volcano that is completely covered by an ice cap and then on to another volcanic black sand beach!  At this beach, we were warned NOT to get very close to the ocean as the waves get unexpecetedly large at times!

These basalt columns are right next to the ocean!  Impressive looking!

Check out this rogue wave that just rolled in out of nowhere!!

The black volcanic rock formations were gorgeous against that cloudy sky!

Some of the places that we walk to have the most interesting rock formations!  Loved this one!  And you can see on the ground that a lot of places have these wire walkways to help it from getting so slick!

We had stopped at a convenience store to get sandwiches and chips again as we ate in the van!  And then it was to the town of Vik!  Here we would have a guide that would take the 6 of us about 45 minutes in the country, out to the ice cave we were going to see!

It was a ROUGH ride in this particular jeep over volcanic rock and streams and snow and ice!  Once there we looked up as to where the ice cave was and Patty and I could hardly believe it!!  This is a picture of it with my camera zoomed way way in!  If you look close on the right hand side, you can see the ropes and posts to hang onto as you climb over that way!

Now when I had read that we were seeing an ice cave, I just assumed we would walk a little ways and walk right into the cave - NOT - this next picture shows the steep hill we had to climb along with several walkways with nothing to hold onto, and then we took a left to get over to the ice cave!

We donned crampons and helmets - wore everything we had in the van and all headed out!  I felt like I was headed up to Mt. Everest - HA!!  Kind of scary in places and our guide helped Patty along some of the really slick areas!!  Let me tell you, it was a little unnerving!!!

We stopped at this point so everyone could take pictures!!

When we got close to the ice cave, I took this picture looking down!  And marveled at the fact that I had actually climbed all that way!

A picture in front of the cave!

The ice caves only last about a year - then as the glacier melts and shifts, this one will close and a new one will be found!  Check out the planks that we had to walk on inside this ice cave!

The blues were beautiful in the cave, but didn't always show up as it wasn't really very light in there!

Going down took a LOT less time than going up - total time on this journey was 3 1/2 hours!!  But something I will probably never do again in my lifetime!  

After getting back in our own van in Vik, we drove by this lovely church up on the hill - our guide told us we hoped to stop at this the next day or so!  What a beautiful sight!

Our hotel for the night was Magma Hotel - and we were all very excited because we were IN THE COUNTRY and got to stay for 2 nights at this place!  And to top it off, we each had our own individual cabin!!!  It was cute as can be and check out the view - a small lake with 5 icelandic horses in the distance!  We were smiling from ear to ear!!

Of course this place would have been the PERFECT place to see the Northern Lights again but we had complete cloud cover for both nights!

We had to walk an icy path to get to the restaurant - Tom and Wendy were there so we decided to actually have some wine tonight!  See those small bottles on the table?  Smaller than a wine cooler and each one was $12.00!  Yes, Iceland is very expensive!

I only posted another main meal picture because I want to remember the fish - it was arctic char with a sauce on it of some type ( maybe with some cheese) but whatever it was, the fish and sauce was delicious!  I cleaned my plate that night!

Group picture time!  Matilda and Jonesy (?) at the far end - then Kiddie our guide and across from him is his niece who joined us for a couple of days!  And then the 4 of us!

We both slept great that night - and it was SO NICE knowing we didn't have to pack up and put our luggage on the van in the morning!

Golden Circle & Fridheimar Tomato Farm

 We woke up with a beautiful sunrise - still smiling from the night before!  Breakfast was great and I found that some places have a powdered chocolate you can put in your coffee - that was a win!

Another full day ahead!  We weren't sure we would even see the sun today and it was chilly out but manageable!

Today we were doing the Golden Circle which is probably one of the most favorite tours to take!

The scenary is absolutely breathtaking!  I could post pic after pic and each one seems more dramatic than the one before!!

When the sun did come out, it was usually in the clouds which made for some breathtaking pics!

This is in a National Park - lots of places to walk and our guide gave us crampons to put on as it was slick and snowy in some parts!  Lots of history here!

You can see how steep some of the walkways were that we walked on!  Thank heavens for the crampons!

Patty and I had seen most of what we were supposed to so went back to the van ( quite the hike) and our guide asked us if we had seen the waterfall?  We said no and he pointed where to go and that it wasn't too far away and we would have enough time to see it!

So we walked and climbed and then walked some more and then climbed more over snow packed rocks and trails - no waterfall - and by this time we're getting nervous because we had been gone for SO long - this picture is the point where we told each other we just had to go back!  Check out that trail we were on!

We walked as fast as we could but it was such a journey!!  We were ready to head back down the steps when I heard water!  And there at the top of the steps was a sign that we had completely missed!!!!  There must have been too many people standing in front of it and we just followed the crowd to the right.

Needless to say, we just walked a little further and sure enough there was this gorgeous waterfall!!  Dang, we walked SO FAR OUT OF THE WAY!!

We grabbed a picture of the waterfall and then started down the steps, only to meet our guide coming up to find us - yes, he was worried about us and we were actually 40 minutes late getting back to the bus - we felt SO BAD but everyone assured us it was no problem and could have happened to them too!

This picture depicts not only the beautiful mountains, but a hay field - there is really no farming except for haying and all of their bales are the large ones, wrapped in either white, green or black plastic!

Next stop was the geyser - it wasn't a huge one (especially if you've seen Old Faithful) - we were supposed to grab lunch here so Patty and I split a fish and chips (quite espensive as it's a tourist trap) - the fish was mushy but the fries were decent!!  HA!

Then we were off to Gullfoss Waterfall - it was magnificent and another one of those photos that looks like it's in black and white!

Our final stop of the day was to Fridheimar Farms - the tomato farm!!  I was really looking forward to this place as Glenn does hydroponics for his garden!  WOW on the humidity in this place - it felt wonderful!!

We had a gal from the farms give us a tour of this particular greenhouse and it was so informative!! There are 6 huge greenhouses here with a total of 27,000 plants!  They raise strictly tomatoes here but of course any vegetables have to be grown in a greenhouse as their growing season is so short!

While she was speaking, they brought a cart in and we all got a bowl of tomato soup and bread - it was excellent!!  Patty and I wished we could have actually sat down in the restaurant part of the greenhouse and enjoyed it fully but you know schedules!

After the tomato tour info, we walked over to the bar part of the restaurant and that's where this picture was taken!  The bar offered all kinds of tomato drinks - tomato coffee, tomato shakes, tomato ice cream, etc!!!  I didn't indugle but Patty had a tomato beer and one guy had a tomato coffee!

Then it was a different gal from the farm who took us out to talk about the Icelandic horses - lots of interesting info and then we went inside the stable and could pet the horses!  The gal saddled up one and did a demonstration of the 5 different ways of walking and running with the horse1

Then we were off to the Grimsborgir Hotel for the night - these rooms were in different buildings and we had a lovely room!!  Outside each building were 2 hot tubs and after we saw the robes and slippers in the closet, we decided that was a sign that we needed to go soak in those tubs!

Gosh that felt good - my steps showed 19,500 which is 7.7 miles - of course some of that was getting LOST!  We enjoyed the tubs for quite a while!

Of course neither Patty or I had paid any attention to where the restaurant was where our guide picked up all of our keys for our rooms - and by the time we were due to eat, it was snowing and blowing like crazy!!!!  We were so tired of wearing our hats and having flat hair that we didn't dress properly going out in the storm - I had my hood but Patty had wore her lighter coat - BIG MISTAKE!  We got outside and walked to every building we could see in the snow and wind and were about froze when we FINALLY found it!!  NOTE TO SELF:  PAY MORE ATTENTION!!  Getting lost twice in one day is not acceptable!!

Our evening meals are 3 course so thought I would post on this meal!  This appetier is a type of cheese with herbs and spices underneath - I enjoyed the taste but just couldn't get past the texture - it was a pudding like texture and I just couldn't wrap my head around it not being sweet!

Next was mushrooms, carrots and potato slices over a mashed squash along with beef steak from Argentina - WOW, it was amazing!!

And for dessert it was some type of a mango concoction - REALLY good!!  Unfortunately most places do not have decaff coffee and this would have been the night to have it with this dessert!

Another amazing day - it's hard to imagine there is still so much more to see!

Wonders of Snaefellsnes

 Breakfast was served at the hotel (included with most hotel stays) and of course it's quite different than American fare - meat, cheeses, hard boiled eggs, porridge, fruit - there was a lot to choose from!  I always need a little protein and luckily the hard boiled eggs peeled easily!  The fruit was surprisingly amazing!!  I'm not sure I've ever tasted such wonderful honeydew melon!  Their coffee is strong but it didn't bother me at all!

We were checking out of this hotel and meeting our actual guide and the people we would be going with this morning - one couple was Bob and Wendy (a little younger than us) from outside of NYC and a young couple, Matilda and Jonsey (?) from the UK - his name was so hard to pronouce so we just didn't ever say his name - HA!  Although we had opted for this "smaller"tour group that could have up to 16 people, we were totally shocked when it was just the 6 of us!!  WOW - talk about a private tour!! And we even had WiFi on the bus which made it really nice!

The van was great and Kiddie (our driver and tour group leader) was wonderful!  We could spread out wherever we wanted to and it sure made it easy when we had to put on extra clothes for outdoors, to have plenty of room to do it!

We were headed to the Snaefellsnes Peninsula for the day - and after I saw the names of the things we were going to see, I knew there was NO WAY I was going to try and type the names out!!  So Patty and I decided to take a picture of what we were doing during the day so we could refer to it on our phones and that worked out great!  So my first picture is the itinerary for the day!

I took SO many pictures of beautiful mountains it was ridiculous - but each set seemed better than the last!

We did stop at a "travel center" I would call it to pick up lunch that we would eat in the bus - that way we didn't waste time stopping at a restaurant along the way!  Patty and I would usually get a sub sandwich and a small bag of chips to split - worked out great!

And we did drive through a tunnel many miles under a lake to get to the other side of the mountain - very interesting!

We saw many, many sheep grazing and they are the really woolley kind with beautiful colors!  They don't have cows here, just Icelandic horses - and they're all purebred horses with the original ones coming from Norway - no other horses are allowed in the country ever!

This church was built in 1703 and the following picture is the cemetary.

What a backdrop for this church!

I loved the rock formations at this beach - so unique!

And this is the black sand beach.

You have to hike some to get to these places - some had walkways and others didn't!  To get down to the black sand beach was quite the journey - and when I turned around I saw this unique hole in the rock!

This sign was very interesting so had to take a picture of it!

And of course I had to try lifting the rocks - I could only lift the first one!

What a dramatic setting!

This waterfall or should I say waterfalls was gorgeous - the sun was not really shining in a lot of these pictures so many actually look black and white - I can just imagine the sun hitting these though!

See the walkway down?  It was VERY steep and I lost my footing once and almost couldn't catch myself - but luckily I did!!  It had been raining a little bit so it was slick!

Had to throw this sunset picture in as it was so pretty watching the sun set from the van!

We stayed at Hotel Hamer that night - out in the country - and THIS was the view from our room!

But unfortunately there was a sewer smell in the room and although the maid tried a couple of things, the smell just wouldn't go away so we had to move to another room.....

Dinner was lovely - 3 courses - and we got to know the couples much better that evening!  They're a fun lively bunch and we so enjoyed visiting with them and our guide!

We had just turned the lights off to go to bed when the phone rang - Patty answered it and sure enough, it was the front desk stating the northern lights were out!  We had all left word to be notified no matter what the time!!  I've never gotten dressed so fast in my life - if you can call it that - no socks, just untied boots and a pair of pants and a coat - that's all we put on as sometimes the lights are only there for a few minutes and we didn't want to take any chances!!

You could see the green in the sky with your eyes but when you put your camera up to the sky, that's when the beautiful green starts!

We were freezing out there but just couldn't stop snapping pictures as it was so beautiful!!

THAT is one of the reasons I came to Iceland - to see the Northern Lights!!  And it was SO SPECIAL to see them because many, many people that come, never see them!  What an awesome experience!