Iceland, Sunday, 2 August 2026

 We woke up to a gorgeous day, with views from our room that spanned the three glaciers nearby. Absolutest stunning. After a lovely breakfast, we packed up, reluctantly, to depart. We headed out, stopped by a place with a great view of a Jokuldarlon glacier, and took a short walk along the ridge the to see the glacier. It was amazing to see even more of the icebergs which had cleaved off that glacier swimming gently toward the sea.

 The wight of the S arftisfoss falls with the amazing vertical black baas,Art columns that framed the falls. It wa 50. Kites up and abouThen. Long drive, about an hour, to the Skftafell entry to the whole Jokusarlon national park, from which started the  Svartifoss trail. Little did we know that while it was only 2 km in distance, it had a lot of up and down, with a 130m elevation gain. To be honest, this was not what I had expected, and we had to stop more than a few times to rest and catch our breath. We kept on, and were rewarded with views of the Svartisfoss black basalt falls. It was 50 minutes u9 nd about 25 minutes down. We grabbed a Parma ham sandwich at the cafe to split, and headed out. Next stop, the Black BeachSuite where we will stay.

The Black Bech Suites are lovely, ours has a  beautiful view of the black sun beaches below. We went to the lighthouse ares and finally saw some puffins flying into their nests, very exciting. Then off to dinner at Smolens Beer for burgers and beers, which were good, and to another black sand beach briefly, and we ended the evening on the deck, watching the sort-of sunset, and realizing how lucky we are to have this experience.

Off to bed s as we have a 9:00 am horseback riding appointment!

Iceland, Saturday, 1 August 2026

 A lovely sunny day in Iceland, and after a simple breakfast, we were out for the day. First on our list was Stjornarfoss waterfall, an unusual waterfall in a dome shape. Hardy anyone there expect one group of older German tourists, and once they left, we enjoyed this tranquil location, complete with a small group of sheep. The off to Fjalasarlon for the Glacier lagoon tour at 12:30, which we made by 10 minutes. Outfitted in heavy waterproof jackets they provided and our own waterproof pants, we hiked down to the zodiac landing. The trip was wonderful, moving among the smaller icebergs, marveling at the foot of the glacier, and seeing where a huge part of the glacier had recently calved and created a new ice field. We learned that this glacier is receding by 3 feet (1 meter) every week, and the lake we are now in has only existed since the 1950 - before that, the glacier went all the way to the sea. This is climate change writ very large and irrefutable. Our pilot, Igor (from Poland) was quite passionate about the concerns about climate change and how we as individuals could do something about it. When you are in front of a receding glacier, it is hard to imagine not being concerned about this. At one point, Igor pulled up a small iceberg and said someone would get to make a wish on it before returning tot he sea. I volunteered, and we’ll see if my wish comes true.

After the zodiac ride, we had a fairly mediocre lunch in the adjoining cafeteria, a salad for me, some curry and veggies for Barney. Then off to drive through beautiful” countryside to Höfn, where we will stay for the night. It was a lovely drive, and we kept seeing new fingers of the giant Jokulsarlon glacier at every turn. We saw many sheep and quite a few horses as well as cows. we even saw a group of horses being herded by a person on an ATV. It was quite pastoral. We came upon our place for the evening, the Fosshotel Jukusarlon, and wow, it was lovely! We got to our room and found that they had upgraded up to a suite on the corner with a view of three glaciers which was breathtaking. I can hardly remember being in a place so beautiful. We enjoyed the huge bathtub and some time to relax. Views of the three glaciers from our room were spectacular, and I even took photos in the middle of the night when I kept waking up from coughing, still gorgeous outside.