The day dawned with bright sunshine. Weather remains cool- low to mid 50s but we have the proper clothing and the fresh air was invigorating.

We wandered out to the southern most point of Iceland, a peninsula called “Dyrhólaey”, located only a small distance from our hotel. We ran out of time last night to visit it because of darkness. There is a lighthouse there as well of views up and down the coast line. Looking inland we could see the Mýrdalsjökull glacier where we had snowmobiled the day before. The views were spectacular.

Our  journey then took us eastward with a goal of reaching our next stop, Hofn, on the east coast of Iceland. Again we thought we would have plenty of time as we only had to drive 280km and our only scheduled activity was a boat ride on a lagoon loaded with icebergs that have broken off the nearby glacier.

This region of Iceland contains the largest national park in the country, Vatnajökull National Park, home to the largest icecap in all of Europe and home to 30 glaciers. The average depth of the ice is 400 meters and the maximum depth is 1000 meters.

The road to the park traverses the Mýrdalssandur flood plain, an extensive are that volcanic eruptions over the millenia has left devoid of almost everything but lava and glacial runoff. It is very desert like in appearance. On our left were the high mountains/glaciers and on our right was the sea.

We stopped in the small village of Kirkjubaejarklaustur to see what is called the “church floor”  a polished floor-like looking patch of columnar basalt. It is really not a church. Mother Nature created this polished surface of 6 sided columns of basalt eons ago. It is a popular tourist stop because of its unusual structure.

The highway passes close by a series of glaciers. By taking a 2 km gravel road we were able to get very close to the terminus of one of the glaciers and got some fabulous pictures.

We stopped at the visitor center for the national park and decided to take the “short” 1.6 km trail to a very photographed waterfall called “Svartifoss”. It is not that large of a waterfall (20 meters high) but it is surrounded by black basalt columns, making for a dramatic scene. We had to hurry somewhat as we needed to get to our boat ride in the iceberg lagoon later that afternoon. Scott had suggested we take along the few lunch type items purchased earlier in Vik and simply have a quick lunch once we reached the falls. 1.6 km (1 mile) would normally not be a problem; however, once we started we learned there was also a considerable uphill grade the entire way to the falls! Oops! We were not turning back.  I did make it to the falls after making a couple of stops to catch my breath (76 years old now). We ate our lunch, took some pictures and headed back to the car and the lagoon.

One of the major attractions in Iceland is taking a boat ride on the Jokulsarion Lagoon where icebergs that have broken off the huge Breideamerkurjokull ( don’t ask me to pronounce it) Glacier float their way out to sea where they ultimately melt away. This often takes some time (up to a year) as they must melt enough to not get hung up on the bottom of the lagoon. It is quite a sight!  Our ride was on an amphibian boat and lasted for about 40 minutes. We wove our way around the many floating icebergs, learned that the ice in them was 600-1000 years old. The crew brought aboard a chunk of crystal clear ice for us to photograph and taste. I had seen icebergs on my 2013 trip to Antarctica but was thrilled to experience them again as each one is a work of art, completely different in size, shape and texture. This is simply a “must do” excursion for anyone visiting Iceland.

We wound our way to our destination of the day, the village of Hofn where we stayed at a new modern small hotel called the “Milk Factory”. Don’t ask me where they came up with that theme and name.

We again used Trip Advisor to pick out our dinner restaurant, “Pakkus”, housed in an old  former warehouse on the waterfront. Hofn is noted for their langoustine (lobster family) which I had Scott ordered their salmon and we shared. Both were outstanding!

What we thought would be a short day turned out to be another long one!  16,463 steps, 32 flights of stairs (equivalent) and needless to say I slept well!