Iceland Vacation, Day 6

Today was our last full day in Iceland. We spent the morning sightseeing, the afternoon driving, and the evening packing for our return home tomorrow.

(Click on any photo to enlarge it.)

Here are morning views where we stayed last night. In the bottom photo is our building with three units (one for each couple). The entrance doors are on the other side and open onto the terrace that Nate is sitting on in the top photo.

I wrote yesterday that we would be returning today to Breiðamerkursandur (a.k.a. Diamond Beach), where the Atlantic Ocean meets up with Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon. After yesterday's 60-mile-per-hour winds there (that canceled our ice cave tour), we were grateful for a still day today. The top photo is a view of the icebergs in the lagoon, and the bottom photo shows Susan and me standing next to one of the icebergs that had washed up onto the beach.

Our reason for returning to Jökulsárlón today was to take a glacial lagoon boat cruise! We suited up and boarded a Zodiac boat (that held 10 passengers) to cross the lagoon and approach Breiðamerkurjökull, a glacial tongue of Vatnajökull, Iceland's largest glacier. As we neared the glacier, we saw some seals hanging out on an ice chunk. At the glacier's edge, we saw and heard it "calving," the process in which chucks of ice break off from the end of a glacier and fall into the water, creating icebergs.

It was about a six-hour drive from there back to Keflavík, where we're staying tonight (at the beautiful Hotel Berg) because we have to be at the airport here at 5:30 A.M. to go home tomorrow. We had seafood for dinner at a roadside stop off the highway; and we had seafood again for supper at Kaffi Duus, a restaurant near our hotel. Susan and I have just repacked our suitcases and are ready for our last sleep in Iceland. What a fantastic trip with a terrific group of friends!