We docked at Djupivogur. From there we rode 2.5 hours on the bus to the magnificent Glacier Breidamerkurjokull. Huge blocks of ice break off constantly and float in the Glacier Lagoon of Jokulsarlon. We boarded a specially-equipped, open-air boat (think ‘ducks’ from Wisconsin Dells) and floated among the icebergs. It was a cool and eerie experience. Chuck and I had rain-pants on in anticipation of cold splashes, but received none. However, those pants add more warmth and that was welcome. The lagoon is formed by the melting glacier and will someday turn into a fjord. It was a cloudy day and just as we pulled out of the parking lot, we could see the rain move in. There were more tourist here than we have been seeing. This Southeast part of Iceland is where there is the most glacial coverage.
We did see one seal pop its head up in the Lagoon. Because we are close to the sea, the seals come in to this area. On the way up we saw a herd of eight reindeer.
On the way back, we stopped at a hotel/farm/restaurant for lunch. It looked like a dairy farm that saw an opportunity and built a hotel and then added a restaurant. We had our choice of vegetable or lamb soup with bread and butter. For dessert we had homemade ice cream. Chuck had coconut with licorice chips and I had Carmel. It was very good. I noticed that there was freshly turned soil in two fields and asked about it. The woman told me that they had just planted hay for next year’s harvest. The farm also had 60 cows that they were milking and 40 dry ones. We have seen NO row crops in Iceland only grass and hay.
We headed back to the boat. Today was a 5 hour bus ride - 220 miles. Good bus drivers are a treasure on these narrow roads. Roads are remarkedly smooth with no potholes . They have to be extremely expensive for a country that has a population similar to Madison Wisconsin. Things are very clean and the people appear to be prospering.
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