New Years Eve Iceland Style

We had heard the Icelanders take their New Years Eve celebrations seriously, and they weren't kidding.  On the drive into town we were given this little appetizer of the night to come, fireworks and bonfires.

We started out having our own party in our little room; party hats, noise blowers, and crackers.  Inside of our crackers they had jokes and charade games.  We all took turns acting out our silly games and having a good time.  

It was such a long day that we climbed into bed thinking that we would miss the main part of the celebrations.  The fireworks had other plans. What started out as a few rogue fireworks turned into full fledged firework shows by everyone in town.  It was obvious that we weren't going to be sleeping any time soon.  Jeremy slipped out of bed first, followed by Kelton, Cambrie and then me. (Kenzie and Daxton were passed out, not even rockets could wake them.) We started by looking out the window then eventually ended up on the porch with our boots and blankets wrapped around us. Fireworks were going off all around us, big ones.  It was wild.  Jeremy had taken off in the car and came flying back into the parking lot to grab us and take us to a better viewing spot.  We ended up in the center of a neighborhood watching with awe the show going on around us.  Every house was launching huge fireworks, I've never seen anything like it. The show lasted for about forty minutes, just non-stop fireworks.  At one point a rocket shot right in front of the car while Jeremy was driving!

The Northern Lights also appeared that night, and while I didn't capture this shot, it pretty much sums up an Iceland New Years Eve in spectacular fashion.

New Year’s Eve Memories

Jeremy: I was super excited when the fireworks wouldn’t stop. So I jumped in the car and started driving around. I feel like I almost died in the laundromat because of the smell. It lingered on me for about a day. Forty-five minutes of finale fireworks with a 360 degree view was epic.

Kelton: I felt bad for Daxton and Kenzie because they slept through the loudest fireworks in the world.  It felt fireworks were being fired around me, because they were.  It felt like a grand finale.  And then there was a second one, and then a third.  How do they even afford than many fireworks?

Cambrie: There were  a lot of fireworks. No one got my Last Supper charades.  That was rude.

Stokknes Beach-Vestrahorn Mountain and other views

Along the drive up to Egilsstadir where our beds were calling, we had to stop and take a few pictures while we could still see this magnificent scenery.  We stopped at the Stokksnes Peninsula just to admire the view of these mountain peaks.

We passed by and startled wild reindeer.

And even though the kids didn't even look out the window, Jeremy and I just kept admiring the landscape we were driving past.

Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon

Curious as to where all of those ice chunks on the beach come from?  They come from Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon.  The lagoon is formed by the retreat of the Vatnajokull ice cap, and these are all chunks of ice from that ice cap.  They float out of the lagoon and into sea where the warmer water slowly melts them.  My favorite part of seeing these mini icebergs were the colors of blue in them.  Stunning, cold, brilliant teal colors.  The sun was so low on the horizon that we couldn't capture the direct light on them to really highlight them.  It felt like whenever I looked out into the lagoon I saw another stunning shape and shade of ice.

Yet somehow with these magnificent creations, the kids took more pictures of this little hopping bird than the icebergs in the lagoon. Kids are funny.

Glacier Lagoon Memories

Daxton: The glaciers were so cool. I kind of wanted to jump down onto the glaciers.

Kelton: I wanted to go down on the ice and run around. The birds were adorable.

Diamond Beach

The plan was to visit Diamond Beach and Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon the same day as our glacier cave tour.  Unfortunately we ran out of light and didn't have time.  We tried to find accommodations closer to the lagoon so we wouldn't have to drive so far in the morning but were unsuccessful.  So we drove all the way to Hofn for the night before turning around and driving back the same way we came.  Every trip needs some kind of disaster to keep the stories interesting right?  Well, this was ours.  We were filling up with gas before heading out on the road.  As we pulled away from the pump Jeremy hit the curb and we immediately got a flat tire.  We pulled over to change it.  Thankfully we had a spare in the car and all of the tools to change it.  One look at the original tire told us that we needed to replace this tire.  It was the morning of New Years Eve and nowhere was open.  We managed to drive back into Hofn and find a tire repair place.  We learned on our trip that Icelanders don't care too much about updating their hours online or about being open the week between Christmas and New Years.  The tire shop was closed.  We found a gas station that let us borrow their phone to call the number on the door, and we managed to get ahold of the owner.  He happened to be on a run so we had to wait for him to get back.  He was the nicest guy to interrupt his run, come in on a holiday, and replace our tire.  It was the first time I've ever elected for the platinum insurance for a rental car and thank heavens.  This quick stop would have cost just as much as the entire week's rental!

Just hanging out at the tire shop.

When we finally got back on the road we were hours later than we wanted to be.  But remember what I said about the sun?  You get golden hour lighting the entire day so we still had beautiful light when we hit the beach.  Sometimes there are fewer chunks of ice on the beach than others.  I was really grateful we had a pretty good showing.  .

It was so much fun trying to capture the magic of the ice, water, and sun all together on film. 

The boys climbed on this larger piece of ice and I just gave up trying to keep them out of the water.  Hopefully their gear is still nice and waterproof.  We weren't originally worried about them climbing on the water until we noticed the tide coming in and that huge ice chunk started moving with the waves.  Nope, I don't want any boys floating away to Sweden today. 

You may have noticed a lot of photos of McKenzie.  She doesn't even have a social media account, but definitely wanted some fabulous photos to send home to her friends.

Family pictures everywhere!

Diamond Beach Memories

Jeremy: One of the most majestic and peaceful places I’ve been. I wish we had more time just to sit there on the ice and watch the waves.

McKenzie: That was really cool.  It was really cold though which made it hard to get photos.  The pictures we did get looked great because of the light and the sunset.  I liked the ice on the black sand. 

Cambrie: We took our family picture too many times.

Kelton: Me and Daxton played pirate ship on some ice.  Daxton was the captain, and I got ot ride in front because he didn’t’ want to risk his life.  Every time a giant wave was coming, we tried to get back to shore in time.  We pretended to attack other ships in the distance and had weird cannons.  

Daxton: It was fun being the captain.

Glacier Caves on the Vatnajokull Glacier

One of Jeremy's top requests for this trip was to see the deep blue of a glacier cave.  The cave change every season because of the movement of the glacier, so you never really know what you are going to get.  We were lucky in that they just discovered a new cave about eight weeks ago that had a lot of different rooms to explore. The downside to a new cave is that not all of the cave operators knew the routine and flow so we were caught up in crowds more than we would have liked. There also wasn't as much sun as we would've liked for prime viewing, but ultimately it didn't matter too much as we were still able to see some beautiful blue ice. 

We were running very late and I was afraid we were going to miss our tour.  They were kind enough to wait for us and we frantically piled into their super jeep to make it to the trail head.  These drivers were fearless over the snow covered roads.  They had the ability to change their tire pressure on demand and were constantly adjusting it for the best traction.  We were four wheeling over this glacier bouncing all around the jeep, and the kids slept through it all.  I don't know how they managed to do that.  

When we arrived at the trailhead the kids were pleasantly surprised that it was only 100m walk to the cave entrance.  

Inside we played around with lighting, angles, and checked out every wall for the best view of the blue ice.  It was awesome.  At times it felt like we were actually underwater.  Our tour guide, Viggo, was one of the ones who discovered this cave and did his best to get us around all of the crowds.  He was not one to put up with nonsense, which we appreciated.  We ended up having an amazing time in those caves.

Coming out and seeing the white world was a little strange after all of that blue darkness of the cave.

We were pretty hungry after our adventures.  Luckily there was a café at basecamp that had great hot chocolate and even better lobster soup.  I'm not kidding, that soup was heavenly.  I originally just ordered one for myself, then Daxton tried it and wanted his own.  Then Cambrie had a taste and wanted one too.  When Jeremy came back from picking up the car he also wanted a bowl.  I would never have expected that Daxton would be the one to get the lobster soup train rolling, but I'm glad he did.

Glacier Cave Memories

McKenzie: It was ok. I personally did not find anything special about it if I’m being completely honest.  It was hurting my ankle.  It was cool but nothing I would go back to again.  I didn’t see any blue.  I only saw pink because I left my goggles on the whole time.

Daxton: It was really cool.  It looked really blue. The lobster soup at the end was delicious!

Kelton: The ice cave was cold and rocky.  I thought we were going to break our spikes.  I thought the ground was going to be ice instead of rock.  Some of the ice looked like space. It was fun running around in the snow on the glacier.

Cambrie: It was a cave that we experienced that’s for sure. The soup was good.

Jeremy: Just getting to the cave was one of the most scared I’ve ever been in a vehicle.  Having just driven on those roads in an absolute white out, and this guy was going twice as fast in a vehicle that swayed back and forth. It felt like nutty putty caves inside where you could sneak under ice and adventure inside.  I would love to search for more caves. Also, I have never been so scared that my car was not going to work. When we got in every alarm and light was beeping when I turned it on and for the next ten minutes. I still have no idea what happened, but it eventually stopped. I felt like a prayer was answered because I was very nervous.