Honeymoon - Iceland: Hofn, glacier lagoon, Skogafoss

Our next 2 days we travelled even further, which I think not many tourist did so during winter. Usually what I've heard is people going to the golden circle that's all. 
What I really enjoyed was the relaxing freedom to go a few places and spend more time rather that being rushed around. Plus, having a car is a benefit. 

I know it's just ice, but I feel amazed by such nature wonders, super big ice rock melting as the winter goes away. 
I may not like extreme coldness, but somehow I realise I like winter because it gives a cozy feel and reminds me of Christmas. 

Along the way we saw Icelandic horses! We decided to stop by and take some photos! Icelandic horses are smaller in size, like pony like, but they are called horses. 
Such a beauty.

Our last stop was Skogafoss, and when we went there, it was drizzling quite a fair bit. 

The next day was our final leg, London! Will document some of the highlights instead of a daily post! Please be patient! 

Honeymoon - Iceland: Glacier walk

This morning was our ice cave and glacier walk hiking!
The meeting point was at Skaftafell as well, the same place we went trails yesterday. 
We booked with Iceland Mountain Guides and the guide that day was really friendly and explained everything so well. 

Unfortunately they told us beforehand that the ice cave is unsafe due to weather conditions so we had a refund back of our money. So sad. 

We spent quite a bit of time gearing up and double checking that we put on correctly and the technique when walking on ice. 

Melting glacier creating gaps

Walking on glacier was really an experience for me. How often you get a chance to do this?! And seeing our nature forms, the climate change resulting in the ice structure changes, I appreciate even more the impact of global warming.
Vatnajolull is the largest glacier in Iceland, and one of the largest in Europe, covering more the 8 percent of the country. Under the ice cap are several volcanoes and volcanic lakes. 
This was where the Game of Thrones was filmed! 

Fresh water from the glacier that is totally safe to drink. It's COLD. 

Can't remember what we did after that....
During dinner time, we went to Systrakaffi restaurant along our way to hotel. There's a tiny small supermarket if you need to stock up food, and also petrol. 
The food was surprisingly nice! 

Honeymoon - Iceland: Fjardrargljufur Canyon, Skaftafell

Today was more of an exercise day.... travelling to Skaftafell for some hiking! 
The journey continued further along the coastal, almost to our last leg of the coast.
On our way, we stopped by Fjardrargljufur canyon (abou 1 hr away from Vik).
This canyon is about 2km long, there's a few viewing points for you to see different sections of the canyon.  

We continued our journey for another hour to Skaftafell.

At Skaftafell, there's a few hiking trails you can choose to do. 
We had the rest of the day here so we took our time and slowly walked. 
There's a visitor centre, café, toilets here so don't worry about the facilities. 
In the end, we headed up to the glacier tongue.

The water here is so clear! 

We headed for Fosshotel Napur for our night's stay. 

Honeymoon - Iceland: Kerid, Stokkseyri, Gluggafoss, Solheimajokull glacier

Lots of driving today! We were heading down South and travelling close to the coastal, and we need to end at Vik! 

First stop, Kerid Crater. This is soooooo beautiful! Like a pendant!!! 

The view from the top

We walked one round at the top before going down. This is a totally different view versus other season. Winter it is a frozen crater, but it still looks pretty! 
It was really windy and cold.  

My hero :)

Next, we continued our journey to lunch at Stokkseyri. There is an amazing restaurant serving langoustine - Fjorubordid Restaurant. We had already made reservations just to be sure!
It's located near the shore of Stokkseyri's beach. 

That lobster soup was so good. The bread was surprisingly nice too! The sauce was quite special but I couldn't make out what was it.

Such a great lunch... This certainly taste great! 

We really had a great lunch, but the cost is not cheap btw. Anyways... YUMs!

Now for the long journey.... to Gluggafoss.

Next up was Seljalandsfoss which was about 20min drive away. At Seljalandsfoss, you can also visit Gljufrafoss waterfall which is about 400m further away. 
TIP: If you wanna visit Gljufrafoss, better wear waterproof pants/shirt/boots. You will get wet if you wanna go inside the waterfall.
This is one of my favourite waterfall because it's really beautiful, there was a rainbow at the entrance because the when there is huge volume of water flowing, and the mist remains, the sunlight will form the rainbow. 

Seljalandsfoss

This was the entrance.... We originally didn't go in because we didn't know we could go in. 
Then we saw someone who did and the boy decided to attempt to go although he was wearing sports shoe  that day instead of boots. 
I went in after he said it's ok to go. 
We spent some time drying ourselves though hahaha... but it was fun!

We hurried made our way to the last stop as we were slightly behind time. 
Our last stop was Solheimajokull glacier about 1 hour away.
It was super huge land of glacier, we walked abit to admire the nature and explore  the glacier until it was time to leave as we had to make our way to the hotel. 

We ended our day's journey at Vik for a night's day. Vik is quite a small town but it has it's own night beauty. At night, the whole place lits up and you can go to the top of the village and see the night view, I think it's really beautiful. 

Honeymoon - Iceland: Golden Circle

Early morning we set off and drove from Reykjavik to Thingvellir that is at the Golden Circle. Today's trip is sightseeing the golden circle attractions, so long day ahead!

Our first activity of the day is Silfra Fissure Snorkeling that the boy booked.
Silfra fissure is located between two continents and it has the clearest water in the world. This narrow opening is created by the separation of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates cutting through Iceland. 

Diving is available, however, the boy couldn't dive because here diving requires a dry suit certification, not the normal diving in Asia kind of certificate? 

The dry suit was very very heavy. We wore it on top of our normal wear. Dry suit, so you won't be wet underneath. It really keeps you warm on land. But in water, I almost died of coldness. Firstly, I wasn't really good at breathing with the equipment, and the coldness just tensed me up. The temperature is like 2 degrees. I was biting the mouth piece so badly. haha. Towards the end, there was a bit of free time for you to venture around before making your way out, but I went out immediately. 
Underneath the water is really very clear and beautiful, it is an experience, but I wouldn't do it again under such a cold weather.

After going out to undress the dry suit, the tour people (Iceland Adventure Tours) offered hot chocolate and biscuits to keep warm. The tour people are really very nice and helpful, they took care of me while underwater. The whole tour is about 3 hrs, but actual time in water is about 45minutes. It does take time to wear the dry suit and queue to get in. 

After that, we headed for Thingvellir National Park - Oxararfoss. It was a nice walk, the weather was so much better.

The snow cap mountain are just beautiful!

 We continued driving about 60km away from Thingvellir, it was Strokkur Geysir. This geyser is located in the Geysir geothermal area, it erupts about every 5-10minutes. 
We stayed there for quite a while because someone was taking a drone video and the water splashed high up and hit the drone. Quite a sight to watch. 

  
Our last stop was Gullfoss waterfall, and it was getting quite late already. The weather was turning colder too. 
There's a short stairway up to see at high grounds, but be warn in the evening it was super cold and windy. I went up, and down almost immediately. haha

At the top

It was getting late so we hurried back to check in at our apartment. We booked Golden Circle Apartment at Laugrvatn. It was a big and nice apartment! 

Didn't take the toilet and a wardrobe too not in the picture. 
Laugarvatn Fontana Spa was just a stone throw away, so we decided to go try it out! 
It is smaller than blue lagoon, but it has different temperature setting of pools so you can slowly adapt to the temperature. 
There's a small door for you to go outside along the open sea area, if you dare cause it's cold. 
Here there is actually a Rye Bread tour where you get to see bread being baked under the ground as the geothermal temperature is hot enough to bake a bread. Unfortunately it's a fixed timing and we couldn't make it in time. 
It was really relaxing after a day's of cold weather outside plus that snorkeling. 
I could do geothermal baths everyday... 
We walked back and cooked dinner and slept like a baby.