The life-changing magic of tidying up...

No, this isn't an advertisement for Marie Kondo's book (I heard lots about it, but haven't read it), but while cleaning up the kids' desks, I did find this litte notebook and this page made me very happy 😄 (I don't know how long ago this was written...)

Reykjavik!

DAY 8 - Wednesday, July 20: Breakfast in Reykjavik and saying goodbyes!

Hard to believe this was our last day! How this week has flown by, but we all agreed that it had been a wonderful week and one of the best family vacations we've had so far! Marcus and I took more than 700 pictures together! I am already looking forward to making a photo album on my MacBook and re-living the holiday :-)

On our last morning, we slept in and finished packing the suitcases. I was so happy we had seen the puffins the day before, so we didn't have to do the Mr. Puffin tour last minute (which we probably would have done, had we not seen them). Instead, we decided to stroll around downtown Reykjavik a bit more! It was sunny (yay!) and we had breakfast outside at Solon Bistro. I had my last skyr with fresh fruit! The kids played on the bike gates (these gates mark the beginning and end of a pedestrian zone and they're all over Reykjavik in different, bright colors). We also did some shopping and I was very happy to take home a beautiful lava pendant from Metal Design, and Marcus a comfy sweater from the Icelandic brand 66ºNORTH (= the latitudinal line of the Arctic Circle). Don't worry! The kids had already had their fair share of little souvenirs (like a mini puffin globe and a viking ship)! Around noon, we headed back to our car, and drove to the airport. Bye bye Iceland! And bye bye for me to Marcus, Lily and Ennio! They would be flying on to Frankfurt, while I was returning to Los Angeles. But no worries, I know they will have a great time with Marcus's family in Germany, and I will see them again in 2 weeks!

Street art in Reykjavik!

Last skyr of the holiday!

Bikes are fun!

Pretending to be on a roller coaster!

Intrigued by "jails", Ennio wanted to try to get into this old jail!!! (it just closed a few weeks ago!!!) He was a bit disappointed that no one would let him in :-)

Resting by a cool designers shop!

Bye bye OK Hotel!

Lily's favorite: the kitchen in the room!

View of Greenland on my way back to Los Angeles!

Puffins!

DAY 7 - Tuesday, July 19: On a mission to see some puffins!

Today, we had to drive all the way back to Reykjavik! There was no sightseeing on the agenda, but we did want to spot some puffins! Puffins may as well be considered the national sea-bird in Iceland, they are EVERYWHERE in the shops (on T-shirts, stuffed animals, souvenirs), on postcards, on tour brochures, etc. but we hadn't seen any real puffin yet!!! (Photo on the left is a photo from the National Geographic website, just wanted to post it here to show you what a puffin looks like -- so cute!)

We were on a mission to find at least one puffin today! I had read in my travel guide that there was a farm at Ingólfshöfði that organized puffin tours in the nature reserve, so we tried to make it for the tour at 10:15 AM, but we arrived just 5 minutes late! Maybe it was just as well, because it was very cold, rainy and windy, and the kids were still tired from the day before, so I'm not sure they would have been able to actually do this entire walk in the park!

Landscape while driving... Did we land on Mars?

We drove on and hoped for a better chance to see some puffins in the area around Vik, known for its puffin colonies on the cliffs near Reynisfjall.

We arrived around noon, and stopped by Reynisdrangur. No puffins! It was nice to get out of the car, though.

Since we were all starting to get hungry, we had lunch in Vik at Halldórskaffi. I had fresh fish again, and it again tasted wonderful! Then, we decided to make just ONE more stop, in Dyrholaey, to try to catch the puffins, and if there weren't any, then, well, it just wasn't meant to be...

(I know one of the best places is Heimaey on the Westman Islands (Vestmannaeyjar) where around 10 million puffins come every year to breed, but we weren't going to have time to take the ferry and visit the island today!)

But guess what, we got soooo lucky when we got to Dyrholaey and saw TONS of puffins on the cliffs, flying in the sky, playing in the wind (it was very windy up there!!!) and belly-flopping into the ocean! What a sight! Mission accomplished and everyone happy!

It may be hard to see... but there were many puffins on this cliff!

... and in the air! (Ennio was almost flying away himself, it was so windy!)

BEAUTIFUL BLACK BEACH!!!

Lily took this pic! So funny... I wasn't able to keep the hair out of my face!!!

We finally got to Reykjavik around 7:30 PM. We were all tired, took a short walk on Laugavegur, the main street, and then went to bed. It was another great day!

Icebergs in Jökulsárlón!

Okay, let me start with saying that words cannot describe how magical this place is. Photos can give you an idea, but really, I wish everyone could see this landscape in person. It is purely...  Stunning!!! Surreal! Magnificent! We were all blown away! The icebergs are coming from Vatnajökull, the largest glacier in Europe. As they are breaking off the glacier, they float around in the lagoon and eventually drift down the river and out to sea. Some of the pieces stay ashore on the beach. The contrast of the black sand with the clear ice pieces is amazing! With the bright sunlight reflecting on the ice, the colors varied from white to luminous-blue, it was simply beautiful!

My feet are wet!!!

Time to put on the rain boots. Much better!

Sooo beautiful!

Time to taste the ice!

We went on a boat tour to see the icebergs from up close! And we got to taste a piece of the 1000-year old ice!

I think it is here that I lost my heart to Iceland!

So grateful to have been able to admire this place!

After the boat tour, we headed to our hotel, which fortunately, was not too far away from the glacier lagoon. We stayed at the Hali Country Hotel for one night. Very interesting design, right? We stayed in one of the guesthouses, which was basically a big family room (big bed for us and a bunk bed for the kids - you see that a lot here in Iceland) and a shared bathroom and kitchen with the other guests in the house. Worked well for us! We had dinner in the main building and it was deeeelicious! Arctic char is my new favorite fish dish! Dessert was pretty yummy too!

And just for fun: this is a picture I took from our bedroom window at 1:00 AM!!! Yes, yes, yes, it was still that light outside at 1 o'clock in the middle of the night! I don't think it ever really gets dark in Iceland in summer!!!

Drive to Jökulsárlón

DAY 6 - Monday, July 18: Visiting the Ice Lagoon in Jökulsárlón!

Bye bye school hotel! (our rental car is in the front)

Today was truly a perfect day! In the morning, we had to say goodbye to our "school hotel" (as Lily and Ennio had named it), which was a bit sad, because they loved it, but Marcus and I promised them "ICE" by the end of the day. This was especially important for Ennio, because up until now, he was having serious doubts whether we were really in Iceland, because (1) the plane had not landed on ice, so how could this possibly be Iceland? and (2) he hadn't seen any ice in the countryside either, so again, how could we possibly be in Iceland? 

Bye bye Laugarvatn Lake!

We were so lucky, because we woke up to clear skies and bright sunshine. We had a long trip ahead of us to Jökulsárlón (a 4 1/2 hour drive), but decided to take it slow, make a couple of stops, and enjoy the country as much as we could. Wow, I can honestly say that this drive was definitely one of the highlights of our trip! Our end destination, the ice glacier and lagoon in Jökulsárlón, was out-of-this-world, but the road to get there was just as amazing! Sometimes while we were driving, it felt like we were alone on the world, and then to be surrounded by all this beauty - the pure and untouched nature - I got really emotional and even got tears in my eyes (of happiness of course!)

From Laugarvatn, we headed south towards the Ring Road, but took a detour at Hvolsvöllur to drive through the Fljótshlíð valley (Rte 261). Boy, were we in for some treats! We just had to stop the car over and over again, to admire this nature, take it all in, and of course, capture it on camera! I loved the churches, the farms, the wild horses, sheep and cows! Photos don't do the landscape justice, it is too beautiful! We especially enjoyed Gluggafoss, we had the waterfall all to ourselves, which made it even more special!
  

Not sure if you can see the sheep in the background? Did you know that there are more sheep in Iceland than people?

This pretty much sums it all up!!!

We passed by Seljalandsfoss (didn't visit, because it seemed too busy, too many tour buses!) and later Skogafoss, but we did have a pit stop at the Eyjafjallajökull visitor centre, the wildflower fields there were gorgeous! Eyjafjallajökull is the volcano that erupted in 2010 and caused a huge ash plume disrupting US and European air traffic for days - remember?

The change in scenery in Iceland is also spectacular. Suddenly, you're in a lava landscape and you think you landed on the moon :-)



Halfway our route, we stopped at Reynisfjara or the "Black Beach" near Vik. The weather had changed, it was now overcast and windy. It made the beach all the more ominous! Ennio likes caves and was intrigued by the one on this beach!

And then back on the road for the last part of our drive to Jökulsárlón. In the end, we needed to hurry a bit, because we had to be at the ticket booth for our boat tour by 5 PM. We had made so many stops, that we had lost track of time! But we made it!

Don't you just love the cute and colorful houses?

Photos of the ice lagoon to follow! I promise, they will take your breath away!