Monday, September 9

We left the cloudy southern coast and headed off again on hwy 1 for the sunny east coast.  The landscape changed dramatically as we headed north.  We left the lush green mountains and drove through a flat, empty region called a sandar.  It's where the glacial rivers deposited sand and gravel during glacial bursts after a volcano erupted underneath a glacier.  The fire and ice combination makes a real mess.  This particular sandur (Skeidararsandur, if you must know) covers 1000 sq km.

Then the mountains appeared again, topped by the huge Vatnajokull Glacier.  And I mean HUGE!  It is larger than the state of Delaware--seriously!  At Jokulsarlon we stopped to take pictures of the icebergs.  We followed along the edge of the glacier all the way to Hofn.  People smile broadly when we try to pronounce Hofn.  Wikipedia said it should be Herpen.  But Lonely Planet said to pronounce it Hup while trying to inhale--almost like a hiccup.  Both versions bring much merriment.  I won't even try to tell you how to pronounce Jokull.

Our apartment in Hofn is roomy and overlooks the sea.  We wandered around town, went to a maritime museum and had a supper to die for at the Pakkhus Restaurant.  J and I had langoustines in garlic butter.  G ordered lamb--and this time he got it.  Along with fancy round and square stuff he couldn't name.  Fancy and tasty.

We've been without TV, radio or newspapers for a week.  WIFI has been sparse, also.  I've had to quickly post during lunch at the odd cafe that had it.  Our apartment here has everything--although the TV is mostly in Icelandic so we don't watch it anyway.

Here is a picture of the icebergs at Jokulsarlon