Iceland Day 5

On Thursday, Tim, Catalin, and I rented a car and drove along the southern coast.  For Tim, this was a little bit of a repeat of the previous day, but he got to see some new things, too.  We started with a stop at Seljalandsfoss, the second waterfall Tim had seen the day before.  Unfortunately, the day was pretty hazy, so we didn't have really good vistas as we were driving, but the views of the waterfalls and other stops were fantastic.  From Seljalandsfoss, we continued our drive along the coast, with great views of sheep and the coast.  We drove into the town of Vik and had a lovely lunch at a little local cafe.  Vik is notable for its proximity to a nice black sand beach, which we strolled along for a bit.  We then cajoled Catalin into asking for directions to the really pretty black sand beach, and we drove back up the road to see that.  This was a black sand beach (not signed at all from the main road), with towering basalt cliffs along the coast, and some lovely views out to sea to some natural rock formations off the coast.  From here, we turned back towards Reykjavik to see the sights we had skipped along the way.  First was the glacier, and Catalin and I got to walk up to it and touch it a bit.   I didn't really want to walk on it; since I wasn't keen on going home with a broken leg...  The glacier is still gray in color on top from last year's eruption of the volcano we can't pronounce.  (Clearly, this is where the US filmed all of the moon-landing footage.)  From the glacier, we took a quick stop up the road at Skogafoss, the second waterfall Tim had seen the day before.  We continued back on the ring road towards Reykjavik.  As we approached Seljalandsfoss, the sky completely cleared, so we pulled off the road to see it one more time.  We then went into Eyrarbakki, a little fishing village along the coast to have dinner at Rauda Husid, a delicious restaurant we'd read about.  After capping off lamb, lobster, and steak with some more of Iceland's delicious chocolate cake, we headed back into town and our hotel.

And the EveryTrail Version:

Iceland Drive from Reykjavik to Vik and back at EveryTrail