Well, the title says it all, and it’s 100% true.  I went on a first date to Iceland.

Want the deets and some incredible footage of an amazing country?  Check out the video below:

How did it go?  You’re just going to have to watch the video to find out 🙂

Some amazing pictures from our date to Iceland

Like the video said, we made our way as far east as jet lag would allow and ended up at the famous Jokulsarlon glacial lagoon (on a Saturday at noon there were only three other cars there, by the way).  I’ve been there many times but it was really cool seeing someone else’s response to seeing it for the first time!  The translucent teal blue colors coming from icebergs that were thousands of years old were just beautiful.

I shifted around to get some pictures of the icebergs in front of the Vatnajokull glacier, the source of the icebergs in the lagoon.

From Jokulsarlon we went to the Diamond Beach.  The icebergs in the lagoon make their way out to the sea where many of them are smashed against the shore and break into small fragments (i.e. why they call it Diamond Beach).  The ice fragments weren’t as big as they had been the other times I had been out here but they were still plenty good for pictures!

As we started back west we stopped briefly for another view of the massive Vatnajokull glacier, the largest glacier in Europe.

The next day we began with some views from an enormous cliff called Dyrholaey (which you’ll have to see in the video) and then made our way to one of my favorite waterfalls: Svartifoss.  It’s a quick hike up a reasonable hill in Skaftafell National Park and the basalt columns that frame it on either side are absolutely amazing.

From there we drove west a bit more and parked in a parking lot seemingly in the middle of nowhere.  And then, we walked towards the coast…for two miles.  Eventually we saw it: the crashed DC-3.

This DC-3 was flying over the south coast of Iceland in 1972 for the US Navy when it experienced a fuel problem.  They had to ditch it along the shores and, thankfully, everyone aboard survived.  They didn’t know what to do with the plane…so they just left it there.  Today you can walk out to it, climb through it, and some people have been rude and spray-painted on it.

Some idiot even put his head through the windows and smiled like the goofy tourist he was…

We stayed in Vik for most of the trip for two reasons: 1) it was centrally located for most of the things we wanted to see and 2) PUFFINS

We were killing time until sunset and I saw some great evening light shining on the Reyniskirkja church upon the hills, had to grab a picture.

I have to confess to you…I got a picture of a puffin but it’s not good enough to share with you yet.  I will likely be returning to Iceland soon specifically to go see the puffins and meet their king.  I will share all of the puffin pictures at that time don’t worry.

The final day of our trip began super early (which was ok because the sun rose at 4:30am).  We were heading back to Reykjavik for our COVID tests to re-enter the USA, but we left early so we could see some more sights on the way.

Our first stop was Skogafoss, because obviously it was Skogafoss.

Not a bad long exposure, right?  What if I told you it was handheld with an iPhone 12 Pro?  Crazy how good these phone cameras are getting.

Around the corner from Skogafoss is one of my favorite waterfalls in Iceland, the wonderful Kvernufoss.  It’s never really that crowded, and we had it all to ourselves this time.

Seljalandsfoss was the obvious next stop, but honestly I like Kvernufoss better so we didn’t spend much time at Seljalandsfoss and went to the waterfall around the corner called Gljufrabui, hidden by a massive crack in the mountainside.

We got our COVID test in Reykjavik and had some time to kill before we revisited the volcano, so I, being quite aggressive when it comes to seeing sights, thought we might as well head out to the Snaefellsness Peninsula to see Iceland’s iconic Kirkjufell again.  

It looked quite different from when I had visited it just a month and a half before!

Ok enough with the pictures, how did the date go?

You’re going to have to watch the video to find out, hope you enjoy it!