Iceland 15th Anniversary Trip (Part 2)

We were up early the next morning. We both didn't sleep that great. Since there isn't air conditioning in Europe, we slept with the windows open. The Canopy Hilton that we stayed at was in an ally and there was noise all night long. We booked the hotel on points, so it served it's purpose. It did include a delicious breakfast spread in the morning. I just love all of the fresh bakery items there are in Iceland, it pairs really well with their yummy skyr which I ate almost every morning.

Today was our big waterfall hiking day. I was pretty excited for this day as I really love waterfalls. We drove a couple hours towards the south coast. It was a gorgeous drive. The scenery changed so much from area to area. 

The first waterfall was Seljandsfoss. We could see it from the road. 

This was a gorgeous waterfall and one that you can walk behind! We got absolutely soaked walking through this waterfall, but it was so worth it. 

Just a half mile down the path from Seljandsfoss is Gljufrabui waterfall. It is so beautiful. It's hidden in a little canyon. You definitely get wet when visiting this one as well. 

About 30 minutes down the road is Skogafoss. 

Next to Skogafoss are roughly 500 stairs that lead to the most beautiful hike. We did not complete the full hike which is 10 miles out and back. It is also the first portion of the famous Fimmvörðuháls hike which is a 15.5 mile hike and goes between two recently active volcanoes and some of the youngest landscape in the world. It's a one way hike and I would love to complete it some day. 

This day we only had a few hours, so we hiked a little over 3 miles in and 3 miles back. It was the most beautiful hike. It ranks up there as one of my favorite hikes.  

So.Many.Stairs

The top of Skogafoss

The little farm to the left of Skogafoss

There are 26 waterfalls on this hike. I didn't take pictures of all of them, but I did take pictures of a lot of them. They were all gorgeous! The pictures just don't do them justice.

After the hike we ate at the Skogafoss Bistro, which is right next to the waterfall and has a gorgeous view of it with floor to ceiling windows.  I had the lamb burger and Michael had the icelandic beef burger. Both were absolutely delicious!

Just a short drive from Skogafoss is Kvernafoss. It's a short half mile walk and is really pretty. It's a little hidden so we mostly had this waterfall to ourselves. 

There were baby sheep everywhere. They were so cute.

We drove about 30 minutes down the road to black sand beach. It was pretty packed and extremely windy. We didn't stay long, but it is a very pretty beach.

We headed to Dyrholaey in search of puffins. We didn't spot any, but there are some really gorgeous lookouts and views of black sand beach.

We checked into Hotel Kria and then had a drink at the bar before going to dinner. 

We wanted to go to Black Crust Pizzeria, but they had a sign on the door that they were closed for renovations for a couple days. We decided to re-route to Smidjan Brugghus. We ordered a few appetizers and a beer and had a great dinner. 

After dinner we decided to go up and see the famous church on the hill in the city of Vik (right above our hotel). It is a gorgeous view!

I was still a little disappointed that we didn't see any puffins. Iceland is home to 60% of the puffins in the world and they are critically endangered, so I really wanted to be able to see some. I knew we were a tad early in the season but I had seen a few instagram posts recently of these adorable birds. Just as I was telling Michael about the puffins, a loan puffin flew right in front of our car. We detoured a little bit through a little neighborhood and found a beautiful black sand beach. 

We noticed that there were hundreds of birds on this cliff next to the water. So we walked closer and spent about an hour marveling at these adorable little birds. 

Unfortunately our phones weren't really able to capture the puffins. I really wished we had brought a good camera with us. In person you could see them so well. They were so beautiful. If we ever get the chance to go back to Iceland I would definitely love to see them again and capture them with a real camera. 

We headed back to the hotel bar for a night cap. It was such an amazing day. We did not have any rain this day (which is rare in Iceland). We hiked over 8.5 miles and saw so many beautiful waterfalls.