We were still reeling from the elation of seeing the aurora last night! How amazing! We actually saw them again 1:00-2:00 AM outside the window, a green cloud glowing and hanging over the northern sky.
We packed up once again and went to Borgarnes to have breakfast at a great coffee house called, Geirabakari. It had a great view too!
We were on the road again...this time looping around the Snæfellsnes Peninsula.
It was a bright day full of sunshine. The weather still lingered in the 30s but the sun felt so good on our face!
So many Icelandic horses! I read that they have around 70,000 of them! They use them for riding and pets and can also be a commodity and sold for food. They do have horse meat on the menu in some restaurants as well as whale and puffin.
We didn't eat any horse meat on the trip that we know of. We did eat a lot of delicious fish! While I wouldn't eat a hotdog from a gas station here in the US, it is a common thing to do there. They had loads of condiments to choose from, some were wrapped in bacon (that the kids enjoyed) and a local girl told me a typical topping was almost like a French's dried onion to put on top.
We also enjoyed eating skyr which is almost like a Greek yogurt.
Búðir church
Arnarstapi
Arnarstapi is so beautiful. Sounds of arctic birds squawking and filled the air along side the crashing ocean waves against the basalt and cliff formations.
Bárður Snæfellsás was half troll and half a man and had a human mother and was a settler here. 
I have yet to read any Icelandic Sagas although Jamie loves them.
A beautiful spot to stop for lunch before we hike down to the Dritvik cove and a black pebble beach called, Djupalossandur.
You can see parts of an old shipwreck here on the beach from 1948. There are also lifting stones that had been used by fishermen to test their strength. These would qualify them to work on the boats
We came around to the lava fields we saw yesterday, Berserkjahraun. This is a result of a lava flow 3000-4000 years ago.
Leaving the beautiful Snaefellsnes Park.
We left so much unseen this trip it is maddening. There are opportunities in the winter that you can't experience in the summer here and vice versa. We got a great taste of this amazing country and its beautiful sights and wonderful people just added to an extraordinary trip.
In Jules Verne's famous book, "Journey To The Center of the Earth" the professor and his nephew descend into Snaefellsjokull and subsequently have many adventures.
“I gazed at these marvels in profound silence. Words were utterly wanting to indicate the sensations of wonder I experienced. I seemed, as I stood upon that mysterious shore, as if I were some wandering inhabitant of a distant planet, present for the first time at the spectacle of some terrestrial phenomena belonging to another existence. To give body and existence to such new sensations would have required the coinage of new words - and here my feeble brain found itself wholly at fault. I looked on, I thought, I reflected, I admired, in a state of stupefaction not altogether unmingled with fear!”
― Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth
This country is certainly a place like no other.
Highly touristy but highly anticipated, was a trip to the famed "Blue Lagoon". We had prior plans to visit the Myvatn Nature Baths but the gale force winds and snow made us change our mind.
The girls were ESTATIC!
I was able to get tickets online a few days ago and was surprised about how many days and times were sold out. This is a very popular place for tourist buses and day trips out of Reykjavik.
Blue Lagoon is one of Iceland's most popular attractions. It is on average around 39 degrees C (102 F) which felt amazing on a cold, crisp night. It is next to a geothermal power plant and is water from there. It doesn't have chemicals and its blue milky water has natural minerals that is good for your skin. The water is renewed every 48 hours as water is constantly entering into the lagoon itself. The Blue Lagoon was a happy accident that it is here as this was essentially caused by run off from the power plant that settled among the rocks and the silica in the water formed mud that seeped into the lava creating a lagoon.
We had tickets in the evening and the pink sunset with the bluest milky blue of water already made this place have a magical feel.
Here are a few iPhone snaps of the evening.
Kids swim free! You also get a drink pass with your ticket and a towel. There are 3 levels of tickets that you can buy.
There are natural hot springs and a number of swimming pools all over Iceland. The locals love to bathe!
You also could get a scoop of silica mud mask as you soak. The lagoon at deepest was around 4 feet. Kids under a certain age had to wear arm floats. Although there are many lifeguards walking around (in full snowsuits) the milky water would be difficult to see through. It isn't recommended you get your hair wet (which my girls did of course) because of the silica. You have to shower naked before you enter the water as there are no chemicals to keep it clean. They have conditioner you can place in your hair to help keep it from being damaged and dry from the minerals.
What a beautiful evening in the lagoon. Getting in and out was not as relaxing! :)
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