KennethT

Dry suit... Nice and toasty.

Holy crap! No- none in Iceland that I've found. I did have a couple of decent apples from France though.,.. ha! I can now get them in NY for around $5 each!!!!

Snorkeling in 37°F water with 300foot visibility!!!

Up close to the Hoffellsjokull glacial lagoon. We were planning a couple mile long hike around the area which would have had multiple views but it was so windy that it knocked us over. It was like standing in a hurricane. Actually I've been in hurricanes but none as windy as this!

I don't know. I haven't seen the distinction here other than them calling it "local trout" or something like that. It's really good regardless!

Just wait - these are just the teasers! I'll go through the whole thing in detail once I get home

Good for you. When I was sick, the only thing I wanted was takeout (delivery).

I don't think there's much more glacial melt this year than last. One person was saying it hit a sweltering 22°C last year around this time - now it's maybe a high of 18°C The striations are grill marks.

Just checked into a new hotel. The view from our window- Hoffellsjokull glacier:

Local char (sometimes labelled Iceland trout) on menus here: It was perfectly cooked!

Another quick pic from the summit

We already did. Our hotel has a natural thermal spring that we enjoyed when we first arrived. I had planned to use it every day after returning from hiking but both Thursday and yesterday were just too late 😥 It's too bad - it's really nice. Hopefully we'll see some more later on.

We just got back to the hotel room. Exhausted and need to do a bit of housekeeping before bed. Just took this photo at 11:40PM:

This was our reward for making it to the summit of Brenninsteinsalda:

I had no idea, I had just read about how blue it was. It's not a common tourist spot. What's also amazing is that you can get so close to it! I wish I could post video. Thanks @blue_dolphin!

Today was a great day filled with amazing sights. Tomorrow should be epic! From earlier today: ETA: that water color is real - no filter, color correction or Photoshop needed

It's 10:30PM but it sure doesn't look like it!!

You'll see soon enough!

Just driving out of the airport the views are impressive!

Guidebooks and blogs talk incessantly about the fermented shark like they're giving away door prizes to anyone who tries it. The primary description is "pungent ammonia". I get enough caustic chemicals at work, thank you. And anyone can take one look at me and know there is definitely not a drop of Viking blood in me... ha!

I have no interest in fermented shark... who am I, Andrew Zimmern? I'm all for trying local traditional foods if they're tasty (crickets, silk worms, etc.), but there's a lot of locals who don't even like it, so why bother?

After a 2 year hiatus, we're finally back on the horse (plane)! This trip was originally planned for summer of 2020 but we all know what happened to those plans. Luckily, the airline (Iceland Air), all 4 hotels and the car rental company were completely understanding and were more than happy to practically indefinitely postpone our reservations considering that we had prepaid all our hotels to get the best rates. Iceland was one of the first European countries to open up to tourism with no quarantine period, and by now we don't even need a negative test or anything else - we don't even need proof of vaccination... Be prepared for some amazing, otherworldly landscapes and most probably lots of langoustine!!! Langoustine is caught locally - unfortunately we just missed their annual Lobster Festival in Hofn which was 2 days ago. Also popular there is locally caught artic char, horse and hopefully we'll get some reindeer somewhere. Our flight leaves late tonight and we get in around 9:30AM local time. As usual, I may put up some teasers here and there while we're away, but I'll put a whole writeup together once I get home.

This looks exactly what I make a couple times a week. In my store, they call it baby bok choy. I like the ruffled leaves, and they tend to last a long time in my refrigerator just in case I don't wind up making them when I originally planned.

Thanks. Interesting article. There are no reservations at Dill available in 1 week's notice, plus, I don't really know if we want a whole tasting menu thing - part of me is kind of over that. I checked out the menu at Tides but, I dont' know, let's just say it didn't inspire me to rush to make a reservation.

@BonVivantWe'll be heading to southern Iceland for about 10 days soon (postponed from summer 2020). Do you have any specific restaurant recommendations? We'll be spending 3 nights near Selfoss, 3 nights near Hofn, 3 nights near Hof and 1 night in Reykjavik. Obviously we're going to try to eat as much langoustine as we can afford when in Hofn (it's like the langoustine capital of Iceland). Most of the days we'll be off hiking and will probably bring trail snacks with us for lunches - did you see things that would do well with little or no refrigeration for several hours? Dinners will be in restaurants in the above areas. Thanks!